CCST Welcomes Over 40 Families for a Festive Christmas Storytime
- Charlotte Chinese Story Time
- Dec 6
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 9
Charlotte Chinese Story Time welcomed over 40 families to a festive and immersive Christmas Story Time in Chinese at South County Regional Library. The event reached full capacity, with the room filled wall-to-wall with children and parents ready to celebrate the holiday through language, culture, art, and joyful learning.
This seasonal program combined early literacy practices, hands-on cultural activities, vocabulary development, and family engagement—creating a rich, interactive environment aligned with Charlotte Chinese Story Time’s mission to connect families through Chinese language and culture.
Vocabulary, Sign Language, Games, Literacy & More
This Christmas Story Time followed a carefully designed instructional sequence, blending multimodal learning with festive elements.
Christmas Vocabulary Instruction
Children learned themed words such as 圣诞树 (Christmas tree), 圣诞老人 (Santa Claus), and 圣诞长袜 (Christmas stocking) using visual vocabulary cards, pinyin, and Chinese characters.
Holiday Sign Language: “Merry Christmas”
Families practiced a bilingual component—learning the sign language motions for “Christmas” and “Happy”, followed by the full phrase “圣诞节快乐 (Merry Christmas)”.This multimodal activity supported comprehension and memory through movement.
Call-and-Response Game: “I Loud, You Soft; I Soft, You Loud”
A lively phonics and pronunciation activity helped children practice vocabulary with volume control, focus, and expression. This warm-up encourages attentive listening and playful participation.
Chinese Number Hand Gestures
Children also learned the culturally unique Chinese finger-counting system (一到十), a fun cross-cultural comparison that supports numeracy and cultural awareness.
Fly Swatter Vocabulary Game
A high-energy vocabulary game where children race to “swat” the correct Christmas-themed word card, reinforcing recognition and memory in a competitive, engaging format.
Story Time: 《快来帮我找一找》 (“Come and Help Me Look for It”)
The featured Christmas story guided children through repeated sentence patterns, visual clues, prediction skills, and oral participation—strengthening early literacy foundations.
Group Singing: Chinese Version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Children learned and performed the holiday classic using both Chinese lyrics and simple chords, building rhythm awareness and confidence in speaking/singing Mandarin.
Hands-On Holiday Fun: Decorating a Felt Christmas Tree
One of the highlights of the morning was a collaborative felt Christmas tree activity.Children took turns decorating the large felt tree with ornaments, gingerbread figures, candy canes, and stars. This interactive station encouraged teamwork, creativity, and fine motor practice—while also immersing the children in a playful holiday setting.
Cultural Art Spotlight: Christmas Diffusion Painting (晕染画)
The Story Time concluded with a special art workshop featuring Christmas diffusion painting, using traditional Xuan paper.
Older children created diffusion-style Christmas tree artworks
Younger children designed colorful Christmas light patterns
With watercolor markers, cotton swabs, and water, children watched as colors gently spread across the rice paper, producing soft, beautiful textures.
A Celebratory Community Gathering
This Christmas Story Time event reflected the strong and growing interest in Chinese language and cultural programming within the Charlotte community.Families expressed appreciation for the thoughtful curriculum design, the interactive teaching approach, and the welcoming atmosphere that Charlotte Chinese Story Time continues to foster.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to every family who joined us and helped make this event so memorable.Charlotte Chinese Story Time looks forward to continuing to provide meaningful, engaging, and culturally rich programs for children and families in the year ahead.
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