3 EXCITING SONGS TO HELP KIDS IN KS2 MASTER SOME COMMON WORDS AND PHRASES IN MANDARIN CHINESE

“Kino Bino’s contacts and expertise in Mandarin were super useful. The workflow between us felt smooth and we were consistently impressed by their ability to just get on with the work and surpass our expectations with quality animation.
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— James Wilkinson - Director, Tentacle Media

CLIENT

Tentacle Media is a Staffordshire animation company servicing clients worldwide with engaging, fun, character driven and immersive animation.
They approached us to help create 3 animated music videos as part of an MFL package for BBC Bitesize.

BBC Bitesize is a free online study support resource designed to help with learning, revision and homework. They provides support for learners aged 5 to 16+ across a wide range of school subjects. It also supports children and young people's wellbeing and career choices.

BRIEF

These Mandarin Chinese songs would form part of a collection of educational songs for Key Stage 2 Modern Foreign Languages. The design, animation and music needed to be entertaining, appealing to the target age range and educationally appropriate for students starting to learn the language.

RESULTS

The end result was 3 fantastic animated songs, which kids really enjoyed, found easy to understand and helped them to understand the meaning of the lyrics. Each song was accompanied with Chinese characters and pinyin so children could sing along. As well as dance routines and hand gestures to reinforce learning.

CREDITS

Art Direction & Music: Tentacle Media
Educator: Lee Laoshi Education

THE PROCESS

Tentacle Media composed 3 outstanding music tracks and we worked with our educational consultant to write lyrics that would help to teach kids some common words and phrases in Mandarin. The characters were designed to fit with Tentacle’s unique style, to ensure a consistent look and feel across all of the language learning songs and we worked closely with Tentacle, our consultant and the team at BBC Bitesize to ensure the project was educationally appropriate and delivered in budget and on schedule.