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Yang yang's classroom
Leah and Yang yang are sitting in the midst of the kidsJune 1st is International Children's Day. Although the info I found online says that it is recognized in the USA, I have never heard of any type of celebration where I've lived - has anyone else? The people here were surprised to hear that we didn't really celebrate Children's Day in the USA, they thought it was a big, worldwide celebration! It seems to be a very big day here in China.
Leah and I were invited to join in the celebration at a local elementary school in Nanqiao. I don't know the name of the school where we were, but it is over 200 years old, and supposedly the best in Nanqiao. The school was made up of a number of different buildings, a smaller courtyard area and a large open area, all kind of hidden behind rows of shops in the downtown area. The classrooms were off of walkways that were covered, but outside ( kind of like a motel). I think there were 4 floors.
The classrooms were decorated with students' artwork much like in the US. From the number of desks in the rooms, I think the class sizes are larger, probably at least 40 students in
a class. This school was for 1st through 6th grade. The teachers all looked very young, but that seems to be the case with the majority of the Chinese work force.
The driver took us to the school and Horton and his oldest son, Yang yang, were waiting for us. We made our way to Yang yang's classroom and Leah sat in the back of the room next to Yang yang. The kids were VERY excited! They all gathered around Leah and were asking her questions. She said it was so noisy that no one could hear what she was saying. After a few minutes, the teacher had the kids sit down and Horton and I moved outside of the room with the other parents who were there for the day. The kids went through what I think was a little practice for the show they would do later before they came out. When they came out, Horton asked Leah if she wanted to join the kids in their activity. We weren't sure what that activity was and they were moving very quickly, so I told Leah just stay with me (which turned out to be a VERY good decision!).
I was amazed at how quickly all of these students got organized in the large outdoor area.
Horton pointed out a woman who he said was the School Master and said we should go and say "Hello," which we did, and she asked Leah if she would like to say a few words to the students. Well, we were later to find out there were 1,129 students, so I don't blame Leah for saying "No!"
Things got started quickly, there was a girl on the stage, who looked to be maybe 12, who seemed to be the MC. They played what must have been the Chinese National Anthem while 3 students carried the flag around. The School Master spoke and then another man spoke. I'm not sure who he was, but he seemed important.
Then the kids started their performances, which were dance/exercise routines like you would see our marching bands and colorguard do, the difference being that every student participated. They had obviously spent a lot of time practicing these routines. Horton said they have exercises every morning (Swedish drills for all of my Charlotte Mason friends!), so maybe these are routines they have done all year. I will
School Master speaking
The 4 kids in the yellow performed a skit let the videos explain. Four groups performed, the 1st & 2nd graders, the 3rd & 4th, the 5th & 6th, and then a special competition team.
After the performances they had games and activities spread throughout the school. Someone brought Leah "tickets," which was a paper grid of all the games and they would stamp the square when the student finished a game. The games and activities were all quite simple, but the kids were very excited about them. There were hoops to jump, kind of like hopscotch, badminton, tape the nose on the face, moving marbles from one bowl to another using chopsticks, one was just drawing a picture, and an English language game where they had to change one letter of an English word to make another (like "try" to "cry"). The students also got treat bags - quite full with goodies, pencils, erasers, etc- and quite a few were giving Leah things from their bags. Leah was given her own special bag (different from the kids) before we left. She was glad that it had a bag of Dove chocolate bars!
There was also quite a bit of artwork on display. Horton said that the students didn't
all take art, that it is something the parents pay extra for and classes are after the regular school studies. Everything seemed to finish at 11:00, and the kids got the rest of the day off with no homework - which I thing may have been the biggest treat of all!
Since Leah is homeschooled and has never even been in a regular classroom in the US, this was quite an experience!
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carol welch
non-member comment
Way to go Leah!! What an intriguing write up Linda....I almost felt like I was with you guys! xoxo Carol btw: I saw somewhere that Linda had a birthday! Happy birthday!! :-)