Day 1: All About China

With 17 campers, 3 grown-up teachers and 4 high school student TAs, we had an energetic, "crowded than expected," yet smooth and successful start of our camp today!  We are grateful to all, but especially to the campers ( and their supportive families, of course), who are curious and open-minded to other cultures and ready for learning upon entering the classroom!

After introducing ourselves, we talked about what we've known about China. Here are some things the students mentioned: 

- It's really pretty there. 

- Chinese use symbols for words. 

- They eat noodles. 

- Chinese created fireworks. 

- People wear different cloth. 

- Their main food is rice or noodles. 

- People in China, their main food is ...... fish! 

- Over 50% of things, like ... this, and ...this, like toys, even food, are coming from China. 

- They eat duck in China. 

- China has many provences. In Chongqing, I saw people eat snails, in hot pot. 

We played games outdoors with traditional Chinese toys. We tried Chinese craft of paper cutting and calligraphy indoors. We listened to a PPT presentation about teacher Yi's recent trip to China and had a close look to her travel pictures. After the presentation, some of us did a close study of the map of China and some coloring activity. 

In the afternoon, each student made a postcard, pretending sending them out from China, using a Chinese "postage. " we also shared our postcards and things we discovered today at the closing circle. 

Throughout the day, we practiced singing at least three songs in Chineae and that was supper fun! (You can see the excitment and focus on students' faces. ) We also were taught some simple Chinese phrases and skills (such as using chopsticks) here and there. 

We had many volunteer helpers in the classroom today. That was a big plus and contributed largely to the successful flow of our schedule. Thank you, all the classroom helpers: intern teacher Margaret, Pengpeng and Yuanyuan Jiejie(older sister), Jierui and Zhengrui gege (older brother)! 

We are looking forward to more fun and experiencing more about China tomorrow!