Orange You Glad You’re in Mandarin

8 November 2012Natalie C, Allard, ‘14

Last Tuesday, the Advanced and Intermediate II Mandarin classes travelled to Bench Elementary School to help out with its painting class. As the school bus was driving into the parking lot, we could see kids running around on the playground. It brought back memories from our childhoods; it had been a while since we were in elementary school!

As we were walking into the classroom, all we could see were Hallowe’en decorations and smiles from the little kids. Once we entered, we saw sixteen Grade 1 and 2 kids nicely lined up with big smiles on their faces. Their teacher cued them and they started singing a welcome song to us. The sound of the kids was so sweet that our hearts almost melted.

After all the introductions, we finally got to meet our little buddies. One Brentwood student was paired up with 2 Bench children to work on their art projects. As Hallowe’en was approaching, this was their artistic theme. The Bench students were required to outline their favorite Hallowe’en costume on a piece of locker-sized paper. Our job was to assist them in painting.

We were really impressed by the kids’ imagination and creativity. From bumble bees to superheroes, who says kids don’t have a great variety of imagination? Within an hour, we all finished painting the costumes. At the end of the activity, we taught the kids some salutations in Mandarin. One of the kids told me he could finally tell his parents he knows a second language. 😉

All of us would love to go back to visit them again because they were truly amazing kids and we all enjoyed assisting them and being their teachers. I think learning outside the classroom is a great idea because we get a chance to interact with different people. It is always nice to have some sort of activity outside the classroom with other Mandarin students because through these activities we can bond with each other and develop better communication skills.

I would like to thank Ms. Sun for organizing this activity for us; we all are looking forward to helping out again.

Natalie C, Allard, ‘14

Where Students Choose To Be