Confucius Institute at the University of Southampton was invited to hold a Chinese Culture Day at Mansbridge Primary School
On the 14th July, the Confucius Institute at the University of Southampton was invited to conduct a Chinese cultural experience day at its affiliated Confucius classroom, Manbridge Primary School. Teachers from Confucius Institute at the University of Southampton prepared four workshops on: calligraphy, folding fan, Kicking shuttlecocks and using chopsticks for over 150 students from Year 1 to Year 5, and had a warm and friendly exchange with the headmaster and teachers of the school.
Mr Kang was in charge of the calligraphy workshop. He started by telling the children about the connection between a few simple Chinese characters and images by guessing the Chinese characters, then he showed how to use the brush and taught the children to write Chinese characters and draw simple pictures following the Chinese character animation. Then, the children wrote their English names on their calligraphy work and finally Mr Kang wrote down everyone's Chinese names using the harmonics. The children were very excited to get their Chinese names and proudly showed them to each other.
Volunteer Lulu Zhang led the students in learning to play the shuttlecock outdoors. After she introduced the components of a shuttlecock and demonstrated how to kick it, the students began to practice on their own. Some of the students even used their heads and feet in order to kick the shuttlecock more than once in a row. The students said that kicking the shuttlecock was not only fun but also challenging.
The chopsticks experience was also one of the experiences that received an overwhelming response on the day. Volunteer Mingzhao Li patiently introduced the students to the use of chopsticks and set different task objectives for different grades. Students in the lower grades could clip foam balls and those in the upper grades could clip macaroni. Students who completed the tasks within the time limit were awarded a pass stamp. Many of the students had a basic grasp of how to use chopsticks and one student even brought her own chopsticks and showed off her skill in using them.
As it was summertime and the temperature was high, a hand-made folding fan workshop was set up for the children to learn about Chinese folding fans and also to learn how to make fans to beat the heat. Under the guidance of volunteers Jingwen Wang and Liu Yang, the students were able to make their own Chinese style folding fans.
The children were motivated by the task cards and were eager to collect four task stamps in exchange for small gifts. At 2pm, the event ended with the children saying "goodbye" in a clear voice. The event was a useful experiment for the primary school students in the Confucius Classroom in Southampton to learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture, and to gain experience for better and more in-depth Chinese teaching and promotion of Chinese culture in the Hampshire area in the future.