Two years ago, SAS Puxi campus elementary school decided to have their own China Alive, just like the middle school and high school. Although the elementary students don’t travel as far as the older ones, the idea behind China Alive stays the same: to have students experience different aspects of Chinese culture and further appreciate their host country.

Grade 5 travels to Qibao
On April 29, fifth graders boarded three buses and headed for Qibao, which is about 20 minutes from our school. They divided into three main groups and rotated through a tea house, the food street and a puppet show. In the tea house, students listened to Chinese musicians while they watched a tea expert showing them how to make oolong tea. While she was talking, an SAS Chinese teacher for the students. They took notes in their booklet and learned that there were eight steps to making this type of delicious tea, which they enjoyed afterwards.

The food street is a famous part of Qibao and was packed with people. SAS parent chaperones, students and teachers roamed the area looking for lunch, eating steamed buns and dumplings, and trying out food that they had never tasted before. Students also completed some activities in their booklet, like drawing their favorite Chinese food. “It was a great experience overall,” said William Huang, “the food we tasted on the food street was good too.”
The puppet show area was held in a small space so students had to cram in while watching the show. In this Chinese tale, complete with loud music and realistic dialogue, a man killed a tiger with his bare fists. There is a museum beside the stage where students learned later how the puppets were made. Jason Lee,  5th grader, commented, “Although it was tiring, China Alive was a great way to learn about Chinese culture and see how normal Chinese people live.”

Grade 4 learns about peasant painting
For their China Alive trip, fourth grade students traveled to the town of Fengjin to learn about the art of Jinshan Peasant Painting. During the late 1970s, Chinese painter Wu Tongzhang began teaching peasant paintings to the farmers in Jinshan. From 1977 to 1997, over 5,000 works were displayed in nearly 100 exhibitions in many cities around China.

First the fourth graders explored an Exhibition Center that described several “ancient arts” that inspired the art of Peasant Painting. In the Artist’s Village, the students saw the current Peasant Painters’ workshops and visited the Shanghai Jinshan County Peasant Paintings. In addition, the students went through an Artist “Maze” that was filled with peasant paintings and attempted to find their way out.

Last, the students had an opportunity to learn from five peasant painting masters and try this type of painting themselves. This was challenging because Jinshan Peasant Paintings are both realistic and imaginative and the painters use a wide range of bright colors.

“Out of everything in this trip,” Matthew Easton said, “I liked playing in the maze, doing races at lunch, and painting my tiger best.”

Grade 3 visit Children’s Palace
The third grade also had a great China Alive experience in the Children’s Palace. The students got to play, have fun, and like everybody else, learn about Chinese culture. Each student got to make a Chinese fan, learn a traditional Tibetan dance, and create their own paper puppets of the EXPO 2010 mascot Hai Bao. After all of this fun, the students ran around and shared their lunch and snacks, then they had a chance to play in a playground called the “Road to the Brave.” It was a huge playground with ropes, slides and obstacles all over the playground. “I liked the Road to the Brave playground best,” said Riley Easton, third grader.

Pre-K-G2 learn taichi and more
Pre-K to grade 2 had their China Alive right on the Puxi campus. The students visited various sites at school where they could learn taichi, watch a puppet show, and play various traditional Chinese games.

So from Pre-K to Grade 5, China Alive was a big success this year. “China Alive is an important part of out curriculum,” said Principal Michelle Baxter, “and I want to thank all of the China Alive leaders and parent volunteers!”

By Kendrick TAN and

Brian LI, G5 Student Reporters, Puxi Campus