Summer camp press week 3

Summer Camp Press Week 3 July 2013

Fun Summer Days at YK Pao School Putonghua Summer Camp Session One held its concluding ceremony performance last Friday, and the students gave the parents and teachers in attendance an amazing showcase of what they have learned over the past two weeks.

The theme of this summer camp was “spring” and “summer”. Little Tadpole looking for Mother, a short play, was the event opener, and it instantly captured the audience’s attention and interest right off the bat. Later, students performed the song, “Spring Dawn” wowing the audience with their angelic voices.

The entire show was dynamic, and filled with exciting performances one after another. One of the highlights included the Taichi Calligraphy dance where student incorporated the movement of Taichi with Chinese calligraphy. It was a very unique and entertaining performance featuring students dancing with a giant Chinese paint brush. Also, the children’s song “Selling Dumpling” had a very nostalgic feel to it, reminding all of the parents their own precious childhood memories. Later, a group of our adorable young children performed the “Little Puppy Diet Exercise” which brought the crowd to their feet. One of the crowd favorites was the drama performance of Three beatings of the White Bone Demon, one of the popular stories from The Journey to the West. The students’ strong acting skills, excellent pronunciation in Putonghua, and perfect comedic timing won over the audience. By delivering all of their lines in Putonghua, they showed the hard work and effort put in by both students and teachers during the two‐week summer camp.

We hope all of these inspiring performances become one of their most memorable and wonderful experiences this summer!

Putonghua Camp LLO OV VEE In Putonghua class, students learned Chinese through different interactive games. In Art class, students drew beautiful designs on recycle bags based on the pictures given to them.

C Coom mppaassssiioonn Students learned how to count and how to introduce themselves in Chinese. They also learned seasoned fruit in autumn, and learned about the weather, the Autumn Festival, and the Children Song “We”. Students also learned some basic Pinyin and drawing. In music class, students tried playing the Hulusi, a traditional Chinese instrument. In drama, students imitated many adorable postures and facial expression from popular anime characters, and also watched the feature animation Calabash brothers (Hulu Wa) and later performed the story on stage.

IInntteeggrriittyy Ms. Emma told students many stories including the story of autumn, the story about our national treasure, the giant Pandas, and fun children story about different body parts. In Math, students learned to create their own finger puppets.

B Baallaannccee Teacher shared the story of Chang’e’ ascent to the Moon (Chang E Ben Yue) with the students, and recited the poem “Jing Ye Si”, a famous poem from the Tang Dynasty. Students made many adorable designs on their fan, and other handcrafted designs featuring the year of the snake. In drama, students expressed themselves by performing a variety of emotions such as laughing aloud, crying, contemplating, daydreaming and many more. They also watched the Chinese animation Calabash brothers (Hulu Wa), and picked their favorite characters and simulated the characters.

R Reessppoonnssiibbiilliittyy In the beginning, we used different games and activities to help students become more engaged and overcome the feeling of being uncomfortable in a new environment. Soon students began to learn about the theme surrounding the moon. They learned how to write the Chinese character of “Moon” and its associating words. Students wrote the poem Jing Ye Si on their fan, and made designs around the characters creating some very artistic pieces. In Math class, students participated in the game of intelligence pyramid, and had fun playing with all the pictures and three‐ dimensional designs.

R Reessppeecctt The students in Respect fell in love with Lego. They are very focused in class, and learned the Chinese name of every Lego piece, and built their own Electric Fan with the help of their teachers. In Chinese class, students learned many new things about autumn, and made a mini‐light in the shape of an orange.

R Reefflleecctt Every day the students brought a new Chinese book home to read, and shared their reflections with their classmates on why they chose the book and what it was about. We hope this activity will encourage the students to speak more Chinese. In Lego, children created a device that spins. In music class, students were separated into groups, and performed a song using different instruments.

Outing V Viissiittiinngg P Puuppppeett T Thheeaattrree

The students from Putonghua Summer Camp toured the Shanghai Puppet Theatre this past Wednesday. As soon as the students entered the theatre, they were glued to the amazing display of wood puppets in the exhibition area. The students watched “A Toad and a Swan”, an interesting puppet show that featured a mix of East and West elements. One of our students was invited to join the performers on stage, and got the chance to learn how to control puppets. The students enjoyed the experience, and the event was very well received.

Activity Camp

EEnngglliisshh C Cllaassss This week we welcomed many new members to our classes. In the programme schedule, we continued to teach and train students in phonics and pronunciation, reading, writing, listening and English composition.

We continued to encourage them to speak English in class, and arranged many interesting activities and games using English instructions. Those students that successfully achieved their assigned English proficiency levels were awarded with prizes and incentives. Now every student can log into their own Raz‐kids account until September. All parents should have received a letter to the parents with the log‐in information. Raz‐Kids is a very efficient tool that can help your child to enhance his reading and writing skills in English.

SSppoorrttss Soccer class is organized in the outdoor field. Every session was taught by two profession soccer coaches that helped students to enhance different skills in the game including dribbling, shooting, passing, and other competing strategies.

Tennis class is organized in the outdoor basketball court. The coaches helped students prepare tennis racquet and ball before each class. Two professional Tennis coaches introduced Tennis through fun games, and gradually teaching them higher‐level skills in the game. Children with or without previous experience in Tennis can enjoy this class under the guidance and encouragement from our coaches.

Fun Activities: This was a great opportunity to step out of the hot sun, but still participate in some fun sports activities in a cool indoor gym. There are two coaches that led students to participate in many fresh and exciting games that they have never played before. During their participation, students learned the importance of team work and the true spirit of sports.

Swimming: We provide a safe and fun swimming lesson for every student. The classes were held in our indoor swimming pool. Every class lasts 1.5 hours. Coach Johnson Wu is an experienced swimming coach who can inspire students to learn how to swim while having fun. Students love to learn swimming by participating in different activities in the pool.

A Arrttss In this week’s art class, the teachers from Great Art China designed a dynamic curriculum for the students that centered around 5 primary themes including the “Fluorescent jellyfish” in Alice in Wonderland, the “birch” in Robinson Crusoe, “the flower dance” from Tong Hua Xian Zi, the “Waterfall” from the story of the Monkey King, and “the ballad dancer” from the Nutcracker. Students learn to draw under the guidance of their teachers, and every picture reflected their creativities and rich imagination.

S Sppeecciiaall R Reeppoorrtt The 2013 Activity Camp invited many Y7 and Y8 students to volunteer as JC (Junior Coach), and served as teaching assistants in each summer camp classes. In fact, most of our JCs are not much older than some of our campers, so friendship developed almost instantly between the two groups. Last week, in order to show our appreciation for their hard work and effort in the summer camp, YK Pao School arranged a special outing for the group of JCs, a game of laser tag in Shanghai.

LLaasseerr SSttrriikkee We, YK Pao JC team had our very first Laser Strike competitions at the GLSA (Grand Laser Strike Association) arena last week.

We were geared with vests and guns the size of M14’s but made of plastic. The vests had lights on both the front and back which senses incoming “bullets” and decides whether or not you’re shot. If so, the shoulders vibrate in warning.

The gun was connected to the vest using a telephone cord, and it’s going to be your new best friend in the arena. What’s more, it has an unlimited supply of ammunition, just the right thing to make us feel like pros.

The lights in the arena suddenly went out. When the wailing siren announced the starting of the game, everyone was frozen in place. Inexperienced and terrified, no one was willing to move out of the safety of our base and expose themselves to danger. The coaches had to shoo us out of our nests, “Come on! Let’s move! You’re not gonna kill anyone by hiding back here!”

That was when the game really started, there were hotheads blindly charging into enemy camps, snipers stationed up high firing unexpected shots, tactical fighters taking cover and luring the enemy out, confused players without a clue of what’s going on, or the unlucky “casualties” with their lights flashing, “Am I dead already?” was a common question to oneself.

In the end, YKPao JC team defeated the enemies with the score of 5‐1. Having had a taste of fighting with (fake) guns, everyone was feeling like military geniuses. We never felt more united or full of team spirit.

JC Clementine Li

I think this laser tag activity was a really fun and engaging experience for all of us. We didn’t know how to play initially, and we were afraid of shooting the laser guns so we ended up losing the first round. Later, we got in the zone, and started moving forward and won all the remaining games. It seems like an easy game when you are watching from the sidelines, but you realized it’s much more difficult when you are actually holding a laser gun and running around in the middle of a shoot‐out. People were firing at you from all directions, but you can’t see where they were hiding. When you finally get a glimpse of your enemy, you end up missing your shots or they simply disappear too quickly before you get the chance to aim at them. Anyway, it was a very challenging game. (Laughs) We all enjoyed the experience, and are planning a return to laser tag very soon.

JC Michael Ma

Overseas Camp C Caalliiffoorrnniiaa S Suum mm meerr C Caam mpp

We had our first group outing in the States on July 13th. Our destination was to visit Stanford University, one of the top Ivy‐league schools in California, and also attended a live baseball game in the city. In a single day, our students and teachers experienced the elite from two different worlds: One in academic and the other in sports. It is common knowledge that baseball has an important place in American culture, but the question remain whether we will be able to share their passion since none of us are actually experts in this sport.

At Stanford, our activities were based on treasure hunting routine allowing students to learn how to read a map and search for information as well as taking the initiative to discuss, compromise, and plan in a teamwork environment.

During the process, students learned how to ask college students for directions, and how to seek information from the librarian. Our teachers were proud to see our students showing their independence by applying their communication skills in a new environment. We passed by the famous Hoover Tower, a masterpiece that combined modern and classic expressions, the Stanford Memorial Church, Green Library, and other landmarks. The campus was absolutely beautiful and the vibes from their students were terrific and friendly. Just getting a glimpse of their campus life and watching them studying and talking under the trees or seeing them engaging in a fierce competitions on the court were inspiring to our students. Stanford’s campus truly reflected their spirit of “the wind of freedom blows”.

We attended a live baseball game in Oakland. Ms. Phoung did an excellent job explaining the rules of the game to the students on the bus. Once we arrived, we were stunned by the overwhelming number of fans coming to the game. The stadium was completely packed, and we realized why baseball is often considered a national sport due to its massive popularity. Once we took our seating, our students munched on some authentic American fast food: burger, fries, and soft drinks. As soon as the game began, fans immediately invested all their emotions and full‐concentrations in the game.

The local team had home field advantage, and soon chants of “Let’s Go Oakland” broke out, and our students soon joined in and cheered for the home team. Watching the jubilant crowd waved their hands in the air, we finally realized why sports fan are such a special group of people because they are passionate and extremely supportive of their teams.

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Zhang Tian Heng, one of the students in our overseas camp, is very considerate and caring for a boy his age. He had a very nice relationship with his home stay parent, an elderly woman whom Zhang referred to as his American Grandma. Zhang learned

that it was her birthday, so he volunteered to buy her a cake and asked the teachers to keep it a secret in order to give her a surprise.

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This is week two of our Secondary School Overseas Camp in Rhode Island, and students had adapted to the schedule and the teaching style in the US. They were also started to enjoy the local environment and climate as well.

In this past week’s history class, students learned many important events in US history including the origin and founding of the United States of America, the drafting and amendments to the US constitution, the check and balance system, the different political parties and their views on immigration and border issue, the US expansion, the impact of the industrial revolution had on the north and south, and the different laws and policies passed by American presidents George Washington, John Adams, and one of the America’s founding fathers Alexander Hamilton. Students also discussed the topic of slavery and its abolishment in the United States.

Physics class started from studying the Vector concepts to using hands‐on experiments to explore and discuss displacement, speed, acceleration, force, and Newton’s three laws. Students also conducted an experiment to study dynamics by using a small‐modeled car in the laboratory, and used a computer to estimate the data and to understand the theory behind it.

At Pennfield School, the Principal personally held a class for the visiting students, and taught them different topics applying a variety scenarios such as designing a simulated courtroom challenge, telling students stories, marketing a product, conducting news reports, exchanging historical information, etc. Our students also got to practice and improve their oral English skills by interacting with local American students.

In Art class, students studied a variety of scenery and landscape drawings by different artists, and created their own artworks applying different techniques including sculpting and others. Students also created their own sketch books, pottery, murals, and other dynamic and fun creations.

The highlight of the week included their trip to Boston. Students visited the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world, visited the New England Aquarium, and followed the trails of the earliest colonial settlements in the Plymouth Park. They also visited Harvard University campus, and rode on a popular local tourist bus that operates on land and water getting a bird’s eye view of the whole city of Boston. The schedule was tight but very enriching and students learned a great deal about American history through their exploration in this historical city.

English Camp

"" T Teeaacchhiinngg L Liiffeelloonngg S Suucccceessss "" by by Anne Burley, Academic Coach “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”This saying encapsulates our objectives for the summer intensive programs. The goal of the summer classes is not just to teach a few vocabulary words (although the students have learned many), but to form English scholars who will be lifelong learners. The role of the teacher is to show the students how they can use their English in their daily lives.

During the summer intensives, students learned about the World Scholar’s Cup and the Spelling Bee. They improved their writing and critical reading. These are skills that they will be able to carry with them to a better and brighter future.

The World Scholar’s Cup and the Spelling Bee are competitions that give students the opportunity to develop both their English and their public speaking skills. Students are much more likely to retain these new (and challenging) words if they employ them. These competitions are a way for students to become engaged with the vocabulary learning. They can see immediately how much their studying benefits them. In addition, public speaking takes a lot of courage.

Critical reading and writing will not only improve students’ test scores: these essentials will benefit them greatly in all of their pursuits. In critical reading, students must respond to “real” English material such as news articles. The result of this type of learning is that they will feel more comfortable in bilingual academic environments. Through regular writing assignments, students have the opportunity to work on perfecting the fundamentals of writing: forming a thesis and gathering support for their argument. Writing is also a way for students to organize their own thoughts and to share their opinions.

My favorite moment in class is when students become inspired to share with me and with their classmates. YK Pao students amaze me with their humor and joy in the classroom. Even in the short time I have known them, I have seen impressive progress and growth. I sincerely believe that this summer will have an enormous impact on the students.

IInnffoorrm maattiioonn ffrroom m tthhee H Hoom meerroooom mT Teeaacchheerrss Our Science class is coming to its conclusion. In the past few weeks, we learned that all species evolved from a single cell, and also learned the structure and operation process of our digestive system, as well as the transformation between three states: Solid, liquid, and gas. We also learned what causes chemical reactions and physical changes, and students also learned many of the symbols for chemical elements.

In our upcoming Humanities class, we will focus on Geography and Sport as the center of our discussion. 1. Explore the impact of environment factors on sports. 2. The relationship between sports and economic gains; and learn how to conduct research and data analysis from pictures and charts.

In order to encourage and inspire students to learn with a passion, we invited several important guest speakers, the Shanghai Director from EO‐ a global entrepreneurship group and his partners to come and share their creativities, goals, and experiences with our students. We also invited an experience representative from a Headhunter company to come and speak to our students on what kind of requirements and traits that most companies look to hire. He is also a representative for top American Universities in China, so he will share some tips with our students on what schools look for in student applicants.

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