How to make our students feel connected in the middle of a pandemic? How to help our young learners reflect on and understand what has been happening in the world? These are the questions we have been thinking about since the pandemic started.
Writing competition has been an annual tradition at our school. This year, we specifically moved the competition online: In May 2020, we held a school-wide writing competition themed “Earth and I” with a focus on our young learners. Not only did we gave our students an opportunity to show their Mandarin skills, but also helped them put their understanding into some of the global issues and apply it to their own projects. From preschoolers all the way to 9th Graders, almost 500 students from our weekend classes, Mississauga campus, and SMILE program in downtown Toronto participated in this competition.
What does Earth mean to me? What is happening to Earth? What can we do to protect our mother planet? Our young learners poured their creativity, imagination, and critical thinking into their projects and shared their insights in Mandarin. We are truly amazed by the many forms of their work: drawings, paintings, posters, writing, poems, videos, handcrafts, e-books and inventions. You name it.
Based on the number of students of each grade and class, we selected 64 students proportionally as our final winners. Below you can see some of the students’ projects. It is only a small portion out of all the works we have received, but it gives you a sneak peek of what our students have achieved through their Mandarin learning!、