Nine-year-old Robbie Carter from the United States knew about the mascots of the 2008 Olympics.
But on this sunny Friday morning, he learnt how to carve these five lovely fuwas on a stamp at his school - the Beijing City International School (BCIS).
"I enjoy it," said Carter, showing what he had just painted to his mother, Bess Carter, who was invited to join the activity with other parents.
"From this activity, he got to know more about the mascots and what they represent," Carter said. "It is fabulous."
Robbie Carter and his other classmates were fascinated by the way that the activity combines the biggest sports event in the world with traditional Chinese art.
This class, along with other theme classes divided according to various grades, which included drawing Peking Opera masks and knot dyeing, is part of the school's Chinese Cultural Day - held from time to time in an effort to create understanding regarding the host country.
"We are in China. We are not a little island in China," said Julie Lawton, elementary school principal of BCIS.
The Beijing City International School, one of the biggest in the city, is an independent co-educational day school offering an international curriculum for Nursery to Grade 12 students.
In addition to the regular daily classroom schedule, BCIS offers an Enrichment Activities (EA) Program. The school has observed many Chinese Culture Days or Host Country Weeks, with the focus on art and Chinese themes.
Surrounded by a 5,000-year-old civilization, BCIS not only values, respects and celebrates cultural traditions, but also actively promotes learning and understanding through inter-cultural exploration and exchange.
"They can talk about the venues - the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. It's just so interesting to hear about their development," said Lawton -a Briton who has been teaching in Beijing for 11 years.
In addition to Chinese themed activities, the school offers Chinese language classes and organizes Host Country Week activities each year.
Last year, grade four students went on a field trip to Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and grade five students to Datong in North China's Shanxi Province, during the Host Country Week. Both cities are historical landmarks of China.
"They love it. They love to learn about it," the principal said.
"Many of our students have been to other countries before. So they are interested in learning about different cultures and people. Their minds are very open," she said.
On the other hand, the rich knowledge and experience of the students, most of whom are from international backgrounds, makes education more challenging.
For example, some grade one students have already been taught something that others haven't. "You have to find out what one knows and what the others know."
In teaching Chinese language, teachers divide their classes into three groups according to each student's language fluency, so that a more targeted teaching method may be developed.
Not only Chinese teaching, but other subjects also require the teachers to identify the student's levels first and teach accordingly.
"That's why you have to find out these really experienced teachers to do diagnosed teaching so that they actually know what students know," said Lawton.
Teachers at BCIS refer to the method as differentiation.
"To have different groups working at different levels takes lots of work and planning. You cannot teach the same thing to everybody," Lawton pointed out.
These theories follow the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (IBPYP), designed for students aged 3 to 12, which was adopted since the school's founding two years ago.
Speaking of the system, Lawton said: "We are very lucky; we knew we wanted to be an IB world school, mostly because it is looking into the future."
The world is changing rapidly, and when the students go to work in the future, they will need to be able to communicate, understand different cultures, and think by themselves, which is the emphasis of the IB system.
In class, the children don't sit in rows. "We don't say today you have to know this or you have to know that," Lawton said.
"It is about responsibility, management skills, communication skills and thinking skills. You don't do everything for them. They have to learn how to do it for themselves."
Source: China Daily
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