The New Year is always accompanied by blessings and renewal, and with the arrival of the Year of the Tiger, we have ushered in a new semester. We hope that all students enjoyed a fulfilling and pleasant winter vacation.
At the end of the previous semester, and in order to abide by the ‘double reduction’ policy for work done by students over the holiday, the winter vacation homework assigned by Chinese teachers paid more attention to expanding students’ critical thinking abilities, to encouraging reflection on topics they enjoy, and to diverse experiences and creating inspiration. The tasks were effective, scientific and reasonable, as well.
At the beginning of this new semester, teachers received back from students their winter vacation homework, their tasks filled with creative ideas and completed with sincere hearts. Let’s take a look!
Practicing beautiful handwriting
Creating a collection of brilliant essays
Students carefully revised their written compositions, editing and formatting them, then printing and binding them into volumes. A sense of accomplishment came alive!
Reading excellent books
Winter is a season full of peace and tranquility. In such a season, it is the best time to read an excellent book.
“Choose a chapter in the book and transform it into a small comic book with pictures and texts.” This was the Grade 6 students’ reading task for The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
The students gave full play to their imagination and displayed the content of the novel vividly and meticulously.
The Grade 7 students’ reading task for Camel Xiangzi was to sort out the book’s key points, a task which was rich and interesting.
Students read it, internalized it as their own ideological character, and then exported it as a beautiful hand-made newspaper. (Grade 8 students read How the Steel Was Tempered.)
Taking memorable photos
Children recorded their lives with a camera, inscribing each photo with poetic words and expressing their thoughts for that moment.
Watching a documentary
Students who stayed at home during the winter vacation watched documentaries – improving and enriching their cultural awareness was also wonderful.
Grade 8 Chinese teachers assigned students to watch the documentary Letters to Know China and asked them to create a handwritten newspaper. The students were impressed by the content of the documentary and handed over their winter vacation homework after great efforts.
In the documentary Letters to Know China, the audience is presented with different perspectives through six warm and exciting themes: little character, love, friendship, life wisdom, family tradition, and patriotism. 30 letters from the ancients were carefully screened. From these 30 letters, the audience can gain a sense of world events that occurred during different historical periods, tasting the temperament of Chinese culture and also triggering related thoughts about the present day.
Taking a cloud tour
During the pandemic, it was also a good opportunity to have a ‘cloud tour’ at home.
Students travelled virtually to experience major city attractions, cuisine, and culture on the internet, and then made a fantastic ‘cloud tour’ poster.
A collection of exquisite winter vacation homework tasks represented students’ serious attitude towards learning and life. We look forward to witnessing their full strength in the new year!