Today, as it’s the second day of the countdown to disbanding, many children are here, and every class is packed. Yesterday, because the “Target Song” was sung out of tune, the military training formations couldn’t even form. During morning reading, Instructor Dai and the inspector, respectively responsible for the older and younger classes, conducted intensive training, correcting each one individually and ensuring each group passed. Listening carefully, I realized the reason was that several words were pronounced in Sichuan dialect, causing the off-tune. After some corrections, more than half of the students started singing correctly. During the first military training class, the children’s breathless singing of the Target Song was quite enjoyable, though of course, it was much less interesting than the off-tune singing. Instructor Zhang even said he regretted not remembering to record it yesterday.
2. In the second period of the junior class, Xue Shanbing led the children to create a large painting. The children in the junior class were much more skillful and finished the painting in just two classes in the morning!
3. The second lesson for the senior class was about the origins of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals. Ju Xing had basically controlled the pace of the lesson, and the children cooperated well. In the third lesson, the inspector simply did a three-part series on “The Crocodile Falls in Love with the Giraffe.” The inspector found that as long as the story was interesting, the children could easily grasp it.
4. In the afternoon, the inspector led the girls in the senior class to learn to sing Ode to Joy, and the boys were not willing to lag behind and hummed along; the lower grades specially rehearsed “Grunt Bull”, and the boy who played the little mouse was very strong and had almost memorized the lines. With the help of Qin Ming’s narration and prompting, they basically performed the whole play.
July 5th will be the Bamboo Forest Academy’s learning performance. We’ve roughly finalized the following aspects: drills and physical training, an art exhibition, a Tang poetry recitation competition for both senior and junior grades, and a storytelling competition. The fairy tales, depending on the availability of the actors, will include: The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Gruffalo, Changbanpo, and Selling Shade. Finally, there will be a female chorus and group singing of “Ode to Joy” as the Bamboo Forest Academy’s closing theme.
Carrot Detective records July 4th at noon