Easter Children’s Camp Held Successfully by CI

The Confucius Institute at the University of Saskatchewan conducted a 5-day Easter children’s camp between April 6 to 10, 2015.

The Confucius Institute at the University of Saskatchewan conducted a 5-day Easter children’s camp between April 6 to 10, 2015. The children, who joined the camp, ranging from Grade 1 to 6, came from various elementary schools in Saskatoon. The schools included: Brunskill School、Wildwood School、Greystone Height School、 Lakeridge School、Willowgrave School、Lakeview School、River Heights School.

The main activities on the first day included dough modeling and visiting the Diefenbaker Canada Centre (DCC). The dough modeling class was held in the classroom of the Confucius Institute at the University of Saskatchewan. Dough modeling is a traditional Chinese talent. The children liked it and showed much passion in the class. All children had completed their in-class task: making a small panda dough model.

Then we visited the Diefenbaker Canada Centre (DCC). We gained a lot of historical knowledge by visiting this centre that was named after our great former Prime Minister of Canada. After that, we visited the Museum of Biological at the University of Saskatchewan.

The main activities on the second day were paper cutting, Easter eggs painting and zoo visiting. The first class was paper cutting.

The children also showed much interest toward this traditional Chinese talentpaper cutting. Everyone made satisfactory work with effort.

The second class was Easter eggs painting, which was a tradition during Easter to celebrate the arrival of Easter. The children painted their own egg by using colorful paint.

After that, we went to the Saskatoon zoo. The children were divided into two groups; one group was doing outdoor tour, the other was listening to the explanation indoor. Then they switched. The children saw many animals outside and learned much knowledge about animals in the room.

On the third day, we made greeting cards, Chinese collage and did outdoor activities.

Chinese collage is a traditional Chinese talent. We have invited a national artist, Ms. Lin Yuan, to teach this class. Under the guidance of Ms. Yuan, the children were able to make satisfactory Chinese collages.

After that, we did outdoor activities. The outdoor activities on Wednesday included “body touch” and diabolo.

The children cheered on the big lawn outside. Outdoor activities were the children's favorite.

The children chased and cheered when they were playing “body touch”. Everyone liked the diabolo juggling, too. The children who had never seen this big toy were excited. Everyone tried the diabolo juggling and was happy.

The first task on the fourth day was to finish making greeting cards. Everyone finished it.

After that, the children learned about doing martial art and flied some kites. The children were happy.

We had a music appreciation class in the morning of the fifth day. The volunteers of the Confucius Institute at the University of Saskatchewan demonstrated how to play the hulusi and zither to the children. The children showed strong interest and experienced the ways to play these Chinese musical instruments.

After that, the children had a drawing class for making the mask of Peking Opera. In this class, the children mimicked the mask style of the Peking Opera and made their own mask. The morning class ended here. In the afternoon, the volunteers brought the children to the Saskatoon public library. The staff told some good stories and the children liked them. Then the children read some books in the library; some borrowed them home.

At the end, everyone took a group picture together.

The 5-day activity ended. We received good feedbacks from the parents and children. Some parents said the children talked about the activities at home, and expected to go to the Confucius Institute at the University of Saskatchewan in the morning. We will make a summary of the experiences gained from this activity later so we can have better activities in the future.