Donning the Red Scarf

Monday was Children's Day. To celebrate, we had an assembly with two purposes. First, to induct the first graders (or the vast majority of them) into the Young Pioneers of China, a group for children aged six to fourteen, run by the Communist Youth League. Second, to give awards to students who had participated well in recent competitions and activities.

You may have noticed in the pictures of my students that most of them are wearing a little red bandanna around their neck. This is the symbol of their status as a Young Pioneer. Thus, the assembly began with fifth and sixth graders helping the first graders don their red scarf, or 红领巾 hónglǐngjīn, and teaching them how to salute properly. It was pretty adorable.

Reciting the pledge.

The other students waited around for all of this to finish before the award giving.

And then they gave out the awards.

The students run up to accept their certificate and notebook....

Salute...

And pose for a picture: an arduous process involving at least three teachers, dragging the students into appropriate rows,
and telling approximately half the students--individually--to stop covering their face with their awards!

Weekend Walk

The museum was nice, but perhaps even better was the walk there and back through the trees and fields. It's walks like this that make me feel like I'm actually living in rural China, as opposed to staying at school or in town where, more and more so, everything is covered in concrete.

The fields right now are covered in plastic and populated with yellow cards on sticks. Why? Insects.

Burning plant material.

Sparrow

Orange bird...not sure what it is. It reminded me of a Baltimore oriole,
but I know it wasn't.  Unfortunately it didn't get any closer.

Cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis

Two more cute, unidentified birds.

Have you ever noticed how long a water buffalo's eyelashes are?

Students' Art

My cofellow who teaches art arranged for some of our students' art to be displayed in the paper-making museum. She explained to me that the students all draw pretty much the same things if she just tells them to draw a picture--an apple tree, a house, etc.--so she gave them a few famous paintings to mimic. Here are some of my favorites.