YiXianGuoJi Olympics, Part 1

I arrived at school on Monday, taught 2 Pink classes, and then went outside to meet the Small Int'l Class for the Monday morning routine--flag raising and "exercises" (choreographed dancing to music). To my surprise, the whole school was lined up in preparation for the "Kindergarten Sport," whatever that means. I assume it's like a mini-Olympics. Each class had a sign,

Notice the great spelling?

and some sort of hand-held celebratory object (pom-poms, noise-makers, signs).

Cindy, Jean, and Dora picked their colors--"I like blue!" and "I like PINK!"

Bowen and Leon were excited!

Ashley and Hannah made their pom-poms into hair!

Eventually, we got to the flag-raising and national anthem singing:

I tried to record the singing on the camera, but it was just a bunch of noise. The kids shout at the top of their lungs, all completely off from each other. It's hilarious, and I imagine exactly how The Star Spangled Banner sounds in preschools in America.

Then it turned out that they weren't prepared for the sports and postponed until Friday. Stay tuned...

Instead of sports, we went inside for a lesson and my favorite time of day--"Do a Dance!" We either do the Hokey Pokey or the kids' favorite--the Chicken Dance! Yes, I brought the Chicken Dance to China. The whole school does it and loves it. So funny! They usually gather in small groups and dance:

Cindy (left) and Sarah had a grand ol' time; I just had to post this series of them being absolutely adorable.

I definitely plan on bringing a camera on Friday, so get ready for YiXianGuoJi Olympics, Part 2 this weekend!

Side note: there is a music room in the school, where the kids have piano lessons; it is also the new storage place for the Scholastic materials. When I first went in, I was completely confused by the pictures on the walls...2 white men with Chinese names?? I was sure that I must know these musicians by name, so I sounded out the Chinese, and this is what I came up with:

 Chai - keh - foo - suh - jee (literally) = Tchaikovsky!

Shao - bong (literally) = Chopin!

Because every Chinese word has an associated character, they must "translate" foreign words into similar sounding Chinese characters. EX: Arizona = ya li sang na (yah-lee-song-na); Carrefour = jia le fou (jeeah-le-foo). It's so interesting how they have adapted foreign and international words to make them understood and able to be used in Chinese!