On Tuesday, 3rd of June 2014 at 8:45, Room 16 and Mrs Stone, Mrs Prince, Mrs Gaze and Miss Deng of Bannister Creek Primary School, went to the South Perth Civic Centre on a bus for the Panda‟s Picnic 2014. We took about 30 minutes to arrive at our destination. The main reason of this programme was to practise Chinese language and learn about Chinese Culture.

Eight schools were there and were separated into different groups using animal names and colours. I even found two of my friends who were in my cricket club! After that, we were to find 2 people, and interview them in Mandarin, who were in our group. I interviewed a 11 year old boy who was named Daniel and another 11 year old boy who was named Thomas. We found out lots about each other, nationality, age, Chinese name etc.

Our first tabloid was kite making and we could choose if we wanted to make a kite of a Giant Panda or a Dragon. I chose the Giant Panda because it was my favourite animal. We had to use to strong sticks then tape it onto the back of the kite making the kite stable. Next we attached some ribbon kind of thing to make the kite look pretty.

Afterwards, we did some Chinese calligraphy and did some strokes to form a character. Also, we found out that the type of paper will make the paint disappear making it reusable. The teacher taught us how to hold the painting stick and I received a few raffle tickets there as well. We drew about 10 characters and it was time to change activities.

Meanwhile, our next activity was making a Jianzi which was an old toy that Chinese people used to play with and still do. What they did was kick the Jianzi as much time as possible without making it fall to the ground. This was my favourite activity. To make it, we cut the inside of a straw into 1/3s and put on the washer on the other side of the straw and taped it all together. To add the finishing touch we added 3 feathers to the other side of the straw because the straw was small and 3 feathers will make it tight, the feathers didn‟t fall off.

The last activity was the quiz where Mrs Prince announced some questions and we wrote it on an A5 piece of paper. I found that quite easy. The most I enjoyed was the raffle draws, even though I missed them by one number. Overall, I enjoyed that spectacular day with all my classmates and different schools.

A recount by Nandu, 2014

A small group of Prep boys were recently immersed in Chinese culture, when they attended the annual Pandas’ Picnic. Part of a languages program for students learning Chinese in Western Australia, the Picnic encourages students to use the Chinese language skills learnt in the classroom to communicate with students studying Chinese at other schools around Perth.

The 2015 Pandas’ Picnic brought together students from more than ten schools. The Christ Church boys built friendships, drew on their knowledge of the Chinese culture for conversation and enjoyed traditional Chinese activities like jiànzi making, panda folding, gong fu and tai chi.

Ms Li Liu, Christ Church Chinese teacher said the excursion provided the boys with an entertaining and rich cultural environment, which would help develop their Chinese skills.

“The boys had a great time and represented the School very well. Many of the boys were complimented on their behaviour, holding gates open for others and assisting in setting up activities, they made me very proud”.

“The Pandas’ Picnic was a great experience, talking to new people, doing calligraphy, making paper pandas, doing quizzes and making and using our jiànzi …I would highly recommend it”.

By Ashton Mah from Christ Church Grammar School,2015

“The Pandas’ Picnic was fun because we made pandas and jiànzi. We also had a quiz about Chinese language and culture and drew some Chinese characters”.

By Korede Ayonrinde from Christ Church Grammar School,2015

2015 Panda's Picnic Recount

CLTAWA

Year 9 Day Recount

Primary Teachers Workshop