“If I were a snowflake. Dancing in the mid-air in elation. I must know where I’m going. Flying, flying, flying. Somewhere on the ground is my direction.” The sweet and beautiful reciting voices were coming from the classrooms. Please do not doubt. Children were reciting the poem “The joy of the snowflake” in their lovely voices. This poem was written by Xu Zhimo and has been included in our CFL learning as Lesson One.
When walking in the A Building, you can hear the beautiful reciting sound everywhere, rising and falling like an echo. Year 2 students were having Chinese Classes on the second, third and fourth floor.
When the first snow of 2018 was falling in Shanghai, children were excited: “It’s snowing! It’s snowing!” They were standing in the snow, opening their arms and reciting the poem: “If I were a snowflake. Flying, flying, flying.”
The joy of snow has not faded, and we are looking forward to the arrival of spring. Shelley ever said: “If winter comes, can spring be far behind”. The past 20th January was the Great Cold, which is the last term of the 24 Solar Terms. After the Great Cold, the new cycle of the solar terms starts again. “The news of spring” is a lesson in CFL. In Year 4 Chinese Classes, children proclaimed from the bottom of their hearts “Wind blows the willows. Snow bleaches the duck’s feathers.”
We wish for children to embrace a beautiful today and a better future.
Chinese Language Researcher –SHEN Rong