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The children of Barton wanted to continue their learning and understanding of the Chinese culture, so a second week was devised.  The children were told the story of 'Jingwei Filling Up The Sea' which was sent to us by our link school in China; Huayu Experimental School in Chongqing.  They then asked questions about the story thinking about how they could link the story with the taster activities that had been explored during our 'taste of China' week.

The children then voted on which activity they wanted to further explore.  Then every afternoon they explored and experimented within their groups to further their learning.  The activities were paper cutting/folding, martial arts, kite making, embroidery, calligraphy and the Great Wall of China.  Each group took a section of the story to develop within their chosen activity, for example, martial arts became the sea combining martial arts and dance, paper cutting created large scale shadow puppets, and kite making created the wind and the Jingwei bird.

As a culmination of the project the children put on a performance on the school outdoor theatre.  The parents had the opportunity to come and watch, and then to move around the classrooms looking at displays of the children's work and joining in some of the activities.  It was a fantastic afternoon and everyone had a great time.  The performance was greatly enjoyed by the parents and many commented on how much fun the children had and also how much knowledge they exhibited about China and their chosen activities.