The afternoon of March 14 was cold and rainy, but there was a very warm atmosphere flying around the big classroom at the Aider migrant kindergarten, which is located in Qingpu Baihe Town. More than 35 migrant children and most of their mothers and grandmothers and also a few dads, gathered there, waiting for a foreign English teaching volunteers association's arrival. Some of them came to the kindergarten at 2pm, even though some of the parents are very busy they still take the time to send their children to school, and then go home to take care of other children or continue to work. In order to support this first English teaching activity, the school principals and teachers volunteered to work overtime to take care of the children and parents.
At 3:15pm, Shanghai’s Italy women's community volunteer adults and children people came to the kindergarten to run the activity. Although it was raining and they were not familiar with the route, they still tried to arrive on time. They brought with them their personally designed English lessons, teaching materials, and handmade exquisite Italian cake. Once they entered into the classroom, the kids, their parents and teachers welcomed them with applause.
The volunteers them in English and the kids were cheered up by the volunteers’ enthusiasm. The volunteers taught the group numbers, songs in English, they also played a color filling game with the kids to strengthen their knowledge of English numbers. Not only did the children and their parents learn something new, but even the teachers were all attracted by the fresh and amusing way of learning and actively participated. One of the teachers was very excited and interacted with the volunteers happily.
All the participants were enjoying the fabulous handmade Italian cake.
The leading volunteer Ms. Simona’s little daughter was so cute and spoke good Chinese. Many of the kindergarten’s teachers played with her and found a lovely year of Goat toy for her to play with. The considerate volunteers’ also prepared little bags of stationary gifts for the migrant children. They looked forward to come back again in April. All participants had great fun during the Saturday afternoon activities.