School Project - Brighton College

Our China day at Brighton College was great. We came from 3 local schools, Pennthorpe, Westbourne Grove and St Christopher’s to experience China and Mandarin Chinese. We split into 4 groups so we could have a go at 4 different things. We learnt to speak to someone new in Mandarin. Saying hello and telling them a little about us. We also learnt that the way you say words in Chinese changes what they mean. If you are not careful instead of ‘mother’ you can say ‘horse’. We practised saying these tones as you do not want to call your Mum a horse.

We learnt about Chinese Food. We built crispy Peking Duck pancakes.  Most were a mess. A few had the duck, spring onions and sauce neatly inside the folded pancake. We also tasted some Chinese Tea poured from a traditional Chinese teapot.

We played a Dragons and Pandas Game. This is a giant floor game with Chinese Dice, Question and Answer Treasure Chests and Mandarama’s Pandapedia. There was even a bonus Chopsticks race at the end!

(Would you like to play this game at your school? – see the message below)

Chinese Art – We coloured in our own Chinese Opera masks.  Traditional certain colours mean very different things.  Some masks are used to pray for rain.  Red means courage and bravery and black means fierce.  The masks are very beautiful. One of the best masks is in the picture. Tired out after all this learning and playing, we ate a delicious Chinese banquet.  After lunch we watched a noisy Lion Dance.  It was the first time this lion had been out to dance so he was very naughty. He had a bright shiny white coat.

(Note - Dragons and Pandas – if you are a school that would like to use our giant game please contact us by emailing
pete@mandarama.com)