Since 551 B.C., philosopher and teacher Confucius has had a strong influence on Chinese culture. In celebration of his birthday, the sixth-grade Chinese classes went on a field trip Sept. 28 to the University of South Florida, where they learned about Chinese culture through a variety of fun activities.
The Confucius Institute Celebration (CI Celebration) is an annual, all-day event hosted by the University of South Florida Confucius Institute. It honors the 2,556th birthday of Confucius and celebrates Teacher’s Day in China and Taiwan.
During this celebration, students from middle school through college had the opportunity to experience Chinese culture by trying different foods and teas, watching cultural performances and practicing arts like Chinese calligraphy and paper maché.
The CI Celebration immerses students in Chinese culture and helps them to become more comfortable with the language. Sixth-grader Tallulah Bonifield found the celebration “very inspiring and fun.” and sixth-grader Maddielyn Stevens said, “It was very educational, and helped me learn about the Chinese culture.”
The experiences at the CI Celebration have shown in the sixth-grade Chinese classroom, as students were super excited to talk about Chinese class and about the language.