Primary 6 have worked hard this year to develop a link with our connected classroom in Hong Kong. We began by looking at images of Hong Kong to try and work out where we thought it was and discussed a little about the geography of the country and its position in the world. We compared this with Renfrew and this allowed us to generate lots of questions we could ask to learn more about the lives of our new friends.
From there, we wrote our first letters. P6 were very excited to do this and all our letters were completed to a good standard. This opportunity provided us with a real life experience of letter writing and writing for a specific purpose. We also designed some pumpkin pictures to send to our pen friends as well as class and individual pictures. Each pupil was paired up with a child in Hong Kong to allow us to build a relationship.
Just before Christmas, we were blown away by the box we received from Ho Shun Primary School. It was full of snacks for us to try! We even received some class and individual gifts which was incredibly kind. We enjoyed a morning trying all the new tastes such as ‘seaweed’ flavoured strips and different types of sweets. All pupils also received a reply to our initial letters which generated a huge buzz in the classroom.
In January, we wrote back to our friends and sent them a selection of traditional Scottish snacks along with some cards wishing our friends a happy ‘Lunar New Year’ which was coming up in February. We also took the opportunity to do some research about the Chinese New Year and created Venn diagrams to compare new year celebrations in Scotland with Lunar New Year celebrations in Hong Kong. We discovered that there were lots of similarities such as cleaning the house to welcome in the new year, fireworks to mark the occasion and spending time with family and friends. Our posters detailing our findings are on display in our cloakroom.
Just after Easter, we received a second from Ho Shun Primary along with more sweet treats, some of which we were able to take home and share with our families. Some pupils were given individual gifts and we were also given their school mascots.
This has been an incredibly rewarding and enriching experience for Primary 6. They have loved learning about life in a different country but one where there were lots of similarities to the life they lead here in Scotland. The excitement was real each time a parcel has arrived and they have really enjoyed the process if writing for a purpose.
