What a fantastic experience for me to start up and run my first Small Grant project! I am so proud to host a online Chinese Mandarin reading saloon with the children in my community. It was really a nice memory to see their happy face and their willingness to getting together.
To kick off the project of online reading saloon, I need my readers. How can I find the little Chinese readers who have some basic skills and like reading in Chinese? I came to the library, talked to the parents and children who is standing around the shelf of Chinese books. I shared the website of https://neighbourhoodsmallgrants.ca on my ipad, told them I was so honored to get the sponsorship from our community to offer a totally free online reading event. If they are looking forward to upgrade their reading skills and getting connected with other readers, they can join my online reading saloon.
Second step, how can I make my saloon attractive? When I am searching the topic, I found out that the Vancouver Aquarium is reopen! Great news for all the kids in Metro Vancouver. I took my 4-year-old boy to visit the jelly fish and sea otters which he like most. I did not see the shark in the tank anymore. However the huge pile of plastic bottles are still there, breaking my little one’s heart. After that I decided to talk about the fantastic sea creatures and do our part to protect the animals and their habitat in my reading saloon. I found out the Chinese digital books about great white shark and some video on youtube.com , they are free, wow! My online event is almost ready to go!
I keep thinking about the question:” Why the readers need to come to my saloon? They can read and watch you tube video at home by themselves.” It cost me lots of time searching out how to make the getting together online attractive. I paid for some wonderful online tools such as quizlet.com , wordwall.com to make the reading and learning like playing digital games. Thanks to digital technology!
Finally my reading event went smoothly. The happy time went so fast, together we read a non-fiction picture books, sang the songs and played wonderful digital games to match pictures and characters, drive the train to catch the right words balloon etc.
By making the project happen, I realize that people like learning and getting connected with each other. I believe that more people will wish to join since this is a safe, rewarding, totally free and happy gathering. Together we can read, sharp the language skill and enjoy the fun of learning. I wish I could get more support to pay for the yearly fee for zoom account and online software using fee to continue conducting this online reading saloon every month.
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