Rebellious potatoes! Interesting Chinese Social Study at Hiba Academy Nantong

This seemingly simple classroom activity actually had a number of hidden learning points: firstly, the pupils had to be familiar with the topographical features of the five types of terrain. What are the characteristics of valleys, ridges, hills, basins, steep cliffs and saddles? How do you transform the shapes in your head into the shape of a potato in your hands? This stage is a detailed examination of pupils' knowledge of geography and a great exercise in hand-eye coordination.

Secondly, how do you make all five terrain parts with a limited number of potatoes? This tested the pupils' planning skills. As potatoes are different shapes and sizes, the children needed to observe the shape of the potatoes first and choose the right one, taking into account the terrain and making the most of each potato, otherwise there may not be enough potatoes to make. The good planning habits from an early age and thinking before you do are very beneficial to children's learning and development. Pupils who have a good sense of planning know exactly what their next step is and are more able to concentrate on what is in front of them, always with a direction and a goal in mind.

Thirdly, the potatoes are cut perfectly, but how do you convert the solid terrain parts into a flat contour topographic map? Many students got stuck in this section. Ms Li suggested: cut the potato into different slices with a fixed width and trace the outline one by one to create a contour map! The pupils were enlightened by Ms Li's suggestion. This operation actually explains the principle of contour lines: on a map, points of the same altitude are connected to form a line and they are called contour lines. Through the process of finding difficulties - independent thinking - timely guidance - successful solutions, I believe that the knowledge of "contour lines" has been graphically and firmly engraved in every pupil's mind.

Why are they called "rebellious potatoes"? It came from the cute reaction of the pupils when they cut the potatoes. The pupils were unable to slice the potatoes smoothly because the blade of the protective knife was too short and the potatoes were irregularly shaped, so the disobedient potatoes were given this mischievous name. But eventually the pupils themselves came up with a creative solution to the problem: they found it easier to cut quickly with their own ruler! This little tip quickly spread among the pupils and the classroom was filled with laughter. 

In the end, in this challenging and fun atmosphere, all the pupils successfully completed their maps, with pride and sense of achievement on each pupil's face. It is believed that the lesson of learning contour topographic maps would become engraved in their memory.

Sukhomlinsky, a famous educator, once said “a school should be like a magnet, attracting students with their interesting and rich lives. Who wouldn't love such a lively and interesting Chinese Social Studies lesson? Who wouldn't want to be in a school with such a curriculum? Bear this in mind, the academic team at Hiba Academy Nantong design the curriculum to incorporate content that is relevant to pupils’ lives and goals in order to stimulate their interest in learning which, in turn, promotes their engagement and motivation in learning, thus helping students to learn happily and build motivation for continuous progress.