On the sunny morning of April 26, 2015, eight volunteers traveled to the IKids center in Putuo district for their first training session on how to teach English to migrant children. During the training, teacher Dong taught the volunteers how to teach the children English and open them up to the opportunities presented by learning a new language.
As a teacher who has spent many years teaching children, Miss Dong not only showed the volunteers how to teach classes with an interesting English Video, but also demonstrated how to stimulate the interest of kids toward learning English and how to be let them be more sensitive to English information. The volunteers were impressed by this inspirational educational philosophy and reactive teaching style.
When volunteers tried teaching the class they found it was not as easy as the video made it seem. An inspiring class is based on a teacher’s strong preparation and confidence in the subject. The volunteers are still learning but are passionate to be in class and hope they can give the children a new English language learning experience.

The afternoon of March 14 was cold and rainy, but there was a very warm atmosphere flying around the big classroom at the Aider migrant kindergarten, which is located in Qingpu Baihe Town. More than 35 migrant children and most of their mothers and grandmothers and also a few dads, gathered there, waiting for a foreign English teaching volunteers association's arrival. Some of them came to the kindergarten at 2pm, even though some of the parents are very busy they still take the time to send their children to school, and then go home to take care of other children or continue to work. In order to support this first English teaching activity, the school principals and teachers volunteered to work overtime to take care of the children and parents.
At 3:15pm, Shanghai’s Italy women's community volunteer adults and children people came to the kindergarten to run the activity. Although it was raining and they were not familiar with the route, they still tried to arrive on time. They brought with them their personally designed English lessons, teaching materials, and handmade exquisite Italian cake. Once they entered into the classroom, the kids, their parents and teachers welcomed them with applause.
The volunteers them in English and the kids were cheered up by the volunteers’ enthusiasm. The volunteers taught the group numbers, songs in English, they also played a color filling game with the kids to strengthen their knowledge of English numbers. Not only did the children and their parents learn something new, but even the teachers were all attracted by the fresh and amusing way of learning and actively participated. One of the teachers was very excited and interacted with the volunteers happily.
All the participants were enjoying the fabulous handmade Italian cake.
The leading volunteer Ms. Simona’s little daughter was so cute and spoke good Chinese. Many of the kindergarten’s teachers played with her and found a lovely year of Goat toy for her to play with. The considerate volunteers’ also prepared little bags of stationary gifts for the migrant children. They looked forward to come back again in April. All participants had great fun during the Saturday afternoon activities.

On the morning of March 7, 2015, the weather was cloudy, but the children from Youdao Qingpu Children’s Center felt particularly warm in their hearts. Today the teachers and students from Changnin International School not only gave them a vivid lesson but also became their good friends.
The course topic was "how to cross the road.” The children immediately said the topic was too simple and that their teacher had already taught them red means stop, green means go, and yellow means pause. But when the volunteers asked the children to express these ideas in English the classroom fell silent and the children looked to their teachers for guidance.
Volunteers took out prepared papers with English pictures and words and distributed them to every child. They told them to cut the words out one by one, and to see if they understood the meanings. The children carefully cut all of their words and pictures out and when they were done the volunteers let kids paint the color of the traffic lights to prepare for the next game - cross the road.
Volunteers drew zebra crossings and lanes and put the children’s’ pictures as the traffic lights. Children then decided to go or stop according to the color of the pictures raised by the volunteers. During the games, some of the children’s’ mothers were attracted by their children’s enthusiasm and joined in the activity.
After the course, the children's passion continued to grow. They held the volunteers’ hands to do activities together. Some played football, some played with sandbags, and some played chess. The classroom and the yard were filled with volunteers and children's laughter.
The activities always go by so quickly. The children did not want to see the volunteers leave. Today the children not only had fun, but also learned valuable safety lessons.