'We All Live in the Forbidden City' Workshop

This morning, San Mateo's Elementary students enjoyed a wonderful workshop and presentation from the teachers at 'We All Live in the Forbidden City'.

Chen laoshi began the workshop by teaching us how the Forbidden City is built for the emperor, or huangdi, to live in.

We listened intently and raised our hands to answer questions about the Forbidden City.

We learned that there are 980 buildings in the Forbidden City!

We acted out different elements in nature! Water, trees, wind and stones!

Next, we enjoyed an animation about how these elements in nature can be used.

  

We then split up into teams to create our own palaces!  

We worked really hard in our teams to create our dream palaces. 

Chen laoshi helped us come up with ideas.

We presented our teams' palaces to the other teams. We had all sorts of fun additions to our palaces like an arcade, a music room and even a swimming pool!

After creating our own palaces, we looked at pictures of the real Forbidden City.

This activity helped us connect how 'The Palace is like a Big Forest'. 

It was interesting to see how nature can inspire architecture.

We received wonderful gifts that included more information for us to learn about the Forbidden City!

Thank you for a wonderful workshop - we learned a lot and had fun!