VBS News Net:  VBS teachers from ESL and Arts had brought up an integrated class to open up students' imagination and creativity as well as to establish lively atmospheres in class. 

In the cooperative study project conducted by VBS teachers, students first had to read the story 'Big wolf and small wolf' on ESL class before making sculptures from four main stories in Arts class.

This story was about two wolves taking care of each other but without any communications. Some day the wolf went for a walk but found out his buddy was gone as he returned. He was worried and searched for months before two of them met again. They decided to be friends still after revealing their feelings to each other. The moral of the story was that it was crucial to relay your thoughts to someone you cared about in friendships.  

As students finished reading, they began to make their sculptures by plasticine in Arts class. These sculptures were full of students' creativity and imaginations - two wolves slept under the tree in a forest, sat next to each other, or one on top and the other below. Not only did they completed a task, they also enhanced their understanding towards the text, learned English vocabulary and improved their abilities in cooperative studies. Teachers adopted student-centric teaching and encouraged them to think in a creative manner and retell the story. This enabled them to generate sources of creations from the plot and effectively improved their English language skills as well as craftsmanship.

Broke the barriers among teaching different subjects in one class, VBS effectively nurtured students' ability to take on independent studies and to build the knowledge connections among different subjects.  

Author / Photographer: Linda

Formatting: Judy

Translated by DC Lai