In October, the harvest of the fall season greeted Shanghai High School International Division with an exciting sports week.

In addition to the Sports Carnival on October 12, each day of the Puxi Campus Grades 4-5 Sports Week featured a different sports-related activity. Each day had a different dress code for the students, which was one of the things that they looked forward to.

On Monday, October 11, colorful sports hats could be seen in the hallways. The theme of today’s sports spirit was: Just Keep Moving!

Fourth graders participated in a colorful sports carnival during their lunch break. There were four different stations: Keeping Balance, Jumping Over the Creek, Sports with Prizes, and Bend Over the Rope. The biggest highlight of the day came from the Student Council members, as they were the organizers of the stations. They were there to make sure the activities were running properly, organized the directions of the site, and encourage the students to participate actively. This allowed them to hone their organizational and leadership skills and help them to become more independent learners.

In fifth grade, activities contained both active and peaceful games, combining fun and competition. Students rotated through four stations together at a PE class.

There was an exciting ball-passing game: students stood in a circle, and they needed to pass the ball back to back. When the music stopped, the student who was still holding the ball was out. When only two students were left, the competition became quite fierce, testing their agility and quick reactions.

Besides the competitive games, students also participated in group activities—such as jumping the rope. Students formed a group of two, three, or even more people to jump the rope together. Students who swung the rope had to cooperate with the jumping students perfectly so that they could finish the task. After several failures and constant trying, students finally achieved the task of jumping the rope with a group. Even though they only jumped for a few turns, the teamwork and the ability to collaborate was definitely worthy of celebration.

All the sports required great cardiorespiratory capacity as their basis. Thus, students also participated in the Bootcamp, where they finished a series of aerobic exercises, such as push-ups, burpees, jumping jacks, and high knee lifts. Though it was a tiring process, students finished all the moves with high quality.

After the fierce practice, let’s all do some yoga to relax! Students had several deep breaths to adjust the rhythm of the breathing and relax the muscles. They also tried some yoga poses to practice balance and attentiveness.

On Tuesday, students from the 4th and 5th grades actively participated in the sports carnival. The school encouraged teamwork and participation of everyone, and each project required students from each class to collaborate to compete. Every student was enjoying the process of the competition and it was so enjoyable.

Students from the little journalist optional class in the fourth and fifth grades had a chance to interview some students after the carnival.

“My favorite sport in the carnival was darts because it is very interesting and satisfying; and the obstacle relay was the hardest because l was tripped by the last obstacle! Though I’m not good at all the sports, I learned that teamwork is very important when you are participating in sports activities. I enjoyed this competition very much because it’s very fun and interesting!”

—4-5 Vivian, interviewed by 4-1 Grace

“My favorite activity is the obstacle relay because it’s like a balloon and you can jump on it without getting hurt. From this carnival, I learned that teamwork makes the dream work! For example, when I did the caterpillar race, I needed my friends in the back to help me lift up the end of the caterpillar so we can move faster!”

—5-6 Yining, interviewed by 5-6 Annike

“My best memory in the carnival was playing the obstacle relay because everyone tried their best to be the first class to finish the race. Even though we didn’t win first place, we still had a great time with our classmates!”

—5-6 Iris, interviewed by 5-6 Annike

On Wednesday, the students put on the school’s uniform jerseys and socks that represented sportsmanship. Today’s theme is: check out our spectacular sports!

Fourth graders worked in small groups to conduct a “Sports Talk show” during PE class, with the goal of using their research skills to learn more about sports and sports-related content. Each group could choose the most interesting sport or favorite athlete as the topic of their group presentation and present it to the rest of the class in different ways. Some students presented the most powerful swimmer, Michael Phelps; some students presented the most thrilling sports—parkour, skiing, etc. Some students presented their favorite sports—tennis, basketball, soccer... What’s more interesting is that some students designed a quiz activity within the classroom, which pushed the atmosphere to a high point, and every student was actively participating.

On Thursday, students dressed up as their favorite sports stars, some students wore judo uniforms, some students wore taekwondo uniforms, and some students wore horseback riding costumes! By observing their dress code, you can find that each student has different sports preferences.

In personal growth class, students completed four fun games through cooperation and communication. Protecting the Egg Superhero was the most intense and focused game for the students, with each student focusing on protecting the “egg superhero” in their hands. Three-legged walking, basketball passing, and hand-holding knots were designed for students to communicate effectively with each other to complete challenges faster. Each student experienced the joy and power of movement in a different game.

Fifth grade students played tug-of-war. Classes competed against one another, and then the winners competed against each other again and again until there was a final winning group. All the little tug-of-war players put on their gloves, stood in their positions, planned their strategies, shouted their slogan, and tried their best to pull the rope. After three rounds of games, class 5-6 was the tug-of-war champion. In the process, all the students worked as a team to achieve the same goal and built the class spirit through the activities.

Sports week is over, but sports are still going on, and the spirit of sports and athleticism will always influence the 4th and 5th graders! Let’s meet next year in the golden autumn!

(Written by Wu Yin, Chen Qinli Pictures by Puxi Campus G4-5 Teachers, Nina Edited by Huang Shiyuan, Brie Polette)