School Culture in Tainan Beimen Elementary School

Schools in Taiwan are facing a crisis of having lesser students because of an increase in smaller families. Younger families here only have 1 or 2 child(ren). I was at Beimen Elementary Branch School today and the classes are really small in size. One of the lower primary class only has 2 students.

Classes here have 10 minutes break during class intervals. They also have a period for afternoon nap. Hence, students are quite energetic and are able to concentrate in class better. This is unlike Singapore as we have classes back to back and our only break is recess break. haha.

During the interval breaks, some students invited me to play basketball with them. They also taught me how to play che ling (扯铃). This sport looks easy but it requires some techniques. My student-teacher taught me really well and I managed to complete a proper attempt.

 My humble attempt at trying che ling

The students also showed me some baby silkworm which they had been rearing. They put these silkworms （蚕宝宝） in a container to study its life cycle and it was really interesting to observe it. The students also told me that these silkworms can lay more than 350 eggs each time but would die after laying eggs. Fun fact of the day. haha. I hope to get to know them better in the next few weeks.

The white cotton like ball is the cocoon spinned by the silkworm.