Chinese "Drama Class"

We had a "Royal Party" because I bought Jaimie this lovely princessy dress for $26. I had to find an occasion for her to wear so I created the opportunity by calling for a "Royal Gathering". My princess is SOOOOO PRREEETTYYY, isn't she? *super proud mommy*

If it is just dressing up it won't be meaningful. So I thought we can have a "Chinese drama session". I planned to have it in 2 parts. Part 1 will be me reading them a random story. Part 2 will be acting out a script I wrote.

I had it all planned out. Wolfgirl will be the Big Bad Wolf who finds the prince and princesses too noisy so she threatens to throw away their favourite toys. The children will beg her to give them back their toys and she agrees, on the condition that they have to learn some Chinese words from the beautiful fairy (yours truly). Then, they have to return to the wolf to answer her questions and pick the right words in order to save their toys. The other mommies and daddies will be the supporting actors and actresses.

Wonderful script and idea, ya?

See, I even made the necessary props. And we had a quick rehearsal with the adults before the session began.
The children were very happy to dress up. Here are the Royal Princesses.

The Royal Prince and his family.

Part one went on quite smoothly. The children participated actively and responded well.


However, my brilliant script for part 2 totally backfired. I told them the story before getting them to act out and everybody was agreeable. When the acting began, Rain was the first to burst into tears because her mommy turned into a Big Bad Wolf. I changed my cast immediately and assigned Chai San to be the bad wolf. Then, it was Cherrlyn's turn to cry. She was close to crying when she saw Chai San showing his teeth and clutching his fingers but she bravely held her tears back for a moment. When the Big Bad Wolf took away their favourite toy (they were asked to bring along their favourite toy to the party), Cherrlyn and Jaimie couldn't take it anymore. They all cried pitifully and Prince Ezra was affected too. Oh gosh! I thought my script was rated G but it seems like even with PG, it was too bloody for them! I must have written a M18 story without knowing it!!! This was DRAMA!!! I threw away the script and improvised the entire activity on the spot. Luckily I have 14 years of teaching experience to back me up to deal with such situations. In the end, everybody was satisfied, happy and learnt something (I hope!).

See the picture below. Uneasiness was written all over Jaimie's face when I was telling the story of the Big Bad Wolf taking away their favourite toys.

Dinner time!! We catered from Yum Cha Express again and we had a good time chatting, solving the disputes among the Royal Princesses and playing Wii.