Jinlin Reading Center

JinLin Foundation is an organization that works with local Hangzhou schools to develop reading skills and knowledge perception. When we go to Jin Lin we visit these schools and do certain activities with the kids. The kids are around 4-5 years old and comprise two kindergarten classes. We do many fun activities with them, including simple science projects such as making volcanoes with baking soda and vinegar and learning about light and colors, and conducting english lessons about animals. The kids are quite well behaved and they enjoy engaging with us. All in all it is a great experience that benefits our community by allowing these kids to be exposed to people of different nationalities and cultures at a young age and teaching them to have a broader view of our world.   

Links Leader: 

Jacqueline Sung & Allison Chan (HZ11)

Audrey Tan (HZ10)

Tingting Zhang (HZ9)

Justin Ku (HZ8)

Beatrice Furniss (HZ7)

Hangzhou 11

April 24, 2024

As the last Links day, both A and B group students of Jinlin Foundation hosted a special carnival event for the kindergarten that we work with. 17 students, 160 children aged 3-6. That sounded daunting, but at the same time all of us couldn’t wait to give them a day they wouldn’t forget. Each of us prepared game booths and stalls, as well as a prize booth that included stuff toys and children’s English books. We tried to incorporate elements of reading and learning into our carnival, reinforcing Jinlin Reading Foundation’s goal of encouraging kids to start learning English at a young age. We were also able to borrow a cotton candy machine from the school cafeteria, which was undoubtedly the most popular stall!

We started planning and setting up since 10am, and the carnival started around 2:15pm. Though all of us were tired under the blazing sun, the many hours of planning and effort paid off as the kids ran to every booth, full of curiosity. Only smiles could be seen on every child’s face as they spent a last afternoon with us. 

The carnival ended at around 3:30pm, and we prepared an English book and a pen gift for every child. We hope that these gifts can encourage them to start learning English. I’m sure that this day will be remembered by many of them for a long time.

To our surprise, before we finished packing up, the teacher ushered us into one of the classrooms, where all the children ran up holding bracelets that they handmade for each and every one of us. All the charms on the bracelet were hand-drawn by them. This was such a sweet parting gift and we hugged the kids many times.

This carnival marked a beautiful end to a year of Links with Jinlin Reading Foundation. The teachers and children were ever-so-grateful for our hard work, and us the same. Time flies, and we will all cherish the happy memories we made every Wednesday in the past year.


- Jacqueline Sung

April 17, 2024

Today, we set out for the reading centre around the afternoon. It was a rather rainy day, but we were ready and enthusiastic for the day of planning that we had ahead. Our next links session was going to be a busy and exciting one, as we planned on hosting a carnival at the kindergarten that we have built connections with. When we got to the centre, we pitched our idea to the teachers, to which we received approval. We then travelled to the kindergarten to view our venue, and carried on planning the different stalls and booths that we were going to host for the next session. Although we didn’t really interact with many kids, we gained a lot of insight about our carnival next week, and left with high hopes and anticipation.


- Daisy Chen

March 20, 2024

As Jinlin Reading Centre provides free sign-up classes at their library, they requested us to deliver an English lesson during their 4-5pm slot, where around 12 kids signed up. We decided to teach them a lesson we taught the kindergarten previously, which is 白蛇传 The Story of the White Snake, a popular Chinese legend. We prepared a Head Shoulders Knees and Toes game as well as colouring worksheets for the kids which they enjoyed a lot. They were a little shy, especially because their parents and grandparents were watching, but we could tell that they still enjoyed their time with us. As this is one of our last visits to Jinlin, all of us greatly cherished this moment.


- Jacqueline Sung

March 13, 2024

Today’s links session started off with a quick visit to the reading centre. We had our lesson for the children already planned, and all we had to do was to get approval from the reading centre teachers. We ran through our lesson with them, got the OK, and set forth to the kindergarten. We were greeted by a handful of joyful smiles and the sounds of kids laughing as we walked into the classroom. All of the children were ecstatic to have another lesson with us. Our lesson was based around sea animals, and we had prepared a ton of fun activities to do with the kids. We sang songs together and danced, we told them a story (and bought props), taught them some english words and more. We even bought air dry clay with us, and gave the children options of making different sea animals. To say the least, the lesson was a huge success. All of the kids were extremely engaged during all of the activities. They sang and danced along with us, laughed at the story, and recited all the English words in unison. The air dry clay was the biggest success. The children created all sorts of animals, such as whales, starfish, turtles, or fish, and they got to bring all of their creations home with them. We left the kindergarten after a couple of heartfelt hugs with the kids, looking forward to our next session with them.


- Daisy Chen

March 6, 2024

Today in Links we supported the kids at the kindergarten with their art class. They were celebrating international women's day by making marbling tie dye for their moms. We then led them back to their classroom to reflect on their day and how they felt before saying goodbye and leading them out to their parents. 

The kids all had a lot of fun and so did we. We got to create more bonds with more kids while also improving the ones we've made previously.


- Alysha Kwan

February 28, 2024

Our day began with a typical visit to the reading center. However, this session was slightly different, as we had two new members temporarily joining us. We had prepared a lesson for the children in advance, but this week was dedicated to revising and refining the final details with the teachers from the center. Our lesson plan was centered around sea animals, and we planned to teach the kids through a fun story and other interactive games. We spent the first half of the session finalizing and practicing our lesson, whereas the additional members worked hard on coming up with other lesson ideas. After we were ready, we presented our lesson to the teachers from the center, and received positive comments and feedback. We got approved to teach for the next session, and left the center anticipating our coming lesson with the kids.


- Daisy Chen

January 17, 2024

Chinese New Year is approaching, so today we helped out the center with their CNY decorations, but because the primary school children were still in school, we just worked with the staff there to put up decorations. There were a couple stations for us to work on different activities. We learned how to fold paper lanterns and hang them from the ceiling with spring festival couplets. Some people also worked on sticking festive stickers onto the windows of the center, which was very satisfying! Then we moved on to a DIY craft where we cut out cartons that hold eggs and painted over it with different colors and stringed them together to create a hanging strain of painted shells. We painted another layer to create different intricate patterns and Chinese culture related patterns. Then the staff gave us printed photos capturing moments in JinLin throughout the past year, and we even found some photos with us in it! We pinned all the photos in a heart shape, which took a while, but we eventually got it symmetrical, and we were very satisfied with the outcome. Overall, we really helped add color and festivity to the center, and although we couldn't play with any kids, it was a really therapeutic and fun session!


- Katherine Lu

January 10, 2024

We started this session by paying the reading center a visit, where we were greeted by the usual teachers. We quickly ran through our lesson plans for the day as well as the next session, and immediately set off for the kindergarten, where we planned on teaching the children how to make egg tarts and dumplings. We already prepared all the ingredients and equipment in advance, so we would be able to jump straight into baking. When we arrived at the center, the kindergarten class bombarded us with joyful greetings and smiles, eager to see what we had in plan for the lesson. Our group split into half, dividing responsibilities between the egg tarts and dumplings, and switching halfway through. Both activities were huge successes. The children taught us how to make the dumplings, and we taught them how to make egg tarts. Both turned out delicious, and our hard work was rewarded by the smiles of the kids as they asked for more. Afterwards, we took a group picture with the children and teachers, and departed after a round of warm, enthusiastic hugs. Overall, the session was a huge success. We were able to develop our teaching and communication skills, and left the kindergarten leaving lasting impressions.

- Daisy Chen

December 6, 2023

So today we arrived at the Jinlin reading center, and gave them the Christmas gifts we got from  the pie day money. We then started doing final preparations for the lesson before arriving at the school. Once we got to the school, we had some time to introduce ourselves to the children, and then we got on with our lesson. Overall, it was extremely fun and they were already quite familiar with english. This was a very enjoyable experience, as they were all very enthusiastic and easy to teach. Furthermore, all the children were extremely interactive, and were all willing to introduce themselves as well as get to know us better. They all participated in activities, and games though some were shy at first. We had many opportunities to connect with the children, teach them new things, as well as get to know them better, which are all things we really appreciate.

- Sofie Tse

November 29, 2023

This morning, we embarked on a rollercoaster of nerves, laughter and joy. We left the school for the reading center around 12pm, and spent the trip there frantically practicing for our very first lesson with the children. When we arrived at the center, we were greeted enthusiastically by the teachers at the reading center, and we jumped right into preparing for the lesson. We ran through our entire lesson once to the teachers, and received some valuable feedback. Soon enough, we were ready to meet the children. We walked to the primary school from the reading center, and spent a short time reorganizing the classroom to get ready for our class. When we met the kids for the first time, we were greeted with 40 excited smiles, and a burst of enthusiasm, especially since the children have never had a class like ours before. We told them the “Legend of the white snake”, and we taught them some relevant keywords and phrases in english. We also played some games with them, and gave them some coloring sheets to take home. The kids were extremely engaged, and were laughing and smiling the entire time. Overall, the session went phenomenally, and we left the reading center with lasting first impressions.

Click here to watch a video of our experience (made by Jinlin)

- Daisy Chen

November 22, 2023

Today at links, we continued to plan the lesson that we plan to give to the kindergarten students. Last session, we decided to focus the lesson on the Chinese legend 白蛇傳 (Madam White Snake), a story that illustrates love, sacrifice, and perseverance. This story was approved by the teachers at the reading center, so today we built the lesson together, which will proceed as such: firstly, we will introduce ourselves to the children in both Chinese and English. We will then ask them to introduce themselves. However, many of them do not have English names, so we expect to have to think of names for them, most of which they will probably use for the rest of their lives. After introductions, we will sing a song (Kyle will lead) and tell the story of 白蛇傳, and we have also inserted a few relevant english words/phrases to focus on in the middle of the lesson. These words include West Lake, love, and snake. After telling the entire story of 白蛇傳, we will play a simple game with them and they will complete coloring sheets relevant to the story to end the lesson. We presented our lesson to the teacher at the center, and she gave us a few useful and valuable tips of feedback, which we will be sure to implement. 

We aim to teach the lesson on the next links session, so we will have to attend a Zoom meeting with the teachers at the center to clarify a few things and polish the lesson. Overall, I found today’s links session meaningful, and felt that what we will do (hopefully) next session will be valuable, and I look forward to being able to connect with the kids there and teach them some English. 

- Lauran Yuan

November 15, 2023

Today, we received a warm welcome when we arrived at the JinLin reading foundation in the early afternoon. We didn’t get the chance to teach any students today, as our session was dedicated to developing and securing a lesson plan for our next visit. We worked hard planning out our lessons for the upcoming classes, which are generally based around traditional Chinese stories for younger children. Our next lesson is based off the story of “白蛇传”，which is a traditional Chinese story about the forbidden love between a snake monster and a human. We planned out numerous fun activities for our class, including coloring sheets, dancing and singing, storytelling, fun games and more. After we finalized our lesson plan, we demonstrated it to some organizers of the reading foundation, and received some helpful feedback on how to better interact and engage the children.

Overall, we worked quickly and efficiently together as a team while we developed our ideas and worked towards our goals. We distributed our roles evenly, and made sure to organize everything neatly on slides and google docs. This session strengthened our bond as a team, thus improving our team-building, communication and organization skills. 


- Daisy Chen

September 27, 2023

This was B Group’s first ever visit at Jinlin Reading Foundation. We were all fascinated by the spaciousness and high-tech equipment of the center. A particular highlight was when we tried playing Chinese chess with a robot. Today, we planned the first ever lesson with the teacher, reaching a consensus on the overarching lesson theme and the specific timetable of our future lesson. We were also able to interact with a few children who were at the center. We played games together and everyone left with a huge smile on their faces.

- Jacqueline Sung

September 20, 2023

Our first trip to the JinLin reading foundation was one that was full of obstacles, but also fresh and rewarding. Our session today was purely dedicated to planning our future lessons. We chose the theme that we would base our lessons on, which is going to be related to traditional Chinese fairy tales and stories. We had multiple diverse ideas prior to our final decision, but we were met with a pretty tough roadblock of our ideas being irrelevant to the kids. While planning our lessons, we also had a touching interaction with a 3 year old kid at the reading center. We taught the child how to say the ABCs in English, and watched with wide smiles on our faces as the kid happily recited the letters over and over. Although we didn’t actually get to teach any kids, we had a handful of wholesome and heartwarming interacts, and we left the reading center with a clear vision for our future lessons.

- Allison Chan and Daisy Chen

Hangzhou 10

March 22, 2023

Today was our last links session, and it was a great one! We first started off by going to Jinlin to finish up preparing for our lesson. We made sure that we had all the materials prepared for all the students and the kindergarten. We also ran through our lesson plan a few times to make sure that it was good as we wanted our last lesson to be a really good lesson. We also checked up on the videos and the slides, tweaking it as needed. After fully preparing for our lesson, we took a break and headed in to the kindergarten.

When we went in, Mr. Pollock was there ready to greet us. As we entered the classroom, we were surprised by how well they behaved and we were very thankful that they already had their seating prepared and were waiting for us to start our class. We first started off by doing quick preparation of all the materials, and set them up on the different tables. After everything was set, we started our class. 

We first started off by doing a warm up dance. The children were very intrigued while doing the dance and everyone was very happy. Next, we moved on to the Under the sea video clip. We had some problems with setting that up as the TV was not showing the colors that were on the video. We decided to leave it and continue on with the lesson because if we tried to fix it the children might have lost their attention. After that, we read them a story that we created. This was a interactive slideshow for the kids to enjoy. We then separated them into groups for our group small group activity. We split up into 3 groups and each group taught for 7-10 minutes. We switched groups after the time so that each group of children could experience what we prepared. This was a very successful part of our lesson. Lastly, we did our “make your ocean” activity. Since everyone was happy with how the activity went last time, we decided to do it again. We worked in our small groups to make sure that we watched them and taught them how to make it with detail. This again was a huge hit. 

Before we left the kindergarten, we passed out candy and made sure to say thank you to the kindergarten and the people at Jinlin for helping us out. We are very thankful to all the staff at Jinlin for helping us through the year, Danny for bringing us every week and helping with the logistics, and lastly, Mr. Pollock for helping organise everything. We will miss Jinlin! ☀️

- Audrey Tan

March 15, 2023

Today was a very exciting links, as we got to teach the second lesson of our semester. We started off by arriving early and making sure that we had all the lesson materials prepared. We looked at the slides we prepared as well as practiced our lesson a few times. We had problems with our book reading as our puppet background kept falling, but we fixed that by making stands for each of the props. After everything was prepared, we did one last confirmation and decided to take a break. 

After our break, we waited for the children to arrive. We set up chairs, as well as the arts and crafts tables. There was a problem with the TV screen but after a while, we fixed that. We made sure that everything was set up then we started our lesson. 

We had about 15-20 students join us this time and it was very exciting to see repeat students from the lesson we had last semester, and the 1st lesson we had this semester. We made a very different teaching plan this time, putting a lot more time in our arts and crafts activity that we prepared a lot of. We first started off by a warm up dance activity and we let them calm down with a video about the sea. We then performed an english song to help them learn the english sea animals. Continuing, we performed a puppet show while one of our team members read a book. 

Lastly, we did our arts and crafts activity. We used the school budget to buy clay, popsicle sticks, and other materials to help with our activity. We taught them how to use clay to make their own “ocean” on paper plates, and we prepared sea animal cutouts for them to color and stick on to their paper plates. Overall, it was a great success as all the children and their parents looked like they enjoyed the activity. We took a group photo and left. A very successful day!  

- Audrey Tan

March 1, 2023

Today was a nice visit to the Jinlin reading center. We had 2 people join us from the animal shelter as their visit got cancelled. We first started off by showing the teacher there our 2 lesson plans as we had to teach 2 lessons in a row. 

Next, we did a arts and crafts session as we needed a lot of props for our next lessons. The group was split into 2, with half the people making the props and half the people making the ocean themed background. This activity was very fun as we got to interact with our group and have fun together. 

The most memorable part of today was getting to learn how to use different arts and  crafts material to make our puppets and background. We learnt how to use sticky clay and paper plates to make sea backgrounds. 

Overall it was an amazing day at Jinlin and we all had a lot of fun! 

- Audrey Tan

February 22, 2023

Today was our second session in the second semester and it was amazing! We first started off by having a small meeting before leaving, making sure that everyone had everything for the lesson that we had planned. 

Once we got to the center, we showed the teacher there our plans for the day and started working on getting everything together for the lesson. We first prepared cut outs for the children to stick their colored animals on, then we prepared the slides and the dance videos. As we had a bit of spare time, we decided to learn the dance and try to memorise it as it would be best if we danced with them without looking at the screen. After a few tries we finally achieved to do the dance without looking at the screen. It was a very fun experience. 

After everything was prepared and we were ready for the students to come in, we had a 10 minute break to make sure that everyone was energised for the lesson. 

When our lesson started, we were very happy to see that there were some kids that came back from our session last year. We met some new kids during our lesson and we were all very happy that we got to interact with the kids. Our lesson was rainforest themed, we started off teaching them a dance, and moved on to singing with them. After that, we read a book to them and taught them a few english words, we recited the english words a few times to make sure that they would remember the words. Following the reading activity, we created an activity where the students would make sounds using their body and to guess what the sound is. This was a very good activity and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Lastly, we did a coloring activity with the children and we were very happy to see all the children participating. It was a very good teaching session for all of us, and we left the center with no regrets!

- Audrey Tan

February 15, 2023

Today was our first Links session of 2023! It was very exciting for us as we finally got to go back to Jinlin and hangout there. We all thought that taking the metro there would be challenging for us as we have never taken it before, but to our surprise, it was quite easy to get there. 

When we first arrived, we made sure to go through all the material we had prepared and to check it with the teachers there to make sure that everything we had was appropriate for the lesson plan that we prepared. We prepared many different activities for the kids, such as a 3D animal colouring activity, an imagining activity, a book reading session, and lastly a game that we learned from drama class. Overall we had a great time preparing everything as a group.

We then showcased our full teaching plan to the teacher and Danny. There were a lot of changes we had to make along the way, such as making sure that we had the right energy to teach each activity, as well as making sure some of our activities were planned in the correct order. It was a good learning experience for us on how we can make our teaching better and more interesting for the kids. 

Lastly, we planned out what we were going to do for the next few lessons and picked out the books for those lessons. We also made sure to talk about any ideas we had as well as any questions we had. We took the mtr home and that was the end of our day at Jinlin. We are very satisfied with the result of today and are very much looking forward to the next visit. 

- Audrey Tan

December 7, 2022

Today was our very last visit to Jinlin this year. We are all very thankful as we learnt so much with the teachers there. A few great accomplishments we achieved this year include the teaching plan we did for the 3-5 year old kids, the posters we made for the reading center, as well as organizing the different books at the reading center. 

During the visit today, we managed to propose our plan to the reading center and it got approved! This year, we had a lot of challenges regarding how time was spent at the center. An example of that would be the 2-3 weeks we spent making our teaching plan for the kids. Therefore, we made a plan to fix that. The plan for next year would be to have 1 planning session and 2 teaching sessions per month. Also, there is a possibility that we will be able to go to schools in Hangzhou to teach next year depending on the COVID situation. 

We next decided to watch a movie since we were done with everything at the center, the movie was very emotional and everyone enjoyed it. Lastly, thank you to Jinlin for giving us this amazing experience at the center and more importantly, Mr. Pollock for guiding us and giving us this opportunity! 

- Audrey Tan
193_1670391806.mp4

November 23, 2022

For today’s session, we first held a meeting in the links room to talk about our plan today. As we suddenly had an extra 10 kids joining and having to extend our class time by 30 minutes, we had a lot of things to talk about. We made a final plan talking about the things we would do to extend the time at the center and what finalizing things we had to do. 

We had our first class with the children today, and it was a very fun experience. They were around age 3-5 and were very proactive and excited to be at the center. At first, we were all a bit lost, but as we continued with the lesson plan, everything got a lot better since we got to understand each kid more. We did a lot of activities with the kids, some of the activities were arts and crafts, dancing, singing, reading, and musical chairs. The activities were all very fun as we got to know the kids better. It was interesting to see how different kids with different personalities acted in the class. Some of the children were eager to answer the questions with confidence, and some were very shy and needed parental guidance. 

After the session, we all felt very proud of what we had achieved throughout the 2 weeks of planning and practicing. It felt like all of our efforts had paid off as we went through the whole teaching plan without much difficulty. 

- Audrey Tan
a wechat post from a happy parent 😁

November 16, 2022

Today was a very excellent and productive session. We went through our whole teaching plan a few times and made sure that everything was prepared for next week. 

Prior to arriving, we had a meeting to discuss the different things we would do in the center. This helped us use our time more efficiently and to get everything done on time. We also talked about the poster we had to make at the center, which was an advertisement for our teaching session. 

We started right away after we got to the center. We had another meeting to finalize our teaching plan and slowly moved on to practicing the teaching plan. Our CM and our teacher were there to help us improve our teaching plan and to make sure that we were doing the correct activities to keep the kids focused. After finalizing our plan, we moved on to performing our lesson plan, making changes along the way. We practiced a few more times after finalizing our plan and left it there.

- Audrey Tan
Jinlin's advertisement about our activity!

November 9, 2022

Today we all had an amazing time at Jinlin Reading center. Before going to the center, we had a 30 minute meeting to discuss the problems we were facing, solutions, and what we were going to do today. I think that the meeting definitely helped us with our visit today, as we were able to use our time effectively there. 

We first started off by having a meeting about what we were going to do on the day when the kids came, talking about the different activities we could do and how we could do them. We thought of doing different activities with the story “brown bear brown bear, what do you see?” A few examples of the activities we thought of were doing different acting activities with the children, as well as finding different colors. We then timed how long the activity would take, and we found out that it would take us half the time - 15 minutes.

We next planned our second activity since we knew that we had 15 minutes left with the kids. We planned out an arts and crafts session, where they would color out the animal templates that we made for them. Half of the people were in charge of making the templates, and half of the people were in charge of making the headbands. It was a very fun activity as we all got to bond during this experience.

Lastly, we got to create our own headbands as we would also participate in the activity with the kids. Looking forward to presenting our final idea next week and meeting the kids the week after! 

- Audrey Tan

October 26, 2022

Today was a very fun and enjoyable visit to the JinLin Reading foundation.  We had a lot of fun doing different activities, which included making a video introducing our favorite book, and planning for our next few visits. 

When we first arrived at the center, as always, we got to enjoy time playing chess against others. Next, we had to make a video introducing our favorite book. There were many types of books that were introduced, these included english books, Chinese books, and much more. It was interesting to be able to see what book each person brought and what they shared about their book. There were also a few people that were in charge of filming. Furthermore, we decided to film it in different places in the reading center, making the videos more interesting to watch. 

We then got to have a meeting about what we would do in the further visits. We were planning for a children’s visit, as we knew that we would read for children in the next few visits. We thought about reading picture books to the children and doing different activities with the children. A few activities that we thought of included making face masks for the children, acting out the animal, and playing the piano with theme. We all contributed to these ideas and we had a lot of fun coming up with these ideas! Looking forward to the next visit!

- Audrey Tan

October 19, 2022

Today was our second visit to the JinLin reading foundation. This visit was very meaningful as we got to experience the different jobs being a librarian, doing different rotations and more. We also got to make a video at the end talking about our first experience being a librarian! 

We first got an introductions on the different jobs we could do during the day. These included scanning books into the system, sorting out books, putting barcodes on the books, and lastly laminating the barcodes. 

Once the introduction was over, we started trying out the different job. There were people sorting out books, and some people learning how to use the system. There were 2 assistants that taught us how to do the jobs with detail, one of them were supervising the area and the other guiding us. We all found their help extremely useful.  Next, we all got together as a group and put barcode labels on the books. Half the people were in charge of sticking on the labels and the rest were in charge of passing out the labels. During this activity, everyone showed a lot of cooperation and it was a great collaborative activity for everyone to do. After everything was stuck on, there were 2 people that laminated the barcodes, making them last longer. Lastly, we made videos explaining our thoughts during the rotations today, what we learned, our feelings, and more! 

Overall, this was a great interactive experience for everyone and it was visible that everyone enjoyed the day. Looking forward to the next visit!

- Audrey Tan

October 12, 2022

Today was our first visit to the Jinlin Reading Foundation. We were greeted by amazing and friendly staff that gave us a tour of the reading foundation. We got to observe the vast selection of books they had for kids in different age groups. 

We first got to introduce ourselves, talking about our hobbies, talents, and most importantly what we think we could do for the Jinlin reading foundation. A few ideas that were said included teaching English, debate and more. We then had lunch and moved on to the next activity. We designed posters for the reading corner (阅读区） at the reading foundation, taking inspiration from the posters from HZ9. I think we all demonstrated our creative sides during this process. 

Overall, this was a great introductory visit and it seemed like all of us had a lot of fun today. We all look forward to next weeks visit!

- Audrey Tan

Hangzhou 9

May 6, 2022

Today was Links Carnival Day! 


We started by setting out the second-hand sale on the Greentown Secondary Field. There was some difficulty packing all the donations into bags, then transporting them from the empty dorm on the fourth floor to the ground floor, especially given how many people were absent with other activities. However, despite the limited manpower we had, we soon figured out an elevator system that made for a much more efficient process. These bags were then loaded onto a truck and moved to the Field. We then took out the items from their bags and laid them out over tables and mats according to category eg. clothing, daily equipment etc. Apart from the second-hand sale, we also had a mini bake sale supported by Irma Sung to raise even more funds for JinLin. Lance also gave us a box with change (since Greentown students couldn't bring around their phones and only had cash), as well as WeChat and Alipay QR codes for payment from CIS students, teachers and staff. We also laid out the JinLin Reading Foundation banner next to our sale. 


Our stall was extremely popular during the start of the Carnival and many Greentown and CIS students were interested in purchasing items. However, towards the middle, most CIS students deviated to other Carnival activities and our stall lost attention. A major difficulty we had was deciding between prices, and overall the organisation of the sale could have been better if we ordered things out more clearly and had given our layout more prior thought. It was also a scorching hot day right beneath the blazing sun, so all of us felt quite tired and lacked energy. Nevertheless, we tried our best to strike deals with consumers, and many were willing to purchase items for a better cause. Towards the end, we decreased the prices even more and even gave away some items for free, to the delight of many Greentown students. Not only were we able to raise around 3000RMB, but this was also a great opportunity to interact with Greentown students and we ended up with many new friends. 


We tidied up by packing everything into bags again and moved them back to the residential building lobby. During this, we realised that we actually had many leftover items and that most of our buyers were Greentown students, most likely because CIS students were too busy participating in other activities. Thus to make full use of these donations, we hosted another second-hand sale within CIS only in the residential building lobby. This gave many students and teachers another chance to look over all the items, and we were able to raise another thousand or so for a grand total of more than 4000RMB. 


Even after this, we still had some items left over, which we donated to another charity to maximise the benefits from all of our contributions. Again a big thank you to everyone who helped out with our second-hand sale, we would definitely consider this a success!


Reflecting on our journey with JinLin, we're really glad to have made an impact and we're very thankful for this rewarding experience. The only regret we have was not being able to interact with the children through direct service, and we really hope next year's HZ10 can have the opportunity to do so!

- Tingting Zhang

April 27, 2022

Due to Covid measures, we were unable to continue visiting in person after the last session. However, JinLin provided us with ways to help indirectly through fundraising. In light of the coming Links Carnival hosted in collaboration between Links Leaders, we decided to take this opportunity and host a second-hand sale. Hence we started by collecting donations in the weeks before the carnival. To take advantage of the many excess items students will probably dispose of as we pack to leave Hangzhou, we placed a large box in the main lobby of the residential building for donations to a good cause. Students, teachers and staff all contributed by donating clothing, stationery, books, accessories, bags etc., and we had to empty the box multiple times in an empty dorm used as a storage room. To prepare for the upcoming second-hand sale during the Carnival, we also split ourselves into groups and came up with a rotation plan to decide which would be on duty at which time interval to look over the stall. 


Overall the donations we received were great and included a wide variety, however we did see some slightly questionable donations when we were sorting through the items (such as empty unused water bottles, which we donated to the science lab). Thank you to all students, teachers and staff for your contributions, we truly appreciate your support!


- Tingting Zhang

March 9, 2022

We started the morning session by learning how to add new books into the library. We split the newly arrived books into different categories, then stuck assigned colour-coded stickers onto the book’s spine. Then we scanned the ISBN code and logged in all necessary information into the library website for all of the books. After lunch, we continued by printing out each book’s unique number code, then stuck these onto the spine along with a protective layer of adhesive before stacking them in the corresponding areas on library shelves. Afterwards, we picked up the activity from last week and continued folding “spring” themed origami decorations for next week to use. We also went through other decorative materials previously added on Taobao with the organisers to double check that they were necessary. There were more participants joining us this session so it was sometimes difficult to keep everyone occupied and focused, but we had a really relaxing and enjoyable time helping out at the library. Finally, we ended by recording a video of us saying Jinlin’s slogan: 因爱而读，以读献爱，人人阅读，人人受益！

- Tingting Zhang

Hangzhou 8

May 26, 2021

Returning a week after our first visit to the nursery school, we were pleased to find that the kids still remembered us and were eager for us to begin our activities. We started off with musical chairs, while they really enjoyed our students playing the piano, they didn’t seem to be able to understand the game. Facing this challenge, we moved on to the next activity. Having spent hours creating a story and preparing slides, we told them the story of a polar bear facing the loss of its habitat due to global warming. Attached to the story was a game where the kids had to stand on newspapers that were gradually taken away, leading most of them to “drown”. This turned out to be a great success; the children generally sympathized with the polar bear and understood most of the fundamental concepts we taught (e.g. factories cause pollution and warming). With this success, we improvised and asked them for ways to be environmentally friendly. They gave a long list of methods which we added on to, overall this activity was very successful. After lunch and their midday nap was a simple chemistry experiment we performed in front of the kids that captivated them. After a fun and meaningful day working with the nursery, we returned content to school. Again, huge thanks to Manager Pan from JinLin reading foundation, as well as this nursery. We hope that over our two visits to the nursery, we were able to provide a valuable nursery experience and make a small meaningful impact in their lives, whether it is introducing them to chemistry or promoting sustainability. 

- Justin Ku
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May 19, 2021

Today we went to a nursery school for the first time. Upon arrival we were shocked to discover that instead of the ten students per class that we had anticipated, there were more than thirty in each class. We decided that we would have to split the resources between the two classes, and since we had more time to teach than expected as well, we swapped teaching materials at lunch. During lunch we frantically purchased more gifts and items for the children. 

It was a very rewarding experience teaching and interacting with nursery children. Some activities that we led included singing nursery rhymes like London Bridge is Falling Down, reading books like Papa, I Want the Moon, dancing 最炫民族風, and attempting to teach the cup song. While we had many challenges with controlling the children and making them listen, we were very popular. The priceless memories we collected today will be treasured: being swarmed as we handed out erasers as gifts, a cacophony of thirty cups crashing, screaming children passing under the “London Bridge” two of us linked arms to create, etc. It was a tiring yet fun day, and a chance for much needed relief from the stress and pressure of academics. We’re immensely grateful to Manager Pan from JinLin for connecting us with this nursery, as well as to the nursery for granting us such a fruitful experience. 

- Justin Ku
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April 21, 2021

While due to the pandemic, we very unfortunately did not come in face-to-face contact with people we could help directly, we still played a meaningful role in giving back to the Hangzhou community that we have settled so comfortably into. 

The Jinlin Reading Foundation is located in the well-developed area of Jianqiao, a few kilometers from the Hangzhou city center. JinLin Reading Foundation noticed previous HZCIS students’ incredible talent with the visual arts and invited us to go and paint drawings on some bags to raise awareness regarding the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine. 

Upon arrival, we were guided around the office and learned about the rich history and vibrant culture of Jianqiao. Learning about the location’s fabulous facilities, we realized that while there was a huge variety of Chinese books, there weren’t many simple games for younger children, nor was there a varied collection of English books. And if the situation allows and we do get to meet the children in person, we planned many fruitful yet fun activities we could lead with them, ranging from reading English story books to running simple science experiments to demonstrate issues such as global warming. 

We had a very fruitful experience painting and decorating bags, in the process learning deeply about the surprising high effectiveness of Chinese medicine. We hope to return to the location with improvements, or if possible activities with the children, to spread more joy around the community. 


- Justin Ku
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Hangzhou 7

October 29, 2019

Firstly, we greeted the students and we told them that we were going to sing a song for them. We asked them if they knew how to sing twinkle twinkle little star and they did know how in Chinese. So we started to teach them the English lyrics. At first, we were talking a bit too quickly so we started teaching them the lyrics word by word, so it would be easier for them to understand and follow. 

We then told them to try singing the Chinese version so they got used to the rhythm. Shortly after, we sang the English version with them and they sang wonderfully. 

Secondly, we moved on and taught them how to pronounce words more accurately without any rhythm so that they can read these words out in real conversations as our main purpose is to improve their English. We also compared the Chinese and English versions of the song and presented the differences between them. 

Thirdly, we taught them what each word in the song meant. For example “diamond, twinkle, and star etc.” We taught them what they meant in Chinese, how they contrast, and how they can be used. We showed them a picture of each word and we taught them how to pronounce it in addition to teaching them the Chinese meaning. 

After teaching them the pronunciation and the meanings of the individual words, we started to teach them the meanings of whole sentences in the song. Lastly, we sang the English and Chinese versions of the song together. 

首先,我们向学生打招呼,并告诉他们我们要为他们唱歌。我们问他们会不会唱小星星,但他们 确实会用中文唱歌。因此,我们开始教他们英语歌词。在第一时间,我们讲得太快了,所以我们 开始逐字地教他们歌词,这样对他们来说更容易理解和遵守。 

然后,我们告诉他们尝试唱歌的中文版本,刹车他们习惯节奏。不久之后,我们和他们一起演唱 了英语版本,他们演唱得很棒。 

实际上,我们继续前进,并教他们如何更准确地适当而不需任何节奏,刹车他们可以在真实的对 话中朗读这些词,因为我们的主要目的是提高他们的英语水平。中文和英文版本,并介绍了两者 之间的差异。 

例如“钻石,闪烁和星星等”。我们教了他们汉语的意思,它们如何形成对比以及如何使用。我们 给他们看了每个单词的图片,除教他们中文含义外,还教他们如何合适。 

在教了他们单词的最佳和含义后,我们开始教他们整首歌中句子的含义。 

最后,我们一起演唱了这首歌的英文和中文版本。 

~Aden Chu

September 17, 2019

Last Tuesday the JinLin Foundation community service team went to visit a nearby school supported by the Jinlin foundation. We were excited and nervous visiting the school for the first time but we all did our best to put on a positive and excited attitude to make a good impression on the Jin Lin Foundation manager. We went to the kids classrooms there were two classes of 5 year old kindergarteners, they were very happy to see us and they were very friendly, although they did make fun of us in Chinese ( a little bit ) when they thought we were not listening. We introduced ourselves and engaged in some basic conversation to get to know the kids. We then went back to the foundation building and the manager discussed what she wanted from us and we began planning our english and science projects to teach the kids at our next trip. 

~Beatrice Furniss