Poyang Lake Project Schools

This is Poyang Lake, the southern most site on the Siberian Crane flyway and also the largest lake in all of China.
Poyang Lake has three conservation centers to monitor cranes, Dacha Lake is one of these centers located in the nature reserve. Every winter the migratory birds come to this large lake. Every year before May the migratory birds return to the north to breed, therefore now in the spring it is very difficult to see Siberian Cranes at Poyang Lake. Once in a while a lucky few will be able to spot two egrets by the lake.
Poyang Lake has many different varieties of plants, because of the warm and wet climate rice paddies can produce plentiful crops up to three times in one year. In May everyone works in the fields to harvest the rice crop. One can hear the songs of birds in the forest, these birds are not migratory and do not make their home in the wetlands, rather they live in the forest in the shade of the trees.

We visited three schools near Dacha Lake: Changyi Central Elementary School, Changbei Elementary School and Caohui Elementary School.
The teacher, Ms. Tao Liuqing, taught classes at both Changyi Central Elementary School and Caohui Elementary School using a book entitled “A Siberian Crane named Xiao Yun.” Ms. Tao’s classes are very interested and her students are always excited to learn and participate in her activities. Ms. Tao showed her students pictures downloaded from the internet, all of the students were very excited to see these pictures and couldn’t help but get out of their seats to get a better look. Ms. Tao asked them many questions about the pictures and the students excitedly answered followed by enthusiastic applause from their classmates. Ms. Tao asked for input from a special visitor, the head of the Dacha Lake conservation center, who explained the difference between wetland birds with long beaks and short beaks and how this dictates their eating habits.

In the area of Changbei Elementary School the weather is extremely hot, and when not teaching class teachers return home to rest and escape the extreme heat. We arrived at Changbei Elementary without prior warning and asked Mr. Tao Maoyun to return to the school from his home. Because he is an experienced teacher he prepared for only a few minutes and taught an excellent class to his students. Mr. Tao taught the lesson entitled “Living in Poyang Lake” from the book “A Siberian Crane named Xiao Yun.” Mr. Tao used the poster we gave him to help his students understand what life in the wetlands is like for migratory birds, and he gave his students an exciting explanation of the lesson. When the rest of the school's classes were finished other students flocked to the lesson to learn about the migratory birds. Mr. Tao continued to teach, but we could barely hear him through all the excitement of the many students.

At all three schools we visited, the students were very excited to be learning about migratory birds and their habitats.They were also very happy to participate in our many activities, including taking pictures and drawing illustrations of the wetlands. We are looking forward to seeing the students' many pictures and drawings of Poyang Lake: their artwork will depict the beautiful water, wetland birds and plants that can be found in this special nature reserve.