Over this period of time, we’ve noticed that everyone has been quietly changing in their own way.
Children’s hearts are soft and tender.
When all these soft little hearts come together, the classroom gradually grows into something truly different.
The World of the Blobs
The World of the Blob — Which One Are You?
A row of round-headed Blobs appeared on the screen. Some were holding hands with friends, some stood alone in the corner, and others were carrying strange objects. The children instantly lit up, eagerly pointing at the screen and calling out: “That’s me! That one is him!” “I’m the one holding a grenade — I’m going to throw it to everyone!” one girl loudly announced, immediately sending the whole room into laughter.
The task for the lesson was to create a storybook and write their own stories. One child wrote a playful story that sounded almost like a rapid-fire comedy routine, words tumbling out nonstop and making everyone laugh and pound the tables. Another child suddenly raised his hand halfway through writing and asked with complete seriousness: “Teacher, what should I do if my story gets too long?” The teacher bent down to look at his notebook and smiled. “Then keep writing.” she said, “Write until there’s no more room left.”
Standing in Someone Else’s Footsteps
In another classroom, the teacher brought out story cards about “Qiqi and Lele”. The two best friends had a falling-out over something small — first they stopped playing with each other; later, they couldn’t help missing each other and tried to make up by giving a small gift; finally, they even switched places to look at things from the other person’s perspective.
After hearing the story, the children burst into lively discussion. A girl said softly, “So if we stand in someone else’s place, we can understand why they did what they did.” Everyone nodded, as if they had suddenly understood each other’s inner thoughts.
Then the teacher invited them to share arguments they had had with their families.
One girl raised her hand. “I once argued with my mom. I thought the clothes she picked for me didn’t look good, so I got very angry. At that time, I felt I was right. But now, if I look from my mom’s perspective — maybe she thought the clothes were warm, or she didn’t have time to choose something else. I realize I was wrong.”
Another girl spoke slowly. “My grandma… I told her I needed to use the tablet to look something up, but she thought I was playing games. I felt like she didn’t trust me…” She paused. “But now I think about it, maybe she saw me using the tablet for a long time before, so she didn’t want me to use it again.”
The Ships of the Song Dynasty
“Now we’ve arrived in the Song Dynasty—” Before the teacher could finish, a child jumped in, “The Song Dynasty had ships! A lot of ships!”
Yes, this lesson was about trade and ships in the Song Dynasty. What was carried on board? The children quickly answered: goods, food, silk, porcelain. The teacher nodded, “That’s right. Today, we’re going to add something new to the ship!”
“Yay!” The classroom instantly exploded with excitement. Some children even stood up and shouted, “Go get the ship! Go get the ship!”
The teacher smiled and motioned for everyone to settle down. “Today, we’re going to build new ships.”
“Yaaaay—!” The cheer grew even louder than before.
They gathered around together, with paper, wooden boards, and glue spread across the table. Some were drawing designs, some were cutting materials, and others were assembling the parts. Arguments and laughter mixed together, bubbling through the room like a pot of boiling soup.
The Secret of Chili Peppers
“Which kind of chili pepper is spicier — the small ones or the big ones?”
The children instantly split into two teams. One side insisted the big peppers were spicier, while the other argued for the small ones. A boy confidently raised his hand and declared, “I’ve eaten them before! The white part in the middle is the spiciest!”
The teacher nodded and explained that the compound responsible for the heat in chili peppers is called capsaicin, and the hottest part really is the white membrane that holds the seeds.
Then the lesson shifted to how chili peppers made their way to China — first arriving as ornamental plants before eventually finding their place on dining tables. The teacher asked, “So before chili peppers came to China, did spicy flavors not exist at all?”
“No!” Another child replied eagerly, “We had other spicy things!”
“Black pepper!”
“Green pepper — oh wait, green pepper isn’t spicy…”
“Sichuan peppercorn!”
Voices filled the room as everyone called out answers at once. Smiling, the teacher offered a hint: “There’s another one. We still use it today to get rid of fishy smells.”
The classroom instantly buzzed with excitement again.
“Cooking wine!”
“Green pepper?”
“Banana—”
That last answer sent the whole class into laughter. Even the teacher couldn’t help laughing too.
Just as the laughter was beginning to settle, a little girl sat up straight. Calm and composed, with a quiet confidence in her eyes, she spoke softly:
“…Ginger?” A long chorus of “Oooohhh—” swept through the classroom as everyone suddenly understood.
One Small Step for the Universe
“Teacher, come look!” A boy tugged excitedly at the teacher’s sleeve, his voice bursting with pride. “This is the first animation I’ve ever made — a rocket flying into space!” On the screen, a tiny rocket slowly lifted off against a dark universe scattered with twinkling stars. It was only a few simple lines of code, but his eyes were shining brighter than the stars themselves.
“Teacher, teacher! Come look at mine too!” The boy beside him called out, waving eagerly, “Is my rocket too big? It’s so huge it could fit the whole Earth inside!” The teacher walked over and saw that his rocket really was enormous, taking up nearly half the screen. Tilting his head, the boy added with complete seriousness, “That’s because this rocket is really close to us — that’s why it looks so big.”
Nearby, another girl sat quietly debugging her own code. Her rocket kept getting stuck halfway through its journey. She frowned and murmured to herself, “Something feels off… I think I’m missing a line of code here.” She quickly adjusted one line, and suddenly the rocket soared straight into the starry sky. She let out a long breath. She didn‘t say a word, but the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth said everything.
What’s on the Line?
What’s on the Line?
“Online — line means a line. So what does online mean? What exactly is on the line?”
When the question appeared on the screen, the children looked completely puzzled. What could be on a line? Electrical wires? Spider webs? They tilted their heads and tossed out guesses, but no one sounded quite confident enough to call out an answer.
The teacher smiled and clicked to the next slide. It turned out that today they were going to order food online. “Ohhh — ordering food!” Suddenly everyone understood, and excitement rippled through the classroom.
Then came the vocabulary activity. Pictures of food flashed onto the screen one after another, and the classroom instantly turned into a whirlwind of guessing. Rice, salad, noodles — the moment each image appeared, a chorus of voices erupted: “Rice!” “Noodles!”
Some children were so determined not to miss the answer that they leaned so far forward they were practically lifting off their chairs. Before each new picture appeared, the teacher deliberately paused for two seconds, and a magical hush would fall over the room. Every child stared at the screen with wide eyes and slightly open mouths, like a flock of little birds waiting to be fed.
Then the next picture lit up, and joyful shouts burst through the silence once again.
A day at Stepping Stones is often like this.
Soft, tender hearts gathering together — sometimes colliding with laughter, sometimes with quiet moments, and sometimes with something adults could never have imagined at all.