Do you want to see a chicken cup that worth 36 million dollars? Come to ROM and take a closer look at the expensive porcelain cup that has a chicken on it and as well as some other artifacts that came from the original Forbidden City.

“The Forbidden City is the imperial palace in Beijing, China. For a long time, it was forbidden to everyone. So it is one of the most mysterious places in the world,” said Courtney Murfin, the interpretative planner for the exhibition. Murfin comes up the story line of the exhibition and translates the curators’ and researchers’ complicated language to something easily understandable.

The exhibition started March 8 and will end on September 1st, 2014. So this might be your last chance to experience the fascinating history of the Forbidden City at ROM.

Luckily, on August 20th, the Voice K summer camp had the chance to look around and experience how it feels to be in the Forbidden City.

“The original Forbidden City in China is really big, so it was hard for us to recreate how big it is in our small exhibit hall,” said Murfin.

Most of the items are shipped from the actual Forbidden City in Beijing, China, but some artifacts are owned by ROM.

As we entered the exhibition, we saw a big screen to our left and the entrance to more artifacts to our right. The first thing that caught our eyes was the palace room display, which includes the Imperial Throne set. It was made with wood and jade. The throne was a symbol of the ruler’s imperials power. The area where we first entered was the outer court. The colours were mostly yellow and red. The last artifacts in the outer court are the ceremonial bells.  Then we entered the inner court where the colours were mostly blue and our surroundings felt homey. The inner court was for the imperial family and their eunuchs to live in.

At the end of the journey, we hit gold – the gift shop! We discovered so many awesome toys and utensils related to Chinese history. There were stuff panda animals, Chinese flutes, porcelain chopsticks, Chinese ponytail hats, ancient Chinese books, and even a glow-in-the-dark Mahjong rubik’s cube. Some of us bought the flute and some of us bought the chopsticks set.

The journey might have been exhausting, but at the same time we gained a lot of knowledge. It was definitely worth the trip. 

Photo credit: ROM

ROM is an educational place for everyone, even if you can’t see. There is an area in the exhibition for people to touch the replica of the artifacts and read in Braille. 


The instructions and maps are in both English and French. They are also raised for for people to touch. 



The ROM tries to keep their hallways wide and easily accessible for people in wheelchairs too. 

Article is written by: 

Sunni Zhou
Hello, I am 12 years old and go to Tomken Road Middle School. I really like singing, dancing, cooking, travelling, and everything related to art. A very special thing about me is that I am a journalist and I do lots of thinking, writing, exploring new places, meeting new people, and learning new things. If you love having fun, exploring, writing, and learning, come to Voice K! I wish I could say more wonderful things about myself and Voice K but I really need to go. BYE! 

David Kang
Hello! I'm 12 years old. I will be going to grade 7 in the fall. I love playing chess and games that involves strategy. My dream is to become the CEO of the worlds' most influential corporation. I hope you enjoy this article. 

Ryan Zhou
Hi, I am 9 years old. I am going to grade 4 in September. I like to play video games, travel and eat. When I grow up, I want to be a doctor.  

Jasmine Ding
Hi, I am 7 and half and I am going to grade 2. I am the smallest in the camp, so it is very difficult for me. But my good friend and amazing teacher is so good to me. My favourite animal is cheetah. My favourite food is pizza! That's all for now. 

The RBC Markham-Milliken Children’s Festival
By: Sunni Zhou


  On Saturday, September 7th, 2013, there was an event at the Markham Civic Centre called the RBC Markham-Milliken Children’s Festival. It was an outdoor learning and playing event for kids. It was great and fun, except for the fact that it was raining, so not very many people showed up.

  There were a lot of cool zones such as the art zone, the building zone, the game zone, the garden zone, the imagination market, and many more. Each one of them had different activities we could participate in and different crafts we could make. For example, at the art zone, kids could draw, colour, trace, and paint the picture of their dreams.

  At the building zone, kids could build anything they wanted with the right materials and tools. I saw a little boy build a huge building with windows. It was very impressive.  

At the garden zone, you first get a small pot, and then you fill it with dirt. Afterwards, you poke a hole in the middle and finally, you drop a seed inside. I planted my own bean plant that will one day hopefully grow into a big, well grown, strong, and bean-providing plant.

   There were also some rides and a petting zoo that was set up, and we had to pay ten dollars to get in. Unfortunately, it started pouring rain, as if some girl had just lost her favourite job and had started watering her plants in the garden with her tears. So, the bigger activities were removed except for the petting zoo.

The petting zoo was totally awesome! There were lots of goats, a herd of llamas, two zebras, two monkeys, a tortoise, and some pigs. I fed the llamas and goats. The food was one dollar per cup and from that one experience of feeding animals, I learned two very valuable lessons within ten minutes. One, never hold a full cup of food and give it to one animal. It will not only eat all the food, the other animals will try to steal it as well, and that isn’t a very pretty situation. Two, never hold the food between your fingers and feed it to them because they don’t have very good eyesight when it comes to eating and they don’t think about anything else except biting at that period of time. Watch your fingers!

  My favourite zone was the button making zone because we learned how to make our own designed buttons. We first took a piece of round paper and drew any kind of design we wanted. I wrote my name and drew a cute little rabbit face on mine. Then, we put it on a button inside a machine. The instructor would twist the machine and the button would come out at the other end of it. .

  My experience at the Children’s Festival was wonderful because I had never planted my own little plant or made my own button before, but the most amazing thing was seeing how the monkeys were fed. I would love to go again and I hope next time it won’t be raining.

By William Yang & Sunni Zhou

• Skating/skating performances/Le Patin Libre at 12:30 pm and 3:00 pm.
• Snow castle building at 11:00 am-5:00 pm.
• Street Dance Canada Competitions at 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm.
• Vibrating toothbrush painting at 11:00 am-5:00 pm.
• Gelatin art engraving (they called it magical painting) at 11:00 am-5:00 pm.
• Lego playing and building at 11:00 am-5:00 pm. There is also a feature LEGO® building class by the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Toronto’s Master Model Builder!
• Museums: A showcase of work created by some of the youngest – and most talented artists around.

There were many more free activities available all day long. The one that I paid most attention to was the street dancing.

The Canadian Street Dance Championships (CSDC) is an annual competition that qualifies dancers to compete at the world street dance championships. It features categories for kids, youth and adults in solo, duo, crew, as well as battle competitions in hip hop, popping, locking, break-in’, crump and house. There were many professional dancers that practiced before the competition, but there were also many audience members who volunteered to show their wacky and cool moves. During the performance, there was a DJ, who was playing awesome tunes and pop music to match the style of dance the dancers were doing. In the middle of the dance, the MC asked, “Are there any children in the audience who want to show their break dancing moves?” After that little speech, everyone started calling each other’s names, but only two little kids went up. One of them was a girl that looked about 7-9 years old and the other one looked like he was around 3-5 years old. After that, the MC called all the adults to come up. The winner got one free ticket to the national street dance competition.

At around 4:00 p.m. we went to watch a show called RhymeTimez. At the show there was a really crazy man
who kept on dancing with flashing lights everywhere in the background. The show was about random characters having rap battles. The first round was a cat vs. a dog. In the end the dog won the match because the cat barely ever rhymed. The second round was Sunny Sunshine against Old Man Winter. This battle was the weirdest because Old Man Winter looks like a huge hairball and he thinks he is a little kid. Old Man Winter totally owned Sunny Sunshine. The last fight was the turtle vs. the hare.This round was really close but the turtle won.

“My favourite battle at RhymeTimez was the turtle vs. the hare. I voted for the turtle because I love Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle,” said a young boy named Josh, who claimed to have gone to every single event at the Harbourfront Centre.

By: Sunni Zhou and Vivian Wang

Seussical, a musical for children aged six to 12, premiered on Thu, Nov. 10, 2011, at the Young People’s Theatre in Toronto. It was a huge success.

The main characters are the Cat in the Hat, played by Damien Atkins; Horton, played by George Masswohl;
and Jojo, played by Jennifer Villaverde.

All of the actors performed beautifully in the musical. It was fun entertainment, especially with the words all rhyming. Not one mistake was seen during the show. One very funny moment is when Gertrude, a lone bird played by Jane Johonson can’t even walk because of how long her tail was! Gertrude is a quiet bird. She can’t fit in with anyone and she’s Horton’s neighbor. She has a crush on Horton and a little one feathered tail. When  Gertrude finds out how her tail can get more beautiful, she jumps for the chance. Trying to impress Horton,
Gertrude’s tail grows too big and too heavy. She has to drag it and that makes her very slow. That is why she  cannot  save Horton when the hunters trap him. She tries to fly to save him, but her tail is in the way.

The story is a mixture of all of Dr. Seuss’s stories. It is about how Horton protects the Whos and how he loses them. Horton is captured by  hunters while he has to babysit Mayzie’s egg, which distracted him from finding
the Whos. Mayzie, played by Sharron Mathews, goes on vacation. The hunters sell Horton to the circus. Mayzie sees him but makes no attempt to save him. It was Gertrude who saves him and finds the Whos. She plucks her tail to only one feather so she could fly again.

Mayzie’s egg hatches and it is an elephant with wings! Gertrude and Horton decide to raise it together as a family.

Other characters in the cast are Sour Kangaroo, played by Nichola Lawrence, three monkeys played by Desmond Osborne, David Lopez and Dale Miller and two other birds played by Natasha O’Brien and Bethany Kovarik.

“I would recommend this show, two thumbs up!” says Robert Gontier, an adult who watched the musical. He really liked it. The director of this musical, Allen Maccinis enjoyed the hard work of the performers and he was proud  that the show was a success.

Maccinis wasn’t sure if the show would be a big hit. He traveled to New York to see an earlier version of it. He decided to buy the script and changed it up a little before he allowed it to be shown in Toronto.

Maggie Primeau and Asa Pattison, both four-years-old, were  very excited to watch the musical.They had been at the Young People’s Theatre last year to watch Frog and Toad, which they enjoyed.

Food
After the musical, there were cake and snacks to eat. The cake was in a rectangular shape with a picture of the Cat in the Hat on it. The other snacks were cucumbers, sweet peppers, crakers, cheese, and carrots dipped in salad sauce, and there were also nachos dipped in fresh salsa. 
In both lobbies, the rooms were filled with people enjoying the snacks and lining up for cake that the staff provided. 
Other than the delicious snacks, there was also a juice stand. There were mango, orange andapple juice for everybody to drink.

By: Sunni Zhou

A petting zoo is a place where a lot of farm animals are together and kids can pet and feed them. You can also see how they drink water, which is different from how people drink water. Just imagine drinking from a bowl and having to stick out your tongue and lick a tiny portion every time.

The petting zoo at the Royal Agricultural Fair was so awesome from a kids’ perspective. There are goat, sheep, cows, and rabbits. Although they smell a bit, you can still have fun with them.

The administrator who was in charge of the petting zoo said that he had been there for 12 years already and 
he would love to stay there longer . He told us that kids couldn’t touch the rabbits, because for most people that are allergic to animals, the first animal they are allergic to is rabbits. I wished I could have touched the rabbits, because they looked so cute.

The animals all seemed pretty selfish. Every time we fed one animal the others started to push away his or her 
own type. If they can, they will swallow all the food in your hand. I guess that’s the nature of all animals?

If you are wondering if there are any good shows at the Royal Agriculture Winter Fair, you do not want to
miss the Super Dog Show (sponsored by Presidents Choice). In the dog show, we saw a few competitions where one side of the audience competed against the other side. There were dogs coming out at the first period. Then they started the competition. The dogs raced against each other. The fastest got a point for their
team. Roughly there were 7 rounds of competitions at the show. They also educated us on how to keep dogs healthy and to prevent them from being injured. They told us the right food to buy, to do an annual check with a veterinarian and to get vaccine shots as required. 


Outside of the show, vendors sold various good, including frisbees, stuffed dogs, dog related games, and more!

By: Michelle Zeng and Sunni Zhou

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) presents “Get Animated” to give kids the chance to learn how to animate. “Get Animated” was really popular. Over 30 kids attended the programon October 30, 2011.

The program invited guest speaker, Co Hoedeman, known for his Oscar award winning film the “Sandcastle”. He was there to demonstrate his animation techniques and also to teach kids how to animate.

The kids made their own animated videos. Hoedeman divided 30 kids into groups. Each group made one animated video and the characters to go along with it. The characters for the videos had to be made in a special way in order for the video to be more interesting. For example, to make a person, the artist would have
to draw a head, cut it out, draw the face, cut it out, and then do the same for the rest of the body. The animated characters were made like this so each body part can move and make facial expressions.

One second in an animated film will need 24 pictures. Since there was only an hour for the kids to create the characters and the videos, all the videos were fairly short.

Despite all the work involving creating animations, Hoedeman said, “Creating animations is simple.”

Perhaps that’s why so many people attended “Get Animated.”

Voice K had a chance to sit down with Hoedeman:

Voice K: Is it hard to make animated videos?
Hoedeman: No, actually it is very simple.
Voice K: Roughly how many videos have you made so far?
Hoedeman: So far, I have made 23 films. They are all animated films. All of my videos are for children.
Voice K: How do you get ideas for your videos?
Hoedeman: All the videos I have made are based on what I have seen and experienced.
Voice K: Which video of yours got an award?
Hoedeman: Many of the videos I made have gotten an award. One of my videos, “The Sandcastle,” received an Oscar Award in 1978, which was a long time ago.
Voice K:  What materials did you use to make your videos?
Hoedeman: I didn’t always use paper. For “The Sandcastle”, I used puppets made of sand.
Voice K: What was your favourite part of today?
Hoedeman: My favourite part of today was helping the children to get ideas. I really like how the children made the artwork.

Hoedeman was not the only person who was enthusiastic about “Get Animated!” Many other people gave “Get Animated” a thumb up. One participant, Kyle said, “It was very good.” Others agreed, including Glenda and her daughter, who said that “‘Get Animated’ was great! In fact, we had been to NFB art programs over 10 times,
we would love to come again.”
Later, Voice K had a chance to interview Jessie Curell, who works for NFB to organize
the program. “I was inspired by Mr. Hoedeman because it’s a rare opportunity
to work with him and learn from him,” said Jessie when asked what inspired him to
organize the event.
We really enjoyed the program, so why don’t you “Get Animated”?For more information about this program, visit www.nfb.ca/getanimated.