Little Bunny Fufu

Happy (almost) Easter everyone! Hope you are all finding time to spend this holiday with loved ones and chocolate. If you don't have any of the former then eat double of the latter. Or you know what, just eat more chocolate no matter who you're spending the holiday with! I know that I've missed my coffee and desserts over this Lent. I'm definitely looking forward to having some caffeine back in my life especially now that my afternoons are so much longer. I wonder what I will be like after going this long without it? Maybe I should test it first so I don't scare any students...

This past Friday was our Easter celebration in Little America. I started the day with a quick presentation about the history of Easter. I did not dive too far into crucifixion or other more complex topics regarding Jesus' life. Keep in mind these are kindergarteners. While I know some of them go to church with their families, I instead decided to focus more on the bunnies, chicks, and egg hunts. While creating my presentation I stumbled upon an old Walt Disney cartoon from the 1930's showing bunnies preparing for the Easter holiday by making, decorating, and delivering eggs. It was very cute and the kids seemed to enjoy it! Especially when one bunny dipped his butt into a can of paint then bumped up against the eggs to make a heart shaped pattern. Butt humor prevails again.

The students then made some Easter baskets in the shapes of chickens. A bit odd, but cute in the end. The got two hard-boiled eggs to put inside their basket. What more could you want as a child when you get home from school than two hard-boiled eggs that had been sitting out all day during the celebration?

The day then moved on to the song contest and birthday party. We had a class singing about monsters, another about dinosaurs. I've heard that they've had a bit of a West Side Story thing going on while rehearsing their songs this month! The beginner class did Alice The Camel, which has the annoying habit of getting stuck in your head. For those of you who know the song I apologize...

Our song was short but the girls had fun doing it! We performed "My Girl" by the Temptations. I say "we" like I am up there with them. They were wonderful!

After the standard Gangnam Style dance party it was time for lunch and then an afternoon full of Easter-themed games such as egg-spoon races and pin the egg in the Easter Basket. Kaitie and I had the assignment to hide chocolate eggs throughout the classrooms while the students played games in the big room. The mass was then released to find their quota of 2 eggs. It was interesting to watch the students who are a bit more...energetic...find their eggs in about 0.6 seconds while others walked and took their time knowing eggs would be there somewhere.

 

One of my favorite games was a pseudo-Easter egg hunt for which Liz and I filled about half a giant bag of Easter eggs with candy and left the other half of the eggs empty. The bag is then poured out in the middle of the room and the kids have to fight to the death (kind of...) to get as many pieces of candy as they can. Again, I saw the quick thinking students start to shake the eggs before even opening them to see if there is any treasure inside. Others took their luck with every egg they picked up.

These celebration days are always entertaining and the kids have a lot of fun but by the end, the teachers need a nap! After shipping the kindergarteners off home it was time to start elementary classes. No rest for the weary.

I am really enjoying my new classes this term. I've kept some students and so I have seen them grow little by little over the short time I've been here. One of my classes is an older phonics class (only their second year of English). They are very energetic but are a lot of fun to teach! I get to play charades and pictionary for 45 minutes. Who doesn't love that? They also just enjoy talking even if we are doing the same dialogue over and over to practice. I'm looking forward to seeing them continue to grow this year.

For an Easter gift to my students I printed out pictures of them with Edward. Edward really made an impression on my students. They still talk about him and will continue to do so for weeks I'm sure. A few boys have gone home and talked to their mothers about him and how they want to meet him again. I told them they can go to my house whenever they want (warning Mum and Dad). I'm so glad Edward came in and could give them a chance to interact with a native English speaker closer to their age, because as I've been told on several occasions, I'm old.

Some very exciting news! Katrina, Kaitie and I have officially booked our summer vacation plans to the Philippines! I am so excited!! Looking at pictures of the sun, sand, and water makes it a bit harder to bundle up to go outside here. We will be flying into Manila and then a short flight to Boracay for the week of rest and relaxation! I hope to do a bit of touristy things there too.

As warmer weather approaches the number of weekend trips and excursion opportunities increases so that my calendar is filling up quite nicely! I have a bike trip through a cherry blossom festival and a sea parting (yes, Moses style) festival coming up in April. I'm sure more trips will sneak into the other weekends. Keep your eye out for more blog posts and pictures from those adventures!

xoxox

Korean phrase of the post: 커피주세  (cawpee-jusayo) "Please give me coffee!"