Third graders are studying about volcanoes. They have been learning vocabulary about them, reading stories, and even making their own paper-mache volcanoes. On Thursday, we had a little quiz about volcanoes that they did in groups. We made it into a fun race/game. Each question was multiple choice and had one silly answer along with the right answer and a false answer. One of the questions was, "What is magma called when it erupts out of the volcano?" The answer is lava. But, when we were reading them over and seeing who had the right answer, I said the was A) Joseph. One group of students, instead of laughing at how silly I was, just looked at their papers again. Then one little boy turned to his partner and said, "I told you we should have picked Joseph." Whoops! So, easy to forget that humor is so much harder in a foreign language.
First graders are learning their first clothing words: t-shirt, trousers, skirt, jumper, shoes and socks. They are also learning the prepositions of place: in, on and under. So, I asked a volunteer to come to the front and said, "I need your shoe." Then I placed the shoe on the chair, under the chair and in the box, and we practiced saying, "Ema's shoe is on the chair." With the next volunteer I asked for their jumper (jacket) and repeated the same thing. Then, I asked the next boy for his t-shirt. His eyes got really big and he shook his head while clamping his arms close to his sides. I then pulled out a huge t-shirt and said, "Adam, is this your t-shirt?" To which we all laughed, before continuing putting the t-shirt under the chair. Last I called up Sara, and said, "Sara, I need your trousers." Without a moments hesitation, she started to unbutton her trousers! Whoops again, as I pulled out the pair of trousers I had ready for our little game and stopped her from going any farther. Oh, kids!
