雞爪

雞爪
Jī zhuǎ

This week I started tutoring a little girl...and she might be the cutest little girl in the world. A friend of mine who has been working with her while living in Taiwan, passed the job along to me when she moved back home.

Meet Iris:



Iris is three years old, and understands English like a native speaking 3 year old. She loves to color and do different activities...and just like any other three year old I know, she has a really hard time staying put doing one thing. So, it is really important that I switch things up every 10 minutes or so. The part I love the most about this new little side job is that Iris tries to teach me some Chinese, too. Yesterday, when I was over, she taught me how to say Chicken Feet. Although I don't think I will ever need to know how to say that, unless I say 我不要雞爪 (Wǒ bùyào jī zhuǎ or I don't want chicken feet), but I think it is cool to learn Chinese - regardless of what it is! Here is how it happened:

After I finish our lessons, Hannah, the housekeeper, fixes a nice dinner the three of us sit and eat it. Now, Hannah doesn't speak much English either, but we still try to have a conversation. So, we were eating this delicious soup that Hannah made. It was a light broth with ginger and chicken in it. First, I served myself some noodles (because...in Taiwan no meal is complete without noodles) and then I poured some of the chicken and broth in. I was eating it, and loving it! I was wondering why Iris kept saying something in Chinese over and over again. Then I realized she was pointing into the pot of broth. I grabbed the big ladle and scooped around trying to figure out what she was showing me. Then, when I scooped up a black chicken foot, she screamed and clapped her hands.

"Jī zhuǎ!!! Jī zhuǎ!!!"

My first thought: Wow, there is really a chicken's foot in there.
Then, I realized that Iris wanted me to repeat it, so I did. After a while, she was trying to get me to try it. But, I didn't.



Now, I am not saying I won't try it, but honestly I was full because I had eaten already. I will admit though, that I kind of want to try it because of the way Iris ate it. She sucked that thing off it's little feet bones so fast and so intently. It was like that little chicken foot was the only thing that mattered once it was in front of her. There were only two of them in the soup, and after Iris realized I wasn't going to try it, she scooped up the second one.

Here is Iris enjoying what seems to be her favorite delicacy.



All in all, it was a great day with Iris...and I now know how to say Chicken Feet in Chinese!

THRILLER

It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart

You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes

You're paralyzed...

I found myself singing this song in my head over the weekend while practicing a VERY modified version of the Thriller dance. (If you know me well, you know that I am by no means a dancer.) You see, I have learned that if you want to have fun in class, and you want your students to have fun in class, you CANNOT be shy! In the beginning, this was hard for me, but now I embrace it.

Every time I sit down to write my lesson plan, I think of how I can make each article more engaging. When I saw an article in the magazine on Michael Jackson and the 29th anniversary of Thriller's release, knew I had something to work with!

I began the lesson with a visual hook, so I printed out various pictures from the Thriller video. I put little magnets on the back of them, and right before the bell rang for the start of class, I hung them up. These were the two most popular ones (according to the kids' feedback!)

As soon as the first one went up, the kids looked at it and the buzz began spreading around class. Now, clearly I couldn't understand what they were saying about the pictures because it was all in Chinese, but they were smiling and I could hear: "Michael Jackson" every now and then. When the bell rang, they sat down with excitement and waited to see what I was up to this time.

We continued with the vocabulary from the article, and then read about Thriller and it's 29th anniversary. They got a kick out of knowing that the song was as old as their teacher :). After they answered the comprehension questions, and we finished talking about the article, we moved on to the fun activity: singing and dancing.

First: I gave out a copy of Clozed Thriller Lyrics. Basically, the lyrics were written down for them, and every line they had to listen to the song to fill in the proper word. (i.e. It's close to ____________ and something evil's lurking in the dark)

We listened to the first three verses about 2 times each so they could fill in the blanks. At the end of each verse, they tallied up their points. Then they totaled up their verse points up at the end of the game. Some of the kids got all 20 words, and some only got 6 words right, but we all had fun!

After the clozed activity, we sang it together, and of course I whipped out a small and very modified version of the dance. The kids got a kick out of it for sure. I mean...I was acting like a complete fool in front of them...but that is ok, because they followed suit! :)

Here are some pics from our day!!



Definitely a lesson that I enjoyed, and I am pretty confident the kids enjoyed it as well -- especially the part where I danced for them! :)

Happy Birthday Winnie the Pooh!

A voice we all know, and a belly we all love. Winnie the Pooh is a character that has played a big part in most youngsters lives...mine included.


Everyone knows Winnie the Pooh, and this month he turns 85! What a perfect focus for a lesson and an opportunity for some fun arts and crafts for my 7th graders.

In class, we read an article about Winnie the Pooh and A.A. Milne. I taught the kids the vocabulary the lesson centered around, we played games, and then I had them sing Happy Birthday to Winnie the Pooh, which was quite entertaining! Since they have exams this coming week, I thought I would give them homework that was a little more "fun" than usual. Their assignment was to make birthday cards for Winnie the Pooh in English. Inside they had to use some of our vocabulary words.

I figured since I am was having so much luck with the stickers as motivation, that I would make this into a contest. At first, they weren't sure about the word conTEST because all they heard was TEST. Realizing this as soon as I heard their groans and saw their faces, I quickly picked up a piece of chalk and wrote on the board: Contest = Game. Cheers erupted!

I explained to them how it would work. Of course I had the help of a class translator (there is usually at least one student in each class that is able to translate for me!). They would each make a card, and I would select 10 cards for them to vote on. Then, they would choose which one would receive 1st place; one would receive 2nd place; and one would receive 3rd place.

The prizes were as follows:
1st place: a homework pass and three stickers
2nd place: two stickers
3rd place: one sticker

I am happy to share some of the cards...along with one that just really impressed me. One girl created a pop-up card, and it was pretty amazing! Although it didn't win 1st prize, I thought it was the best!


Here are some more of the cards!


And finally, some of the winners!!