We're finally finishing our unit with plants. We made our conclusions as to whether Lily or Pad looked healthier after Lily sat happily on a window sill for two weeks, while Pad was shut away in the cupboard. While make our deliberations, at least 3 made the realization that Lily and Pad together makes the flower lily pad. Wow. They named the plants! And I thought that was why.
At the end of our plant unit, I gave my students the opportunity to create a menu that consisted only of foods that come from plants. I love their drawings:
This one is blurry, but it has the item "loveing goos" or better known as loving juice on the menu. When I asked, the elf responded that it is juice that two people share together. And then I saw the picture with the two curly straws. I know it has nothing to do with plants, but it's just so cute!!
Also in the one above, you will see ice cream cake. When I inquired, the student told me that ice cream comes from milk and cows. I asked her how she thought that came from plants. Clearly Ms. Lanham, the cows eat grass, so ice cream cake ultimately comes from grass.
Every time I say, "Let's walk down to the computer lab" all my elves make their *confused* noise, which is actually quite similar to their *ah-ha!* noise. They always respond that there is no computer lab down stairs. Now I always have to say, "Let's walk down THE HALL to the computer lab."
We got a new set of classroom white boards. I thought it would be fun to quiz them a bit for their upcoming science test. I said, "Draw me the part of the plant that gathers minerals from the soil." Before I had even finished saying the question, one of my elves was already drawing. This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine since they're supposed to wait for the whole instructions before they pick up their pencil, or in this case, dry erase marker. When I asked her to show me what she had done, I saw the outline of my face. She was literally about to "Draw me". After that, I always had to say "Draw FOR me a picture of ...."
Maybe kids are picky everywhere, and maybe I'm being a hypocrite, but I really have to work hard to make sure that my elves eat more than rice and candy. They have to make two selections other than rice at lunch, and candy has to wait till after school. Because of this, my students usually ask before they eat something if what they are eating is a good choice. Yesterday my elf held up a solid green fruit and asked, "Can I eat this orange?" I was dumbfounded. I thought it was pretty obvious that the fruit orange would go with the color orange. So I responded, you mean a lime? Silly elf! But she insisted it was an orange. Either way, it was fruit so I had no problem with it. After peeling it, I learned that it truly was a purely rip orange. Crazy! Oranges are Green in China! I can't call them oranges anymore.
And one language conundrum for outside the classroom:
I met Alice's boyfriend today, and he tried valiantly to speak English for me. As we were out to dinner, I also picked up a lot of new Mandarin phrases. I think Alice tipped him off because he asked me about futbol. He told me his favorite team is Argentina. About half an hour later, I pointed out that his sweatshirt said Argentina across the front, and now that makes a lot of sense. And then we all figured out that he actually had no idea that his sweatshirt said Argentina across the front. He's been wearing it for years, "because it is warm".
No comments:
Post a Comment