If I earned a kuai for how many times I hear, "Want to learn a language? Get a boyfriend"

New student!!
I now have 8 students in my class :) My apologies to any teachers from the States reading this who probably have anywhere from 25-35 students.

My new little elf is fluent in Chinese and Korean but has no English.

The previous English Language Learning Setup:
Usually the ELL students are pulled out for Language Arts, and work with our ELL teacher (for grades 1-3, our teacher is Pat). I only have one elf that needs the pull out and we were hoping that he and Pat could rejoin our class by the October break. The elf could really take advantage of being surrounded by his English speaking classmates, PLUS Pat and I could lesson plan together. TWO teachers + 7 kids = so much learning.

The current English Language Learning Setup:
The new elf won't be ready to function in a 2nd grade level class by October break. Pat was super disappointed to learn that she wouldn't be rejoining us. But then a beautiful thing happened. The lovely new lady elf seems to have caught the admiring attentions of the elf who was already getting pulled out. I guess the new she elf "kicks his butt" in almost every English exercise, and he is now determined to prove himself and work just as hard as she does. It's adorable. Really, they say in order to learn a langauge you're supposed to date someone who speaks that langauge. Oh second grade love, you do wonders for English Language Learning!

Science:
According to our studies, mammals have hair and/or fur. Many Asian races actually don't have a lot of hair on their arms. They are often quite surprised by how much hair Westerners have, especially on the arms. As we looked, one elf examined her own arm and concluded, "I have no hair here, I must not be a mammal ... I am an insect!"

Reading:
I print out black and white copies of books that are at the reading level of my students. I try to find the interesting ones, and I settled on one about different kinds of hair, just because that here, all they see is black and straight. Keep in mind, this is black and white, so we can't quite see the pictures well. One elf read out loud, "I have red hair." She let it sink in for a second as she comprehended what she had read. Then her face got really confused, and contorted. "Red hair? Ewwwwwww!!!!"

Volleyball:
I'm SOOO impressed with the volleyball team.
They have gone from ...
Frist practice: "What? We have to run to warm up? We have to sweat? Are you serious?"
To...
Two weeks in: Is today an arms day or a legs day? (They know we alternate each day with working out different parts of our body to make our passing and hitting stronger)
To ...
Today: While holding the push up positiong for 60 seconds, we heard one student start go sing: "Someone Like You" by Adele. By the time they were at the line "Don't forget me!" all 9 were blatantly singing/hollering the song from the push up position.
I think they might actually enjoy working out!