WARM IT UP

Oh man. It was so cold at school today, it actually hurt to walk thru the hallways. On top of that, all my classes were in the big, cold classroom, so I was struggling to get through. I taught the 3rd and 1st graders today. The 3rd graders learned about weather and the 1st graders learned how to make polite requests. They're pretty bright, so they did well. With the 3rd graders, I did the 'Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes' song, which involves a lot of moving while singing. I was so cold, I had us do it twice just so I could warm up more! The kids didn't seem to be fazed by the cold, but my hands were freezing. By my second class, I had to borrow one of the space heaters from the staff room to take to the classroom to help keep my hands warm. I was shuffling around like a hobo trying keep my extremities from going numb. It was ridiculous.

The 1st grade teachers came to me today and told me that the 1st graders will be putting on a special event in March, to show off what they've learned during the school year to their mothers. The kids had written some simple questions in Japanese and wanted me to translate them into English, so they could recite the questions in English to their parents. I helped translate all of their questions, but some were pretty long questions, things like "What are a rabbit's favorite food?" and "Which animal of the Chinese zodiac is this year?" My goodness, "zodiac?" The friggin' teacher didn't even know the word zodiac. We were wondering if they would be able to memorize such long questions. They're only 6 for geez sake. But they tried really hard to recite the entire questions on their own, with no inhibitions. It's funny, because if I asked any of my junior high schoolers to recite these questions they'd wet themselves, even some of the Japanese teachers would breakdown. But the little ones are awake and ambitious. It's almost like, people get dumber the older they get.