Garden Goodness!

Once a month we go on a field trip with the kindergarteners at our school.  This week we went to a botanical garden.  We piled the kids into two vans and drove 30 minutes or so to a garden in the country run by a university.

Clayton's homeroom on the way to the garden.

Getting all the kids in one place is, as our favorite PU prof would say, like herding cats. However, their interest and attention span seems to increase exponentially when on a field trip.  A future study, perhaps?

The entrance to the garden.

The garden was lacking in flowers.  We both agree that we visited the garden a few weeks too early.  Had we waited, I think there would have been many more flowers blooming. But, it was a warm enough day, and the children enjoyed it anyway.

We call this girl the "Informer." At any given moment, she will to rush to the teacher's room, giggling and speaking so fast that the Korean teachers can't even understand her, and then run away.  She's like five kids packed into one.

How they say Root around the world!

After looking at flowers, they brought the kids to catch tadpoles! This is a right of passage as a child, if you ask me.  There were quite a few tadpoles for them to catch and release. There were also dragonfly nymphs to hold and observe.  We had never seen a dragonfly in that form before, and they were really cool. They come complete with detachable jaws!

We were a bit worried that one of the kids would take a swim. Luckily there was no need to revive the lifeguard skills.

After the tadpole expedition, they gave the kids capes with pictures of different insects on the back, and had them pretend to be bugs (super bugs, perhaps?).

After saying some things we didn't understand, the ladies who work at the garden made Clayton wear this sweet bird hat and chase the super bugs around the deck, trying to eat them.  

One of the perks of Clayton being the token male working with the kindies is that he gets roped into wearing the silly hats, and I do not. Instead, I get to take pictures for the world to see. Tee hee.

Arrrrgh Matey!

Thursday was Pirate Day at Grace School. Since pirates are pretty much the coolest thing ever (check out 'The Pirate Movie' if you don’t believe me), we were pretty excited. Plus, it meant that we did not have to teach classes for most of the morning... a definite bonus. The kids were divided into three groups, the "Green Skulls," the "Purple Skulls," and the "Pineapples." The Pineapples, of course, were the fiercest pirates.

We had three stations for the pirate groups. In my room, there was a giant Treasure Map for the kids to assemble. The pieces were hidden throughout the school. Their task was to find the pieces and put it together without killing each other. For this, they received the most valuable treasure of all: stickers.

Now, I am not sure if this is something common to all ESL schools, but at Grace School the sticker is a staple disciplinary method. It is policy that the kindies earn them at the end of every class (whether or not they deserve them).  And to coerce the children into behaving, teachers threaten to take stickers away.  We have yet to see how this is an effective form of behavior modification, in fact our backgrounds working with children suggest otherwise, but what do we know? We're just psychology majors...

Now, normally the kids receive one sticker at the end of each class, but on Pirate Day we gave away FIVE stickers for completing the puzzle. Needless to say, the kids loved it. In the next room, another native English teacher at our school was in charge of dressing the kids up like pirates. They made bandanas with skulls on them (cute, non-threatening skulls of course), eye patches, and telescopes.

Once they were fully pirate-ed up, they went to Clayton's room... the Treasure Hunt! Because what Pirate Day is complete without a good treasure hunt? Clayton painstakingly created a grand treasure hunt, complete with an overhead image of a giant treasure chest, and a pirate song. He even talked to the kids using his best pirate voice the entire time. He pirated his voice right into oblivion, but the kids thought it was great fun.

All in all, I think we would agree that it was a good time had by all.

   Here are some of our little pirates:

Ahoy! Pirates ahead!

Two of our youngest kids after putting together this amazing treasure  map.

It is unfortunate that stealing adorable children is frowned upon at the school. 

This little guy is one of the sweetest kids ever!

This week, it is back to our usual schedule, but we do something special the third week of each month... so stay tuned for more pictures of cute kids!  Go ahead... roll  your eyes. We're used to it.