Winter English Festival....Snowmen!

4th & 5th grade

So to continue the theme of snowman for my Winter English Festival, I did the same lesson with the 4th and half of the 5th grade, except the art project was different. Again, I was racking my brain trying to come up with some kind of craft that cost NO money! I didn't succeed because I still had to buy the doilies for this project, but I only spent 2,000 won ($2), so I'm going to call it a win!

So the kids used 2 different sized of doilies and used their own crayons to go over the doilies and do a rubbing type thing. I hadn't seen it done before....I pulled it out of my brain somehow. I used lots of colors on my example, and therefore most of the kids used lots of colors as well!

I didn't realize that I would notice such an abilitiy difference between the 4th graders and the 5th graders, but the 5th grade classes that I did this with were heaps better than the 4th grade. The 4th graders were still interested in it for sure, they just didn't have the most beautiful results.

Like the 6th grade, I played different songs and videos of "Frosty the Snowman" while they worked. This was of course after I explained the story of Frosty. 

I always get surpised and amazed which kids are the ones that can do art projects. Some time these are the kids that struggle in regular classes. It shows you how they want to learn... :) If only I didn't have 450 kids and could cater to all of their individual learning styles...

Winter English Festival...Snowmen

6th Grade

 

 Before Christmas I was given a week to do "whatever I wanted" with the kids. This sounds like a lot of freedom, but in reality it was one 40 minute class with each class during the week that I did not have to use the book....

I wanted to do something different that the kids did not know about and since it was around Christmas, I wanted to do something that was Christmas/ winter related. I ended up deciding that I would tell the kids the story of "Frosty the Snowman" and have them listen to book/ song/ movie. 

I started the beginning of the week having the kids listen to a you tube recording of the original book being read, but after a few classes it was obvious that the kids weren't really understanding as much as I wanted them to. So, for the rest of the week, I told them the story using smaller words and sentences and even drawing pictures on the board! I was a real life story teller! How fun!?

Obviously, I am an artsy person, and when I am given the choice, I will always want to do something art related with the kids, so I decided that there would also be 2 different art snowman that the kids would make. The first one with the 6th graders would be Q-tip snowmen. 

My school has zero budget, and what little money we had was spent months ago on candy, so I had to get creative! I found a few colors of colored paper, and bought some Q-tips myself from the local Daiso (dollar store). The kids were asked to bring their own white poster paint. 

 I started out the lesson, by telling them the story of "Frosty the Snowman", making sure to explain how famous this snowman is. I explained that is America our snowman always have 3 parts, a bottom, middle, and head. In Korea, the snowmen here only have 2 parts...

After the story telling took place, I explained the art activity. While they were working of their snowmen and being creative, I played multiple versions of "Frosty the Snowmen". Some were sung with words on the screen, but I even had a version with Jackson 5 singing. Also thrown in the mix was a part of the kids movie that gets played every year. 

I think that the kids enjoyed this activity. I KNOW it was better than doing English in book! For some of the classes that are really good at doing their work, I let them listen to English Christmas songs off of youtube. The one that they requested was Mariah Carey, "All I want for Christmas", which I thought was kind of cute and luckily the only Mariah Carey song that has a video suitable for Korean children to watch. ahah

It was a crazy week rushing from class to class with different art supplies and keeping the kids on task when they knew that they were so close to winter vacation! I'm pretty sure that is tough for teachers all over the World! I know that my mom always had trouble with controlling the excitement and lack of motivation to do school work before vacation...

 

I do have a favorite class. This is them, 6-7. They are the class that listens and are wonderful! They know they are my favorite and want to keep that status, so sometimes I get an applause when I walk through the door. Last time after giving them candy I got numerous, "Marie Teacher, you are so beautiful!" Gosh, how do you not love em' when they tell you that! ahaha!

Jinbo's First Tourist...ME!

Considering that Ben comes to Daegu all the time, or we go other places around Korea on the weekends, I thought it was time to check out his "hood". 

He lives in a town called Jinbo, but he doesn't even teach here. He takes a bus to an even smaller village. At his school he has 40 or so kids. This is hard for me to imagine, because I have over 40 kids in just 2 of my classes! He knows all of his kid's names. Not just their English names either, he is learning all of their Korean names as well. 

I am jealous of many things about Ben's set up with school, but I can say that I am not jealous with his lovely little town. I grew up in a tiny town, where everyone knows your business, so when it came to deciding where to teach in Korea, I requested a metropolitan area. Ben also did, but his paperwork was later and first come first serve! 

So, I was put in Daegu, where I requested and Ben was put in Jinbo (he also had originally requested Daegu). Jinbo is a thirty minute bus ride past Andong. If you count the bus time it takes me to get to the express bus terminal, it's almost a 4 hour journey to get there! There are 4 foreigners, who all live in the same building and I met all of them! 

On Saturday, we took the bus to Andong. We met up with the other foreigners and went to pizza hut before going to the movies. I was nervous going to pizza hut in another country (because of the disaster in England), but I had been showing a commercial from Pizza Hut in the 80's and I really had been craving it! So we tried it! OMG! It was exactly what I needed! I'm pretty sure it was much better than Pizza Hut in the States! Salad bar was interesting to say the least! It was quite expensive, but when I reflect on it, it was one of those times with was worth it!

After pizza hut we went and watched the new "Hobbit" movie. I hadn't been to a movie yet in Korea! This was my first one, and also our first "real" date...ahahah! To be honest, I just wanted to look at New Zealand for a couple of hours! 

That evening after the movie, we went back to Jinbo and had a potluck with the rest of the foreigners in Ben's town and their Korean friend, HoJin. We made tacos, and I also had brought humus that I ordered online. It was kind of a miracle we could make the tacos. The ground beef was the most expensive I have seen in my life! We went to a butcher in Jinbo and I'm sure they gave us the leanest they had, since communication was minimal. It was 13,000 won for 1 pound, which is about $13. Needless to say, us foreigners don't eat a lot of ground beef, and when we do, we treasure it!

After dinner we played games. It was fun to meet new people and they were pretty cool! 

This is Ben's apartment building. Its really probably the tallest building in town and it is at the top of a hill that overlooks the town. His apartment is much nicer than mine... He has an awesome kitchen and a bedroom, like a separate room for his bed....That's unheard of in Daegu! :)

One of his local eateries. It was so small town. The colors of this place were a light blue/aqua and pink with clouds. It was really special, but the food was good...

The view from Ben's rooftop. I'm sure during different times of the year, it is quite beautiful. I'm also envisioning it very beautiful with fresh snow everywhere! :)

12 Pubs of Christmas (Ugly Sweater Party)

This past weekend was the "12 Pubs of Christmas Ugly Sweater Party". What fun? There were a ton of people from our Epik intake there and it wasn't just Daegu people. Many friend from Busan and the surrounding small towns came in for the weekend. No one wanted to miss this! We were lead by our fearless elf leader, MJ, who was equipped with a timer (set to 30 minutes), whistle, horn, and of course homemade elf shoes... He kept us on a strict schedule which was necessary considering we had to make it to 12 pubs!

RULES FOR THE 12 PUBS OF CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE

1. The question pub-everything you say must be in question form.

2. The no talking about school or work pub- no talking about anything in relation to teaching.

3. The no names pub- no calling anyone by their name.

4. The fake accent pub- each participant to speak in a different accent for the duration.

5. The no pointing pub-must use your elbow to point instead.

6. The no cursing pub- no swearing (cussing).

7. The swap shoes pub- swap one shoe with another participant.

8. The no talking about sport pub- no premier league, NFL etc.

9. The right-handed pub – all drinks to be handled with the right hand only.

10. The left-handed pub- all drinks to be handled with the left hand only.

11. The try and stay going pub- no rules, come on, nearly there.

12. The final furlong pub -you’re there, relax, enjoy the sense of achievement.

RULE BREAKERS WILL BE PUT ON THE NAUGHTY LIST

Twas the night before 12 pubs
And all through town,
All the teachers were itching
To drink and get down.

Their lessons had been taught
With smiles and good cheer
All knowing that the weekend
So soon would be here.

In downtown Daegu
They soon would all meet
To consume 12 drinks
Quite a drunk jolly feat.

The sweaters were ready
And their livers were too,
Bracing for gogo bags
And loads of soju.

With good care they chose
A route and good plan,
To leave them all drunk
And barely able to stand.

And when it is finished
We'll all have a ball,
So chug away chug away,
Chug away all.

The guys with their aftermath of "no-shave-November" and "movember" staches... With their sweaters it was as if we were stepping back into another time! :)