Plants, Pizzas and learning English

Friday was a good day. I might even go as far as to say it was a great day.

First thank you to Johnny's mum for sending an email. It is nice to hear from you. I hope that will be encouragement to others to add their comments.

We started the day by looking at our science experiment about plants which made one student ask "Why does it grow like that?" Which lead to talk about living vs. non-living, which lead to talk about cells, and through a numeracy exercise to an explanation of how plants grow.

We had book work to do, which the children are becoming more comfortable with. While Richard was waiting for the others to finish, he made things with blocks, but he doesn't make things. Richard uses blocks to make abstract objects, which is different from his friends who tend to make ships or airplanes or castles. Nice work Richard.

The girls play somewhat differently to boys and I don't always know the subject of their play. I often help some students with their books and cannot always be involved in their games. The boys like to show me what they have made, the girls like to play amongst themselves. However, I believe a lot of their play involves home games, because Nana came and told me that she had been making pizzas and Cherry was putting what looked like pizzas into a box.

Allen is one of our students who has some trouble with the work and with speaking, but today he colored in a picture in his book, and it was really beautiful. I think I may have found a way for him to express himself.

Tiffany is young and sometimes lacks the concentration to do her work on time. However, today she finished her work quickly and was surprised to discover that she picked up a book to read. It was a Chinese book, but not one with lots of pictures, so it looks like she likes to read. I have been reading about bilingualism and the advantages in learning two or more languages at the same time. I would not be surprised if Tiffany's interest in reading spreads across to English in time.

Brian made Teacher Jojo laugh today. He was speaking to Teacher Jojo in Chinese and I just happened to be passing by and he immediately and seamlessly switched from Chinese to English. Our children are full of talent.

And one last comment about Nado. He seems to have a strong sense of right and wrong, as when other children, in a playful mood and withhout bad intent, say something that is not respectful to me, Nado comes to my defence and tells them that they can't say that. I think it is really cute.

Anyway, it's time for me to enjoy my week. I'm planning a trip to Sun Moon Lake.
See you on Monday,
Glen.