Parents' Day

Today was another Parents Day, when they come and participate in activities with the children. We're supposed to have one a month, which is too much! The last three are happening in the last six weeks of school...we had Children's Day two weeks ago, a Father's Day activity today, and will have a School's Done activity on July 4th.

I prepared a Father's Day craft last night, and we would do that for an hour after we demonstrated the childrens' latest lessons.

We've been working on Shapes for the past two weeks, so I made a game where the students raced to identify eight different shapes. My favourite one I've taught them so far is pentagon. Next week the rhombus makes an appearance!

I have also been teaching the children different flags, and they now know about 18 of them. I started with flags from around here...China, Macau, Hong Kong, and then Canada. After that, I just found ones that were colourful and ones I liked.

I was happy that all the kids know all the flags I've taught...they can identify Canada, China, Macau, Hong Kong, Germany, Brazil, Australia, America, Olympics, United Nations, Red Cross, Italy, France, Korea, Singapore, Japan, England, and sometimes Argentina.

I'm proud that my kids know more flags in English than their parents probably know in Chinese!

We played a game where the children raced to identify the different shapes and flags by hitting pictures with a big inflatable hammer. I bought two of them, and they're about as big as the children so it fun to watch them run around with them.

Then, we worked on Father's Day cards. It took quite a bit of explaining, and while I was doing that, someone's phone rang and he answered it just as loudly as I was talking.

I was tired this morning because I was up until 2am watching the Croatia-Germany game (Crotia won 2-1 in a stunning upset) so I was really grumpy. When I heard Winnie and Danny's (they're twins) dad answer the phone, I made a really sour face and stopped talking in the middle of my sentence. He quickly stopped the conversation, and I wondered if I'd been rude. Maybe, but it's my classroom so I think I was allowed.

I have unfortunately been judging Winnie and Danny's dad since I first saw him eights months ago, because he displays one of the oddest Chinese fashion statements. Here in China if you have a mole on your face, it shows wisdom and fashion sense to grow hairs out of it, and never cut them or trim them.

Winnie and Danny's dad exemplifies this, as he has about ten dark black hairs growing out of a push-pin sized mole on his jaw. Each hair is about two or three inches long. Yikes. I hope he doesn't stoke them when he's deep in thought!

After I was done my instructions about the craft, the kids set to work and enjoyed themselves. They all worked for about an hour with the help of their parents.



Here is my sample Father's Day card. Before class, I had drawn half a heart on the outside of all the cards, at the fold. The children were to cut out the heart, then print the words on either side of it. Most children can draw the letters now, so it was not above them. Some can write their names too. The ones that couldn't had their parents to help.

I made this extra big sample card, and taped it up at the front of the room so everyone could see it. Two children wrote "Mr. Jon" on the bottom of their cards, so I had to explain that they should write their own names, not mine!

Since we're also doing shapes, I cut strips of coloured paper for the children to cut up themselves, using shapes to make pictures. I've made a tree, a flower, and a car. The children love to follow an example, so many just copied what I had done, although some made houses and did their own thing.



Here are the parents and children doing the craft. It lasted about an hour, until eleven o'clock. When we were finished, the parents went home and the children stayed for the rest of the day.

It was a nice change helping my own kids do a craft, after helping those randoms do a craft at the beginning of the week. I like when the kids come over and show me their work, proud to name the things they've drawn or the letters and numbers they've written. I've created relationships with them, so it's actually enjoyable and not as much work.

After the parents were gone, Guo took control of the class, which I was thankful for because I had taken the lead for the whole time the parents were in the classroom. She told them a story in Chinese, while I sat off to the side.



As Guo was telling the story, Jennifer put her arm around Leanne, resting it on the back of her chair. I don't know if she was showing affection or simply relaxing, but I thought it was pretty cute.



After Parents' Day was finished, Ma Lao Shi, my other co-teacher, gave me these eggs, which were extras from another class' activity. She said they're very delicious.

I'm not sure if I'm going to eat them, since they look like sparrow or robin eggs and I'm only used to eating chicken eggs. It seems criminal to burgle a mama bird's nest for her tiny eggs, but I guess we do that with chickens too. I'm just not used to it.

It turned out to be a good Parents' Day, inspite of all the moaning and complaining I did before it happened. I wasn't in the best frame of mind since I was tired, but I think it was OK.

The parents should have been impressed with the childrens' English and flag knowledge, and they also got to spend time with them making a nice craft. It went smoothly, and now I only have one Parents' Day left. It should be fun, since it happens on the last day of school, and my last day of teaching in China.