Today was my final day teaching.
Every Tuesday the children in my first block class will sing a song to start the day. Many songs have been sung over the last month, but my favourite is "Baby Squirrel Song." I requested that the children sing it on my last day, but they outdid themselves and sang a small concert for me. In case you're curious, "Baby Squirrel Song" was the final song in the video. Astute readers can find Kindergarten Cop regulars like Minnie-Mouse Ears Girl, Sticker Girl, and Lew ("Balance Boy") in this video.
After singing it was time to get down to work. I'm not sure what they were making, but it looks like a forest to me (hey, this class stole my idea!)
Sticker Girl is in the second picture with a small present I gave her. I thought she would be able to put it in her back pack and hide it, but she just couldn't resist showing it off everywhere and I got in trouble with the kids when I did not have enough for everyone.
My next class spent the entire block making "love letters" for me. I told them my Korean name was Dae-ho and they thought this was fantastic. Many of the pictures they made say "Dae-ho I love you," or something close to that. Some of them just have wet marks on them though.
I even had a second class make me love letters too (the phrase "I love you" in Korean has a slightly different connotation than it does in North America and is used by everyone as a term of endearment between friends). The boy in the second picture went for the "realist" approach with is drawing though, and drew me as an astronaut with antennae. Later he put his hands on his head like antennae and bobbled around. He called himself "Andy the ant." I was impressed that he included the word "the," since many Koreans I've met seem to have trouble with the articles the/a/an.
The four year olds were still working on their strawberry theme, and were wrapping it up today with a "strawberry foods book." Poor little Daniel just couldn't stay awake though and was practically falling asleep sitting up (I've actually seen a kid do that before).
The other four year old class made strawberry cookies. I was honoured though to receive the first one. Mmm... delicious.
When Koreans latch on to something they do it DFM style - they go all the way! Here, the proof is in the pudding, and strawberry boys are that pudding.
The five year olds were finishing up their ant unit with a giant ant collage. There were bits of magazines and newspapers, colourful fuzzy balls, straws, beads and sparkles. But, because everything was being attached with glue, it wasn't a surprise that at least one child thought it would be a good idea to put glue all over his hands and try to stick them together.
For my final Special Art Class, I finished up my forest unit by getting the children to make a cover for a book containing all the pieces they've drawn over the last month (in this unit). I didn't really think it through though, and the poor Korean teacher had to bind all the books by herself.
One final picture of Sticker Girl and Fight Girl together for "old time's" sake. In hindsight, if I'd noticed Sticker Girl forgot the 'f' in forest I would have made her go back and fix it.
Good-bye school.
After work I went climbing, but today was a bit different because Woojin wanted to come along with me (Sung Bok's friend, not the phys ed teacher). He struggled like all beginners do when they start climbing, but I was impressed with his determination and he lasted as long as I did. He later mentioned it was something he wanted to get into more seriously, so I was happy to be able to do my part in helping to increase the dismally low number of active young adults in Korea.
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