Swirl of Children

My English Club has ratcheted itself up into a frenzy. Every Sunday afternoon - as well as Monday morning - I think to myself:   why did I agree to this?  But, every Monday afternoon, I am happy, at peace and supremely glad that I have these 17 little cherubs each week.

I have a co-dependent relationship with the class.

ha ha ha ha! :-)

Seriously, though - it doesn't help that Eliza is usually sobbing by the end of the hour (I'm apparently cruel  when she goes through my Mary Poppins Bag of Tricks during class.....)

...or that the ease and comfort of Monday afternoon turns into angst by Wednesday  "What will I do for next Monday's lesson??!!!??"   It's out of my comfort zone to come up with these things on my own -- I like the security of a curriculum.

We have just finished our World-Earth-People theme, (using John 3:16 like a background color) and they liked the map games, globe and giant earth ball.  For last Monday, I thought I'd take a chance and let them do something messy exciting.

After learning a handful of new vocabulary (mountain, island, river, etc.) I let them go ahead and erupt nine little volcanoes.

They liked this.  A lot.

What astonishes me most about these kids, though, is how much they want to read out loud.  From the Bible.  IN ENGLISH.

The volume inside the classroom can be at a ROAR, and these children still eagerly ask to read - struggling through - the English in the passages.  They even get mad at me (no joke) if I forget whose turn it is.  So, last Monday, I let four kids read the same passages over and over.....we had to stop after four, because David, Jonathan and Cornelius were wrestling on the floor.  Time for volcanoes.

So, while I'm blank right now for next Monday, I suspect that following the good lead of reading-out-loud might be an option for me.

Plus, I have my diplomatic helpers -- Teddy Grahams and Goldfish Crackers -- who were packaged above into individual "volcano" boxes out of my stash ;-).  It helped prevent the pushing and shoving this week.  My plan was to have each of them say either "forest" or "ocean" and then receive accordingly either green (teddys) or blue (goldfish) -- I remembered this clever plan halfway through passing them out, so only some of the children heard this in English from me.

But, they didn't care. The Teddy Grahams and Goldfish had taken over at that point and were doing all the talking for me.

:-)