Sam's Five Things: Die Zoo Thursday

Yesterday (Thursday) was a really bad day, so today seems much better in comparison! Yesterday, despite my best efforts, the kids were still out of control and gave me a real headache. I asked Mr Beak for a headache pill, but the school had run out, so he gave me a cold pill instead (without telling me!).. It worked, it got rid of the headache, but it made me really drowsy, too. So drowsy that Mr Beak sent me home early. I must have looked pretty bad, and it was really nice of him to notice and be kind enough to let me go home. I'd finished teaching for the day, so I didn't feel bad about it. I went home and went straight to bed. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open on the bus! I slept for nearly three hours, got up, had some dinner and watched some TV, then went back to be and slept for 8 more hours. I'm feeling much better today!

The kids were just as badly behaved, and are really disappointing me with the quality of the work they are doing. I very much want to decorate the class with the things they do, but much of it is such a scribbled mess that it's embarrassing. I've seen 10 year olds produce much better pictures and posters! One activity that did work well today (though I've still to work out why - perhaps because I gave them concrete example pictures to follow?) was making a map of a fictional zoo. They had to decide on the animals they wanted, then draw a map including things like bathrooms, parks, paths, food stalls, etc. Interestingly, the three groups who really went to town on this project were the boys' groups, who generally don't want to do anything (or even less than the girls, anyway). They really impressed me. Here's a couple of photos.

All the Zoo maps.

Great map from the worst boys in the class!

Grade 1-1's wall of almost awesome.

One boy did a whole map all by himself, but went a little... outside... the bounds of the project. He created some kind of scary gladiator style zoo. In it, a person first chose to go in the lion or tiger cage. If they lost a fight to those animals, they got hammered to death in a special area. If they won, they went to the hospital room, and then on to fight a series of other animals including a tortoise with a gun on its back (actually my idea... I probably should have been encouraging him, but he was writing in English, so I helped), a stomping elephant with three killer snakes for a tail, a werewolf enclosure, and a hydra. Oh, and don't forget the vampire bear. Punishments for losing included beheading by axe, and being attacked with a chainsaw. If you managed to beat all the animals, you got to leave the 'Die Crazy Zoo' with a billion dollars. I was impressed with his imagination, and also how much English he used in the process.

'Die Zoo Crazy'. Note the vampire elephants.

He told me the wall was covered in knives. It had a lot of detail!

I am seriously glad I only have this class one more time though. And hopefully tomorrow will be ok, we have games, a test, and a movie to watch, so fingers crossed it's not the uphill battle it's been everyday so far.

Tonight, though, it's monopoly night at my place! I'm going to make some chocolate fudge :)

And this weekend, Jen, Nyasha, and myself are booked to head to Busan for New Years. At the ripe old age of 24, this will be my first 'proper' (as in outside of anyone's house or camping) New years celebration. It is going to be awesome! And cold. But seeing the sun rise over the ocean will be nice. Yes, I could do that back home in NZ, and from the comfort of the couch, but I never did :)

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In other news, I bought the cutest lunch box today! Because it's holidays, there's no school lunch at work. The teachers order Chinese food each day, which not only more expensive than school lunch, but is pretty unhealthy (like 99% noodles or rice with shiny brown sauce). It tastes ok, but I don't want it for the next couple of months! So, I got this lunch box to take my own food to work. Mr Beak does it too, so I know it's ok to do. Here it is: