Lesson 31

Coloring > box of chocolates

Every month Maple Bear has Activity Day. The theme for September's Activity Day was "international". Three classrooms were decorated to represent three countries, then each group of students went to a classroom, learned a few words in the native language, played a game/do a craft, and traveled on to the next country, and getting a little stamp on their "passport". Our countries of choice: Egypt, Germany, and Mexico.

Touyen and I decorated her classroom with schwarz-rot-gold paper chains and photos with facts about Germany. The only typically German activity I could think of (besides drinking beer) was a game called Topfschlagen, or in English: Hitting a Pot. A child is blindfolded and given a wooden spoon. An overturned pot is sitting somewhere in the room and the rest of the children have to shout "hot" or "cold" to direct the blindfolded child toward the pot. When they hit the pot, there is a bar of chocolate underneath.

Alas, I had no pot and no wooden spoon, so we played with a box decorated with the German flag and the kids hit the box with a paper tube. That is, until one of my own kids (who else but Ethan) thought it'd be hilarious to crumple the tube and wave it around cackling and making a scene. Way to be a great role model to the five-year-olds who know how to follow my rules.

The kids were remarkably good at pronouncing the German words and got most of the answers correct when we played trivia at the end. In Egypt with Holly and Kristen the children made headbands, bracelets, and necklaces and in Mexico they ate chips and salsa and played Lotteria. At the end of the day I asked my kids which country was their favorite. In my morning class, Dorothy, who is soft-spoken and always on my side, said Germany was her favorite while everyone else said Mexico or Egypt. In my afternoon class, everyone thought Egypt was the best. Why? Because coloring is better than eating chocolate. What kind of kids are they anyway?

My camera is still broken and I have yet to get the photos Touyen took. I'll post more photos soon I hope.

Sally, Belle, and John sporting their "Egyptian" necklaces.