The Amazingness of the 4th Graders :)

I just want to talk about how much I love the 4th grade classes at my school. I have two 4th grades; 4A and 4B.  I've got a great story for each:

4B - Thursday, April 26th.

On this day, my co-teacher, Nino, had to leave early because she had a wedding to go to. Well actually, she had a beauty salon appointment before she went to the wedding.  Who gets married on a Thursday? I don't really know.  I haven't been to a wedding since I was a kid. Anyway, since she had to leave early, that meant that I would be all alone in the classroom.  Not that uncommon from what I've heard.  Honestly, if it had been any other grade, my answer would have been, "Hell to the no!"  Except I would say it a lot nicer than that :)

She was in the classroom for the first 5 minutes or so.  Just to help get me started and explain some directions in Georgian.  I'm not that good.  We started off class with a lovely class composition about the Great Fire of London.  We were writing paragraphs based on what was happening in some pictures.  By the end of the composition exercise, Nino was long gone.  Nakhvamdis!  Before starting the next activity, I went around to check that everyone had finished writing.  About 1/4 hadn't written a thing.  I had to stand over them until they had finished.  I love being tall and authoritative!  

Next I had planned an activity to practice their listening skills.  I was going to play a song and they were to write down every word that they recognized.  But in order to write things down, they needed paper, right?  Right!  So I asked everyone to hold up their notebooks because only a few had them out. Then it turned into a game! I just began shouting commands at them to see if they had any clue what I was saying.  It was actually a lot of fun.  They seemed to love it.

"Hold your notebooks up"

"Put them down"

"Hold up your pen"

"Put it down"

"Hold your pencil in your left hand"

"Down"

"Right hand"

"Go to the board"

It was simply hilarious.  Then we did the listening exercise.  I wasn't  sure what to pick at first.  It's actually harder than one might think.  It needs to be school appropriate, clear enough for the kids to understand, but still fun.  Also, I wanted them to recognize the song I chose.  If it's not sung by Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, or Hannah Montana, then it's not really on their radar.  I'm getting sick of them as well.  So I picked Glee instead!  I wanted them to recognize "Smile," but I don't think they did.  Then we went through the words they knew and corrected the spelling.  Sky = "skai"  tomorrow = "tommorow"  We listened to it a second time to see what I could write on the board.  I'm not as fast as I thought I would be, but I did my best.  So "Smile" is kind of a slower song.  When it ended the second time, I heard Levan complaining about how he was falling asleep.  At least he was saying it in English. He's not the hardest worker.  So I turned on "Empire State of the Mind."  All work stopped and we finished the lesson with a big dance/singing party.  Then the bell rang.  

Not bad for my first solo class! :)

4A - Friday, April 27th 

On this day, we had our regular bi-monthly visitor from the ELCE program.  Today's topic is... Volunteerism!  Interesting fact: In Georgian there is no word for "volunteerism."  They know and understand the general idea but there is no direct translation for it.  Silly Georgians!  I still love you :)

For our lesson about Volunteerism, we began with a song and video from Sesame Street about keeping a park clean for the pigeons.  All for the pigeons!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7XQEiN_Vxk

Next we designed a mock TV show.  The wonderful Megi (the most brilliant 4th grader I've ever met) was the talk show host.  She was interviewing people who had done or was going to do some volunteer work.  (They weren't actually going to do this specific work, but we just gave them roles about it.)  Tekla was a volunteer at a hospital.  Keti was volunteering at a primary school.  Enri was helping animals.  Shako was helping refugees.  Lasha was doing community clean up.  We wrote out the interviews for them to role ply with.  The interviews also included questions from the audience.  It's one of the few lessons that I've seen here in Georgia where everyone participated in class! :)  We chose these big ideas because we wanted to put it in the back of their minds.  This is how they can volunteer in the future.  Big ideas!  Also, I threw in some hidden messages.  

For example: 

During the refugee section.  

A question from the audience: "Will they ever get to go home?"

Shako: "I hope so."

I love subliminal messages! :)

After we finished the TV show, we collected their homework.  They were each to draw a picture of whatever they wanted.  They just couldn't color it in.  Next we took everyone down to the first floor to visit all the children with disabilities.  The kids from 4A paired up with a student with special needs to spend time coloring pictures with them.  While I was watching the students coloring I noticed that one girl, Diana, was having difficulty holding the color pencils.  Therefore, Lizi and Megi were physically helping her hold the pencils and listening to Diana tell them what she wanted to color.  It made my heart melt. :)

Here are some pictures of the coloring fun!

This is Lizi and Megi helping Diana color! :)

This was honestly one of my favorite days at school.  Do understand why I love the 4th graders so much?!  They rock.  Easy as that.

Until next time.  Adventure is out there!