Annual Performance, Graduation and Nemo class...oh my!

So the big show is over, finally!!  It was a very stressful day, but it went well.  

All kindergarten students had to put on an annual performance.  They had to do a play or speech and two songs/dances.  We have been preparing for this since December and it has been very stressful for everyone.  The kids are expected to perform like stars and us teachers are expected to be drama teachers and choreographers.  

The kids had to sit in a tiny dressing room for 6 hours and were only able to come out for their dress rehearsal and when it was their time to go on stage.

I can't get the videos to upload on here, but I will keep trying.

The day after annual performance, my class graduated.  They moved on to 1st grade, so I won't have them anymore for kindergarten!  Jeff's class moved up to second year kindergarten, so he gets to keep his same class.

Now that my kids have graduated, I got a new class of kindergartners.  I am the Nemo class teacher. Each class is named after a cartoon character.  They are only 4 and speak no English.  My first day was extremely challenging, but we are getting used to communicating with each other, and they are learning English very quickly.

You know when you are talking to someone who doesn't speak your language, so you just keep repeating yourself louder and louder, as if that is going to make them understand you better?  That is kind of how my new students and I communicate on a daily basis.  Or, they look at me and say some words in Korean, I say, "What?" (like I'm going to understand the second time anyway) and then I just start saying the words they know, "bathroom," "water," "lunch" and after they shake their head "no" at me, I just say, "well I don't know then."  It's very frustrating, but they are very cute.

They have already learned to say many words, and can even read about 20 words.  They all know how to say "My name is..."  and one little boy loves Spiderman so I kept calling him Spiderman.  Later in the day I asked him what his name was and he looks at me and says, "My name is....SPIDERMAN!"  They learn so quickly.

Here are some pictures of my new classroom.  It took me a long time to make everything, but the kids love it.

Everything is velcro, so the kids can touch it and move it around.  On the left is my behavior tracker (Nemo stoplight).  If they aren't being good, they have to move their Nemo to yellow, then red.

These took me FOREVER to make!!

My job board.  We haven't learned all the jobs yet.  We are adding one job each week.

TADA!!!

And heres Nemo class!!!

These are their play uniforms.  They wear these on days we go to the playroom. 

Clara and Eric (Clara is wearing their other uniform, some kids wear them everyday, some kids never wear them)

Jenny and Alex

Eva and Joshua (Eva is only 3!)

Dana and Isaac

Julie and Harry

Kate and Kyle

Kate's mom called and to make sure I tell her she is very beautiful today.  She wore this dress, because she was jealous that I was calling another girl a ballerina because she had on a little pink dress.  I made sure to tell her that she was a beautiful princess, but the mean boys just kept telling her that she wasn't a princess.

He was pretending to be Eryn teacher

This looks like a perfectly good place to write.

This kid seriously came to school this way.  He can't even use the excuse that it was dark when he put them on.  One is velcro, the other tie!  He had to notice!!!!!

Jeff's class moved on to their second year of kindergarten, so they are now the big kids in school.  He got a few kids added to his class from other classes, so he has 11 six years olds.  They are now called Elmo class.  He made a castle theme in his room.

Jeff's job board.  It took him a really long time.

We went to this bar close by called Bar Mojito.  The menus are iPads and all the drinks are made with fresh fruit.

I will be adding another post soon from our field trip!