Kiddos!

So we are now two months into the new school year and we have been busy having lots of fun with our kids!  My class started in March as 4 year olds who didn't speak ANY English.  Now, they can go all day long without speaking ANY Korean.  Its pretty amazing to see how quickly they learn.

My class is great!  I got lucky and got a really good class this year!  And, I guess, they are pretty darn cute too!  Jeff is really liking his class and is having a hard time keeping them quiet!

Now that graduation and performance are over, we have had lots of time to have some fun with our classes.  We have had a chance to go on a few field trips and hold monthly cooking classes.

We took a trip to the fire station.  We thought it would be like going to a fire station back home, climbing on the trucks and watching the firemen use the fire extinguisher.  This was not the case!  It was actually really fun and interactive.  The kids got to shoot fire extinguishers at a virtual fire and try to put it out.  They also were able to climb through a small obstacle course that was supposed to be like going through a house filled with smoke.  Then, they got to experience an earthquake.  They all had a lot of fun, and we did too!

Clara's cute bunny ears!

Getting ready to put out a fire!  Notice the photographer in the left corner.  There are two of them that go EVERYWHERE with us and they take all the fun out of all activities.  The kids got them good with the fire extinguishers, though!

Experiencing the earthquake.  It was really hard to keep your balance during this, and the kids had to complete several tasks during the quake.

We took another field trip to a park called the Dream Forest, which was hardly a forest at all.  The kids got to look at some Venetian glass, play on a playground and feed some deer. 

Trying to be polite and listen to this lady talk about glass.  (Yawn)

Nemo class!

Elmo class!

Joe and Kevin (Elmo)

Jenny (who recently changed her name to Ariel)  Nemo class

Clara (Nemo)

Frank teacher had some fun too!

Sally (Elmo)

Eva (Nemo)

Lunch!  No PB&J sandwiches here!  Kimbap and fruit for lunch.

They were exhausted!  Cutest thing EVER!

We also took a field trip to a farm to plant lettuce.  It was really like they took us to a dump, and the kids got to pose pretending to plant lettuce so the photographers could take pictures of them.  It was not a good field trip!

Alice teacher and Eva.  Alice is the supervisor for my class and Jeff's class.

Jenny and Julie

I put flowers in Clara's hair.

Lettuce photo shoot!  That's all they did, hold the lettuce, take a photo and then put it back down.

Nemo class!  It's hard getting 12 four year olds to take a picture!

We had a cooking class and the kids got to make deviled eggs!  They had fun and the eggs were tasty too!

One of the kids' favorite things to do at school is play in the Wonder Lounge!  They only get to spend about 15-20 minutes here a week :( 

The boys playing dinosaurs, of course!

Just hanging out!

Since the weather has been nice, we have been able to spend some time outdoors!

Seoul soccer game

World Cup Stadium

Picnic with Megan in Olympic park

Cherry Blossoms

Olympic Park

Olympic Park

Olympic Park

More Cherry Blossoms!  They don't last long, but they are pretty while they are here!

Busan

Happy spring!  We had a 4 day weekend May 5-8 so we decided to take advantage of it and take a vacation!  We took a train to Busan, which is along the southeast coast of Korea.  Its a big city, but has the feel of a trendy little beach town.

There were lots of things to do, but we decided to spend our vacation relaxing, instead of sightseeing.  All along the beach there were several outdoor coffee shops, cafes and restaurants.  With that being said, we ate a lot!

The weather wasn't great, but it didn't rain, and we had one day of sun.  It was cloudy and windy most of the time, but we still spent the entire time outdoors along the water.

Lunch along the beach!

This was the only day the water was really blue.

Walking along the boardwalk after dinner.

Ow ow!!

We went to this huge fish market.  These were some of the biggest shrimp I have ever seen!

Yummy....

All of this stuff looked disgusting and I wasn't going to try any of it!

The boats in the port at the fish market.

The only day we saw the sun, a huge cloud of fog rolled in.

Jeff was happy, he found darts along the beach!

We don't want to leave yet!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Spring is finally here!  Last weekend we took a bus trip 4 hours south to see the cherry blossoms!

Saturday morning we arrived in a town called Gyeongju.  We rented bikes, and our tour guide gave us a map and told us to be to the hotel by 6 for dinner.  We rode 10 miles on Saturday around a lake and through the town.  We also rode through the mountains, which was very exhausting!!  The scenery was great though!  In the town all the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, but around the lake they had not started blooming yet.

Sunday morning we woke up and had to ride from our hotel back to the bike shop.  The ride was much better!  It was only 8 miles and we rode through the rice paddies so it was flat the whole way.  We stopped and had got something to drink at a little cafe, then rode a bit more, then stopped and had lunch and ice cream.  The temperature was 70 and sunny!  We even got a little sun burn on our faces.

We headed back Sunday evening, but we were stuck on the bus for 6 hours due to traffic!  It was not the relaxing trip I had expected, but it was still a lot of fun!

Coworker Rhea and I ready to ride!

Magnolia tree

Our hostel

All the bikes lined up to rest for the night.

Cherry blossoms!!!

Jeff being nerdy.  The rice paddies obviously had no rice planted yet, so the scenery was kind of brown...

Megan and I with our cruisers

Isn't she cute!

Cutest little girls!

Koreans are always posing super cheesy for photos.  Jeff and I are becoming a little more Korean everyday!

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!