The Reading Jar

Happy April Everyone!

Well, were well into the first semester, and things are going fantastically. The kids are exceeding my expectations for reading and writing English. :)

I didn't expect my kids to take such an interest in reading, but thanks to the class reading jar, I've had kids lining up to read English books with me during play time!

Reading Jar:

My kids get a chip for each book they read with me. The class is reading their way to an ice-cream party! Next will be 400 books to a pizza party :)

Fun with the Hungry Caterpillar:

The kids drew and colored pictures of their favorite foods with oil pastel. I cut and pasted the kids faces on caterpillars eating through yummy cupcakes and ice-creams.

Class Ladybugs and Ladybug Coupons:

The lady bug system is my weekly in class reward system. The kids must try to collect 10 ladybugs by Friday to be able to choose a class coupon. The kids love the playground coupon.

We've also started swimming twice a week, which means this kids are exhausted two day out of the week. But I couldn't be more proud of my cuties. Despite their fears of the water, most of my kids are determined to be good swimmers. Kids are truly amazing little beings.

Well, that sums up the updates for my ESL class here in Shanghai.

More coming soon.

<3

YeaEun Teacher

Today my student Jason asked me, "Is your name YeaEun Teacher because you told your parents when you were little that you wanted to be a teacher?"....."Yes Jason." 


Too cute ><

Reading Rocket and the ABC's

The Chinese school year is winding down and the kids are getting ready to move up. I've been thinking of ways to get the kids excited about learning to read. 

AGE 6: Literacy 

My version of the learning rocket: using the lakeshore alphabet reader series, the kids move their clothes pins down the rocket as they read through the set. X,Y,Z Blast off!

AGE 5: Introduction to the Alphabet

Using buttons, pipe cleaners, mimi pom-poms and macaroni, the kids worked through the letters of the alphabet. I took pictures and made a large A3 Ipad for the kids to play with. They are so cute pressing the ABC "icons".

4 New Games

Thanks to pintrest I've been in craft/creation over drive. The past two weeks I've put together four new games that have been big hits with the kids.

1. Ring Toss- A classic, but hadn't thought to use it until now. I have the kids throw the larger rings the first round. If they get one ring, they repeat the word once. Two rings, twice, and three rings thrice. The second round I brought out the small rings with a dramatic "dun dun dunnnn" and the kids all gasped. So cute :)
To make the game a hot glued a paper towel roll onto a hard plastic plate. The rings were adapted from a different game and worked perfectly.

 2. ABC Bottle Cap Soccer- I printed out the alphabet and taped them to the tops of bottle caps. The game I played with my classes was a team game. I made two goals and set the basket of caps in between two kids from opposing teams. The kids get 10 seconds to flick as many caps as they can into the goal. The kids need to identify the letters correctly to get points for their team.
This game would also be perfect as a one on one activity without a time limit. The variations are endless for this one :)

 3. Bee Hive- This game is super simple to put together and the kids had a blast. I found a slanted cardboard box which I turned upside down and painted periwinkle with grass and a few buzzing bees. I glued large plastic cups on the back side and ta-da! Finished. The kids throw the ping pong into a cup and answer which ever question in in the cup. Again the possibilities for what could be put in the cups are only limited by the size of the item. I put pieces of paper with letters and stickers. The kids had to come up with x amount of words beginning with the letter on the paper based on the number of stickers. I also stick a spider, which meant minus a point, and a song card, which was a favorite.

 4. Golf- This game was a simple enough concept but was pretty darn frustrating to put together. I bought a little plastic golf club which was the inspiration for the game, but the end result was a bit different then what I planned. For this game I took another old cardboard box and cut out the bottom on three sides, pushed it down on a slant and cut holes.
I glued, cut, measured and taped for a good two hours before I actually attempted to play. I tried it with the golf club. No go. I tried it by just throwing it into the game, and even that was hard. So i put bumpers on holes 1,2 and 3 and made the game semi-playable. I played the game with my class, but it wasn't the favorite. Still, with a few adjustments, maybe someone would find this

The last idea I thought I'd share is my old mystery box. A favorite not just for my class, but has gotten so much use by the other teachers a think its time to update to something more sturdy. Every teacher needs a mystery box right?

So thats what I've been up to the past two weeks. Let me know if you have any other ideas/variations for these games! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cheers <3

First week back

First week back to school was all in all good. I love that feeling of greeting kids after a longish holiday. They've all grown so much!

So I'm back in the rhythm of things and had the best idea for my afternoon class: fake money!

Heres how it works: Each class I stick the kids names on the board. If during class they are behaving super duper or if they blurt out something in awesome english, they collect a dollar. The kids can save these dollars in little ABC wallets and can later buy something from the store. I'll keep a photo inventory and price list of different prizes up on the board so kids can decide what they want to buy with the money they earn. Genius!

I think this will work really well with some of the misbehaved boys that are bound to take my class. I have a following of the loudest, wildest boys from each class who can't wait to start afternoon English...sigh...

<update> The kids love the money system! Here's a pic of the English store I bring out once every 2 weeks:

Anyway, I'm really proud of my newest creation: a hand bound notebook I'm going to use for keeping track of recipes!

here's a link to the tutorial I used to make it: Bookbinding-Tutorial

And had to share this photo. Its a dead gecko that popped out of shirt we brought back from Thailand. Poor thing. 

Well, thats all for today. I'm going for run. I'm saying it to the world (yes the whole world follows my blog) so that I actually get my booty out there and do it.

Cheers ;)

New Semester

Getting ready for the new semester, today was full of tedious tasks like organizing a library...in another language. I can read a bit of Korean, but definite brain overload trying to get hundreds of Korean books in order. Well, finished in under 5 hours and the school is officially ready for all those little terrors to come pouring in tomorrow.

One of the highlights of the day: The school has finally been repainted! I've been fighting the temptation to skip down the hall like a little girl. :)

 Here are a few pictures of my work space and my little closet:

My messy desk wedged in between the fridge and the wall.

English material room where my desk is. I don't know what it is about this place but I love it in my closet :)

Another small accomplishment of the day: Made a new phonics game called 'Pirate Ship':

How to Make and Play Pirate Ship:

1. What you need: Three cardboard ships with sails (made with cardboard, paper and long tooth picks), a game board with various sized islands (big ones worth one point, smaller ones two), laminated gold chips, letters written on hard card with a fold so they can be taped upright. 
2. The set up: Tape a letter onto each island and set each ship at a different corner of the board.
3. How to play: The kids have one shot to try to blow their ship onto an island. If they land on an island they have to think of a word that starts with the letter on that island. If they get it right they collect coins for the amount on the island. 

 And while on the pirate theme, here is my secret to keeping even the wildest of classes in check:

The Treasure Box:

Seriously, the treasure box is probably one of the most awesome ways to motivate kids. One of my favorite things about teaching in China is the abundance of little this and thats for a penny! Collecting little things here and there is a new favorite hobby of mine.

Well, Im going to leave it here. Hope some of this was useful!

YT

Hi everyone!

Hi blogging world! I'm relatively new to this world, having followed only a few blogs and let alone writing one.  But I thought I'd give this a shot. What I want this blog to be is a space where I can share my experiences working in Shanghai, China as an ESL teacher and all the crazy, silly, sad and funny things that happen at work and in this crazy city.

So heres a break down of the basic info about my life:

The City: Shanghai

So here I am on the 100th floor of the World Financial tower in Shanghai.

My boyfriend and I came to Shanghai almost randomly. We met in Korea and were looking to spend some more time in Asia and Shanghai had opportunities for both of us. When we first moved here I had really mixed feelings about the city. No doubt about it, Shanghai is a big culture shock coming from the west. But two years later, we've acclimated quite well and I love Shanghai and all it has to offer!

The Job: ESL Teacher at Shanghai Angel's (Korean) Kindergarten

Love my job! I work with kids ages 4 and 5 (Korean age 5 and 6). I teach five different classes ranging from 6-13 kids, so small and cozy. In Korean schools kids call all teachers, SunSangNim or "Teacher", so this was translated into my name at school, "YeaEun Teacher".

So a quick intro to what my blogging aims are :) 

I would love you read other blogs about teaching English abroad. Are you doing the same thing? 

I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts, feelings and ideas with ya'll!