Thursday 10 January 2013

Nursery 2

I have to teach two classes to very small people this year. K1 and N2, so 3 going on 4 and 4 going on 5 respectively.

This scares me. Very small children in large numbers frighten me a lot. They are unpredictable. If they all decide to get up and start dancing around the room singing 'I like to move it, move it', they will. Whether or not you are trying to do some drama game or poem with them.

(That happened. We had just got them settled, sitting in a circle. A moment of silence and one of the littlest girls started singing, 'I like to move it, move it' and one by one they all got up and started dancing around the room singing it. How do they know a 90's club hit?)

They often prefer going and looking at their tummies in the mirror to whatever exciting game I have planned. So I am justifiably afraid.

In fact, the N2's were impressive. Their attention span was longer than some adults I have met. But sometimes one would get a very angsty expression on their face and say ''I need to talk! I need to talk!'' Very impressive that at 3 they have already learned that they can't just say it. (More than I can say for the class of K1's.)

And when they do say the thing they need desperately to say, it's psychedelic.

"It was dark and I woke up and at the zoo someone ate it and I saw the otters and on the aeroplane I packed my pants''.

That kind of thing. And with a Singaporean accent and slushy speech it can be very hard to understand.

Of course they asked me why my nose was so big, so sharp and so pointy. I am used to it now. They also asked why I was wearing so much black colour. It's interesting because it isn't rude. They observe and they speak. So I get a genuine view of how Singaporean's see me. The adults may not be asking out loud why my nose is so big, so sharp and so pointy, but I bet they're thinking it.

No comments:

Post a Comment