Teaching and Learning in Beijing : In the Classroom

Today was our third day in the classroom. There are 4 classes total at the school - divided up by age (ranging from 2-5 years old). Jacky has the two younger classes - PreK 1 and 2 - and Charlotte has the two older classes - PreK 3 and Kindergarten. We spend half our day in each of our respective classrooms. Our day is broken up by a break from 11:30 - 2:30 (much needed!) We have our lunch with the morning class and dinner with the afternoon class. The food is grown organically in the garden in the back of the school. It's very good - but they usually serve us too much! We feel bad wasting since it seems to be very looked down upon here. The kids all finish all of the meals and drinks each day. I think they are realizing to serve us less than they have been so that we can actually try to finish it! Tonight we had dumplings and we ate them all!

Typical daily schedule:

Greet parents and children in the morning in the courtyard at 7:30 - lots of Hellos and Good mornings! Many grandparents drop their grandchildren off at school.
Breakfast - Usually they want us to stay outside while the children get dropped off at different times until about 8. They said it's important that the parents "see" us because we "are the reason they pay the high tuition of the school"!
Morning Meeting - Jacky's morning meeting consists of a greeting, songs, ABC's, counting, and a story. Charlotte's morning meeting consists of reading a morning note to the students, discussing the weather, the date, and the classroom rules, practicing counting by counting the children that are present, discussing the colors of the children's clothes, and usually a song and a game.
Exercises - this is hilarious. They line the children up outside to follow the teacher (soon to be our responsibility) doing simple movements to simple songs (like "Bingo") but they refer to it as "exercise"!
Walk to the park - the beautiful sculpture park that Jacky described in an earlier post is right behind the school. It's a very busy place even during weekdays. The children each hold a separate ring on a long string guided by the teacher. We walk through the park, sometimes stopping for the students to pee in the grass. That's very common here! Usually we stop to play a game or run around before lining back up and parading back through the park. We get many looks and waves because we have adorable children on a string and because we both are American! We encourage the children to wave and say "hello!" to those we pass.
Snack - usually fruit, water out of a tin cup that has their Chinese and American name on it, and sometimes yogurt - but their regular yogurt is like our "drinkable" yogurt for kids. Jacky's tried it and it tasted the same. Whenever we eat with the kids we continuously say "yummy!" and they have picked up on that. Today Charlotte successfully taught some of her students to say "I like the food!"
After snack Jacky does Music - Sometimes she takes them to a bigger room across the hall where there is more space and instruments like bells and tambourines. Today she played a Backstreet Boys song and had them dance with the bells. They loved it, but not as much as she did!
After snack Charlotte does her English Lesson - We were given a reading curriculum with very simple books to teach the students with. Charlotte reads the simple book and discusses vocabulary and sight words from the book with her children in both of her classes. She sometimes does an art or game activity that relates to the theme or the vocabulary of the book. When she can, she tries to fit in reading them some of her favorite children's books. This week she read "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" with her Kindergarteners and they loved it! Since she read it to them she hears them shout "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" over and over with huge grins on their faces!
Lunch - Like we said, we eat with them, and encourage any English possible such as "spoon" or "food" but mostly they say "yummy!" rubbing their tummies mimicking us!
Rest Time - this is our rest time too! We get to walk home and have a few hours of a break to sleep, plan, or whatever else. Lately it's been a lot of lesson planning! Very necessary. Then we go to our other classes for the afternoon.
Snack - Always interesting with the youngest class. Very messy! Always a learning experience. "Seeds" in watermelon or "A for apple" - they know that one well as it's on every ABC poster!
In her afternoon class Charlotte basically does the same thing that she does in her morning class: An afternoon meeting, some songs and/or games, then an English lesson consisting of reading and activities. Jacky has older children who can handle more intensive lessons in the afternoon so she has a different schedule:
Music - Lots of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, ABC's, The Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle, etc! If you have any fun English songs, please suggest them! Sometimes she takes this class across the hall to use the instruments, too. So cute.
Reading - Using the books that are in their curriculum, Jacky reads to them slowly with as many connections as possible. If it says something about a shirt, she'll point to hers, and then each of theirs and encourage them to repeat after her. This is usually a time that's hard to keep their attention!
Dinner - Dinner is around 4pm! So early. But they're hungry by then, so it works. Again, we eat with them - always a teaching opportunity.
Free Time - I guess you could call it that... The parents can come anytime between 4:30 and 5:30 so we usually take out books, manipulatives and blocks to play with. Sorting object by color was a great spontaneous "lesson" that seemed to work well yesterday. This is sort of a free-for-all time, at least in the youngest class! If it is nice enough outside, we go outside to play while the parents come to pick up. This is a great time to speak with the parents and let them get to know us. They are super friendly and interested in us! Sometimes they bring fruit for their children which they often share - cherries and apples are common here. The fruit here is so juicy and fresh: "Yummy!" We leave with many Bye Byes and See you tomorrows! Then we usually hit up JianMart (WalMart!) for a beer and snack and head home. What a long and busy day! Tonight on our walk home we had the realization that tomorrow is Thursday - we've made it past the halfway point of this week!