Legos

   On Wednesday morning, I put on a pair of pants that I wore the previous week, and found this in my pocket:

   I do not remember exactly when I confiscated this toy from a 1st grader during a lesson, but I'm not sure what in the world to do with it now...or who it belongs too! Maybe mystery child should've thought twice before he decided it'd be entirely appropriate to play lego starwars while we were discovering what sound the letter "h"makes. (If you've ever worked with young children...you understand that collecting toys throughout the day can be a regular thing).  Last thing I want to do is announce during a lesson in what is jibberish to my 1st graders "Hey little angels, whose toy is this!?" Something as small as that would cause mad chaos with my 1st graders. You know how in America if you would ask that to a group of 6/7 year olds they would ALL be spouting out responses at once and claiming it to be their own? Same thing would happen here...only all in Russian, more physical fighting, and would end with children in tears...tattling to me..not in English. So I think I've decided that if my 1st graders are good this week (.....?..) I'll just slip this lego man on a bench or something during playtime. By the way...children fighting each other seems way more acceptable here than in the states, and makes me feel completely uncomfortable and sad. Being that the children do not listen when I say "Stop" (and in Russian, the word for stop...is stop...so I know they understand)...on a daily basis I am physically prying 1st grade children off of each other before someone gets hurt. They may just be "playing"...but I do not like it, and even a "play" fight can lead to a real fight.

    I am not joking when I tell you how challenging and difficult my 1st graders are. Some of the English teachers who have been here longer, have told me that it takes the kids time to warm up and listen better to their English teacher (especially the little ones with minimal knowledge of English). And I am (very) slowly seeing progress.  When I walk them through the hallway, I'm lucky if I can get them to be mostly quiet without fighting each other for literally 1 second. I often feel like I am leading a zoo parade  throughout the school. I found what sometimes works is if I act like we are tiptoeing and on some sort of secret mission..the kids will copy in the hallway (for like 30 seconds). On Friday, I had two little girls viciously fighting each other over who got to hold my hand in the hallway. Maybe there are still scratch marks on my poor little arm/hand. I ended up just prying my arm free and holding it high in the air out of harms way..as the girls then tried jumping to grab it. It's every 1st grade teacher for themselves out there.  I've never experienced this kind of behavior before.  I swear, after I make it through this year with the 1st graders, I can make it ANYWHERE. Mr. Sinatra had it wrong. I'll be superwoman.

    With that said...my 2nd and 3rd graders are a totally different story! For the most part, they try hard, know more English, listen, are pleasant, and are a lot of fun to teach!  

    My 2nd graders are learning about the difference between a public place, and a home. I created small houses out of old boxes and colored paper, and had the kids use clay to furnish the house:

Here is a before:

  

Here is an after:

I think they did a great job! I mean, it looks better in person...but these kids are very creative, and I enjoy that so much! They surprise me! I particularity like the ladder and fireman's pole just to the left. I want to live in this house.  

Here is an after with some sweet students (you can see the fireman's pole better):

...before they started the furnishing, I asked them to tell me names of rooms in a house. The girl who is pointing in the back said "Swimming room!" It seems I forgot to build that one into this house...

Here is a photo of the house furnished by my other group of 2nd graders:

I enjoy the lighting fixtures...and the "cheese couch". Yes, it has been officially named by it's child builder as the "cheese couch". Can you find what I am talking about? 

You can't really tell...but one little rascal decided to put a toilet in the study. I let it happen because it was funny, and they obviously knew a toilet did not belong in the study (they were just being silly children).  It is the purple clump of clay in the right corner upstairs...and yes, it is facing a television. What a convenient study room. 

     The word for glue in Russian sounds something like "clay". So I told the 2nd grade Russian teacher days before this lesson that I will need "clay"...and I meant actual clay.  When I arrived for this lesson...she handed me a box of glue sticks. WIN. 

    In 3rd grade I had my students create family trees. We used real twigs...they were pretty excited about that. Here is my model I made as an example for the kids:

     Some Russian teachers I work with saw the photos of me with Cecile...and said things like "Wow, she look a copy you!" They think we look like twins. 

      I like the weekends here, because I feel like I'm a tourist on vacation.  Friday night I went to a Japanese restaurant. I do not really like sushi, so I ordered a dish just based on what the picture of it looked like.  I like surprises. It was mostly in Russian, so I don't remember what it was called..but my risk was worth it! The dish tasted good. 

    While venturing with a few others afterwards...we ran into the Bolshoi Theatre. It is so pretty at night! 

   Yesterday (Saturday) I went to the Moscow State History Museum in Red Square. It was interesting...it had artifacts from the paleolithic times...up until I think the 1800s. Almost more interesting than all of the artifacts were the beautifully decorated rooms holding all of these artifacts. While wandering around, I liked to pretend that one day my house will look like this:

Right in the middle here, I'd put a huge red velvet chair. That is where I would sit and sip afternoon cocktails. 

 This would be the room where I'd plan cruises around the world on old sailboats.

This would be my wardrobe room.

 In this room, I'd take out the glass boxes and use it to host champagne parties.

OK. That's enough daydreaming....

After the museum, we wandered through the Alexander Gardens:

The Alexander Gardens lie west of the Kremlin wall, and were laid out in the 1820s in the time of Alexander I. 

     Just before this photo was taken I think I was almost attacked by a pack of pirates. One was holding a snake, and I was startled when I saw it and accidentally exclaimed loudly "Oh my God...A SNAKE!" That accidentally got their attention. Next thing I knew, I was totally surrounded by all these huge pirates with a plethora of reptiles...trying to make me hold them! I was overwhelmed, and not a fan of snakes/iguanas/other creepy slimy creatures. I found a gap in the circle of pirates and escaped quickly. Phew. I'm actually not sure if they were pirates, but they were very creepy "Pirates of the Caribbean"-esque. I'm talking gold teeth, no teeth, dreadlocks, dirty, smelly, glass eyes, peg legs, ending everything with "arrrrrrrrrr" (ok, maybe not exactly the last 3...but you get it.)

   Hmmmm..what else happened this week..? OH, I sliced my finger while cutting an onion. I won't go into much more detail because I know some of you (like my sister) have weak stomachs. It was bad..but I still have my finger. This also happened on the hand that my piranha-like 1st graders were fighting over. Made the experience all the more traumatizing. 

   I'm getting really good at lighting my stove with a match, and pickles here are really good. 

-Gina