Final YMCA

This Friday was our final YMCA meeting. Each grade prepared a small presentation to perform for their peers and the parents, ranging from songs to skits to recitations. Our group, the fifth graders, did a recitation of a revised version of Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Overall it was a good night. The first 2 grades went, then we played some games, and then the second 2 groups went. We finished it off with a visit from "Santa" (which was Ben dressed in an ill-fitted Santa suit- his pants kept falling down. Funny, but not very Santa-like) and a group picture.

The third graders led a sing-along of "Jingle Bells".

The fourth graders read the Three Little Pigs and Green Eggs and Ham. The little girl, being unable to pronounce "eggs", instead pronounced each word as "egres", which was very amusing.

Our class. From the left: Arnold, Lily, Sammy, Jane and James (yes, we named them all)

Our fifth graders read Twas the Night Before Christmas. Unfortunately while playing games two of the students' papers with their notes went missing, so during the performance one of the girls froze a little, but we got her back on track and they did a nice job.

For our final gifts to the kids we gave them a stocking filled with candy and an orange at the toe (per Simons' family tradition). One of the kids, the little snot, pulled out the bag of gram crackers first when we handed him the bag, and proceeded to say "不要不要 (don't want)", however when he looked further and saw the candy he changed his tune to "谢谢谢谢(thank you)".

We ended the night with a group photo, followed by a photo of our class. As much as those kids drove me crazy, I'm going to miss the little monsters. It was a fun way to start Friday nights, and it was nice to see their progress. I also really enjoyed planning the lessons, I guess I really am meant to be a teacher.

We received YMCA calendars from the program as a thank you, and of all the pictures that were taken of the various classes, our class's was chosen to be the representative of the program for low income family English education. The kids were very excited :)

 Here is the video Kevin kindly took of the beginning introduction/performance :)

Lots of love,
Maggie