Want vs. Need vs Have to makes a difference

In one month (today is the 27th) I will technically be finished working in Korea. That is the date of our graduation and the following Tuesday is the start of a new semester…But this post inst going to be about me…It is about my amazing Kindergarteners and the beginning on what I am sure will turn into many more posts about how they have grown in the last year…

This month my kindergarteners have been discussing countries, continents, cities, oceans and etc. I never brought up the discussion of Haiti in my kindergarten class due to translation issues and I was unsure if, even for Korea, they were old enough to be aware of it (remember in the states they are 6/7 years old). Today my kids impressed and surprised me. Kay asked me where Haiti (pronounced like I and T—IT) was on the map. Once I realized she was talking about Haiti our class went on to discuss the earthquake and helping people and sick people and people dying for almost 45 minutes. They have a big problem listening to each other and they clamored over each other to tell me what they could try to tell me in English about what they knew about the earthquake.

We also discussed the riddle of the sphinx with more enthusiasm than I have seen on their faces in a while. They are finally getting into better parts of English for those that like to talk and want to be able to discuss different topics.

My kids are super obsessed with Egypt and mummies. Obama and Harold are obsessed with Dracula and Romania (it is their favorite country). Dan barley likes anything that is not Korean, yet he has traveled to five different countries already in his life and loves to tell about those places. He also talks constantly about “my twins” his little twin sisters. Billy has to be convinced that things in video games are not real. Rocky will stutter his way through telling us all about how he saw something on a video game or TV or in a book then looked it up and finally is attempting to describe it and tell us all about it in English. They all love to show off what they can do and talk about.

Today was a day when we completely went off topic, but they proved to be strong individuals who need to have more of that freedom to try and talk out things so that they can learn more of what they are interested in. Their knowledge of off the wall things reflects me in the tangents we go off of in class. Let them ask me about mummies and the pyramids and the difference between kings and pharaohs and though it is challenging to explain in their limited English they grasp onto what I am trying to tell them. Rocky described gladiators that fought in the Roman Coliseum when a picture of it was shown in class-and as I gave him the English he took it to heart because he wants to know it. My kids are better at talking about the universe and the world than furniture because they WANT to know the words and talk about space and could care less about furniture (even if furniture is technically more important)…
P.S. video of the discussion on Haiti coming soon!