Nancy's Nest: December 2007

ESL Class Exercise Time: 10:00 a.m.

Class begins at 8:30a.m. So by 10:00 a.m. we are ready for a break! We get up and move around for 10 minutes. Everyday is different. We have basic movement verbs we use...and add onto the list weekly. All of the students take turns leading us in some kind of exercise. My class like to dance. This day my volunteer helper Juli from Indonesia is teaching an Indonesian dance.

Polina and Vladimir from the Ukraine are following her simple instructions..."Move your hands to the right...now to the left...turn around..." We all repeat the commands. Often we practice our verb tenses...present, continuous present, past, continuous past, etc. For example: "We are clapping our hands...we are shaking our heads...we are putting our hands up...down..." We practice our prepositions of location: in front of, behind, above, below, etc.

One day my Columbian student Angelica taught us Cuban Salsa dancing. (We had to do that downstairs in a larger room.) Here, Yvette, the director of our program (pictured on the right) joins my class "for a break!" We all fell so much better after we have ended a vigorous workout with, "Breathe in...breathe out..."

Stone Soup: A Portuguese Fable Acted Out

We acted out the story of Stone Soup, a Portuguese fable. Alex from France played the stranger passing through a small poor village. He knocked on every door and asked for a place to sleep and some food to eat. After each villager (student) turned him away, he pulled a small stone from his pocket and a cooking pot from his coat. He filled the pot with water and set it on a fire he made in the centre of the village. As the water boiled, the villagers, one by one, were drawn out of curiosity to ask him, "What are you doing?" He told each one that he was making a delicious stone soup...and that it would taste better with one more item, maybe a carrot...which was given by the first onlooker. The next person was willing to add a potato...and on and on...until the pot was filled with one ingredient from every villager. It turned out to be an amazingly tasty soup, which he shared with all of the villagers.
After our kitchen "English Lesson" bubbled over with cooking verbs and kitchen culinary vocabulary, my students decided to share our stone soup with the needy people which go to eat at the Salvation Army Kitchen each noon hour. (We removed the stone...Angelica from Columbia kept it...for soup starter.) The following day, a few of my students left the classroom early to serve the soup at the soup kitchen.
If you want to read the whole story...go online and "google": Stone Soup/Portuguese Fable. This is only one of the many versions of this ancient tale from various countries.

My ESL Class: Hands On Learning

We decorated our classroom for the holidays...Vladimir from the Ukraine put up the wreath and a few other wall decorations while we yelled, "Be careful! Don't fall! Higher! Lower! To the right..no, to the left! It's crooked!...Now it's even!"
These are the kinds of phrases that they will remember...and use daily.

Joy from Korea showed us how to make sushi rolls... it was a great English lesson...and yummy, too!

Claudio and Angelica from Columbia are helping to make Stone Soup, which we served at the Salvation Army Kitchen the next day.

The Revelation of Rick's Upper Lip

After 40 years of wearing a moustache, Rick has shaved it off! I keep staring at him, because he looks like a different man...and I like to see his smile...which was often hidden under the bushy grey hair. What do you think? Should he keep it off, or grow it back?