Oh, oh, oh Open House!

Friday, June 1st was the first Open House with the new kindergarten students. Apparently there will be another at the end of August and then nothing until the Christmas concert. This was our first Open House and it was a bit nerve racking, to say the least. Along with the songs you prepare you are also responsible for teaching an Open Lesson. Paige and I were very organized though and had a really successful (at least I thought it was and so far no mommies or others have complained) lesson with a fruit theme. We made special flashcards, created riddles and a matching worksheet (match the fruit to its shadow), thought up a "Shopping Game" (basically we made shopping lists and I asked each kid, "What do you want?" and they had to look at the list and answer "I want... 2 bananas" or whatever the list said.) and adapted a song. Not too shabby, if you ask me. I thought it was a pretty solid lesson since it showed that they have learned the names of fruits, their colors, their shapes, specific tastes (sweet, sour, juicy), their numbers and how to ask and answer simple questions. Not bad for 3 months of work.

It was a strange day though since some of my mommies were late (Kate's and Alexa's) and this caused them to leave the classroom and start bawling. It also left me in an awkward position because I'm trying to comfort them and I only have 5 kids in the class so with 2 missing it's quite the deficit. Luckily the moms were not that late and I started just a bit late and like I said, I think it went all right. I asked Paige what the mommies said and she told me they were happy so I will go with that until I hear something different.

After the lesson we regrouped and scrambled downstairs for the musical portion of the Open House. We'd been rehearsing for over a month and had prepared 3 songs: "The Eensy Weensy Spider", "Did You Ever See a Monkey?" (To the tune of "The More We Get Together") and "Not Today". I have a video of them singing "Not Today" and they are so cute and I'm really proud of them (no one was bawling, everyone was trying to sing, some words you could understand. Woot!).

Lyrics:
Mommy, Mommy, I want candy!
Not today! Not today!
Mommy, Mommy, I want candy! I want candy today!
No, no, no, not today! Not today!
No candy today, no, no, no!
Not today! Not today!
No candy today.

You can't really see it but they were jumping and trying to catch giant, fake felt candies that Paige made. Unfortunately Matt stopped recording since this was our last song and then they all held hands, bowed and waved while yelling "I love you!". So cute! I think we stole the show, but I am biased.

The other classes were pretty good and did a variety of songs. My favorite (after my kids) was Panda and Tiger class singing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". Look at my [old] boys rocking out with the sparkley guitars!! I can watch this forever and not get sick of it. Please note, Matt also took this video and that is why it sucks hardcore. If you're epileptic you might want to think twice before viewing this. I asked him why he kept zooming in and out so much and he said he thought McQueen was funny or something and wanted to give an idea of what the crowd was like, etc. Well, I want to reassure everyone that there were no earthquakes or other natural disasters occurring during the Open House performance, even if it may seem as though we were in the middle of a crisis situation.

The last 3 videos I took. Here are Unicorn class chanting part of "My Name is Joe", singing "Bicycle Built for Two" and Dragon class performing "Yellow Submarine". Trust me, these videos are awesome and all worth watching. Especially Yellow Submarine because the kids are so good (with the words- they couldn't carry a tune in a bucket).

What an exhausting day! I took oodles of pictures and smiled and nodded at tons of mommies. One of our mommies gave Paige and I each envelopes filled with 50,000 won (about $50US) worth of gift certificates. Score! Matt was also given a bottle of Elizabeth Arden tea tree scent spray (which he immediately gave to me) and was taken out to lunch after the Open House. Here are a few picture highlights.



















(1)Amber Teacher and her Dragon boyfriends Charles and Daniel; (2)Alexa (Her Mom told Paige that Alexa refuses to leave the house unless she is dressed "pretty"); (3)Libby (Look at her biker jacket! Bad ass!), Dorothy (Oh the dimples!), and Lily (Oh the orange sucker!); (4) Alice; (5) Mellissa

Funny story about Alice and Mellissa. I thought they were both so precious and usually they have no problems with getting their picture taken. That day they both refused though so I had to stoop to bribing them. Notice they are both holding pink flowers in their left hands which I cleverly gave them in exchange for a picture. Hahah, I always outwit 6 year olds! Don't you forget it!
(1)Daniel, Francisco (Yes, his Mom picked that name for him and no, I don't know where she heard it.), and Ben.
(2)The Open House aftermath. I have to admit, I was not sorry to see the weekend.