Sunday, May 4, 2008

Let's Learn About Traffic Safety!

It was decided at the beginning of our new school year that we would be taking our kids on monthly field trips rather than bimonthly. It's fun, for sure, but I'm wondering if my bosses are running out of ideas for good field trips. We went on one last week, although one could hardly call it a field trip as we piled the children onto their buses and got them buckled up only to drive for two minutes down the road and unpile them once again.

We went to a traffic safety school for kids, which would have been a lot of fun had it not been cut short due to the weather. The kids went inside and were forced to stay quiet and listen by several uniformed adjimas while one adjima lectured them on the dangers of the everyday pedestrian. Then they were forced to stay silent while they made us watch a hilarious (and informative) anime cartoon about a little boy from a faraway world who was too careless on his personal hovercraft and was therefore sent down to earth to learn about traffic safety with a mystical (and knowlegable) bird to guide him. Let's just say the informative and mystical bird ends up being hit by a bus. I mean, I couldn't hold in the giggles let alone 60 small children.

We then went outside where they had set up a child-sized traffic simulation where they had mini cars, mini traffic lights, mini cross walks, even mini walking bridges.

The kids said "Teacher, this is not fun."

I said "Just wait, maybe the ladies will let you play in the street after we learn about safety."

But the traffic area was purely for educational purposes, and no, the children could not have fun. Safety is not supposed to be fun! But afterwards I let my kids run around the lawn for awhile and they loved that part.


I said, "Now Thomas J., this little girl is scared to sit by herself. Will you look after her?" And boy did he ever! Look how proud he is of himself. What a cool guy.



Bright Kim is too cute and photogenic for words. Someday soon I am going to get a video of him so can all hear his lovely vocal chords.


Alex and Sally, being instructed (and jerked around a bit) by their "Safety Adjima".


Alvin was only allowed to sit in the car while the children practised crossing the road. I think it would have better prepared the children if he had been allowed to drive through a red light at random, don't you think?


Afterwards we were hanging around waiting for the buses and the kids had a blast. Here's me and my boys!
Miss Jessica and all the kids.



Alex is such a good kid. He knows so much English and he has never once misbehaved! Plus the perm is adorable.


Tag!


Su-chang remains my favourite kid by far. He pronounces his F's like P's- "Miss Janine, I'm PINISHED!" and "One! Two! Three! Pour! Pive!" He slays me. And now he has new dorky glasses that I absolutely love. Oh Su-chang.

1 comment:

A Deal Or No Deal said...

Field trips for ESL students are a lot easier here. You can take them pretty much anywhere, like a Tim Hortons or the CN Tower or the Eaton Centre. My mom loves taking her (adult) students to the Eaton Centre to do some shopping.