Some things that I have taught the kindergartners

 I have a few more things to add to the list! In addition to "the Hokey Pokey" and the song "Stand Up And Shout It If You Love My Jesus!" I have taught the kindergartners some other things.

Early in the school year, the children were playing with toys, crying because they don't share well, and running around and yelling. After I could tolerate it no longer, I went to the bare space of the room and started walking in a circle. Some children followed me. I asked them, "can you walk like a snake?" and held my arms together and slithered them back in forth in front of me as I walked. "Can you walk like a giraffe?" I held my head high and bobbed it up and down. "Like a lion?" I made claws and roared. "Like an elephant?" I bent my head low, made a trunk with my arms and lumbered from side to side. They were blessedly quiet for a few minutes as we walked the different ways.

In the next few days, Tata incorporated those walks into their PE class. Fast forward to Friday. Once again, the children were unruly. They were supposed to be sitting quietly, but one would get up and run around and others would follow. So, again, I sprang into action to quiet them down. "Can you walk like a crab?" and showed the crab walk that we used to do in PE. Tata came in at the end of my demonstration (good thing she did, because I never would have got up off the floor without her help!). We had each child try the walk in turn. Today (Monday, March 14), she incorporated it into PE class.

Another game I taught the kids is "Statues." We don't play it the way I did as a child. I would never be able to explain that to them. But they take turns striking a pose and the rest of us watch to see how long they can go without moving. It is fun, because some of them will do very complicated things, like lifting a foot off the floor. 

A lot of the learning here is done by rote memorization. There are few books, so the teachers write the lessons on the board, the children copy them, and learn them at home. The kindergartners are memorizing lots of "poems" that teach them parts of the face, counting, nutrition, etc. On the occasion that the children draw something, they are encouraged to copy another drawing exactly. So it feels good to see that the little ones in the kindergarten class are encouraged to use their imaginations.