Try it, try it!
A couple months ago, I first read the book Green Eggs and Ham to my Pluto Class. It's a pretty long book, all things considered, and the first time we read it, they didn't quite get it. But I left it in the class for them to look at during their play time and they asked me to read it again. Once they had figured out the story, they were entranced with it, and now they adore this book.
The themes of the story have become a part of our class now, and it's really funny to watch them when we have snack as they act it out. One of them will say, "I don't like that!" and the others will chime in, "Try it, try it!" Then whoever said they didn't like the snack will pick it up and look at it with a very skeptical look - their imitation of the grouch's face before he tries the eggs and slowly put it in their mouth. "Mmm! It's yummy! I like it!" they will say, and the rest of the class will cheer. It's become a game with them - someone, usually JaeHyun, will start it, and then they will go around and each student will do it. They like to pull me into it too - "Ms. Rivera, tell me 'try it'!" and I of course oblige them.
Michelle, one of the girls, has this huge crush on JaeHyun, and it's adorable to watch. She's always hugging him when he comes in the morning, and telling him that she loves him, and JaeHyun, fully expecting everyone to love him and find him adorable, accepts it all as a matter of course. I think it's cute, but a part of my mind is also, "Michelle, you could do better." She's really smart and already reading, and speaks very fluently. JaeHyun is smart too... but it seems like if kindergarten dynamics are any indication, a lot of really smart Korean girls go for guys who are just not on the same level as them.
Clara, not to be outdone by Michelle, has developed a crush on Joseph, who does not return her affections and ignores them as much as possible. He's pretty quiet and likes to blend into the background, for the most part. When she runs to hug him in the morning he keeps walking forward, and she just hangs on. She doesn't seem to mind and I think that while she does like Joseph (and let's face it, her other options are Hubert and Eugene), she's not into him the same way Michelle is into JaeHyun.
This morning during snack time they were playing around, switching seats, and JaeHyun was pretending to be Eugene so he could be the helper, so he was sitting next to Michelle. She leaned over to hug him and told him she liked him. "JaeHyun, I like you!" Clara, sitting next to Joseph on the other side of the table, copied her. "I like you, Joseph." Joseph just sat awkwardly without returning her hug and then, feeling like he needed to say something, stated, "I like Hubert."
I, of course, dissolved into laughter.
JaeHyun didn't want to eat his snack, so he went and got Green Eggs and Ham, and since he can't read it by himself, he brought it over to me. "Ms. Rivera, read this page." I read a bit of it, and then told him that I was not finished with my snack, so I wasn't going to read anymore. He seemd unfazed by this, so he turned to Eugene and said, "Eugene, read this." Eugene was a little taken aback, but he looked at it for a second and mumbled something about a mouse and a box and a car, and then said, "I don't know!" JaeHyun looked around, and Joseph helpfully offered, "Michelle can do it!" Michelle can read very well, better than anyone else in the class now that Stella is gone, but she looked a little surprised and replied, "No, I don't know."
At that point I left them to work it out on their own to go get another story book from the library upstairs, and when I came back, the three of them - JaeHyun, Eugene, and Michelle - were crowded around the book on the table, going through the pages and telling each other what they remembered of the story. It was one of those times that I really wished I had an eidetic memory, or that my brain could record and share things visually instead of just with words. I love words, but there are things that they are good for, and things that they lack.