One of my best friends Catherine got me a wee chipmunk
cuddly toy from her holiday in Florida this summer. Now, it may not have been
the use she had in mind for it but I use it for the kids. I use it to
make them behave, stop crying, sit quietly and teach them about describing
things.
It's a wonderful thing. There have been kids who have been sobbing and all I've had to do is bring out the chipmunk and they smile. This has happened twice with a wee boy in LKG called Daniel. When nothing else will get him to stop crying, the chipmunk will. The LKG kids love it and have even started raking through my bag to find it. I also used it to teach parts of the body. Forgetting the fact that chipmunks and humans have very different bodies.
I've used the chipmunk in first and third standard to teach them about describing things. And it actually worked surprisingly well. They came up with some good answers after I prompted them. "Chipmunk has a red nose" "Chipmunk is soft" "Chipmunk has big teeth" etc.
They get to hold the chipmunk if they've been good or if it's their birthday and they love playing with it. They make it bite their finger or make it scurry around the table. They even try to do it's hair and just cuddle it.
One of the best things that Chipmunk has done though was with a wee boy called Punith Kumar in 1st Standard. There was one day when a lot of the classes were sitting together in one classroom and despite being told not to run around, all the kids were tearing around the classroom. Then Punith Kumar tripped and a wee girl called Jenifer fell over him and hit her head off the corner of the bench and split her head open, so there was a lot of blood. Just to let you all know, Jenfier is fine, it turned out to only be a wee cut and she's back at school and you can hardly see the mark. But all the class were quite shaken up by it you could really see that. And Punith Kumar in particular. He's usually a really happy smiley wee boy who is always laughing but he was really quiet, not smiling at all and he looked really pale. I couldn't get him to speak at all and he hardly looked at anyone. There was nothing I could do until I remembered Chipmunk. So, Punith Kumar got Chipmunk. It took a while but eventually he started playing with it, slowly starting to talk and then he started to smile and after a while, he was laughing again. The kids really need things like that and the fact that the Chipmunk managed to get him smiling again when I thought he was possibly going to be sick, was just amazing. I couldn't believe it but it really worked. So thank you so much Catherine!
It's a wonderful thing. There have been kids who have been sobbing and all I've had to do is bring out the chipmunk and they smile. This has happened twice with a wee boy in LKG called Daniel. When nothing else will get him to stop crying, the chipmunk will. The LKG kids love it and have even started raking through my bag to find it. I also used it to teach parts of the body. Forgetting the fact that chipmunks and humans have very different bodies.
I've used the chipmunk in first and third standard to teach them about describing things. And it actually worked surprisingly well. They came up with some good answers after I prompted them. "Chipmunk has a red nose" "Chipmunk is soft" "Chipmunk has big teeth" etc.
They get to hold the chipmunk if they've been good or if it's their birthday and they love playing with it. They make it bite their finger or make it scurry around the table. They even try to do it's hair and just cuddle it.
One of the best things that Chipmunk has done though was with a wee boy called Punith Kumar in 1st Standard. There was one day when a lot of the classes were sitting together in one classroom and despite being told not to run around, all the kids were tearing around the classroom. Then Punith Kumar tripped and a wee girl called Jenifer fell over him and hit her head off the corner of the bench and split her head open, so there was a lot of blood. Just to let you all know, Jenfier is fine, it turned out to only be a wee cut and she's back at school and you can hardly see the mark. But all the class were quite shaken up by it you could really see that. And Punith Kumar in particular. He's usually a really happy smiley wee boy who is always laughing but he was really quiet, not smiling at all and he looked really pale. I couldn't get him to speak at all and he hardly looked at anyone. There was nothing I could do until I remembered Chipmunk. So, Punith Kumar got Chipmunk. It took a while but eventually he started playing with it, slowly starting to talk and then he started to smile and after a while, he was laughing again. The kids really need things like that and the fact that the Chipmunk managed to get him smiling again when I thought he was possibly going to be sick, was just amazing. I couldn't believe it but it really worked. So thank you so much Catherine!
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