a comfortable cup of tea

a comfortable cup of tea

Sunday, June 22, 2008

... kindergarten idioms ...

I recently read a blog that referred to the classic idiom "little pitchers have big ears" to which a reader commented:
The quote is "litte PICTURES have big ears"...not pitchers! too funny!
And yet another reader commented on the comment with:
YOU are the "funny" one. It IS INDEED PITCHERS. Do a little research before you accuse someone of being wrong: http://www.answers.com/topic/little-pitchers-have-big-ears

PHEW! Glad it wasn't my blog! I realized while teaching kindergarten that 5 and 6 year olds hadn't yet been adequately exposed to the oral learning of idioms and therefore had no idea what they were or meant. I took the opportunity ... you probably think I'm going to say "to teach them about idioms and their meanings" ... NOPE! I gave them the first part of a classic idiom, let them complete the sentence and draw a picture of their saying, and then I put them together in a little booklet that I use when I teach workshops on multiculturalism and diversity training. Here are a couple from my collection:

An apple a day makes apple juice. (That's a juicebox and an apple!)

A penny saved is in the water. (That's the bottom of a fountain!)

People who live in glass houses shouldn't kick their houses.

Where there's a will there's water and a bucket. (That is a wEll with water in the bottom, some bricks at the top ~ before the bricklayer got tired ~ and a bucket hanging from a rope!) Do you suppose this little one from the past could be the present adult who left the comment mentioned above about the pitcher being a picture?! :-]

A bird in the hand can't fly.

I hope you get as big a kick out of them as I do. And you must admit, my students were bright little people! I've MANY more where those came from. Maybe I'll share the rest in short increments.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So cute. And you're right children are often more astute than adults.

Amanda Jean said...

those are so cute! my boys are around the same ages (5 and 7) and it's fun to see how they think.

a comfortable cup of tea ...

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