Show & Tell - Trial

I shared the school's letter on Term 3 Assessment and the dreaded Show & Tell is included this time.  The school is kind enough to let the students do a Show & Tell practice with the topic "Me" ONLY in Chinese class, 2 weeks ago they sent a letter to parents about this, the only problem no date was indicated in the letter.  We waited for another letter to let us know the date, nothing came that week.  We did not prepare any thing.... No letter on the 2nd week but DinoBoy says there will be a practice.  I asked and probed him but he did not know the date.

Last Friday I was talking to Catherine and she said her girl is having the Show & Tell practice on the following Monday.  I panicked, asked DinoBoy whether is it the same day.  He first answered that he had already done the Show & Tell then he said that its on Monday.  That weekend we prepared for Show & Tell;

老师、同学们大家好！我是来自一年级第X班的XXX。

今天我要跟大家说一说我自己。

我今年七岁，我最喜欢的颜色是绿色因为它是大自然的颜色。我也喜欢种花，我带来了一盆我刚种的豆芽。

我也喜欢读故事书，因为可以增加我的知识和语文能力。

我希望大家听了我的介绍后会更了解我。

谢谢！

Translated into English;

Hello Teacher & fellow students! I am XXX from first grade XXX class.

Today, I will be talking about myself.

I am seven years old, my favorite color is green because it is the color of nature. I also like to plant flowers, I brought a pot of bean sprouts that I had just planted.

I also like to read story books, because it can increase my knowledge and language skills.

I hope that after listening to my presentation you will know me better.

Thank you!

Even though I wrote out the above I do not expect DinoBoy to remember word by word, that is not his style.  He is like DinoPapa who do not and cannot study by memorizing things by heart.  So as long as he got the main points I am not particular about the words he used in the sentences.  Its a very simple 5 points Show & Tell, he only need to remember them and construct the sentences while he speaks.  Well, at least it seems simple to us, he was struggling on that Sunday afternoon.  He could not remember the points, he started to blabber varying out of topic, mixed up the sequence etc.  He really cannot perform under pressure, we cheered when he got all the points, we encouraged when he forgot about the next point and we took a short break before trying again a few times with mistakes here and there.  Eventually after 3 hours we decided to stop as he got it almost correct and we feel that he should do ok.

The next morning, while DinoBoy was lazing on the bed waiting for me to get ready, I asked him to recite it again.  This time he said it out smooth and easy, without flaws, I was so happy that I clapped loud for him.  He was clearly pleased with himself too as he was grinning from ear to ear.  So we went to school feeling confident (Chinese lesson was first that day) and with our little pot of green bean.

This was taken today, they were still green bean when we brought it to school on Monday

That evening when I see him in school, the first thing he said to me was "Mummy, I remembered wrongly, the Show & Tell is next week."  I frowned, as next week is the Show & Tell assessment, NOT the practice.  Then he said it so casually "Oh, the practice I did it already last week."  I was speechless.... besides wasting our effort yesterday I started to wonder if he fared well that day.  Anyway there is nothing I can do but hope for the best.

Yesterday I received the result and I was not happy about it, he scored in the range "5-6".  I can't tell DinoBoy that he did good or bad because I really do not know what he did!  Ok, that reminds me that I will have to speak to him about this and find out as much as I can what he did that day (which day??? Remains a mystery).  Catherine said this morning that I should be happy that he got such a result and not worse because he went without any preparation.  Alright, at least that is my consolation while it reaffirms our believes on DinoBoy's ability to adapt to the situation and speak comfortably in front an audience.

Now, we shall work on the Show & Tell assessment with the topic "My Toy" this weekend.  As of today, he has yet to decide which toy he wants to bring and talk about.  In his own words "I have so many toys that I don't know which one to choose."  *face palm*  Ok, I spoil the boy to bits and bought him too many toys for the passed years.

Let's hope he will be able to come up with a choice these few days so that we can start working on it and this time he better score higher marks!