ACCIDENTS/SCARS
STORY 1: When I was about On internet there is a story about a fire that happened
SHENANIGANS
STORY 1--Singapore is a small but very modern island nation next to Malaysia. There are many interesting and exotic things there. But, one of the strangest things is a fruit named Durian. Durian looks like a green melon with really sharp spikes. The spikes are very hard and even holding the fruit is a little bit painful. But, the fruit tastes quite good. It tastes kind of like bananas and cream to some people. If you smell it, it’s very hard to believe it is delicious. It smells TERRIBLE! Some people say it smells like rotten onions in a sewer! It is a very strong and terrible smell.
2 American students in Singapore, Bryan and Dan, had tried this fruit and liked it. In fact many students at their college had made a Durian club. Every Saturday they bought lots of durian and ate it together. For the next day or two the college always smelled like durian. It was terrible, but delicious.
Dan and Bryan lived in the dormitory. In the next room, there was a boy named Stanley. Stanley hated durians. He couldn’t stand the smell. One Saturday night, Dan and Bryan and Boon Chong decided to play a joke on Stanley. The dormitory had only one phone. Dan went to another phone on the campus and called the dormitory. He asked for Stanley. Stanley went down to answer the phone. But, he left his room open. BIG mistake. Bryan and Boon Chong went into Stanley’s room and put durian skins everywhere! They put durian skins under the bed, in the closet, under the sink, behind the cabinet, in the drawers and other places! Then they left.
Stanley came back to his room. He didn’t know about the durian. He began to study. But, he smelled a strange smell. Something was wrong. He looked around. But, he couldn’t see anything unusual. Finally, he asked Dan and Bryan and Boon Chong to come into his room. He asked them if they smelled anything unusual. They tried to keep from smiling and said, “No, we don’t smell anything unusual.” They went back to their rooms.
Finally Stanley began searching the room. Finally he found 1 durian skin. Then he found another and another. He threw them all out. But, it was too late. The durian smell was already in the room. Poor Stanley. He couldn’t study. He couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t do anything in his room. Poor, poor Stanley. We tried to help him, but we couldn’t stop the bad smell. Poor Stanley had to sleep in the lobby for 2 months.
Here are some other fun practical jokes:
--Call somebody you know on the phone. Tell them that if they can name the 31 flavors of baskin Robbins icecream in 1 minute, they will win $1,000,000.
--spray shaving cream through a fan.
--put toothpaste on the fingers of someone who is sleeping. Then tickle their nose with a feather.
--put a cup of water on a door that is a little bit open.
--switch monitor cables on 2 computers. When the other person types something, type back to them as if you are a computer. Say things like “Stop typing on my keyboard. I’m cleaning it. You must pay me 10,000 won because your fingers are soooo dirty.”
--put 1-2 small holes in paper cups. When people drink, it will leak. They will think they are very rude and messy.
--Use a toothpick or a needle to cut a banana into slices. Put them through the “eyes” or black spots of the banana so nobody will know.
--If someone is scared of snakes, put a rubber snake or spider in a drawer or on top of a door where it will surprise them!
VOCABULARY QUESTIONS
- What countries sound exotic to you?
- What animals or fruits have spikes?
- How do things get rotten? What’s the most rotten thing you have seen? When food goes rotten, what color is it?
- Sewers are disgusting but important. What kinds of jobs help sewers work. (doctors, teachers, painters, plumbers, engineers, etc…
- Are you in a club? What club are you in? What club would you like to join (art, computer games, rock climbing, writing, guitar, skiing, etc.)
- Would you like to live in a dormitory? What would be fun and interesting? What would you not like about it?
- What’s the worst thing you’ve ever smelled?
- What’s something unusual you have seen?
- What kinds of furniture are usually in a lobby?
CONVERSATION QUESTIONS
- What do you know about Singapore?
- What do you know about working on the farm? Have you gone to a farm? What did you like about it? What did you not like?
- What’s a strange food you have heard about?
- Have you traveled to another country? What was strange or different there? What country would you like to go to?
- Have you ever had a strange smell in your room? What was it?
- Have you played a practical joke on someone? Has someone played a practical joke on you?
- What are some practical jokes you have heard of?
- Do you think it is OK to play practical jokes on people?
- Have you ever felt bad because of a joke that someone told or did? How did you feel?
- Are there some jokes that you should not do? What kinds of practical jokes are not good to do? What kinds of jokes are not good to tell?
- Would you like to promise not to do or tell bad jokes that hurt other people? If so, write out a promise about that here and sign it.
Signed:______
PROJECT
- Think of a practical joke that you can do. Make sure that it doesn’t hurt anyone physically or emotionally. Here are a couple sites with some innocent and fun practical jokes. You can search internet for “practical jokes” or “shenanigans” to find many more:
(science jokes)
- --grow mold. Experiment to see what kinds of food have different kinds of mold. Can mold grow in water, in air, without air, under water, etc.
TEACHER HELPS
STIMULATION:
--do a practical joke or April fools joke on your class. Tell them class will be 2 hours the next day or set up something by the door—a mild shock. Or get a fake hand and shake someone’s hand with the fake hand. Then leave the hand in their hand while they are shaking it. Or place some fake dog dung on the floor and see what happens.
--Show video clip of a practical joke from a movie. “Wild America” has several in it. Many other kids movies do too.
STORY TO TELL: COW IN THE DORMITORY
Many years ago, there was a student named Jerry going to college. He wasn’t very rich and so he had to work every morning at the school farm. Some students called him a country boy and didn’t think he was very smart. He was just a farm worker. So, one night he decided to play a practical joke on one of them. At about 2am in the morning, he went to the farm. He got a big cow and brought it to the dormitory. He brought the cow in the door. Then he brought it up the stairs. He opened the door of the other boys room. He pushed the cow in the room. Then he hit the cow and ran out of the room. The cow “MOOOOED” loudly. The other students suddenly woke up and was very shocked to see a big cow in his room. He was very scared. He ran out of the room and banged on the dean’s door. “There’s a cow in my room,” he shouted. “There’s a cow in my room!’
The dean finally answered the door. He was very sleepy and not very happy. “Why did you wake me up at 3am in the morning,” he asked.
The boy said. “Come quickly. There’s a cow in my room.” The dean slowly walked with him.
While the boy had gone to get the dean, Jerry had taken the cow back out of the room and out of the dormitory and back to the farm. So, when the dean came to the boys room, there was no cow in the room. The boy was surprised and the dean was a little bit angry. He thought the boy was crazy and had just dreamed about the cow. The boy was confused because he was sure he had seen a cow. He told his friends about it, but they also thought it was just a dream or that he was crazy. No one ever knew that Jerry had put the cow in the boys room. But, Jerry did and he had many many laughs about that story.
Condense garlic
Thaipussum/Aztec sacrifice—God’s love
EXTRAS
The Best Teacher I Ever Had
Mr. Whitson taught sixth-grade science. On the first day of class, he gave
us a lecture about a creature called the cattywampus, an ill-adapted
nocturnal animal that was wiped out during the Ice Age. He passed around a
skull as he talked. We all took notes and later had a quiz.
When he returned my paper, I was shocked. There was a big red X through
each of my answers. I had failed. There had to be some mistake! I had
written down exactly what Mr. Whitson said. Then I realized that everyone
in the class had failed. What had happened?
Very simple, Mr. Whitson explained. He had made up all that stuff about
the cattywampus. There had never been such an animal. The information in
our notes was, therefore, incorrect. Did we expect credit for incorrect
answers?
Needless to say, we were outraged. What kind of test was this? And what
kind of teacher?
We should have figured it out, Mr. Whitson said. After all, at the very
moment he was passing around the Cattywampus skull (in truth, a cat's),
hadn't he been telling us that no trace of the animal remained? He had
described its amazing night vision, the color of its fur and any number of
other facts he couldn't have known. He had given the animal a ridiculous
name, and we still hadn't been suspicious. The zeroes on our papers would
be recorded in his grade book, he said. And they were.
Mr. Whitson said he hoped we would learn something from this experience.
Teachers and textbooks are not infallible. In fact, on one is. He told us
not to let our minds go to sleep, and to speak up if we ever thought he or
the textbook was wrong.
Every class was an adventure with Mr. Whitson. I can still remember some
science periods almost from beginning to end. One day he told us that his
Volkswagen was a living organism. It took us two full days to put together
a refutation he would accept. He didn't let use off the hook until we had
proved not only that we knew what an organism was but also that we had the
fortitude to stand up for the truth.
We carried our brand-new skepticism into all our classes. This caused
problems for the other teachers, who weren't used to being challenged. Our
history teacher would be lecturing about something, and then there would be
clearings of the throat and someone would say "Cattywampus."
If I'm ever asked to propose a solution to the crisis in our schools, it
will be Mr. Whitson. I haven't made any great scientific discoveries, but
Mr. Whitson's class gave me and my classmates something just as important:
the courage to look people in the eye and tell them they are wrong. He
also showed us that you can have fun doing it.
Not everyone sees the value in this. I once told an elementary school
teacher about Mr. Whitson. The teacher was appalled. "He shouldn't have
tricked you like that," he said. I looked at the teacher right in the eye
and told him he was wrong.
I do not know any of this is happening. Annna and I are sitting up late
watching videos. We eat chips covered in sauce and drink two whole bottles
of Diet Coke. Finally we decide to go to bed. Anna takes ages and ages
cleaning her teeth. She is one of those kids who is into health. She has a
thing about germs. She always places paper on the toilet seat before she
sits down. She is So clean.
She puts on her tracksuit bottoms and gets ready for bed. Then she pulls
back the blankets. Suddenly she sees the bit of cat's poo. "Ooh, ooh,
ooh," she screams. "Oh, look, disgusting. Foul. Look what the cat's done
on my pillow." Suddenly dad bursts into the room. "What's up, girls?" he
says with a silly grin on his face. "What's all the fuss about?"
Anna is pulling a terrible face. "Look," she says in horror as she points
to the pillow.
Dad goes and examines the plastic poo. "Don't let a little thing like that
worry you," he says. He picks up the plastic poo and pops it into his
mouth. He gives a grin. "D'licioush," he says through closed lips.
"Aargh," screams Anna. She rushes over to the window and throws up chips,
sauce, and Diet Coke. Then she looks at dad in disgust.
Dad is a bit taken aback at Anna being sick. "It's okay," he says, taking
the plastic poo out of his mouth. "It's not real." Dad gives a laugh and
off he goes. And off goes Anna. She decides that she wants to go home to
her own house. And I don't blame her.
"Dad," I yell after Anna is gone. "I am never speaking to you again."
"Don't be such a baby," he says. "It's only a little joke." It's always
the same. Whenever a friend comes over to stay, dad plays practical jokes.
We have fake hands in the trash, exploding drinks, pepper in the food,
short-sheeted beds, and Dracula's blood seeping out of dad's mouth. Some
of the kids think its great. They wish their dads were like mine. But I
hate it. I just wish he were normal. He plays trick on Bianca. And Yasmin.
And Nga. And Karla. None of them go home like Anna. But each time I am so
embarrassed.