"No Zone! Don't touch!"

Today I played in the dirt with some of the 2年生 boys. They were removing the weeds and tulips from their homeroom's little plot of dirt, paving the way for the incoming marigolds we'll be planting in the near future.

S-chan (one of my fave boys - and he knows it!) was crouched over the garden, and looked up with his darling eyes: "Gemma-sensei! Help, please!" How I could I resist!

About five of us were busy poking through the dirt. My hand started tugging on a tulip, which looked liked its time was up. But the boys interjected, "No Zone! Don't touch! No Zone!" That was clutch, kiddos. They showed me the areas they wanted uprooted. K-kun even said: "Leaf. Get!" While their English skills are clearly quite limited, I was touched that they were trying to communicate with me!

And then, I learned that boys will be boys. As they were sifting through the soil with their fingers and shovels, someone found a couple earthworms. I tried not to react as they inched the worms closer to my personal bubble. But if you know me, I had to shriek: "Gross!!! Ew!!! Gross!!" They laughed and clapped. Kan-kun proceeded to chop the worms up into halves. Gross!!

I taught them a new word, though: "worm." In return, I learned the word, "みみず." I don't like worms. But those kids do. They were tickled when I recalled their interest in fishing around the local rivers, particularly Gohyakugawa and Abukumagawa. K-kun forgot the word for "river," and insisted that he enjoyed fishing in the ocean. Well, I guess that's possible! The Pacific Ocean is located about two hours away from Motomiya, in the city of Iwaki...

If they try to put another worm in my face, I'll naturally yell at them: "No Zone! Don't touch!"