Chapter 7: In the Principal’s Office and Chopsticks Holder

In which Jimmy and Porter escape the wrath of the Principal.

Talking Points

1. Here is a good place to initiate a discussion about how American Jimmy is. Sure, he was born in China and is being raised in Chinese culture as personified by his parents and, even more, his grandmother, but he is straddling two cultures and here, in the principal’s office, his reaction is both American and Chinese. How would your students react to being called in to the principal’s office? Would they be scared of their parents’ reactions?

2. Discuss the Chopsticks Tax designed to address the wastefulness of disposable chopsticks. Talk to your students about the importance of reusing and not generating too much trash both here and in China where the population is a whopping 1.3 billion. More on this later…

Activities

1.Make the chopsticks holder.

2. Give your students more practice using their chopsticks while teaching them the names of the colors in Chinese. Here’s what to do:

• Gather yarn in the following colors: red, blue, green, purple, black, white, yellow
• Cut the yarn into pieces about ½ inch long.
• Download the MP3 file of the Sounds of The Fastest Pig in the West
• Teach your students the colors using this file. The file name is in English; the sound is Chinese. After going over the colors a few times, play the Chinese sound and ask the students to call out or write down the name of the color in English.
• Distribute a pile of each color yarn to each student along with an empty paper cup.
• In random order, click on the file for a color and ask your pick up a piece of yarn of that color and drop it into their empty cup. It can be a race if you like.