放了一個暑假, 開學第一堂, 我問孩子最近有發生什麼事情？有人說颱風, 有人說地震….不錯,
對周遭的生活還是很有感受的！
First class after long summer, I welcomed kids by asking, what’s going on lately? Some say Typhoon while some said Earthquake.. alright, at least they all “felt” sth from surroundings but not just some cartoon or stuff like that.
我接著問, 那有人知道最近世界上發生了什麼嚴重的事情嗎？面面相覷搖搖頭…
So I keep going, anyone knows what’s happening now around the world? Something REALLY BAD!! but, as I expected, no answer..
什麼是雨林？
What’s Rainforest ?
今天的主題是埃及, 上過第一堂課的孩子們都知道尼羅河是世界上最長的河流之一
我順勢問那另一條最長河流之二呢？大家都不知道答案, Lara老師就自問自答啦～
Today’s theme is EGYPT – part 2. Kids who were in part 1 class all know that NILE is one of the longest river in the world. How about the other one? ya, it’s AMAZON RIVER ( I made a joke about Amazon deliver, but of coz, no one laughed LOL )
亞馬遜河 Amazon river
地球上大部分的雨林位在哪裡？where are most of the Rainforests in this Planet?
於是我把亞馬遜大火的狀況, 前因後果跟小朋友們分享, 我們開始討論為什麼會有森林大火？人為縱火？why?
So I represented the pictures BEFORE/AFTER of Amazon, beforehand, I introduced the concept of a RAINFOREST. Then the reasons caused the fire, what’s happening and why? Then here comes the huge discussion! ( that’s my favorite part of the class! DISCUSSION!! )
因為他們要賺錢！！ MONEY ！！
Lara : 賺錢為什麼要放火燒？ Why burn the forests for money?
孩子：因為他們要砍不完木材, 所以要把沒砍掉的燒掉, 讓別人拿不到！ Kids : Becoz they can’t cut them all, so they burn out them all so others can’t get it! (so direct & honest….)
孩子：因為他們想把動物燒死…. Kids: Becoz they wanna burn the animals…(hmm…that’s a bit cruel.. )
Lara：那些都是造成的後果, 而不是原因！第一個回答才是真正的原因！
沒錯！他們想賺錢！雨林太多樹了, 放著賺不了錢, 所以他們要砍掉
樹木, 才會有空間, 才能賣掉空地, 拿來養牛, 種東西…等等
那所以…他們想要賺錢燒火, 跟我們有關係嗎？？ Lara: Well, these are Consequences..but not the Reason! What you’ve said at the beginning, that’s the answer! Exactly! Money is the reason! There’re too many trees in rainforest, people can’t “make money” from it, so they want to cut off the trees and sell to some merchants, who will use the place to crops or dairy farming..etc. So, they fired to make money, do we care?
孩子：……..沒…關係吧？……(黑人問號) Kids: hmm…maybe…not really?
Lara : 你們知道人類能活著是因為我們要呼吸…..? Lara: Do you know how human being can be alive? ( we breathe..? )孩子：空氣！ AIR! (oxygen)
Lara : 正確！那空氣(氧氣)是誰製造的呢？ Lara: Correct! The who/what produces most of the air (oxygen)?
孩子：樹木！ TREES!!
Lara : 沒錯！那哪裡樹木最多？ Lara: Exactly! And..where has most of the trees?
孩子：森林！(ya..aka. 雨林) Forest! (aka. rainforest)Lara : 好, 那我現在拿出碼表, 我們來試試看, 暫停呼吸20秒～ Lara: Ok, let’s try to hold our breath for 20sec, would we?
老師！不能呼吸好累喔！老師…我沒辦法了啦！！
Teacher, I can’t do it! it’s so exhausted!!
是的, 現在在燃燒的亞馬遜雨林提供了我們地球 20%的氧氣, 也就是說, 每呼吸1.6分鐘就有20秒的氧氣是從亞馬遜雨林來的！如果燒光了(其實不用燒光, 燒到一個程度就是不可逆了) 那…我們的空氣就會變少了…呼吸..就會變困難了…那你覺得遠在南美洲的亞馬遜大火, 跟我們有沒有關係？？
Yes! I know it’s exhausting! The burning Amazon forest provide 20% of the Oxygen to our planet! which means, every 20sec from 1.6 min Oxygen is provided by this area. If it burns out ( not even to the end, just to a certain points, then it’s irreversible ) If there’ll be not enough oxygen on the earth, then we’ll have problem to breath… so, do we care about this far away Amazon forest fire? I think we DO! and we SHOULD!
孩子們的反應很真實, 討論完後一個女孩大聲的說：
a little girl said ….
某些大人們的自私, 讓下一代, 下下一代…沒有了未來, 很可惜的是, 人類就是這麼的短視…我們能做的, 除了悲觀外, 也要努力讓自己, 以及下一代對世界跟地球更有意識存在! 也許, 未來的他們能做得比我們更好！
Becoz of certain adults’ greediness, our kids, kids of our kids…will be suffered. Sadly, this is us, this is human being….what we can do now is, except for being passive and sad, we can at least try to be more aware of this world, of what’s happening in the planet and also teach our kids about this. Maybe, let’s cross our fingers, they can do better than us!
