What are the words you can describe yourself with?

“Energetic” and “imaginative” best describe the 4 year-old kids. My daughter Sofia fits perfectly into this description. Every Saturday and Sunday as soon as she opens her eyes, she asks “Mom, what are we doing today? Where are we going?”, therefore I need to be prepared with a plan A, B or even C to channel all that energy and imagination.

Last Saturday, it was effortless though, because the Chinese New Year Celebration took place at the Art Museum in Myrtle Beach. So, there we went…; it included an array of different activities she really enjoyed such as story telling, crafts, face painting, eating with chopsticks, etc. This year it is the year of the Tiger, so everything revolved around this fierce feline.

Besides the fun and the insight we got from the Chinese culture, I also got some material to work with in my classroom: the Chinese Horoscope. Each sign is represented by an animal that is thought to dictate personality traits. For instance the description of people born under the Tiger sign read as follows:

“Tiger people are sensitive, given to deep thinking, capable of great sympathy. They can be extremely short-tempered, however. Other people have great respect for them, but sometimes Tiger people cannot make up their minds, which can result in a poor, hasty decision or a sound decision arrived at too late. They are suspicious of others, but they are courageous and powerful. Tigers are most compatible with Horses, Dragons and Dogs.”

When I ask my students to describe themselves, they usually say “nice”, “friendly” or simply “I don’t know”.

Teaching adjectives using these short descriptions hopefully will make them more tangible and everyone will be able to connect to their own personality traits. In addition, their vocabulary will increase tremendously! In my classroom, I plan to use Burke’s Vocabulary Square as it will be really effective to teach these words as well as create the mental visual my students need to incorporate into their own vocabulary.

Can you name 5 adjectives to describe yourself? Which is your Animal Sign?