Our Indian Guest

Our Indian Guest
04092008 (Thursday)

a) Brainstorming questions
* We discussed about questions for Teacher Karen, our Hindu teacher. She was very happy to receive the Invitation Card yesterday.
* JN : Ask her about the different colour dots on the forehead.
* ZY : Ask her about their food. Do they use hands to eat.
* ZYg : Ask about her language.

b) Teacher Karen
* They were very happy to have her in the class. The kids asked her the questions.
TK : These dots are called “pottu”. Red pottus are for married people. Unmarried people put on black pottus. White pottus are for prayers.
JN : What is prayer?
TK : When you go to the kuil to pray. Look at this picture. You can see the Indian people married in the kuil.
ZY : How do you eat?
TK : Traditionally, we use hands. Our food including tose and roti canai.
ZJ : I can see roti canai at a restaurant.
TK : Put your hands and say “Vanakam”. It means, “Hello, how are you?” Nandri means “Thank
you”.
TJ : Some children like saying “Ampu ne neh”. Is that good?
TK : Oh, no! That is a very bad word. It means “bad” like…..”stupid”.
* The kids waited to be fed by Teacher Karen tose. They enjoyed it except JH who did not want.

c) Baking roti canai
* We talked over the ingredients to bake roti canai.
* Flour, water, salt, sugar, margarine, eggs.
* Each of them took turns to assist me. Cut the packet of flour, carry the bowls, pour the water, break the eggs, knead the dough.
* They enjoyed kneading the dough. They saw how the flour transformed into a big dough ball.
* They learnt that warm water can dissolve the salt and sugar better. Otherwise, the roti canai will turn into a roti pasir…they laughed…haaaaaa!
* We took about 30 minutes to knead the dough. We would be toasting them in the afternoon.