I have to add this Anne Matava story to my list of favorites in terms of basically kicking ass:
Let’s Start!
were just about to eat
Let’s start!
started to
The Smith family were just about to eat. Dad said, “Let’s start!” They started eating, and there was a knock on the door. Britney Spears came into the house and started barking. Dad said, “We were just about to eat.” Britney Spears said, “Oh, excuse me,” and left.
Dad said, “Okay, let’s start!” They started to eat, and there was a knock on the door. Tom Brady came into the house and started to dance like a ballerina. Dad said, “We were just about to eat.” Tom Brady said, “Oh, excuse me,” and left.
Dad said, “Okay, let’s start!” They started to eat, and there was a knock on the door. Zeus came into the house and started to flirt with Shelby (one of the daughters.) Shelby started to flirt with Zeus. Dad started to tickle both Shelby and Zeus. It was a funny dinner.
[ed. note: When the family was just about to sit down to dinner, and there was a knock on the door (the Combien de Fois Door Knocker kid was hired and a big hit on this one), in each of my classes the cops were at the door. Coincidence? Or just the world my Latino kids live in every day?]
6 thoughts on “Let’s Start!”
I cannot access the German Matava scripts on this site. I would love to look at them. Any suggestions?
They’re all in English and whatever language we teach we translate while teaching.
HOWEVER, Matava is a German teacher and may have this in German. She’s reading here these days so we’ll see what she says.
(As I mentioned somewhere else a few weeks ago, as a point of interest for those interested, she is now teaching French in another school in Maine.)
I was wondering why Anne was talking about French now. Anne, are we supposed to be happy you’re teaching Français now or sad that you aren’t teaching Deutsch?
I don’t have the scripts typed up in German anywhere, but if Charlotte or anyone else would like a certain script or two in German, it would be easy for me to do. Just let me know. This one is a favorite of mine, because “let’s start” is “fangen wir an!” in German, and I always sing it to the first 4 notes of Beethoven’s 5th. It’s pretty funny. Then I have the kids echo it in the next four notes. It’s also how I used to start the classes when I taught German. Will have to come up with something comparable in French. “Commençons!” doesn’t really fit with the Beethoven.
Also you know another reason why this story really works is that visually it is so funny. Here you have a family seated all ready to eat and someone bursts in and starts doing something bizarre. The best scripts are fun to watch.
Anne, this story DOES rock! I like it for the same reasons you say, a family is sitting (quietly of course) so all the attention is off of us, and on the QUIET actors, when all of a sudden one of them starts doing something ridiculous.
Side note for Spanish teachers. I use “¡A Comer!” for “Let’s Start” because in Spanish it to me is a more common phrase to say just before eating.
In my classes it was a policeman who burst in on a father whispering to his family “Let’s start!” at the dinner table and:
1. the policeman started singing “Amen!” (I had to get in behind him and poke him on the shoulder à la Susie Gross and sing it while he lipsynched it because I have such a far far better voice than my students, which really pisses them off but what can they do I am an opera dude…).
2. the policeman started “Where are the donuts?”
3. the policeman started singing and dancing “la-la-la-la-la- la-la” three times very fast.