We beat the heat with special days

Recently, we have had plenty of special events. It has also been unbelievably hot. We beat the heat with special days... or half days.This has included Culture Day, Summer Day, Spanish Poetry Day, and tomorrow is Science Fair Day. Culture Day was an all day event with traditional Honduran dances, food, and games. My student's favorite part was the dance- and even better watching me pulled up on the cancha to dance. 

Summer Day we spent at Villa De Ada, the hotel owned by the same family who owns the school. We spent the day playing outdoor games and then splashing around in the pool. 

Here are a few pictures from the past few months... 

Reading buddies

My first grade friends love to do reading buddies with their third grade friends in Miss Nina's class. We bring our reading books, and picture books to read with them. They do a story in their reading book, or they write words they can read from picture books. 

"EN BARCO, MISS?!"

The donated books, supplies and manipulatives have arrived!
I have been working to help my students understand that we can send items and letters to other places. They don't fully grasp the concept of the mail yet, but receiving the packages help make it more concrete. I explained the boxes are full of things from my town, and they came on a plane and then on a boat to Honduras. We looked on a map and the students were amazed the packages came on a boat! In unison they responded, "EN BARCO, MISS?!"

We opened them together, and explored the new books together. They arrived on a Friday, and I stayed after organized all the supplies. It was definitely the best reason to stay after school on a Friday!

A special moment... after lunch, my students usually look at books for about 15 minutes. Part of their behavior plan involves a reward "Alphablocks" time after lunch. They earned this reward on Friday. I explained to them we could watch some Alphablocks but they responded with "No, Miss! Read us new book!" They did not want to watch Alphablocks, they wanted me to read them some of their new books. It warmed my heart!

Thank you for all those who have supported Minerva so far!

Valentines Day

Valentines Day was a very special day here... full of cake, candy, hearts, presents, roses, chocolate... etc. I have never seen so many cakes at one school. I did not plan to do any special celebration, but all my kids brought in supplies for a party! We had cake, Coca Cola, candy bags, lollipops, so of course we had to do something special. We ended the day with a small Valentines Celebration. Here are some pictures... 

Salud!

They love Alphablocks videos. Some great phonics awareness in 5 minutes videos. 

All sugared up ready to go home :)

Our own valentines celebration... Sydney and Alex made heart pizza. Que rico!

We have one new student in Primero B, of course the students were thrilled to have a new friend. We don't have school on Friday, and everybody is looking forward to a day off. It is much needed after 6 full weeks of school. A few of us are headed to Copan for the long weekend, looking forward to bagels ,the ruinas, and a nice hotel! 

100 Days of School

On Wednesday we celebrated the 100th day of school! Everyday we count how many days we have been in school with straws, on the hundreds chart, and on the number line. The students looked forward to our special day for quite a while. We made hats, necklaces, and played 100 day games.

Thank you!!

I wanted to make a special post for those who follow who have also generously donated supplies such as books, pencils, glue sticks, crayons, and chalk to our classroom! The students were absolutely thrilled to come back to school, and our new supplies made it even better.

The students wanted to say, "Thank you!" So we spelled it our to send to those who helped us with our classroom.

Catch up

I apologize for the lack of posts, the holiday season was a whirlwind down here! We were busy preparing for a holiday parade and preparing for and taking Partial 2 exams.

The First grade performed "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" in the Christmas Parade show. The students were dressed as elves.

 The first grade also presented "Hora Civica" to the school on Friday morning. Each grade is responsible for doing a hora civica. Our Spanish teacher organized the two first grades and they did a wonderful job singing the national anthems and reciting the Honduran equivalent of the Pledge of Allegiance.