Valentine´s Week
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2008
1
21
59
Trip End
Jul 16, 2008
Cofradia,
Honduras
Friday, February 15, 2008
The theme of this week was based around Valentine´s Day; love, friendship, treating each other nicely, etc. We made decorations for the classroom, valentines, valentine boxes, a poster of things we love, etc. I taught them how to say, "I love you." and "I love you, too." I even broke down and taught them the most awful childhood song ever- the Barney song! "I love you, you love me, we´re a happy family, with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won´t you say you love me too?" Horrible song but it fit the theme so well and they loved it. We also started playing this game where we scatter and walk around the room with our hands down to our sides and then when I say "HUG!" we all find someone to hug
Kiddos
. I have also had a few major breakthroughs with them this week. First, they are learning to say, "I will keep my hands to myself." I have been cracking down on the fighting, which they do constantly. I think that every student knows how to say, "No fighting!" and now they say it to each other without my prompting!
Also, I managed to get them to ALL sit down and listen to me explain something on the board, then gave them a worksheet, and they actually knew what to do! That may not sound big, but for the past 5 weeks I have had to explain everything we do to each child individually because they do not listen well as a group. And even then, they still do not understand a lot of what I try to do with them. This activity was identifying letters so I wrote a bunch of random letters on the board with big A´s and little a´s on the board. Then, we went through each letter and I asked, "Is this an A?" If it was, we circled it, and if it was not, we crossed it out. We did this with A-D. I was jumping for joy when they were able to do it on their own on a worksheet. Some of them are a little slower, but that is normal.
My next major breakthrough was teaching them to "connect the dots". I really did not have faith that they would be able to do this exercise, but I thought I would try it anyway. It was a picture of a bat with dots labeled 1-10, all in order
Kiddos
. I explained it on the board and then passed out the worksheet and nearly all of them knew exactly what to do! I was ecstatic!!! Thursday was Valentine´s Day, as you may know. I decided to make a huge deal about it at school because I remember how much I loved class parties as a kid. My mom was always there doing fun activities with me and my class so she was a great resource for planning my party! My Nana gave me a lot of cute ideas too! The kids were SO excited about having a party. I decorated the classroom and I asked the parents to let them dress in red, pink, and white instead of their uniforms. I had music and we all danced before class.
The first activity that I did was a spin on "Spin the Bottle". I set out 20 pieces of paper in a circle and put either a pencil or heart stickers on each piece. The kids had to take turns spinning and winning the prize. They had to tell me the color of paper in order to receive the prize.
Second, we did a version of "pin the tail on the donkey" but it was "pin the heart on the boy". I created a boy of cardboard, construction paper, and scraps of fabric. Each child had a heart with their name on it and I blind folded them and spun them around 3 times. I made the kids count with me. They thought it was great. I also did face painting.
After lunch we played a matching game
Big Hugs
. I had 8 hearts that were all cut in half with different designs. They had to find the kid with that had the matching half. I used this to teach colors and also the idea of "same" and "different". Alejandro´s grandma brought in a whole cake! I made a fruit salad and bought juice and milk. Annie brought in some sweet wafers and I also had cupcakes on reserve. We had quite a sweet feast! I had enough cupcakes left over to give to all of the staff and volunteers at the school. A few of the kids brought in suckers ("bon bons") to pass out to their friends.
Yay for having a successful week!!! It is really becoming rewarding and enjoyable to work with the kids.
Plus, I got some presents from a few of the kids! How sweet!
