Happy 'New' Year!

It's August and that means...school starts!

I am back in grade 1 with 22 students (24 on the roster but some will come later in the year), 16 boys and 8 girls. That's a lot of 6 year old boys in a confined space, let me tell you!

In the first three days, I've determined that

1. Six years olds can project their voices better than many public speakers.

2. I don't know any Korean. (I knew this before but it's not obvious every day until you have Korean/non-English speakers in your classroom!)

3. Children make me laugh.

4. I need to be at least in the process of going to bed by 9:00 to be rested and ready for a new day!

5. Kid's prayers are much more heartfelt than many adult's prayers.

6. Non sequiturs make up the bulk of most conversations in grade 1.

:)

Masai Day!

Friday, April 24 was a great day!  We’ve been studying the Masai (or Maasai – I’ve seen it both ways) for the past few weeks and so that Friday we had “Masai Day!”.

We had a special Masai guest, Jeremiah. (Not exactly a Masai name but…)  The students wrote questions to ask – everything from “how do your huts stay up when it rains?” to “what’s your favorite color?” to “how do you kill a lion?” (They surround it and sing to it.)

He showed the kids how to jump and we had a jumping ‘contest’ outside.

We ate ugali (a stiff porridge, a starch) with beans and vegetables and drank milk. (Well the kids did. As you know, I’m not a fan of milk here.)

We then watched a short video about the Masai produced by TearFund and divided into groups to spend a few minutes praying for the Masai people.

It was such a fun day! Pictures will come when I have time to wait on the Internet…

:) 

Cops and Robbers!!

Grade 1 voted to be Cops and Robbers for free dress today!

Don't they look great!!

Robber Martha

Cop Ben

Robber Mia

Detective Celia

Robber Bo
(who was sneaking around the classroom hoarding his loot all morning!)

Ingrid as a cop

Cops Ethan, Mohamed and Johannah

Cop Mateo

Traffic woman Vanessa
(She looks exactly like the Traffic police!)

Robber Kristine
(I almost didn't recognize her when she came in this morning!)

Grade 1 Astronauts

Today Grade 1 finished our Moon topic with a bang - we 'went' to the Moon.

This week we made helmets and oxygen tanks and today the kids brought 'space clothes' a/k/a long sleeves, white clothes, etc.

(Unfortunately our first two tries at getting the straps to hold on their oxygen tanks - tape and scissors - didn't work. And I only thought of using a hole puncher at the end of the day! Man! Learning for next time, I suppose.)

But the kids had fun. I played a video of Apollo 11 taking off (took about an hour to download from the Internet) and then we were on the moon. They were astronauts who had to write a mission report: what they saw, brought, did, etc.

They had lots of fun! Here are a few pictures...

Katelyn, Vanessa



Katelyn demonstrating how she would walk on the moon
oxygen tank on her back (notice the flag? She's from Texas!)


Neale with his helmet

:)

Assembly!

Grade 1 was responsible for Assembly today.

It was fun...and I'm glad it's over.

:)