20 November 2011

Mary Poppins


Pre-Reading

         My students do not yet read, but they do their darn best at it. Most of their reading still comes from looking at the pictures, and because they have memorized certain stories that we have read a lot. Their favorite book is Pato en Bicicleta by David Shannon. It is the Spanish version from a well known American author. At one point I even had the book memorized and still do, because we read it for a whole week working on sequence of events! 
        All of the kids really enjoy farm animals. When we were learning about plants, I showed them a part of the Baby Einstein Old MacDonald video, that introduced some vocabulary (in Spanish of course) and had lots of god video of things growing and fields being tended to. They convinced me a few days later to let them watch the whole video, and I gave in. But they really enjoyed it even though it is geared to a much younger audience. As far as being a teacher I actually liked the video in my class. It introduced a lot of vocabulary, it had segments on farm animals, planting, products of the farm, celebrating the harvest, and it had 2 songs in it that the kids begged to learn and continue to ask to sing every morning. 
        One of my favorite things that I picked up from my amazing cooperating teacher during my practicum and student teaching (I requested to work with her for the second after I learned so much the first), was creating books for everything. In special education and even preschool, especially if you don't have a library to utilize it is hard to find books to use that will be on the level of your students learning and be directed at what you want to teach. So this year I have taken that skill and made lots of books for the kids. 
        I have made an alphabet book, a vowels book, a Garden counting book, a book about seeds, and many more. One of the books the kids take most pride in of course is one that they illustrated. From the Baby Einstein video I decided we could make an Old MacDonald book (Except the song was En la Granja de mi tia- which is In the farm of my aunt, it rhymed). So now they have another book that they know all the words too as they turn each page!

This is the cover of our Old MacDonald book, that I drew.

Neiver and his horse. 

Marely and her pink dog.

Angela and her chickens

Some of the kids with the rest of our books; The Alphabet, The Vowels, Seeds, My Garden, The body, Plants, The five senses, Why do we brush our teeth?, and The Cookie Cutter book job

Bulletin Boards

          So again not being allowed to watch movies or TV at all, I brought a bag full of projects to the orphanage this past weekend. I sometimes feel like Mary Poppins, I only wish my bag were as cool and lightweight as hers was. I of course brought with me a bag full of nail polishes that I had gotten at the Mayorista- you buy everything by the dozen or by kilo and it is ridiculously cheap. They of course called dibs on the color they wanted immediately and started creating art on their nails. There were flowers, polk a dots, colorful french tips, and bright multi-colored finger nails all around the house. The funny thing about them is by the next day they scratch it off and do it again.
         I also finally was able to find dice, and of course now I have 100 of them cause you had to buy the bag, o well they are really useful. Kevin and I learned a fun game at a friends birthday party a while back, and knew the kids would love it, but have been unable to track down any dice. Since I now had plenty I brought some home to teach the kids. They loved it! Here are some quick instructions if you are interested it is surprisingly really fun. It is called Mennonite Madness. There is one die, one pen and everyone has a small sheet of paper. the goal is to write all the numbers from 1-100 on your paper. To be able to do that you have to roll a six. Being only one pen you end up quickly grabbing it from someone as they are writing, and quickly try to write as many numbers as you can before the next six is rolled. The girls played for like an hour. And the big sisters were helping their younger sisters write, but letting them roll- such sweethearts. 
       My big project however was to make bulletin boards for their rooms and one for the main room in each house. Kevin cut the boards for us then some of the girls impressed me with their sanding abilities, and then the creativeness began. They didn't quite understand what I was telling them they could do with all the supplies I brought. So I helped the little girls make theirs first, and then the rest copied the general idea but made it their own. Unfortunately they are not hanging on their walls yet, because I forgot to get fixtures to put them on the wall, brilliant I know, so next week they can use them. And next week I will also remember the push pins, so we can make pretty clay flowers and such to decorate those with!


Katia sanding the edges real well, and Mary hiding behind her board, they even sanding the flat sides without prompting, so good.

Completed project!




         The boys really wanted to go swimming, so they shovelled all the rocks out of the way of the door, so Kevin could get the Combi out. It was still super cold, everyone got in the water, some stayed in longer than others though!


The girls playing tag in the water
Joel trying to warm up on his towel.


       This weekend my plans were to spend one night at the orphanage and one with the Lujans since I hadn't been able to spend much time with them lately. But the anniversary of the kids school began Sunday, and it is a big to do here, which meant parades and parties at church, and not enough adults to take them everywhere and do everything and watch the baby. So he got to come on a sleepover with me! He loved it. He got to play with his friends, Keili and Josiah, even got to take a bath with them in a real bathtub which he loved. They watched his videos with him in the morning, he loved sharing that. When Josiah woke up I went and grabbed him to join us and he sat on my lap, then Paolo crawled into my lap and put his hand on Josiah's shoulder. So cute, just watching farm animals with his buddy. They played all day. Keili, me and Paolo went to the park and he was able to do all the slides by himself, because someone must have put something on them cause you can't 'slide' anymore, it was all scooting. After lunch we pulled out the big tub and Keili and Paolo swam, it was his first time "swimming" and not just taking a bath, even though it is basically the same to him but it was outside and there was no soap. Josiah didn't swim with them, he is more reserved than the other two who love to splash and scream.
      After Paolo told me he was finished I took him out, dried him off, and put him back in his clothes. It was getting close to leaving time so I starting packing our stuff. He went out to the living room where Wendy and Josiah were. However, the door was unlocked so he just walked right out. On certain days in Jequetepeque water comes through the irrigation ditches and it basically floods their yard. I went finished packing realized baby was no longer in the house and I found him in the middle of a mud puddle regretting his decision and asking for help. Of course he sat down first so his clothes were all muddy and his shoes were suctioned in and couldn't get out himself, so I had to go in after him- it always seems to work that way.

Enjoying the 'swimming pool'.

"Mama, Mama..." Said in an extremely whinny, I don't know what to do tone. 

1 comment:

  1. thanks for sharing that. again great ideas. I love the pictures too. I play the same dice game with the after-school program only we have one piece of paper that is passed with the pencil. the winner is the one who get to 50 before someone rolls a 6!

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