A Peek at Our First Week

We did it!  I survived the first week with my 25 little darlings.

Our week started with Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom! (Welcome to Our Room)  I have about 8 students who are new to the school and completely new to learning English, so this was a great way to begin.  Here's our door decor for this year.  The students each made their own small coconut tree and found letters in magazines to spell their names.  I think they turned out adorable.

We've been loving the dry erase tables.  I can do small reading groups right on the table!  We've also integrated into our reward system.  I give points to tables for good behavior and I write it right on  the table.  The kids love it.  Also, with the odd shape of our room, my board has some blind spots.  I can write lists directly on the tables so each group can see to copy from the board (spelling lists, homework, etc...).  This has made a HUGE improvement in our class.

We've been hard at work all week, but I have to say that I think my favorite class this week was art.  We drew self portraits with Sharpie markers.  Then we placed squares of tissue paper over the drawings and wet them.  We left the tissue to dry so that the colors would bleed onto the paper.  When the tissue paper was dry, we removed it and this was the result.

I am obsessed with how cute they turned out.  I would hang them on my wall at home. 

  

Today we begin a new week.  It is not Labor Day here in Honduras...just another day of labor.  To all of you at home, enjoy your time off.  :)

197 Days

197 days of school.  27 first graders.  1 pencil stabbing.  100's of tears.  1,000's of smiles.  It's been a great school year.  Overall it has been the most challenging year in my 5 years of teaching.  Put 18 WILD boys and 9 sweet girls together and it's a recipe for chaos.  Throw in the fact that none of these 6 year old darlings speak English as their first language and we're crammed into a tiny classroom and you can see why I almost went crazy some days.

But don't let me fool you.  It was also one of my favorite classes.  They are some of the smartest, most respectful and sweet children I have ever had the privilege of working with.  I was blown away with their progress this year.  By the end of the year EVERY ONE of those 27 students was reading, writing and speaking in English.  Most of them were reading on or ABOVE grade level! 

In the next series of posts, I'll update what happened each month of school.  For now, I'll start with day one.  This year I did a Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom!  theme in my room.  We started with a unit on the alphabet, reviewing what they had learned in prepa the year before. 

I used a coconut tree I had and added velcro alphabet letters that I made from scrapbook paper and laminated.  We alphabatized, grouped by sounds, and acted out the story.  We also made a "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom... Look Who's in Our Room!"  display where the students decorated their coconut tree and added alphabet stickers to spell their name.  It was a great unit to assess where my students were and where to begin. 

I'm already in the process of getting ready for the beginning of the next school year.  This year I'm going to have a reading theme with quotes and displays from some of my favorite children's books.  I started cutting out my Giving Tree.  I can't wait to show you the end result in August! 

For now it's back to moving.  I am in the process of downsizing now that I'm living alone for the summer.  Actually I'm just moving right next door.  It's a cute 2 bedroom house with a kitchen/living area.  I hope to post some pictures once everything is moved over and organized.  It's funny.  I've lived in 3 houses in Honduras and I can see them all from this house.  What can I say?  I live in a great area and have great neighbors.  I am really blessed.