The Air Emergency

Hello lovely amigos!

It’s been an intense week –the kids are getting tired, and everyone is in need of a break (our 2-week vacation in July can’t come soon enough). We are almost at the halfway point of the school year, which is unbelievable.

^^ Of course we had a birthday celebration

This week, we dealt with many many social and emotional conflicts in my classroom. We always have our fair share in 1C since our classroom is home to some special friends, but this week in particular was draining for all.

We continued to learn about materials this week and how to classify what a material is made out of. I’m super proud of the interactive bulletin board Dani and I made. As a class, we decided the attributes each material had and then pasted the vocabulary together. We also did a round-robin activity with the whole first grade where each class was a different material. Dani and I were glass, so we decorated our room with all sorts of things made of glass. Each class rotated to learn about each material –it’s a great activity for the kids, but for the teachers it’s exhausting. We had to teach the same lesson on glass 5 times in a row. We showed the kids how light, force, water and heat affect glass. The kids’ favorite was definitely force because we asked a volunteer to come step on a light bulb and obviously it broke.

Early morning on Thursday, Chile declared the air quality was unhealthy and therefore declared a restriction on driving. When this happens, the government informs civilians that drivers with license plates ending in certain numbers are not allowed to drive for the day. It’s crazy because they inform the people sometimes only hours before the morning rush hour.

Coincidentally, a pipe burst in main metro line that same day, deeming the metro shut-down just in time for the morning commute. As a result, the driving restriction was called off. That morning was just a mess, there weren’t enough taxis for all of those who normally take the metro. Luckily, I live close enough to my carpool that I was able to walk to where we normally meet. The other lady who goes with us was not so lucky. She actually stayed home for the day because there was no way she could get to work! I’ve almost been in Chile for a year and the metro has never broken down before! Thankfully, it only lasted a day.

This week, León and I went to the dog park many times. There is a group of people who meet every night there. León is starting to become less awkward and is actually playing with the other dogs. The last time we went however, he wouldn’t stop humping the biggest dog there so I decided it was time to leave… I love going to the dog park. I feel like I’m with my people.

This weekend I went to check out the lock bridge I saw in the car one day. Very similar to the lock bridge in Paris (RIP).

Laughable Moments:

We were teaching the kids about nouns and we told them a noun is anything you can take a picture of. We passed around a camera to each kid for them to try. The first student took the camera, turned it around and took a selfie.
I was told that on the Fourth of July, the kids at SC are told they can dress up in red, white and blue or cowboys. Cowboys?!
My friend was telling me that she was on hold for so long that she decided “to hang”
My friend was telling me about a movie "She was a stewardess and he was a passenger and they had a crash" Me: "Wow! So they died?" She meant they had a crush on each other.
My student named his pet hamster Gary. I love when animals have people names like Kevin or Kyle.
On the day of the air restriction, the school told us we had to tell the kids not to run at recess because the air-quality was bad. Yeah that didn’t happen…