Hi friends!
Back into the routine of school. What I would do for just one more week! It was nice to see my kiddos after two weeks off though –I did miss their little faces! This week, we started our new unit about different countries. This year, we decided to use Flat Stanley –a popular children’s book about a boy who gets flattened by the bulletin board above his head so his parents send him in an envelope to travel the world.
Each one of our students made their own Flat Stanley and sent them to anyone they knew around the world. The task for these friends was to take Stanley to different cultural places around their city or country and later on we will research about the traditions and symbols of that country. After all that, we ask the friend to mail him back to us. Some Stanley’s are already starting to filter in –mine (sent to my mom in the US, is still in the mail somewhere). I have to say this project is turning out to be SO cool. Our Stanley’s have gone all over! Here are some of the pics I’ve gotten back so far:
Not too much to report this week, just plugging away with work and trying to plan my upcoming travel adventures. For those of you at home, I plan to visit this coming January or February for a few weeks, so stay tuned!
This weekend my friend Jose invited me to go hiking with her and her friends. I even got to bring León. I warned her that I am not an advanced hiker, but she said it wouldn’t be a problem. I really wish I liked hiking more but the fact of the matter is I just don’t. I’ve found it hard to enjoy the views because I have to watch where I’m going or I trip and fall! Well this hike was not easy. For starters, I learned really quickly that my shoes were not cut out for the hike. The terrain was all loose rock and dirt and my shoes apparently had lost all their traction. So I fell about 15 times (not exaggerating). León did an excellent job for his first hike! The hardest part of the hike was definitely on the way down though. We somehow got off the trail and were basically scaling the mountain on loose rocks. It was really scary and I could not stop slipping and falling. Jose had to grab both my hands to keep me balanced –it was a mess!
If that wasn’t enough, I took a fall onto this plant called Ortiga (Urtica in English) which apparently has stinging nettles. It has leaves with tiny spikes on them that get stuck into your skin and let out chemicals to make you itch. So now my entire left hand and part of my leg is extremely itchy and uncomfortable. I’d have to say this hike was probably my worst, but I was in good company and I’m glad León got to come!!
Laughable Moments:
My co-worker went to Boston for vacation and brought her daughter back “one of those balls that has snow when you shake it”. I didn’t realize they don’t have snow globes here!
My co-workers (who are Chilean) were talking about how amazing Walmart is in the states. “I went to Walmart one time and spent 4 hours there.”
We started learning about verbs this week. We were going around the class and each student needed to say one verb. “run… jump… climb… explore… pancakes!”
I was helping a student fill in a chart about the different countries he knew and I said “Well, what country am I from?” He replied “Argentina”
I asked another student what they eat in Japan (most of the kids were writing sushi or rice) I was floored when he said “cats!”
I was teaching a math lesson and decided it would be fun to use highlighters. That is until I realized that none of the kids knew how to highlight, they were underlining each word with the highlighter. So my math lesson turned into a highlighting lesson.
^^Wizards have to grocery shop too!
^^ Only my sister would tell me a horse hit my car...
