I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep this as updated as I had been... but here's what we did this weekend. Friday Erin, Heather, EMak and I had another girls night with some wine and snacks. We made taqueños, which are sort of like mozerella sticks, but they are wrapped in dough instead of bread crumbs. They are delicious. A great snack for eating while watching a movie. It was also EMak's birthday so we had some ice cream cake too. We went to bed early because the next day was Puerto La Cruz
Saturday morning we woke up early and all the teachers went to go see the beach house that we will be renting in Puerto La Cruz. It is awesome, multiple stories, four bedrooms and right on the water. We spent the day walking around PLC and getting to know the area. Later that night when we got back to Anaco we went out with a friend we made who used to go to AIS, Arquimedes, to a party close to the school. It was awesome to get out of campus and meet more people. A lot of his friends had went to AIS when they were younger or studied in the United States so almost everyone spoke English pretty well, it was lots of fun.
The next morning Arquimedes took us to his house and his mom made us all arepas. If you don't know what an arepa is, google it, they're delicious. It was so nice to be in a more homey setting for a little while and get a homecooked meal. My pb&j sandwiches, yogurt and pasta are nothing in comparison to homemade arepas. Arqui goes back to school in the USA this week, so we're going to have to find some new locals to make us food, at least until December when he graduates.
We're now onto the second week of school which is going well. I still don't have all my kids, two are on vacation, but I was also informed that there is another family looking to send their kids here. That would mean another four year old for me if they choose AIS. In total then, there would be 9, that's a lot of four year olds.
Pre-k is going awesome, my room is starting to look cute. I have work the kids have done hanging up and that makes me happy. It's starting to look like we actually do something in here. Marcelo came in and observed the class today for about 5-10 minutes. He came in when we were tracing letters Bs. (our letter of the week) The kids were all sitting nicely at their desks and doing their work. We talked after class today and he was pleased with how my class is going. He said the kids all seem happy and it looks productive. He said he was expecting to come in and see Arya (one of my more energetic children) running around, and was pleasantly surprised to find her sitting and writing with everyone else.
I wish I could say the writing classes were as successful as pre-school. The kids here really are AWFUL writers, and they try to whine and complain to get out of writing ALL THE TIME. It's a struggle to get them to write and I'm currently annoyed that no one has ever told the 3rd and 4th graders that a story is not just one paragraph. They drafted a story for me with a graphic organizer last week, and this week I said we were going to expand and use each section of the organizer as a paragraph. They looked at me in shock. They were completely in awe that I wanted them to write multiple paragraphs for one story that they already deemed "done." The kids are nice and well-behaved, they just have such minimal writing abilities that it's unbelievable. We have a long way to go.
Time to get back to planning. Tomorrow pre-k will be using their crafted Binoculars to go Birdwatching in honor of the letter Bb.
Here's a few pictures from this past weekend/the beginning of this week.
Saturday morning we woke up early and all the teachers went to go see the beach house that we will be renting in Puerto La Cruz. It is awesome, multiple stories, four bedrooms and right on the water. We spent the day walking around PLC and getting to know the area. Later that night when we got back to Anaco we went out with a friend we made who used to go to AIS, Arquimedes, to a party close to the school. It was awesome to get out of campus and meet more people. A lot of his friends had went to AIS when they were younger or studied in the United States so almost everyone spoke English pretty well, it was lots of fun.
The next morning Arquimedes took us to his house and his mom made us all arepas. If you don't know what an arepa is, google it, they're delicious. It was so nice to be in a more homey setting for a little while and get a homecooked meal. My pb&j sandwiches, yogurt and pasta are nothing in comparison to homemade arepas. Arqui goes back to school in the USA this week, so we're going to have to find some new locals to make us food, at least until December when he graduates.
We're now onto the second week of school which is going well. I still don't have all my kids, two are on vacation, but I was also informed that there is another family looking to send their kids here. That would mean another four year old for me if they choose AIS. In total then, there would be 9, that's a lot of four year olds.
Pre-k is going awesome, my room is starting to look cute. I have work the kids have done hanging up and that makes me happy. It's starting to look like we actually do something in here. Marcelo came in and observed the class today for about 5-10 minutes. He came in when we were tracing letters Bs. (our letter of the week) The kids were all sitting nicely at their desks and doing their work. We talked after class today and he was pleased with how my class is going. He said the kids all seem happy and it looks productive. He said he was expecting to come in and see Arya (one of my more energetic children) running around, and was pleasantly surprised to find her sitting and writing with everyone else.
I wish I could say the writing classes were as successful as pre-school. The kids here really are AWFUL writers, and they try to whine and complain to get out of writing ALL THE TIME. It's a struggle to get them to write and I'm currently annoyed that no one has ever told the 3rd and 4th graders that a story is not just one paragraph. They drafted a story for me with a graphic organizer last week, and this week I said we were going to expand and use each section of the organizer as a paragraph. They looked at me in shock. They were completely in awe that I wanted them to write multiple paragraphs for one story that they already deemed "done." The kids are nice and well-behaved, they just have such minimal writing abilities that it's unbelievable. We have a long way to go.
Time to get back to planning. Tomorrow pre-k will be using their crafted Binoculars to go Birdwatching in honor of the letter Bb.
Here's a few pictures from this past weekend/the beginning of this week.
The entrance to the gated community that our house is in in Puerto La Cruz.
The apartment complexes in our gated community by the beach.
First floor living room area of our beach house.
Our private beach. This is more or less the backyard of our house. It's two steps away.
Our gorgeous private beach on the Caribbean. It was cloudy this weekend, can't wait to get a sunny day to enjoy it!
My classroom finally has some kid decorations. Apple a's and Butterfly B's (you can't see from the picture but those butterflies are also sparkly, yes I attempted glitter with the 4-year-olds)
Some more classroom decorations. Our hand print apple trees. And you can see the chicka chicka boom boom tree in the background with our letters A and B that we've learned so far. The kids LOVE the chicka chicka boom boom song and walk around singing it.
Just because I thought this is a funny picture of three of my girls building. Yes, my preschool girls have lots of sass when they build giant towers.
ooh arepas are so good! i've had them a couple of times in the city!
ReplyDelete