Middle School English Camp

          This past week Ed and I were able to travel outside of Bogota to the plains of Colombia with 32 middle school students (and 7 other adults) for a 4 day English Camp. It was a stretching, yet exciting time to spend with the kids learning about the plains and what it’s like to be a cowboy. Here are some highlights:

Middle school=junk food, right?

Teaching the milk song! (just give me some milk… moo moo moo moo!)

The first day we took a ride on the “buggy cerrero” around the camp to look at all the animals!

Oh, Give me a home….

…Where the iguana’s all roam

Monkeys!!!

Our campsite. God’s creation is so beautiful!

Worship and Devotions in the morning

Learning to rope and milk a cow…not at the same time though!

Pool time!

We did a night-time photo scavenger hunt… I think the boys were having fun!

 

They found a frog in the pool

Worship and devotions on the last day

Yes, we female teachers made it to the last day… kind of :)

The world of Jaime Duque

Yes, you read that right. Jaime Duque (pronounced hi-may do-kay) is a theme park located about 15 miles north of Bogota and, in my opinion, is one of the most randomly planned theme parks possible. At one end is a zoo with a plethora of animals and creatures to look at, while at the other end is a variety of rides. In the middle are exhibits including 2 ships in a make-shift lake, the 7 wonders of the world, a GIANT Taj Mahal, and a room with a to-scale relief map of Colombia.

Now, this park is mostly geared for children and with that in mind, we took our pre-kinder and kinder students on the second-to-last day of school for a fun outing. My kids thoroughly enjoyed wandering around and seeing the sights, as well as riding on some of the rides.

Not only did my pre-kinder friends get to go, but on the same day we ventured out, the 5th and 6th graders took the pre-kinder students from the ministry they partner with to the park as well. Imagine taking a group of poor children to Disney land for a day. That’s about the enthusiasm for this place. It gave the 5th and 6th graders an awesome opportunity to play with and share Christ’s love in a practical engaging activity.

May in Pre-kinder

For our last unit of the year, we focus on a healthy life. We talk about nutrition and hygiene.

I decided to use “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” as the basis of our talks on food and healthy eating. Through this book we review the life cycle of a butterfly, learned the names of fruits, practiced our counting and most of all talked about what foods helped the caterpillar versus what made him sick. We spent over 2 weeks on this book and by the end almost every one of my students had it memorized! As a final activity, we made fruit kebobs with the fruits from the story. Each student helped cut the fruit, then assembled their own skewer for a snack. With lots of sharp points, it was well supervised :)

 

  

Each week I have words we focus on through our lessons. I make “flash cards” to have in the front of the classroom. Since my students don’t know how to read yet, it is a good introduction to what words look like and a great reminder for me to use them over and over.

One sunny afternoon I decided to let the students play outside instead of having free time inside. At one point I turn around and see my ENTIRE class (well, those that weren’t in time out) on one slide, laughing and having a good time. I ran and grabbed my camera to capture this sweet moment.

May also means mother’s day, so each of my students made a special card to give to their mom. They were able to practice writing, and drawing meaningful pictures.

 

I am sad to only have 11 more days with these sweet munchkins, but am so proud to see how much growth has happened in such a short time- in their friendships, ability to speak/understand English, and most of all in their little heart’s love of God.

Alice in Wonderland- the final post

It has been 2 weeks since the last night of Alice in Wonderland and to be honest, it’s a little sad! I very much enjoyed working with the students and having to brainstorm creative answers to problems. I miss the routine of working on things afterschool and having to juggle all my other responsibilities (have I mentioned I like to be busy).

I wish there was a deep spiritual epiphany that came from this project, but to be honest, it was just a series of small little lessons. When I was frustrated at the students for lack of commitment, I had to be reminded I am directing to love and serve the students. When I was overwhelmed with mini crisis’- I had to rely on the Lord and trust He would see things through. When actors were doing an excellent job- it was a reminder of how we all use our talents to glorify God and not ourselves.

Since this is the last post for Alice in Wonderland- I really just want to share the rest of the pictures!