Seconds

If I had to use one word to describe our first week at La Escuelita Puerta Abierta, I would choose chaotic and if I had to use one word to describe our second week at school, I would choose GRATIFYING.

The change in our class in just one week has been truly rewarding. This past week, we continued with our learning of the letter A, the number 1, and our theme, Tu y Yo. In addition, we fine tuned our class-room routines and explored the use of a variety of artistic materials such as oil pastels, scissors, paint, and markers.

Books used to develop themes:

Tortillas by Margarita Gonzalez

De Colores y Cosas by Tana Hoban

Dias de Escuela by BG Hennessy

Pelitos by Sandra Cisneros

Tortillas!

This week, we finished our Tu y Yo unit focusing on a food that we all like to eat...tortillas! In rural Guatemala, tortillas are a part of every meal. They're made fresh with ground corn and cooked over a wood burning stove. Walking through the streets of Santiago, you'll often hear the clap, clap clap of women's hands forming perfectly round tortillas for their daily meals.

Miss Candelaria shared the story, Tortillas by Margarita Gonzalez-Jensen with our class. Next we created a story sequence of the process of making tortillas beginning with harvest of corn and finishing with eating the product. Finally, we made our own tortillas...and ate them!

Snack Time!

At La Escuelita, we're striving to offer snacks that are healthy and that create as little trash as possible. 10 days in, and the only forms of trash that we have produced are paper napkins and paper muffin wrappers!

Making Faces...

Eyes, and ears and a nose and a mouth....

We've been learning about our faces with Miss Bonnie in our English Class at La Puerta Abierta.

Desfile...Parade!

3 year old Liria made her first pom-pom ball sculpture yesterday morning. When she finished, she exclaimed, "Look at my parade!"

A es para Abeja

Our first week of class was primarily dedicated to soothing crying children who were beginning their first independent journey at school, practicing forming lines to walk outside, finding clever ways to transition into activities. Coordinating learning for 19 wiggly bodies is no easy task!

In between establishing our routines, we've been focusing on the letter A, then number 1 and the theme, Tu y Yo or You and I.

We've dedicated circle time to talking about favorites...favorite foods after taking an imaginative visit to El mercado, favorite activities, favorite colors and favorite pets.

Miss Bonnie has been teaching in English and our students have been learning vocabulary via art. We drew our first self portraits and practiced making eyes, noses and mouths.

We've also explored the letter A and the number 1 reviewing them in variety of ways including painting, writing, and songs.

Books used:

El Mercado Mexicano Nancy Grande

Cosas que Me gustan Anthony Browne

Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo Bill Martin

Que te gusta? Michael Grejniec

Firsts

This week has been filled with firsts at La Puerta Abierta. We opened our preschool to a wonderful group of students. 19 children had their first experience in a school. Mothers and fathers left their children at school for the first time. I taught my first formal preschool class. First scissors, first books, first back backs, first school friends, etc.

And...we all survived!

I'll be co-teaching at La Puerta Abierta preschool this year with our beloved local teacher Miss Candelaria, and Bonnie, a visiting art therapist who will be volunteering at our center for four months.

We've created an environment for our young learners that is inviting, educational, and stimulating and we have designed a creative curriculum which embraces art and exploration.

Our Buenos Dias Blog will chronicle our adventures teaching for the 2011 school year in Santiago with our 19 little students. While some days may prove to be challenging, I hope that we'll be able to return to our class every morning and greet our students with a cheerful "Buenos dias," and anticipate the fun that we will have throughout this year of journey with early childhood education.