In Class Activities

Tiffany getting elected

India Bonita

Every year, Honduras celebrates their indigenous heritage with Dia de Los Indios or Day of the Indians, if you couldn’t guess.  They eat traditional Indian food, dance, and play other cultural games to celebrate.  They always pick a Miss India Bonita and this year it was Tiffany from first grade.  Tiffany has to be the most animated 1^st grader I have ever met.  She has a toothless smile that lights up her entire face.  They select a representative from each grade, preschool through 9^th grade and take a vote.  Tiffany won unanimously.  She was so embarrassed that I think she cried a little bit.  All the teachers have been involved in making an outfit for her, which will be a traditional Indian dress.  It is kind of like thanksgiving in that it has to do with the harvest and corn in particular.  We hot glued corn kernels in patterns on the dress and I have to say that it looks pretty great.  Last year, a dress that the school made went all the way to Panama and got 2^nd place for the celebration.  We have high hopes for this year.

Julia

Salva and the bigote

Here you have Salvador with a drawn on mustache.  Salvador is one of my favorites.  He has such a grown up sense of humor and laughs at all the right things.  He is a decent student, but has one of those personalities that will take him far on its own.  He doesn’t necessarily act out in class, but if he isn’t paying attention or is doing something that he isn’t supposed to be doing I threaten him with a “bigote” or mustache.  Everyone secretly wants a bigote but we play it off that it is a punishment.  The kids in 4^th grade will get in legitimate fights with each other.  Specifically, they will just haul off and kick someone.  Salvador and Julia do this in particular to each other.  They are the two leaders in the class I think and I also think they have a crush on each other.  I have been teaching them how to ask questions like, “Do you want, Do you need, Do you like, Do you love.”  So I say things like, “Andrea, do you like Juan?” Andrea will vehemently deny liking Juan, but when I ask Julia if she likes Salvador she will get quiet and have a surprised look on her face.  It is so funny because they are always basically kick boxing.  I really wish I could upload some videos I took of them play fighting but the internet is too slow.  

Cake

About to blow out the candles

Faviola turned 10 the other day and we had a little party during English class.  Her dad came in about a week before to ask me if it was ok.  He said, "Hey, I was wondering if I could bring in a Pinata and some cake for Faviola's birthday.  It is just a small cake and a small pinata, it will only take like 15 minutes.  Well, the celebration lasted well over an hour. It was a huge pinata and a decent sized cake, soda, and gift bags for everyone.  If I thought my kids were on fire before, after they got all that sugar in them they were intolerable. We had a little dilemma with the pinata.  The ceilings are like 13 feet high and we needed something to hang the pinata on.  So her dad was like, "Hey, just stack two desks on each other and climb up and hang the pinata."  I said, "Man, I don't really feel comfortable doing that."  He said, "Oh, you can do it, come on."  Couldn't really argue with that.  So I balanced on two stacked desks and threaded the rope through the support beams so we would have a proper pinata.