Casa de Fe

Nothing more beautiful than a child in prayer.

My kids have been working really hard on over all class behavior. So as a reward for a really good week, I told them we could plan a fun trip. We went to the zoo today and I have an abundance of pictures to share… so here it goes!
So here we are eagerly awaiting Pehr and Ingan to pick us up with the van. So while we wait, of course, I take pictures.
Antony sure was excited!

Nicole was ready to go!

Zoo Buddies!

Martin was in love with his backpack.

Greis and Dubs

Edy could hardly contain himself.

FINALLY! On our way!

We made it! Now let’s go explore!

Miss Dallas, over here!


Just look how captivated they are!

Here’s some of the animals we saw.

One of the spider monkeys got a little too close for comfort with Miss Ingan!

And then it was snack time!

Omm nom nom!

And then it was time to SWIM!!!

We ended our day at Miko’s and after the sugar high wore off, it was back to CDF so they could take a well-earned nap.

Hope everyone enjoys and feels like they were there!

P.S. A BIG THANK YOU TO PEHR AND INGAN FOR ALL THEIR HELP AND GENEROSITY THAT DAY! YOU TWO ARE WONDERFUL!

I know it has been long-awaited, but I finally have something fun and exciting to blog about once again. Things have been changing as we have been preparing to end the year here in a few months but that has not stopped the learning and growth in my classroom. We have recently started implementing a video series for ESL learners called Kids English Zone that Ingen brought with her that she shows in her school back in Sweden and I cannot believe how it reinforces the material we cover in our English Dictionary. Plus the kids just LOVE them. I even love them! They are so fun to watch and very good about being repetitious and at the kid’s level. Anyway, as a result of this program, my kids are speaking more English confidently and without my prompting these days and it is so exciting to watch! I find myself hearing words and phrases used randomly (Please, Thank you, You’re welcome, Hello, Goodbye) and I plan on challenging them even more as we finish up this year. I recorded them singing their ABCs which they did without any of my help… this is huge because we have been working on memorizing them for MONTHS and started from nothing-minimal! You can see the video on my facebook page if you click on this link (I am having loading trouble through the blog… and if I find a solution soon, I’ll try to insert it in here when I do). Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=44901749 .  The video is called, “Payday?”.And we made dragon masks while we were learning fairy tale words and they turned out super cute! Check out the photos!
Nicole makes a pretty cute lil dragon, right?
They couldn’t wait to take them downstairs to show everyone and play with them!
The caption for this photo is definitely, “Rawr!” This has been quite a fun month for learning new words! Anyway, I hope the photos brought a smile to everyone’s day! BLESSINGS!

So I couldn’t figure out the direct insertion for the video but I did make a direct link to my page. Just click where it says Payday? to see the video.

Payday?

So this blog is a long time coming but I figured I’d post it now anyway. We, the Kindergarten class, got some new toys for our classroom and we are really excited about them. I have been wanting to introduce more manipulatives or toys where they can build things and do more with their hands… well when Mr. Omer came back from some time back in Florida, he brought back tinker toys called Fiddlestix. I took some pictures of the kids diving into them. Enjoy!
Nicole is imitating her weight lifting buddies. I thought it was adorable because she did it JUST like them!

Check out this race car!


Reading the directions.

She said, “Mira, yo soy abuelita!” “Look, I’m a grandma!” I loved her little walk and cane.

Thank you Mr. Omer for our fun new/constructive toys!

Rosa and Jenny make Cheese Cake today. Jenny made pineapple and Rosa made blue berry. We are getting ready to eat them.

I can hardly believe that 2010 is over and that we are entering a brand new year! What an amazing year it has been, too, as I am sure all of you have been able to see via this blog and those of the other CDF staff. I just wanted to make a quick post about a lesson from our ESL class that my kids learned during the Christmas Season. One of our ESL topics was “Birthdays” and it happened to fall around the time when everyone celebrates Jesus’ birthday… how perfect! How our ESL lessons usually work is that I pick words out of our Spanish-English dictionary for them to practice saying and if I can, I like to have a picture or a real example of these words so that the kids can connect the word to what they see, hear, touch, smell, and… sometimes… taste. !Here you can see the kids in their birthday party hats that they decorated in honor of Jesus’ birthday. During these activities I like to keep an open dialogue so that they can keep saying them… it also helps me to see if they are really getting the concepts like this one and if the English vocabulary is actually sticking. Here is Edy in his hat. He was very enthusiastic about making his hat for Jesus. Here is Antony. I told him he could use glitter to decorate it and his eyes got as big as golf balls. Here is Nicole. According to her, you can’t make a hat without decorating it with a princess crown. Here is Martin. Wouldn’t he make an adorable little Christmas elf? Here is Greis. I was very proud of how dedicated she was to finishing her hat. She is such a determined worker and she is doing well with her physical therapy… and so is Martin as I am sure you all saw in Patti Sue’s video. That was such a blessing to come back and see! Starting the year in a walker and now he’s WALKING all by himself!? God is sooooo good! I am a very proud teacher, I must say. And here is Gilmar. He was done first and was a very good helper to those who took a little longer. Here is Rubi. She was equally as helpful and every time I asked who the hats were for, she’d answer with gusto, “THE BABY JESUS!” And finally, here is Kevin. I really appreciate his careful hand and expression of details in everything he does. Please join me in prayer for the next half of this school year that it goes well and the kids grow and learn like crazy. Also please join me in prayer that God reveals His plans for next year for us as teachers and for the kids as well. I hope everyone had a blessed time celebrating our Savior’s birthday!

La Magia de la Concha: Its the end of the year once again..

It’s coming on Christmas now… last week was the beginning of December and already, the kids are getting very excited about what is to come this month. The teachers have organized a Christmas program which was named, “A Casa De Fe Christmas” and this will include a re-telling of the Nativity story and will include all the kids Pre-K to Pablo (whom I’ve heard will be getting reindeer antlers, along with Edison). It’s kind of overwhelming but exciting at the same time because the kids really dig it. I would love to post some sneak-peek photos of this but I feel I should wait until the event when more pictures can be taken and then posted afterward.
BUT… to whet your photo appetite, I have decided to put up some photos of the kids in their new classroom. I realized I hadn’t done that and I figured now is as good a time as any.

Here is my amazing whiteboard. I’m sorry you can’t see very well. My camera is anti-flash at the moment and only functions in bad lighting… so these photos are going to be dark… just FYI. I was going over the rules of school and our classroom and decided that drawing a narrative of it would be a lot more fun than just reciting the list.

Here are the kids making the letter “Ee” with their bodies on our astro-turfed reading area. Look how much space there is now!

Here are my shelved cabinets with the kids’ reward stickers posted on the doors. They get stars and stickers for good behavior and when they complete the chart, they get to pick a prize out of the Treasure Chest from the office. I keep my cd player, clock, toys, and In-Box on there.

Here’s the other end of my cabinets. This is where we start our day with our Blue All About Today wall hang and a short Bible story and a prayer.

I think this is my favorite wall because it’s where the Reading Nook/bookshelf is, the bean bag chairs, the sink, and my great big purple bulletin board! I divi-ed up the board into three sections because we aren’t allowed to use the walls… so there’s Spanish projects, English projects and Math projects. I love having space to post their work and they love seeing it up there as well.

Here’s more of the front of my classroom.

And here’s where all the brainstorming, planning, and teacher “think-ery” happens.

And finally, here are all the kids after we had practiced our names with Play Doh! Isn’t Greis’ toothless grin precious?
Hopefully my next post will be about how the program went. Stay tuned!