Today was my last day at La Asunción, and Jo and her mom came with me to volunteer! We arrived at 11am, met up with teacher Laura, and went right away to help in the five year old room. This is such a fun group and the age I would love to teach. Right when I walked in, little Elena gave me a great big hug and asked how I was (in English!). Elena is the one sitting in front of Jo, and she's the girl with the 10 other siblings!!! All at this school. Incredible!! At the start of the lesson, we introduced Jo and Val, they then practiced their graduation song for June, and lastly they did a few other songs on the Smart Board. What a fun bunch!
After we said goodbye to the five year olds, it was half hour snack break outside. I showed Jo and Val more around the school, and then we ended up playing with these three little girls the rest of the time. Down below I was sitting with two of them, and behind us on the wall were some ants. The whole recess they kept asking us to help them hold one in their hands. One of the three (not pictured) was very into it and kept wanting to hold one in her hands, and if it went down her sleeve she would just get another one, no big deal. The carefree life of a four year old ;) These two down below were too scared to hold one, they just liked watching. So that's what we did just about the whole recess, but it was such a fun time. I'm going to miss these littles :)
After recess we went to the four year old classroom and Jo and I were able to help tell a story using big story cards. Then, Laura led them through some songs. I forgot to take a picture of the four year olds, because the time went by so fast, but they are just the cutest and remind me so much of my fun little preschoolers back home.
The last classroom we went to was the 11-12 year olds. Jo and Val were able to talk a little bit more with these students because they are old enough where they understand most English and are able to respond back. First in the class, we introduced Jo and Val, and then I brought up my blog on the overhead. I showed them a couple pictures, talked about things I have visited during my time in Spain, and talked about what I would miss the most. Us three also talked a little bit about Minnesota and the differences between schools here and there....and the weather. After that, they played a game, which I actually like very much. They got into two teams, A and B, shown on the board, got a topic, and had to come up with words starting from A all the way to Z with that given topic. For example, the topic today was verbs. So, they had to start from A and go all the way down. As you can see on the board, below, some wrote: Answer, Buy, Cook, Dance, Eat, Fight....etc all the way to Z. I think it's a great game because you can do it with so many topics...animals, foods.
The last classroom we went to was the 11-12 year olds. Jo and Val were able to talk a little bit more with these students because they are old enough where they understand most English and are able to respond back. First in the class, we introduced Jo and Val, and then I brought up my blog on the overhead. I showed them a couple pictures, talked about things I have visited during my time in Spain, and talked about what I would miss the most. Us three also talked a little bit about Minnesota and the differences between schools here and there....and the weather. After that, they played a game, which I actually like very much. They got into two teams, A and B, shown on the board, got a topic, and had to come up with words starting from A all the way to Z with that given topic. For example, the topic today was verbs. So, they had to start from A and go all the way down. As you can see on the board, below, some wrote: Answer, Buy, Cook, Dance, Eat, Fight....etc all the way to Z. I think it's a great game because you can do it with so many topics...animals, foods.
At 1:30pm, it was time to say goodbye. I have learned so much from my four months volunteering here and I could definitely see myself teaching at a school like this, or just a bilingual school in general. It was so exciting to have been able to see the children's growth in their language over the past few months. I hope that I am able to keep up my Spanish and never forget it so that I could possibly teach like Adela and Laura :)