Staff Blog

Friction, motion, and static electricity are just a few of the topics we've been learning about lately in science!  It is EXTREMELY difficult to teach about static electricity in Cebu's very humid climate.  There are no flannel sheets to show off sparks, rubbing your feet on the carpet doesn't do anything, and even rubbing balloons in your hair doesn't always produce the desired effect.  But along with the help of the air conditioned library, we have been attempting to see or feel a little bit of static electricity.  The kids were extremely excited on Friday when the balloons finally "worked".  

Friction and motion are easier topics to tackle!  After discussing them for a week, we had some fun with the "tablecloth" pull.  We started simple with just a small piece of paper and a marker.  Soon we moved up to using a large piece of paper and several dishes, bowls of water, pencil boxes, and other things.  The kids loved it, but I had to make sure to tell them NOT to try it at home!!

Last Friday was SRA Day at school!  SRA is our reading curriculum so it includes reading, writing, and spelling!  We spent the morning having some fun reviewing things the kids had learned in SRA throughout the year.  It started off with one student from each level sharing why they like SRA.  Then we had a cheer competition.  The children were divided into four groups and each group had 10 minutes to create their own cheer about SRA or reading.  It was cool to see what they came up with!  

After the cheering competition was the spelling contest!  The kids took turns writing letters or words on the white board as a review of things they had learned.  They also drew pictures that related to some of the themes our classes had studied.  Some of the older kids went up and explained how their pictures related to the theme.  

The final part of the program involved several presentations by our kids.  The Level A students performed sang "The Alphabet Song".  Jaime and Pretchy each did a beautiful job sharing poems about reading!  Shiela & Rowena sang a duet of "America the Beautiful", a song they learned in one of their reading units.  Then three of our Level C students shared stories they had written during class.   

Here are some more pictures from our exciting day!

There are always lots of activities going on at the school.  Conferences, morning meetings, and programs.  It has been a very busy last few weeks.  Here are some of the programs we've had lately!

Level A2 Morning Meeting:

Two weeks ago Level A2 presented a morning meeting about different types of weather!  They did a cute skit in which a boy took pictures of the kids acting out all of the seasons.  That was followed up with the students explaining several different types of weather.  Then they danced to the song "Beautiful Day" before closing up the morning with a game.  For the game, two kids had to form a house with their arms.  A third child sat inside as the "baby".  Whenever there was a storm, the houses fell apart and everyone had to run around to form a new house with a new baby.  There was a bit of confusion during every "storm", but lots of laughter as well!  

Science & Math Day:

Last Thursday, our school held our annual Science & Math Day.  The program was split into two different parts.  The first part was the math quiz bowl.  The kids were all quite excited about it and many had asked their teachers in advance to PLEASE help them practice.  Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, number comparison, and fractions were just a few of the topics covered.  They all did a great job and it was fun to see the teamwork and encouragement that went on within the teams!  The second part of the program included presentations from each of the science classes.  Group 2 shared about plants and how they grow!  Group 3 explained potential & kinetic energy.  Then they used a roller coaster to demonstrate those types of energy.  Group 4 showed examples of energy transformation!  After all of the science presentations, the kids were clapping and spontaneously yelled out, "Science rules!!"  It's fun to see their love for science!  The day ended with two math dances put on by our older kids!  Here is a short video that we showed about group 4's energy creations. They had to create something that would move a Ping-Pong ball as far as possible!

Level B Morning Meeting:

Last Friday, Level B presented their morning meeting.  It started off with the girls performing a fun dance to the song "Show Jesus" by Jamie Grace.  Then they did a cute skit about camouflage.  The rabbit kept running into things that were hidden in the grass, trees, and flowers!  The program ended by acknowledging the March birthday celebrants!  

Check out more pictures from these events!

Thursday was Valentine's Day!  The kids had been telling me all week that they were going to give me a "valentine's day" (cards).  As soon as the kids walked into the school gate in the morning, they passed out letters to the teachers!  So fun!  Later in the day, we had a little party in our classroom and made some valentine cards to pass out to the kids' friends, aunties, uncles, and teachers.  

The Level C girls decided to make necklaces for the teachers.  Here is a picture of the Level C teachers sporting their valentine's!  

Thanks to some visitors, we had some of the conversation heart candy!  I passed out a few of them as Valentine's Day messages to the kids.  I gave one of our 11-year-old girls one that said, "You Shine".  Later that afternoon, she came back to my classroom and handed me a flower.  She said, "This is for you Teacher Tam!  You are so very shiny!"  So cute!  I love our kids!      

These girls have been helping each other with their waveboarding skills for weeks.  They are all getting pretty good on their own, but they still like to do it together! So cute!