The End of the School Year

It's crazy to think that I've actually made it through my first school year at PROMESA!! In my classes we had finished up the entire alphabet by the end of November and there were only two weeks of school in December. In my last two weeks I concentrated on review, Christmas and getting ready for our end of year program.

The four year old class waiting for the school program to start

To celebrate Christmas we went through a book that told a part of the Christmas story on each page. The book was full of very cute pictures and flaps that you could lift to discover exciting things. Each day I would read a page in the story in English and then give the general idea in Spanish. I also had some cute nativity puppets (thanks to Janet Pinkos at KCF for those!) that they really enjoyed. Unfortunately they more often proved a distraction rather than help! After we read the book we usually did a craft that went along with the theme like an angel from a disposable cup, tissue and pipe cleaner or a star ornament.

The five year old class was a bit deprived from tons of crafty projects because they were practicing their dance for the Christmas program. I taught them a dance to an updated version of the song "Angels We Have Heard on High." Thankfully there were almost an even number of boys and girls so I was able to split them up and have them do different parts. The girls got to use kabukis (those ribbons on sticks) but the boys were not given ANYTHING. Boys + Kabukis = trouble! We had some difficulty in the beginning trying to learn the dance. Five year olds really do not have much of an attention span! I felt like I was fighting an impossible fight but with consistent practice they finally got it down to a reasonable semblance of what I wanted! They did a pretty good job during the actual performance. The little girls were so cute with their kabukis - especially when they did a pinwheel in the end. Let's say I'm just glad that I didn't have to teach the 4 year olds a dance (thanks Miss Wendy)!!

One of my little angels: Aron

The four year old class does their shepherd dance.

So the school year ended with a week of cleaning up and doing report cards. I was so tired after washing all my tables and chairs! It's amazing what damage kindergarten kids can do. Our school program went off pretty well considering that the kids had four days off from practicing. One of my favorite parts was the Christmas carols that we teachers sang in different parts of the programs and a hip-hop type dance by the 3rd graders. Oh and of course my four-year old student, Reynaldo's face during his shepherd dance! I gave all my students a lollipop and stickers the last day and he came up to me and said "Gracias Profe! Muy amable!" (thanks teacher, very nice!) It was very sweet though I'm positive it was initiated by his parents.

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness during this past school year. He was with us in the hard and the good times and boy oh boy did I LEARN A LOT!!