The Animal Fair

After weeks of researching and creating our dioramas, the 4th grade held an animal fair. We invited the third graders, and presented our vertebrates. Each child stood up, shared three facts from their paper, and then the third graders walked around and looked at the papers and dioramas. My students felt proud of their work. They were intelligent, and impressed their third grade teacher. At the end of the fair, they only had one question, "When can we do this again?"

Hard at Work!

I divided my students into 5 groups of vertebrates; mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. Each group was responsible for a diorama and a research paper. The research paper consisted of 5 paragraphs, an introduction, a conclusion, and one paragraph from each student on a different aspect of their vertebrates. They worked in class for almost 3 weeks, researching, writing and rewriting their papers along with creating their dioramas. This project was new, difficult, and required group work and creativity.

Si se puede, Yes we can!

Probably across the world, one of the most exciting things of the week was the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. The enthusiasm was felt here in Honduras as well. The day of the election, I inquired where I could get the newspaper in the morning. Apparently, they are only sold in the town plaza in the center of the city, not on every street corner. One of the bus drivers kindly offered to pick up papers for me in the morning. The next morning, when I walked into class, many of my students commented, "Ms. Michelle, Obama won!" There are a total of 5 Honduran papers, and every one had Obama as the cover story. The headlines ranged from, Obama changes the color of history, The United States votes for change and Obama changes history. Change, cambia, being the main theme. As we sat in groups and looked through the papers, which all had 4 to 8 page spreads on the election, it was not lost on my students that Obama was definitely the choice for Hondurans and all Latin Americans. The words hope and change were again used frequently.

Halloween in Honduras

I am quickly learning that when you are in a bilingual school, all American holidays are celebrated. Although elsewhere in Honduras you will not hear a mention of the holiday, at school the children are excited and ready to celebrate. Groups of two students picked a room in the house and make a picture of it for our haunted door. Each student then wrote a scary story about their room. We used the writing as an opportunity to talk about synonyms. (How many times can you use the word scary in a story?) They quickly got into the world of witches, ghosts and blood, even making decorations at home and bringing them for the classroom. On Friday, some students dressed up. We read our spooky stories by flashlight, and went to a haunted house (called a boo house) put on by the 11th graders. All cultures enjoy the chance to dress up, feel frightened, and eat candy!

I am a Vertebrate

I always say the best way to learn something is to say it and show it. All of my students know that they are a vertebrate and what things all vertebrates have. Watch and see!