School Time

We have already had the first three days of school! So far the year is starting out strong; however my class is pretty interesting. I have 35 six year olds who have never gone to full day school before. Also, they have VERY limited English, meaning pretty much they do not understand or speak any English besides "Good Morning!" haha. I am trying to enforce our procedures and routines first in Spanish, so they fully understand what is expected of them and how they are supposed to act in 1st grade. Then, I will be moving more and more into only speaking English.

It's a very long day though (7.5 hours in school)- with two 40 minute breaks for the kids. They first bring a lunch box and eat that at 10:10 and then have recess. Then two hours later, all of their parents personally come to the school to bring them lunch and eat with them! Food is very important aspect of culture here and so is family which is why parents love to bring the lunches to children in upper grades as well!

Anyways - this week I'm going to focus on comands in english, things such as put away your notebook, stand up, sit down, raise your hand.... all of those I say so many times during the day which is why I am going to be saying them in English to get more understanding in English. Also showing pictures and singing songs seems like it will be a great way to improve English skills also. I'm really excited to see how far my students will come in one year!

Anyways here are a few photos of my classroom and my assistant Lidia, who is a great help!!

My behavior stoplight -- already I had a boy who moved his color to green (he was supposed to be on yellow) Then when I saw it, he quickly moved it back to yellow! He was in big trouble and

moved straight to red after that!!

Morning Meeting time!

Profa Lidia - she's great! :)

Me - before meeting the parents!

My classroom from the front -- LOTS of desks and fans.... but it's working out so far! :)