Bubble Pens, Tempers, and Saprissa

The latest discipline problem: bubble pens. They are nifty, bulky pens with bubble solution in the middle and a bubble wand at the top. I turn my back on the class for one minute and when I turn back around there are bubbles in the air... "Um, why are there bubbles in here?" Girls start giggling... and I confiscate the bubble pens.

Ha, when I'm teaching and trying to explain something, it seems that anything and everything pops out of my mouth in trying to get the point across. For example, I am trying to explain what a "temper" is... so I compare it to a bomb. "When you begin to lose your temper, it's as if you just lit a really short string on a bomb. You need to know when you have to step back from a situation in order to make the string on your bomb longer. If you don't take time away from the stiuation, your bomb will explode for sure." ... Hopefully that was a good analogy?

My old classroom is depressing right now. I took down all the posters and moved all the books to the other classroom. I had several students today mention that they already missed the books. Yay, they miss reading! :)

The BIG MOVE of my classroom is happening tomorrow afternoon. I've got parents, students, and the basketball team coming to help. I'll be sure to take photos of the mass chaos! :)

We are learning multiplication this week in Puzzles, and I made up a simple game by the seat of my pants today called "Flash Track", basically a gameboard that each player progresses on as he/she answers their times facts correctly. The students seemed to enjoy it :). Any way I can get them to practice multiplication facts and have fun at the same time is wonderful!

Plans this weekend: fabric shopping with Kim V., basketball game Friday night (I'm the photographer!!! YES!!), phone calls to family and friends, and a Saprissa game! (For those of you who don't know, Saprissa is one of the two popular soccer teams here... photos to come :)).

Mail Shout Outs!

Thanks to Jaclyn Miller for yet another letter! YEESSSS!!

And also, thanks to Jenny Olson and her creativity in writing a whole letter in Spanish... when I translate it with my Spanish dictionary, I will write back! ha, I'm learning more every day.

And a thanks to Scholastic Book Company that sent me a free teacher tote bag along with my subscription to their magazine... however, I had to pay $16 to get it through customs. Whoops.

p.s.

Check out Kim's blog for more of our weekend adventures. Our neighbors had us over for Costa Rican cooking lessons... all in Spanish!

Moldy Shoes and Changing Classrooms

Yup, you read that right. Our shoes molded. Trish stepped in mud and green mold appeared on her shoes a few days later. I put my favorite gold shoes on this morning and halfway through the morning, my feet were disgustingly sweaty and gross... I took my shoes off and the shoes reek. I mean, really reek. Ha, sorry if stinky feet is a huge turnoff for you... but it's true. It happens to the best of us. So here's photos of our shoes before saying goodbye with the trash pickup tomorrow.

A long story short: Principal Reilly approached me on Friday asking about how I would feel about changing classrooms. At first, I thought she was just asking my advice about how I would feel if I were someone else who had to change classrooms mid-semester.... but then I realized she was serious. I asked when this move would be happening, and she casually answered... "Oh, next week sometime." Oh my. So today after school, I was taking down posters and washing my beautiful painted windows... The good news is that the 5th and 4th grades are moving into the just-finished building. Our classrooms are on the second floor, complete with a balcony and gorgeous view of the mountains. Wowee... Photos of both my current depressing classroom with nothing on the walls and my new exciting classroom (also with nothing on the walls yet, ha)!

And here's a few photos of this past weekend. We explored the northeast suburb of Moravia and it's artisans shops. We were Christmas shopping :) and spending way too much money, ha.

The crochet work on a hammock. Beautiful!

My friend Laura who is currently a student at ILE, but taught in Honduras for 2 years before joining the Costa Rica crowd. She leaves in December for Argentina.

Happy Halloween??

So... we don't celebrate Halloween here in Costa Rica. It's kind of strange not to do anything at school... no costumes and candy.

And it's strange to think that tomorrow is already November.

My brain is exhausted, and that's all I've got. Love!

Randomness

To view photos from Tuesday afternoon's volleyball game, visit here. :) Many thanks to Principal Tia Reilly.

To view a video of my neighbors (of which I was the camerawoman), please visit here. This video was made to be played this Sunday in their home church. Maybe I should do something like that too?

Another gross story from today: A student spilled her yogurt all over her jacket and cloth pencil case, so in an effort to quarantine the mess, I reached into my desk for my box of Ziplocs and quickly took my hand out again -- completely covered in ants! Apparently, these tiny gross creatures really like the tight spaces between the plastic bags, and they've been building a home in the box!!! I threw the box on the floor, and my students are all gathering around to examine our "ant farm"... Talk about chaos in the middle of a lesson. Later, I took the box out to Donya Marie, our custodian, and she laughed at my reaction. She told me that during the changing seasons, the ants (ormigas, I learned) go inside everyone's houses. So who knew, ants would lead to today's Spanish practice?

Ha, today was definitely an interesting day.

Surprising, but true. My students are loving this book. I was concerned about the boys liking it, but I think the murder and the house fire in the beginning are what have hooked them. They're all begging me to read one more page!!! :)