This week in Miss Hill's class...

Holy guacamole, I have been soo busy with work work work stuff.  Teaching is so NOT a 9-5  (or 7 to 3 in my case) job.  This week has been one of those non-stop weeks where I get off this bus from school, walk to my house, then start working again until it's time to go to sleep and do it all again the next day.  Lesson plans, exams to write, papers to grade, worksheets to make....

It's been a good week though!

with a few of my 6th graders

In fifth grade we have been studying Author's Purpose, so we made PIE on Monday.  I wish it was real, but it was made out of paper plates.  This is a craft I did last year with my fifth graders as well.  I may have posted a pic last year, but I don't remember. I used clothes pins to clip them to the window to show off, but the pies will go home this week so they can use them to study for the upcoming test.

 Here is an up-close of one of the pies:

Open up each piece of pie and we've got definitions for Author's Purpose, persuade (P), inform (I), and entertain (E).

Thursday of this week we recognized the kitchen staff, as it was Day of the Cook or something to that effect.  I cut out flowers and my sixth graders collected sticks.  Then each student wrote a thank you on the flowers to Nora and Rosie, our cooks.  I then cut a two holes in each paper flower to weave a stick through.  This is how they turned out:

Then we put them all together and I tied them up with a piece of yarn to make a bouquet.  I picked a student's name out of my popcorn container and this person got to present the bouquet to Nora and Rosie.

my sixth graders (minus 2) after making the bouquet!

Notice anything new above my whiteboard?  Something I didn't have last year... a clock!  Last week every teacher got a clock!  I used my screwdriver with interchangeable screws and hung it by myself.  Go me!

presenting our thank you bouquet 

Friday was Día Internacional de la Mujer and we had our first acto cívico (school assembly)!  It's funny how I have celebrated a handful of so-called "international"  days for the first time since moving to Costa Rica.  I think it's pretty cool, and important that students recognize these international holidays since there are students from 19 different countries represented at our school.  Did any of you know that March 8 was International Women's Day?

In the morning the director came around to each classroom and told all the females happy women's day. Before snack time we had a short assembly.  Each class had prepared a collection of small construction paper flowers/ leaves/ other items on which each student wrote something for women's day.  My students made hearts, because that seemed feminine, the majority of students in other grades would probably make flowers, and we had just made paper flowers the day before.  My sixth graders each wrote the name of a female who is important to them on their heart and then they wrote why.  While I expected all of my students to write about their moms, I was surprised to see when several students wrote a thank you to me on their hearts!  So sweet!

We all got together at the assembly and the high school students presented a powerpoint to the group that they had made on influential women in history.  Anne Frank, Sally Ride, Marie Curie, Helen Keller...

Then students who wanted to share stood up and said something about why they thought women were important.  

The best part was the end where each class lined up and placed the leaves/ flowers/ apples/ hearts onto the outline of a tree.  After all of the tributes to important women were placed on the tree, you couldn't even tell it was a tree!

Ta da!