Monday English is back! My class is filled with 18 students - about half of whom were in the class the previous year. I believe this class didn't form on accident, but I am convinced God must have thought, "Let's put together 10 angelic little girls and 8 personality-filled young boys." While the class may sometimes keep me on my toes, I am delighted by the shower of hugs from all the little girls and the ways these adventurous boys continue to keep me smiling!
On the first day of class, I introduced the book "The Little Prince" in hopes that we could read through part of it as a class. (It is one of my favorite books!) I told the kids that the book has been translated into approximately 260 languages - so they were excited to tackle two of the 260 languages as we began reading in English and Czech. After reading about the Boa Constrictor swallowing the elephant, we wondered what it would be like if the Boa Constrictor swallowed one of our classmates. The students took turns hiding under the blanket (boa constrictor) and the other students guessed who was inside our imaginary snake!
Hiding in the "Snake"
Learning shapes is always a fun theme because there are so many different activities to do! I could feel the students' excitement as they learned the new vocabulary during the hour of English. We started with a game that encouraged the students to look at a flashcard picture of the shape and find the shape drawn in chalk on the sidewalk. After a couple rounds, my translator looked at me and said, "They aren't even looking at the flashcard picture anymore! They are just listening to you say the shape name." I was just as excited as I watched these kids begin recognizing the shapes in English so quickly!
Race to the Shapes!
To conclude the lesson, all the students made Shape Crowns to wear the vocabulary and bring home to practice. One of the youngest students came to me and said (in Czech) "Kendra, I don't know English. I'm not good at this." I said, "Sure you know English! What is this?" I pointed to some different shapes on his crown. "Star... oval... diamond... hey! I guess I DO know English!" He leapt around the room wearing his Shape Crown with excitement, and I beamed; my mission has always been to give the kids the excitement to learn English.
Showing Off Their Shapes Crowns
I had approached the youth pastor with an idea to start a Teen English Class, and he told me about his idea to start an English Class at our youth club in Boskovice, so we combined ideas - which actually works really well because our youth club in Boskovice is geared toward preteens and teens. I have noticed at this age the students start to become more hesitant about using English as their teachers emphasize using correct grammar, so I plan for this class to encourage the fluency of speaking rather than focusing on the grammatical use of the vocabulary. I am looking forward to getting to know these students more and guide them as they practice their English.
Similar to last year, I am teaching Little Linguists (a Mommy and Me English Class) again! I spend a half-hour with the "Littles" and teach easy English songs and do a short art activity that goes with the song to encourage the kids to sing at home. Then, the "Mommies" and I have a half-hour English time as the kids play. Sometimes the kids will join us at the table and bring us food from the play kitchen or just sit with their moms as they practice speaking. I enjoy that these kids are experiencing their moms putting an interest in learning as it will encourage them as they continue to learn and explore within their world. These clever little kids are already saying "bye-bye" to everyone who leaves the classroom!
Creating a Zoo with the Animals
The "Littles" made binoculars and discovered the animals in the Zoo!
Sometimes it seems that our club is bursting at the seams with kids! While many times they are not all in the "clubhouse" at once, but there always seems to be a line these days for the trampoline. With cooler weather lengthening its stay and morning fog hovering over this valley city, we are taking the most of the visits of sunshine. God definitely blesses my day with the smiles of these kids!
These girls are masters at Hide-n-Seek! They are so petite that they can hide practically anywhere... and I'm just standing behind doors. ;) I'm glad they still find it exciting to find me in the same spots each week!
Our Boskovice Youth Club is seeing more and more preteens arriving to play games after school! They enjoy playing car racing computer games, hide-and-seek tag, and dodgeball. This past week, we have been having traditional rainy autumn weather; and like every other child I know, when it is raining, it is the perfect opportunity for Fort building!
To kick-off the start of the school year, our youth club organizes an event we call "Birthday Party." Since there are so many people and kids connected with the organization, we use Birthday Party to celebrate everyone! Each person brings a small gift that then gets shuffled and passed out to all the participants. This year, we also had a short program from a speaker who encouraged the kids to reach their goals and consider how God helps us go further with our dreams. The theme for the Birthday Party was "My Dream Job," so the speaker's topic fit perfectly to encourage all the kids! We also had a special concert from a Christian Czech Rap band (Envej) - who had about three encores and busy band members giving autographs to all the fan-adoring kids!
Waiting for Their Birthday Presents
A group of the club girls and I dressed up as a team of Secret Agents for the Birthday Party theme!
We had a big turnout for Birthday Party :)
Often after service on Sunday, we will have our church cafe open and many families will stay an hour after service to chat. While working the cafe bar one Sunday, there was a line of people to order coffee... many of the adults tend to hover around the cafe bar to include even us making the coffees in their conversations. In the midst of it all, I heard a a few sweet little voices call out "Kendra!" I peered between the adults and found a group of my little friends on tiptoes trying to see over the counter to look at the cookie selection! The advantage that these kids find is that they have mastered the skill of squeezing around and under the legs of all the adults, but when they finally reach the counter, they are confronted with "Jericho" blocking their final step to the cookies. Fortunately, their sweet smiles have my undivided attention once they arrive!
Our youth group is generally directed toward a younger crowd as many of the kids from the youth clubs become interested in attending. Maybe some of the attendees see it as an additional club with dinner and a program; but last Friday I saw how grown-up some of these young adults really are as they are finishing their last years of high school and have been attending youth group for years. During the program, they came around a friend in prayer and a few of these friends who have grown up in the youth group didn't hesitate to express their prayers aloud to God. Additionally, as one friend shared his testimony, another friend translated for me. The friend translating used the phrase "our church" many times to describe the youth group - and I realized that is the perfect translation.
We played a game at youth group where the people at the end of the line were shown a picture to draw on the back of the person in front of them. The picture was drawn on the backs of all the people in the line until it reached the person in the front - who drew it on the piece of paper. It was funny to see how some of the pictures became something new. What started as a cloud with lightning became a tree and somehow a stick person become a sketch of a pig!