April 2022

Sleepover Club

To kick-off the start of Easter Break, we had a Sleepover Club at our Kid's Club Center in Letovice.  The night was filled with many games, tournaments, and fun!  We had multiple kids register at the last minute because friends kept inviting more friends to the event.  We started the evening with a variety of games like Twister, Pictionary, and Cards.  We got dinner ready for the kids, and then began tournaments in Foosball and Ping-Pong.  After tournaments, games of Nerf, Dodgeball, Spikeball, and Mafia began - I had to be careful crossing the room for stray Nerf bullets and Dodgeballs were flying everywhere!  It is also a tradition on every Sleepover to have some short teaching moment, and one of the leaders shared about Easter.  We then split into small groups to talk about the program.  I had an interesting conversation with six boys - five of whom are Ukrainian, but grew up in Czech - as the first question on our discussion page was "What does freedom mean to you?"  Wow.  I could tell this question touched this group as they have learned to appreciate freedom differently in the past month.  I am so thankful for those boys, their joy and friendship, and the discussion we had.

Program Time

During the Foosball tournament, these competitive 9-year-old girls were the youngest players, and they proudly took fourth place, even beating out two teams of older boys! 

Hotdogs for dinner!

Watch this video of Sleepover Club!

English Class - Level 1

We have started our new theme in English Class, and the kids are thrilled!  The new theme... FAIRYTALE KINGDOM!  The students were so excited to paint their new Vocabulary Backgrounds with a huge castle and imagine all the new things they will be adding to the picture in the upcoming weeks.  They happily brought home their Sea Vocabulary pictures and showed their parents all the words they had learned.  44 words in all!  I wanted to see how many words the students could recall, so I pulled them aside one at a time and gave a short assessment.  Most students could remember at least half of the words and two got all 44!  They were so proud of themselves, and I was very pleased with all of them!

Showing off their completed Sea Vocabulary Pictures.

Happily playing a game to learn Kingdom Vocabualry

English Class - Level 2

The students in my Second Level English Class never stop impressing me with their abilities and talents in English!  We learned about instruments and animal habitats the past few lessons, and I love watching their confidence in English grow as we play silly games and use the new vocabulary.  I have seen how many of them are using more emotion while speaking in English, as I encourage the students to bring life to their translating and speaking by avoiding monotone.  We finished our last Elephant and Piggie book (we read one each week), but the students have been looking forward to starting Pigeon books in the upcoming lessons.  Sharing a love of literature and English with this group brings me so much joy.

Learning Instruments with an "Air Band"

Matching the Animals to their Habitats

Little Linguists

The past couple weeks, we have had themes about Easter and Rain in Little Linguists!  There is always so much joy as these toddlers learn about their world through songs, game, and hands-on-experiences.  Every week I am reminded that each toddler is so unique and each has such a big personality.  As I was planning the Rain lesson, I looked and the weather was supposed to be overcast that day, but not rainy.  I decided I would go ahead with the lesson anyway as it is a great spring theme, and on the morning of the lesson, the rain came! The moms and I laughed that for a few minutes we could have sung instead about the snow falling as the sleet hit the windows instead of the rain, but it was great to have such a relatable lesson for the kids that they could experience inside and outside. 

Easter Eggs, a Basket, and a song about a Hopping Bunny

Learning about Umbrellas

(1) We colored on plastic bags with washable markers, and then made it "Rain" and then (2) print the colors on our raincloud! 

Kid's Club 

Now that the weather is nicer, the kids are outside, and our mask mandates have finally been lifted, we are seeing new kids come to Kid's Clubs!  One day at our center in Boskovice, one of our youngest at club arrived with a bag of candy he recently won at a birthday party.  He came right up to me and the other leader to show us his winnings!  Then he said, "I want to use this candy to make an Easter Bunny Chocolate Hunt for everyone here!"  The other leader and I told the boy that he was kind and it was a nice idea, but he didn't have to share his chocolate if he would rather bring it home.  He said, "I have more fun when I share it, and we can make it a game for everyone to enjoy!  If I eat it all myself, my teeth will rot out and it won't be nearly as fun."  He split the candy up into different groups, gathered all the big kids and explained the game.  Even the older teens were happy to play this game and have the chance to find the candy.  I had the most fun watching this little boy's smile grow more and more as he planned and organized how to give his candy away!

(1) Our little Easter Bunny sharing his chocolate.  (2) Playing table games at club is a great way to relax after a busy day studying for big exams at school.

School Outreach

I was invited to two schools to teach about American Easter Traditions this past month.  The Easter lesson I have created is centered on the symbolism of Easter and how it always points us back to the true meaning of Easter.  I always enjoy these visits to the schools as it gives the students a connection with a native speaker and encourages them in English and also in giving more background for the holiday.  Of the three classes I taught, there were five Ukrainian Refugee students total in the classes.  In the two-room schoolhouse, their class size has grown from 19 to 23 since I last visited!  It's amazing how much more full the classroom is with four students.  The students were quick to help their Ukrainian friends, and I could tell the new students were already very comfortable in the school. 

(1) Writing what we learned in the lesson on Easter Eggs - one of the Ukrainian students wrote in Ukrainian and English.  (2) All the eggs displayed on their door to read!