As a teacher, I had been warned that the time between Valentine's Day and Easter can be a "drag time" making March feel like it goes on longer than 31 days, especially as the kids have a longer wait time in between holidays (addition: excluding Saint Patrick's Day since I am less than 1% Irish and Czech's don't have a need to celebrate the holiday.) However, March came and went just as fast as all the other months and it was full of activities!
English Class - Level 1
Level 1 English Classes finished their theme about the House! They are so proud of their homes and many parents told me they came home and immediately their hard work went up on the refrigerator (which they now know how to say in English too!). They learned 36 words for furniture/items in and around the home. Most students were able to recall over half of the words, with one student mastering all 36. I take each of the students one-on-one for a short assessment on the last day of the theme. As I pull the students over to my table, I give them a picture with all the words we learned and simply ask them what they remember. Most students start with "clock" or "bed" as they are easiest to remember, but when one of my youngest students sat down with me, the first word he decided to say was "wardrobe" - an impressive word to articulate for any 6-year-old, second language learner or not!
For this age, we often play games that require the students to trade off who is giving instructions and who is following the instructions. This is a great way to practice both their speaking and listening (and sometimes reading) skills as well as develop the vocabulary.
After finishing up this theme about the House, one mom told me her daughter asked very sadly if English Class is finished when their houses are all done. The mom explained that "Kendra will definitely have another theme for you to learn to the end of the year!" My little students were very excited to learn that our next theme is (drumroll...) In the Forest! The question half a dozen of them asked was, "Will there be forest animals?!" Of course! Animals, bugs, and all things in nature!
English Class - Level 2
My Level 2 group is continuing in their theme about Spring. We've learned spring sports and other spring-like vocabulary. These students are getting incredibly good at using English in their weekly "English Conversation." We start out the lesson with each student drawing the name of another student and asking them, "How was your weekend?" At the beginning of the school year, only one of my students answered the question in English. After giving them some basic responses a few months ago, I noticed the kids responding more in English as they would turn to the page in their journals with the prompts and read off the response that best fits. Now, ALL the students answer in English and most of them are doing it without looking at the prompts! Some are even adding to the prompts or stringing two of the sentences together. It is amazing how much these students can learn when we keep practicing and when they feel so comfortable with their classmates.
It's not a sport's lesson without charades!
As I talk with parents of my students, I am always encouraged that they too see the improvements in their child's learning. One mom recently asked me, "I noticed my daughter is responding faster when I talk with her in English at home and understands me more. How is it possible?" I explained that I noticed this shift of confidence in her daughter and the spark that finally "clicked" in her understanding ability too. Often times I encourage my students to try translating our read-alouds - not just the words, but they are responsible to also translate the character's emotions (we don't do monotone translations in my class). Now the students are recognizing there is more to understanding a second language. There are clues in voice tone, and we can gather the general idea from the context of the story even without knowing all the words. Teaching these little connections each week (and including some lovable storybook characters!) has developed faster understanding and translations in my students, and it is so exciting to watch!
Homeschool English Class
Due to a couple kids with colds, homeschool classes were a little smaller this month, but that didn't slow down the lessons! We finished off our theme about the 5 Senses with smell, hearing, and feeling. The kids and I had so much fun in these lessons. They especially loved the scented markers and scratch-n-sniff stickers. They go back to those pages each time we open our notebooks to get a whiff of their favorite sticker scents! Now that the weather is getting nicer, we have done "listening" and "feeling" scavenger hunts outside to describe things we hear and feel on walks outside. I was impressed with the students and their use of the new vocabulary to describe different sounds and the ways things felt. Now that we have learned all five senses, we will review them all!
Little Linguists
Littles this month learned about Vehicles, the Farm, and Weather (snow and rain). In our lesson about Vehicles, we sang "The Wheels on the Bus" (a classic and favorite!) and changed "bus" to different vehicles as we sang. One of my Littles is learning English vocabulary at home, and with a love for construction machinery, asked if we can sing, "the wheels on the excavator." Yeah... the Czech toddler clearly said "excavator" in English! Another mom said, "We can sing 'digger' because my son has learned 'digger' at home," which helped the rhythm more, but we ended up singing both anyway to please both toddlers. Go ahead, try putting the 4-syllable "excavator" where one-syllable "bus" is normally without completely destroying the rhythm... but anything to make these toddlers were happy!
The toddlers worked together to make garages for their riding cars!
The lesson about the farm had nearly all new faces! It was fun to invite new moms and toddlers into the center. For a while, I had been planning our lesson about "Rain." We have had some rainy days, but it was always clear and sunny on Little Linguist days. Then, last week the forecast predicted rain all week. I decided even if Little Linguist day was sunny at least the rest of the week was rainy and the song would fit. I woke up that morning hearing what sounded like rain on the roof and windowsill. Happy that I had picked the right song, I thrusted open the curtains to see... snow! Now, for a Minnesotan, this isn't surprising, except that it isn't SO typical for March in this area of Czech. I remembered that we didn't get to do our lesson about "Snow" this year because it was mostly melted by the time I came back after Christmas, so I paired the Snow and Rain lessons together last week for a lesson on March Weather! The kids and moms loved it! One of my toddlers continued repeating in English the part of our song, "jump in the puddle!" as she hopped around the room!
Making Rain Cloud Art
Under our Parachute Umbrella
Youth Club - Letovice
Spring weather has us using our outdoor spaces more and more! I am loving the little terrace outside Fabrika (our Letovice youth center) as the kids and I play basketball, badminton, create chalk art, and bump around a volleyball. There are so many possibilities for outside games (and just getting the stray badminton birdies off the roof every now and then...).
Letovice Sleepover Club
In March, the kids had Spring Break, so we had our classic Sleepover Club with the youth kids. I introduced a new game where we "banned" three words that the kids use a lot - "foosball," "couch," and the name of one of our leaders just to see what the kids would come up with for new ways to describe these things/person. Each of us started out the evening with a clothespin, and if someone caught us or tricked us into saying one of the forbidden words, they took our clothespin. The person with the most clothespins at the end of the evening won. It was a really fun activity and all the students and leaders loved it.
In between all the games, conversations, and a foosball competition, we sat the group down for a short "talk time" before the evening got too late. I had some gospel-story-colored bracelets and decided to share the gospel story through the bracelet colors with the group by first asking them what they thought the colors could represent. Many of the students had different ideas, but together we were able to learn the story of salvation. When I asked the students what they thought the color red represented, one student said "love!" I said, "I like that even better than in representing blood because it is because of Jesus' LOVE for us that He died for our sins." The students each got a bracelet to wear and were challenged to remember the story through the colors on the bracelet to share with others. One of the students said he could share the gospel story with some of the people who come to the skatepark, and later this student said it was the best program he had heard before. I am praying God continues to use these bracelets to remind the kids that they are loved and cared for by their Creator!
Youth Club - Boskovice
Though I spend most of my time at Letovice Club, I really enjoy visiting our other two club locations and continuing to build relationships with the kids. It is always really fun to continue conversations and get to know the group better. In Boskovice, I like to bring my pennyboard (skateboard) and ride around in the outdoor courtyard with the kids on scooters. Each month, we have a youth program for the kids and some quick games. This past month, the kids heard a testimony from one of the leaders and had many questions about how his life has changed since becoming a Christian.
Youth Club - Velke Opatovice
My youth clubs kids in Velke Opatovice are all about the table games! We spend most of the club time alternating table games and playing rounds of foosball to break up the card and board games. They are getting really good at playing the games and finding new tactics to try for a win. One day, we even set up a mini-bowling lane and had lots of fun rolling a little ball to knock over the miniature pins! I enjoy watching these kids develop friendships as they jump between games.
Youth Group and ELSA
As our summer activities get closer, we are starting to prepare our youth students through our Elim Leadership Academy (ELSA). The youth students each have a youth leader who encourages and mentors them as they develop their leadership skills. Once a month, we meet as a whole group to have group teaching, and then the students put what they have learned into application throughout the next month at various clubs and youth events. I am excited to see how these new youth students grow in leadership skills and how the ones who are returning from last year continue to grow and help their friends too.
We have always said that Elim is like a "launching pad," that we are here to provide the youth with a safe and fun childhood experience and then send them out into the world to use what they have learned. Since many of our youth go to high schools in different cities, we often see that it is difficult for them to make it to all club and sometimes even youth groups. It is always so fun when former club kids who have now grown and started new high schools and colleges come back to visit! Last Friday, we had one such youth student who dropped in for a visit. As we were talking, the student made a comment that I should invest in something nice and new for myself. The student asked, "What do you invest in?" I answered, "Well, I invest in my youth kids and students." Another leader who was sitting with us added, "It's obvious we invest in you... I mean, just look at how you even come back to visit. That's investment!" I am so happy that we as leaders get to be a part of this investment with these youth kids!
School Outreach
This past month, I had the opportunity to visit a couple schools and teach a total of 6 English Classes. I enjoyed sharing the lessons "English Everywhere" to encourage the older students, and "Easter" with a couple younger classes. One of the schools I get to visit is a village school, and I always enjoy going there for a visit. Some of the kids have been to LetFest and youth clubs in Letovice, so it is always really fun to reconnect with them and be a reminder to come to youth clubs! A couple of the kids said they would like to come to youth club as a group with their religion teacher from church, so I am looking forward to their visit.
Mission Church
As summer is getting closer, we as a mission church are preparing for our summer event, LetFest. We began team training and are excitedly working on how to incorporate the theme into every aspect of LetFest. I am excited that many of the youth students have made commitments to help lead at summer camp and are further making it a priority to join us for church on Sunday morning! I love spending Sunday mornings with the youth kids and watching as they serve in Sunday School and at the coffee bar.
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