January 2024

English Class - Level 1

Jumping back into lessons with these kids could never be easier.  We all enjoyed our long break as I was on Home Assignment stateside, but the students were ready to get back into the swing of lessons again - and share all about how many teeth they had lost in the seven weeks I was gone!  I have to remember not to have too many vocabulary words with a "th" sound in this class... 

We started our new theme about the City and are learning lots of new vocabulary about things we will find around our city!  The kids have had fun learning different types of transportation (car, train, motorcycle, bus) and some places we can find transportation (bus stop, station, airport, etc.).  We also began learning some places we can visit in the city like a church, school, library, or store.  Our parrot puppet, Opakovacka, is helping us learn the new vocabulary words, but she got in trouble with some of the kids for being a copycat (apparently there is a difference between being a copycat and repeating... 6-year-olds can explain that better than I can).  These students are so talented, but the best part of teaching is watching them all get fits of giggles at the same time!

One of my favorite parts of teaching is watching young translators develop leadership skills.  The kids become attached to the translators and it encourages them both in so many ways - for the translator to know they are appreciated and helping, and for the kids to have a role model to strive for as they themselves grow in English language and leadership. 

English Class - Level 2

These kids were ecstatic to receive letters back from their American PenPals to start off the new semester!  In one of the classes, as I excitedly told the kids our American Friends wrote back to us, the classroom was in an uproar of cheers and giggles.  Then, one of my practical students said, "You know... I was expecting a letter back.  I mean, we have been working on those letters for 10 weeks!  I guess I just expected they would respond."  

I was so happy to have deliver these letters to the students, and they excitedly wrote back short Thank You postcards to their PenPals.  One of the students came to me as she was writing the thank you saying, "I made a mistake!  Do you think my American Friend will still understand it?"  Knowing that this American Friend had also noticed  a minor mistake in their own letter, I pointed out the mistake in the American Friend's letter and said, "Look.  Even your American Friend makes mistakes.  We all make mistakes, but that shouldn't stop us from trying to communicate, right?  Does it bother you that your American Friend made a mistake?"  My student waved her hand and said, "Oh, of course I don't mind!"  After that, she dived full-on into her letter and didn't worry about making mistakes, and that is exactly what I hope all the students learn in this class!  

We started a new theme in the Level 2 classes about our Five Senses!  We will spend two weeks on each of the five senses to really get a grasp of how to use our senses to describe the things around us in English.  Starting off with the sense "sight," we learned how to place shapes, colors, and size in order when describing an item.  The kids picked up on this concept quickly as they put it into practice with stations around the room.  We also guessed what shapes we had on our heads and had a coloring activity that challenged the students to color their picture with specific instructions.  Since the students love writing to their American Friends, we have also started another writing assignment to practice our new understanding of the Five Senses and get our American Friends involved! 

We learned how to make adjectives using "-est" at the end of the words.  We sorted through our class from tallest to shortest, oldest to youngest, and darkest hair to lightest hair.  As the kids in this class were all comparing hair color and having a hard time deciding whose hair really was the darkest, my newest student came and grabbed my hand from where I sat in front of them saying, "Ms. Teacher, you have the darkest hair.  Come with me."  He led me to the head of the line and was very proud of himself.  I am always so encouraged when the new students easily feel so natural in English Class.  However, I was a bit surprised no one had thought to pull me into the line for "oldest," and while I notice a few strands of hair beginning to lighten with age, it was so encouraging to have this child put me at the head of the line for "darkest hair." 

After taking this picture, I said, "Oh, that turned out great!"  My "aspiring lawyer" just casually said, "Can I see the picture?" 

"Thanks. Oh, Kendra, I can guess my shape now."

Homeschool English Class

The homeschool group has begun learning basic phonics of English as we are working on sounding out and recognizing similarities in words.  We practiced short vowel sounds and made as many words as we can as a class by changing just one letter in our line at a time.  It was a fun challenge, and the kids had a lot of fun trying to recall more vocabulary words to keep their streak going.  Last Friday, we practiced adding on the "sh, ch, and th" sound to our words.  This made it a little more difficult to make the running streak, but then we started thinking about not only using the blended sound at the start of the word, but also at the end or in the middle!  The students were encouraged to begin really understanding the consistencies in these vocabulary words.  

One of their new favorite games is Slap.  There is a stack of produce cards, and as they take turns flipping over the produce cards, they say the name of the produce in English.  When there is a bug card that is turned over, they all try to slap the stack to get the stack of cards.  The person who has all the cards at the end of the game, wins.  However, even students who have lost all their card can slap back into the game!  I have already noticed after just a couple games that all the repetition is really helping because they are saying the names of the produce faster each time! 

Little Linguists

These toddlers have been having lots of fun in Little Linguists over the past few weeks!  We learned about hibernating animals and hid inside "caves", looked for sleeping animals with flashlights, and colored our own caves with animals hidden inside.  I adore the moments when the kids grab my hand to show me something they are working on or to play with them.  There is one toddler who continually brings me a cup of "coffee" from the play kitchen (it is like he just knows) and another who will jump into my lap and wrap her arms around me a dozen times a lesson.  Some of the toddlers have gotten used to waving and blowing kisses through the window as they are leaving, and my heart is simply filled with their little smiles.  Connecting with these moms and being an encouragement for them is one of my favorite parts of teaching this group - to be able to give these moms a little break and some new material for games, songs, and age-appropriate art activities.

These toddlers also learned about all things with wheels in one of our favorites - The Wheels on the Bus. We change out "bus" with all other vehicles so the song can take as long or as short as holds the interest of the students.  To finish up January, we ended with a theme about Snow!  The toddlers enjoyed making their own "snow-globes", parachuting snow (flattened white coffee filters) into the air, and they especially enjoyed making faces on the snowmen! 

 

Kid's Club

One of the things I love about Kid's Club is that every week is different, and you never know what will be in the job description for that day.  It could be teaching a fun new game, playing the same game for the millionth time, chatting with parents over coffee while the kids play, or rescuing shoes that had been tossed on top of the rock-climbing-wall.  That pretty much sums up January with these kids!  Though the shoe rescue story was a little more crazy than simply climbing to the top of the rock-climbing-wall, but at least we were practicing our problem solving skills and team-building!

Youth Group

There has been a core group of youth students attending youth group on Friday night.  We are happy for these regular students who want to grow together and spend time learning about God with us.  I recently taught about the wise and foolish men who built their homes on the rock and sand in the parable that Jesus shares.  We talked about how in both situations the storm came.  The only difference was the foundation of the house.  Further, we discussed the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigo in the Firey Furnace and how God didn't stop the boys from being thrown into the furnace, but stood in the fire with them.  God never promises that the storms and fires won't come, but by believing in Him and putting our foundation in Him, He promises we won't go through the storms alone.

Youth Pastor's son helping with the demonstration of the foundation in the storm.

BINGO is one of our favorite games!

Outreach

This section of "Outreach" is fun for me to write because it wasn't an outreach I was leading, but got to participate in!  For the last ten years, the Catholic Church has been putting on a ball for the city.  The youth arrange much of the dance - organizing the food, games, prizes, and a training months in advance to showcase special dances.  We love connecting with the Catholic Church for many outreach events, and I have so many faithful friends who are attenders at the church.  It has been so fun for me to see especially the youth grow into leadership roles as I have known many of the youth students as they were little students in some of my first English Classes!  I love seeing how they have grown in faith and community.

One of my girls, "Kendra! This sign is perfect for you!"

Another one of my girls, "We all need 'I Love Jesus' signs!" 

My favorite Czech Holiday is Three Kings Day.  On this January holiday, children in groups of three go around the city knocking on doors and singing a carol about how they are the three kings who have traveled from afar in search for the baby King.  They collect change for charity (like Salvation Army coming to your door) and then write a blessing on the doorframe.  My friend said the girls in her group were excited when they learned their route for the morning collection saying, "We can go to Kendra's house!"  It was the morning after I had arrived back to Czech from my stateside trip, so I was jet-lagged and my suitcase was still lost in Amsterdam, but seeing these sweet girls on my deck the first morning I was back brought me so much joy!  This tradition is so encouraging to celebrate seeking the King, and I pray it touches the hearts of people in this city to consider their own search for the King.