English Class Level 1
Level 1 Group A
Level 1 Group B
These First Level English Class students have completed learning their vocabulary words about the Camp and are looking forward to reviewing all the words next week. We finished off with two weeks of animals (moose, bear, beaver, wolf, skunk, fish, frog, and hedgehog), insects (grasshopper, dragonfly, mosquito, and worm), and family (mom, dad, brother, and sister).
As we are approaching the end of the school year, I am pulling out all our favorite classroom games to play with the students. I'm realizing just how much these kids have learned this year. Not just in English, but in confidence and cooperation with peers. One of my younger students at the beginning of the year often asked, "Kendra, do I have to play this game?" I would encourage her to try it and then decide if she wanted to continue. Now, after explaining a game, this little girl asks, "Can I go first?"
Additionally, watching them completely comfortable in the routines we have made throughout the year has been evident these last weeks. They quickly understand that when I grab my sunglasses, we are going outside for a game. I also play calm piano music when they arrive to English Class, and one day recently, I forgot to turn it on. One of the students said, "Kendra, can you turn on English music?" I was confused and asked what kind of English music she wanted. She said, "You know... the music that is always playing at the start of English Class?" I realized I hadn't turned on the music and the students recognize the music as their start to English Class, and it's part of their routine.
English Class Level 2
Level 2 Group B
Second Level English Class has finished their theme about Vacations! We learned about habitats, landforms, weather/temperature, items to pack, and directions. The students have been creating their own Gerald and Piggie Vacation stories and adding to it each week as we learn the new vocabulary words. They always enjoy adding more to their stories and decorating the picture.
I always try to get the kids outside for a game if we can. There is something about moving around that makes learning a little extra enjoyable and even just changing from a game indoors to a game outdoors can really help their focus, especially as we are reaching the end of the school year and getting into summer mode. I've learned with these groups that any activity is better with stickers. They have been writing in English with so much fervor knowing they will be able to decorate the letter with stickers afterwards.
In a recent discussion with this group, they were asking about the direct translation of butterfly - they think it is funny to imagine flying butter. I brought up also that dragonfly and firefly make a little more sense, but the kids all said, "you have flying dragons AND flying fire in America?!" I told them America is a crazy place, and that they should be happy they live in Czech without all these crazy flying things!
It's an odd mix of candy, but these kids go crazy for Hot Tamales, Bottle Caps, and Popcorn Flavored Jelly Bellies! They were thrilled I had pulled these ones out for some rounds of BINGO. Such a weird combination of flavors.
Homeschool English Class
Towards the end of the school year, I usually try take the homeschooler group outside to learn out in the sunshine. We have been looking forward to it since the spring weather started, but all the mornings we meet, it has been rainy or uncharacteristically cold! Finally, this week, we were able to go on an outdoor scavenger hunt! The group of little students and I were thrilled to be outside and learned many words on the scavenger hunt like pinecone, sign, footprint, cane, lookout tower, and many more.
I had started a while ago giving this group homework to keep practicing their English throughout the week. For each completed assignment the students get a sticker on a Sticker Chart, and as we are coming closer to the end of the year and completed sticker charts, the kids asked what we will do when the sticker chart is finished. So, since we have been looking forward to the nice weather and in need of a reward, ice cream is on our minds! I'm hoping as much as they are that they will have full sticker charts!
Little Linguists
Our Littles group is growing! Most of the toddlers come pretty regularly now, but its the little siblings who aren't asleep outside in the strollers anyone that are making our toddler count go up! A couple of these toddlers adore the little babies and we are often giving them plushies and baby-dolls to pacify their need to try to grab onto our littlest learners. In a group with many toddler girls, these three baby boys are bringing some fun new energy to the group.
We have had themes about Trains, Cars, Outer Space, and Bugs this month! They are all repeat themes that we did earlier in the school year (mostly in the fall), and I know the moms were more excited than the kids saying, "Look! Oh yay! We are singing 'Zoom, Zoom' again! We love that one." It's really great to repeat songs, and I'm finding that not only do the kids sing more, but the moms too.
Sorting Cars by color was a new, fun activity I added. One little boy was so committed to giving every car a "home" we had to find more colored paper. When one car was pretty split yellow and green, he placed the yellow and green papers next to each other so the car could share a piece of each paper!
Masking tape on the carpet is one of the greatest hacks to having organized "driving" and "racing" in the room. The Littles follow the tracks on their little cars or run on the road saying "stop" and "go!"
A pattern recognition activity I made was a huge hit for everyone on our Outer Space day!
(1) Flashlights and Space Bouncy Balls (2) Spiderweb challenge
Contact Paper for a "spiderweb in the window", yarn to make the web, insect pictures, and - of course - fly swatters!
Kid's Club - Letovice
Recently, club time in Letovice has been extra fun for me as a few of my English Class students have been coming regularly. Typically, we play many table games, even coming up with new games with the table games we have played over and over again. This game - Animal Upon Animal - is one of our favorite games with stacking and balancing animals on top of each other. A young student and I created a new game where we started with the two crocodiles in the middle and then slowly added animals around the crocodiles one-by-one and the other person (who would have their eyes closed) would need to find where the new animal was placed and place a second in the mirror position. At the end, we had this cool animal mandala!
As the weather has been nicer, I have been taking the kids outside on the terrace and teaching them the basics to throwing and catching a baseball. Baseball is not a popular sport here - in fact one young friend recently said she has a good friend who plays baseball, and when I asked which position this friend played, she replied, "Well, I know he has a bat, so I think he is a hitter." I decided to take matters into my own hands and thought it would be good to teach a few of the kids how to catch and throw the ball. (I'm secretly building an all-star team of minis to shock all the Americans who come at LetFest, our summer camp!) The kids love spending time outside on the terrace just throwing the ball around! It's fun for me to share this favorite American sport with them.
One of the junior leaders always wins this game, and we wanted a chance to play without so much stress, so we rolled the dice and slapped quietly. The junior leader didn't notice even though she was sitting at the snack bar! We invited her in the next round ;)
One of my favorite things about youth clubs is getting to know these students over years. These three boys came very regularly a few years back, but because of different high schools/boarding schools and schedules, we haven't all been together at club for three years! We had a lot of fun recreating a picture from three years ago and remembering all the time they were at club when they were in middle school.
2021
2024
Youth Group
We had a pretty good turn-out for youth group a week ago as we have a LetFest Team Information Meeting. These youth all came in with such energy and hype that we usually see just days before LetFest, but there has been such excitement leading up to this year that these students feel like we are in the homestretch to get there! There are many returning junior leaders on our LetFest team as well as some new ones invited by friends, leaders - including a group of three junior leaders from our club in Boskovice! With a team of this kind of strength, I'm not worried about LetFest. Each person knows their role (many jumping into new leadership opportunities like leading workshops and translating) and at the end of the meeting, multiple people asked for prayer for family and friends, so we ended the meeting right where we had started - centered on God's work already happening here.
Outreach 
Our BumperBalls got some good use this month at a couple different events! We were invited to the preschool for their Earth Day celebration as well as to a city-wide festival with all the different organizations and clubs to enjoy the time with the kids. It is always so fun for me to go to these different events as I know so many people and children in the community. I have a great time connecting with the kids outside of our typical ELIM space and get to chat a little more with parents too. While the older kids like to put on these BumperBalls and safely ram into their friends or roll around (have to watch for the occasional kid getting stuck upside-down like a ladybug!), the younger kids curl up inside the ball and have parents or a leader roll them around. These types of activities - swinging, spinning, rolling - are all necessary for the development of a child as it helps them develop sensory movement experiences crucial for their nervous system. Not only that, it's also just lots of fun!
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