Another fun day at the school in Strzala

Message of the day: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself "(Matthew 22:39); Shared by Jack

Today was a rainy and cold day -   we started out as usual with a great breakfast and the morning meeting .  The children and I went to Strzala school and helped with the 0/2/5/4 grades. 

Again we were greeted at the door with smiles and good mornings!!  The children are always so happy to see us!  We quickly went upstairs to the younger class and got right to it by singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider".  Ever enthusiastic  we then sat down to do our colors.  Many of the younger children know their colors and are happy to complete their work.   We have  found that many of the children at the school are familiar with American nursery rhymes and  children’s songs -   Our exit song has been the wheels on the bus. 

After a short break we were off to second grade -  in this class there are a few children who are quite good at English and it is fun to watch the students all turn to these few and ask them to translate –

We had a great time doing letters  numbers  and a school favorite bingo!!

We now come to the unanimous favorite part of our day – where the children and I participated in the fifth grades P.E. class.  During this time the teacher made teams and we were asked to compete in a mini competition where you were awarded points for first/ second or third place -  

We were asked to do such things as run in races / crawl on the floor / jump over things and my favorite crawling under legs and passing a basketball through ones legs.  After the competition we played a game of basketball.  During this gym class it was great to see the children all trying to communicate with myself and the my kids -   they tried to use their English words to explain / translate when the p.e. teacher spoke as well as use terms like good job when we won .  I feel like in this setting it is much easier to really see the children’s personalities and their abilities to speak – rather then standing up in classroom in front of everyone.   Hands down it was our favorite hour thus far  -   it seems sports really is an international language!

The end of the day we met with fourth graders we spoke about the American flag while incorporating their knowledge of colors and shapes.   The kids did a great job and of course asked to play Bingo!!! 

At the end of the day we went to the community center.  Jack now has a friend  Patrick who requests that Jack sit next to him   and it is great how all the children come up to Jack and I to say goodbye and “see you tomorrow”!  

 During the session they are all so eager to show Cassandra their work and get that ever so important sticker!!

We had a good afternoon of preparing for our lessons tomorrow and a Polish lesson/history lesson.

Our dinner was enjoyable as usual with lots of good conversation and food! 

On a side note we can't say enough nice things about the staff at the house and how kind / understanding they have been with my children and my lack of Polish -  being ever so patient to try to help us anyway they can . 

Overall I can not believe how kind and friendly everyone here has been and what a wonderful experience it has been albeit a short one-   I now know that one week here is definitely not enough and am sad that tomorrow will be our last day with the children at Strzala school.  I hope they will continue to learn English and look forward to coming back again!

 Journal by Barbara