School Activities

School has been very rewarding and successful this past month. I finally feel like I know what I am doing and what my role is in my school. I thought I would share some success stories and pictures with y’all.

We have recently wrapped up the study of colors in my class ¾. Knowing the English word of the colors and being able to describe something based on color. They love to do color by numbers!

This past week we started a unit called Narrative so we have started with learning the parts of a book. Teaching vocabulary such as literacy terms is tricky. I decided to make vocabulary squares with my students. We created squares in their journals where they have the word in English and Tongan, the English definition, and a picture representing the word. As they were working on their squares I would show them the vocabulary word using an actual book.

I am so excited for this unit. We are going to be doing a lot of reading, creating simple books of our own, and we are going to end the unit with some plays. It is very exciting. 

As for class 5/6 my class 6 students are preparing for a big test that has a heavy weight on their future. The first week in October they will be taking the test. The score the students get on this test decides where they go to high school. Students that do not get into the government school have less likely chance of completing their high school degree. My class 6 is composed of six boys. Ongo and I are putting in a lot of work with them to get them prepared.

Part of this preparation is we have been really working on our writing because sentence structure is proving to be hard. A PVC, Chiara, who lives on the island Vava’u and I started a pen pal exchange between our students. My students sent their first letters about a month ago and have just received some from Chiara’s students this past week. They were so excited to get responses. I don’t think they believed me that I was really sending them to students in Vava’u. This next week we will be getting new letter prepared to send off!

Also, I have been giving my students prompts to work on, such as My Best Friend, The Happiest Day, The Saddest Day, etc. On Thursday MeleOngo’s nephew, Maka wrote a story about his Best Friend and he wrote it about me. It was only the cutest thing ever. 

Then in class ½ I am getting ready to start working on English with the class 2 students. I am too excited. We will be starting with the alphabet and move onto numbers and then if there is more time before the end of the year some more basics!

Lastly, my school finally has a school garden that is growing, growing, growing! So excited to have some fresh produce readily available and to sale the vegetables for the school!