Last Term Curriculum and The Rainforest!

With one term left, ten weeks, I'm thinking how to end the year with enough to keep kids busy and yet not so much that we're rushed and not able to complete projects by the end. Same dilemma as at home, just different time of the calendar!

Christmas is celebrated openly in the schools here. No other religions are highlighted, according to the people I've spoken to. No Hannukah, no Kwanzaa, etc. It's Christmas all the way. Wow. Like our old days when we crafted our way all through December. I'm not used to that, but I'm hearing teachers spend quite a bit of time and create some pretty amazing Christmas presents. I better get thinking!

We finished our study of the rainforest and took our field trip ("excursion") to the local rainforest nearby. What a great, great day! It's a 1 1/2 hr drive, and we rode in the deluxe school buses here that are like our Greyhound coaches. Of course we had to stop in the little town at the start of the forest for coffees. My co-teacher phoned ahead to her friends who own the coffee house. The big bus pulled up, we jumped out and quickly retrieved our mochas! We were ready to hit the waterfalls and brush turkeys ahead!

I've visited this rainforest now five times (we bring each of our American visitors here), but seeing it with children was a different experience. I loved seeing the wonder in their eyes. Most had never been before. We were concerned with leeches. Yes, leeches. We learned how to rub them off should they drop down on us. We wore hats and long sleeves with our pants tucked into our socks for protection.

There were a number of forms to fill out before leaving school for legal protection. We filled out a risk factor form for things like bus-travel risk, snake-bite risk, and hot coffee-spill risk. No, just kidding about that part! But the others were serious! We carried a school first aid kit and a school cell phone with all numbers pre-programmed.

I've seen my colleagues make beautiful displays of large photos of their children, so I tried the same. I've since printed the photographs on 8 1/2 by 11 paper and laminated them. They are glossy prints now of the buttress roots, the strangler figs, the skink, the fungi, the huge huge ferns, and the happy children. They're terrific!