So….it’s December, right?? Except wait, … it’s hot, it’s the end of the school year, and there are Christmas decorations everywhere!! I SO do not know what to think right now!! This is so off base from every December that I have ever experienced! Not complaining at all, but wow its strange!
So many things are happening right now, especially at school. We are finished with our newspaper, so that is a big relief… (It turned out marvelously, by the way!) we are just making copies now and delivering them around the school. The students have a lot to be proud of, they have worked hard!
We are also busy doing a lot of practice for our item for the Upcoming Christmas Concert on Tuesday night next week. Here’s what happens…Each class has a part in the Christmas Show, whether it is being on stage singing/dancing, or creating and advertising an enterprise item to sell like candy or Christmas headbands. Our class in particular, Room 15, will be playing the music we have learned on the recorders and chime bars. I am really impressed with how far the children have come with learning their music. We went from not being able to create anything but squeaky noise on the recorders to now being able to play a small repertoire of Christmas tunes like Ode To Joy, Jingle Bells, and Jolly Old Saint Nick…and sound good while doing it! I have taught my students how to be professional musicians as well, sitting up straight, holding their instruments properly, and how to watch the conductor for tempo and playing cues. All those years in band seem to have paid of for something! ☺ So anyways, we will be playing our music…and then getting a little crazier. Believe it or not, I have been also teaching my students how to line dance. It’s a long story how we even got started doing it…it was never in my initial plans for coming to New Zealand, but well, we have been dancing up a storm in Room 15 for the last few minutes of every day. The kids have gotten quite good at it actually…so much to the point that now we are adding that to our concert item. Long story short, we will play our music in a little band…then quickly stash the instruments and have a mini hoe-down in front of 300 families…oh yikes! What have I gotten myself into?? ☺
In other current happenings, there are several assemblies and the Swanson’s Got Talent Show that will all be taking place in the last bits of school so our in-class time is getting more and more limited. Tomorrow the whole school will be participating in what is called National Jandal Day – a day to raise money for Surf Life Saving and also to promote healthy living awareness. (sidenote: “jandals” are another term for flip-flops here) Basically the kids are allowed to abandon their school uniforms for the day and just wear normal clothes if they agree to donate a dollar or two for the cause. Then the whole school will participate in outdoor fitness and game activities like relays, sack races, and jandal tosses (no joke). Its kind of funny actually…I’m not sure we would ever have a day like that back in Wisconsin!
The weather is absolutely beautiful here though, a bit rainy at times but I really can’t complain! I still can’t get over how warm it is. We actually went over to one of the teacher’s houses this evening for a staff barbecue. The widows and doors were all open as we enjoyed a warm breeze and some delicious food! New Zealand barbeques are definitely quite the event, we had such a great time!
That’s all I can think of for now… Ta!
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