Homemade.

Hi there! Happy April 1st! April Fool's Day... I think? The only April Fool's I have at the moment is that I'll post a lot of blogs after this one. Which is actually not a joke at all, but is an appropriate plan as this blog hasn't been updated in a while! :)


Anyway, these pictures are from January-March. During this time at school we’ve been making a lot of handmade materials for our Montessori projects in the classroom. It's an ongoing project with the teachers that I really like because every activity we're adding to the classes here is something that can be made using local materials that are A. not too expensive and B. the teachers have access to in Mao. It's strange to think back to a year ago and remember that most of what we're currently working on wasn't happening yet in the classes (no materials existed), teachers didn't know about this methodology yet (as this was pre-treacher trainings) and was only in the planning stages (I was writing/waiting for grants). At this point we've already had the trainings, as well as the majority of material making sessions, have redone the classrooms or rearranged the classrooms in some cases and are now working on adding additional homemade materials according to the needs of students as communicated by the teachers. It has been good to see the teachers choose what activities they want to use with their students, and each class really is tailored to the needs of the students in it - but the activities are all similar and recognizable to the students - so as they improve they'll be familiar with how to use each activity. (For example - the youngest students work on identifying just the vowels A, E, I, O, U, while the older or more advanced students work on spelling entire words that incorporate all letters). In any case, cutting and pasting has been a larger part of my Peace Corps service than I initially expected - that's what you get for working in a school with young kids!


Thought I’d share a few photos of everyone at work!

card activity where students have to identify the initial sound of the word according to the picture it matches 

another card activity - spelling out entire words according to corresponding picture

cutting up plastic

crafty in the office

card activity grouping upper and lower case letters together

some of the handmade language materials (and trays!) in Pre-Primaria class 

organizing a picture and word language activity in Pre-Primaria class

Birthday photo for Samuel - feliz cumple!

some of the handmade language materials in 3ro y 4to class

organizing the 4 corners handmade card activity

new attendance chart in 3ro y 4to class

some of the handmade language materials in the works in 1ro y 2do class

Take care all!

XO