Untitled from Elizabeth Dawson on Vimeo.
This weekend was very full of activities! We had an overnight camp for grades 1-4 at the school on Friday night. We do it because a.) It's a lot of fun, for us and the kids, and b.) There are boy-scout type standards that have to be met. In Thai schools they have adventure type classes that meet them. Here we just have a fun-filled weekend of team-building activities and learning activities that meet the goals for us.
We surprised the kids with a Pirate theme. All of the teachers dressed up as pirates and we did some pirate-themed activities like rope-tying and making eye patches and bandannas. It's amazing what kind of costume you can come up with using just the random things you have lying around!
They also had an activity where they had to build a tent. The fun part came when they were all under it and we tested them out to see if they could withstand the forces of nature. Mr. Ben used a giant mat to create the "wind" and the we used a hose to create the "rain". I have to say my students passed with flying colors :)
After all the activities we had a huge bonfire and cooked hotdogs and smores (carefully of course!). Then we had the biggest dance party you have ever seen. It was quite fantastic. We were all drenched with sweat at this point and near exhaustion, but it was sooooo much fun to just get to have fun with the kids and not be in a classroom setting.
Dance Party from Elizabeth Dawson on Vimeo.
After the bonfire we retired to our rooms. Jill, my co-teacher, and I slept with the 3rd and 4th grade girls. We probably had at least 25 girls! They talked and talked into the night. The last ones drifted off around midnight. Then of course we had many who needed to get up in the night to use the restroom. THEN they woke up at 6:00 am! I was a bit shocked and quite disappointed. Breakfast wasn't until 8 so we had 2 hours to kill. We threw on a movie, but I wasn't able to get back to sleep. We had another several hours worth of activities, which weren't quite as fun because the kids were quite cranky from the heat and lack of sleep, but we made it through. By 12 they kids were gone and I made it to my bed. I decided to sleep until I woke up, which ended up being about 6:30, and only because my roommate called my cell phone :P I wasn't too productive, but it was so nice to rest!
After 2 weekends of busy activities, I'm ready for a break! I have this week of school, and then a 4 day weekend :) Today was amazingly incredible and tons of fun, but that blog will have to wait for another day... I have lesson plans to make and sleep to catch up on :)
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