Around the world week

Our last week at the Hogar was an awesome week in our class because the kids that usually leave the Hogar in the afternoon to attend the community school were on vacation and got to come to our class instead. It made it so much easier to have kids there that were really interested in learning facts about the places as well as just doing fun activities. Our theme was “Around the World” and we visited a different country each day. We did similar things each day and then usually a unique activity or two at the end to wrap up. Each student had his own blank map of the world and we started each class by finding wherethe day's country was on the map and coloring it in. Then they each colored a blank flag of that country with the correct colors. We also learned how to say hello in the language they speak there, listened to ethnic music and talked about how it is different, and, the hightlight of each class, talked about the different types of food that are common or popular there and tried some.

Geovany loved coloring his map.

Visit to the USA

We started off the week by visiting the United States. We obviously had the best music for that day because we had such a variety.

We also had a picnic on the floor of the classroom with hot dogs and French fries. The kids LOVED the "papitas" or French Fries.

Our American activities were to make Indian headdresses and then play baseball. Chusita never quite got the hang of batting, but Martiza was a pretty good pitcher!

Visit to France

Another day during "Around the world" week, we visited France. The first thing we did was, of course, to give them all ridiculous French mustaches, including the girls.

I couldn't choose which picture was cuter, so sorry about the two photos of Sam. The first one if Roberto and the second is Ivan.

One fun part was when we showed them a clip from Spiderman 3 where a waiter speaks Spanish with a ridiculous French accent. They thought that was hilarious. Our French meal was French bread, cheese, and “wine,” aka. grape juice.

One of our culminating activities was building an Eiffel Tower out of popsicle sticks (which we ended up turning over to Sam, Carlos, and Ivan who cared the most about it).

For those kids who didn't care too much about builidng, we did watercoloring like the French Impressionists. I love Carmencita's face with her silly moustache in this picture.

Visit to China

I think my favorite day of "Around the World" week was the day we visited China. Sam and I put on silly Chinese costumes and welcomed them to China. We taught them how to say hello in Chinese and it was hilarious! Xiomara sounded like a cat saying “Ni Hao” all class because it was definitely “meow.” Cutest. We also listened to a song from the Kung Fu Panda soundtrack to talk about Chinese music. The highlight of the class though was when we had a Chinese brunch. We served the kids juice in these tiny tea cups and made them try to eat rice with chopsticks.

Martiza never could get the hang of it, but she thought is was a blast.


We were shocked to see that Geovany is absolutely amazing at using chopsticks. How the heck, I have no idea, since he doesn’t even hold them right. Ha! We were all super surprised. He was the best of the class. and then ate fortune cookies. The fortune cookies were hilarious because they were all in English so Emperatriz, Sam, and I just made up stupid things in Spanish. I told one of the students that she would be very successful in business. Ha! We ended up by making fans and rice picker hats.

I love how Carlos is 15 and not mentally disabled, but still gets totally into dressing up.