High School #1

We got to visit a new class today. They've been traveling the English speaking world--England, South Africa, and today we invited them to the States.

With our trusty US map, we introduced them to some geography and famous places. But they were much more interested in learning about our homes and families. A great group!

Book Day

Wednesday the 26th is Book Day in Uruguay!

All the English classes recognized the day by reading stories.

Here, the Morning Kindergarten class at School 99 is working with Goldilocks.

The older students listened to the story and filled in the missing words.

The morning 3rd grade class at School 99 did a great job listening and repeating!

Salto Grande and Body Songs

The sixth-graders got to visit Salto Grande Dam one day when we weren't in school (lucky kids!), so we brought an activity to compare Salto Grande and Hoover Dam.


Then in first grade we're working on using songs and games the kids already know, like "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and Simon Says, to get the parts of the body straight.



This handsome fellow was a collaborative effort on the part of the kids. Check out the detail on the fingers and the strapping shoulders he has there, keeping the arm bone connected to the neck bone.

Jazz Chants for Children

Jazz chants are a unique way of linking the rhythm of natural spoken language to the rhythm of music. Jazz chants were first created by Carolyn Graham, undisputed queen of the genre, over 30 years ago. Carolyn was teaching ESL at New York University by day and working as a singer/piano player in bars at night when, as she has said, she ‘stumbled upon’ the brilliant idea of connecting the natural rhythms of spoken American English with the rhythms of traditional American jazz music in order to help her students develop speaking skills.

I learnt about jazz chants early on in my teaching career and quickly discovered what a wonderful way they are to develop speaking skills both with adults (who I was also teaching at the time) and children. I soon found myself inspired by Carolyn to create my own chants to reflect the natural rhythms of the variety of English I speak i.e. British rather than American English, and have been writing them and using them with my classes regularly ever since.

The main feature of a jazz chant as opposed to a poem or rhyme is that there is no poetic licence or artificial change to the stress and intonation patterns of natural speech. Jazz chants also often take the form of an interchange or dialogue which display the natural give and take of everyday spoken language.

-- from http://carolread.wordpress.com/

Our American Lives - Humor

Last week, the theme of our conversation night was humor. For the final activity, we gave each group of participants a bag of objects and a task: to create a skit using all of the items in the bag. We think the skits were fantastic, and they all produced the desired effect - a lot of laughter. Props to all of the participants for their creativity and bravery!

CeRP Matters

Here's the Friday class we always look forward to, with Emita's Fourth-year students at the Centro Regional de Profesores in Salto.

To conclude our presentation of some American regions, we had them try a little contra dancing.

Busy as they are with practicing in high schools and preparing for all their big international exams coming up, they're so enthusiastic and a delight to work with.

Fun times over at School 98

I'm joking. This is an old sign in Paysandú. Assisting at School 98 has been a great learning experience.


Interacting with the students, it is always refreshing to see their pride in their school. Here they are at the assembly commemorating Las Piedras.


And how they love going to class--it's like the fountain of youth!


Oh, to be young and have a dinosaur toy...

Oh, by the way

Just some adorable things we forgot to mention--


The first day we visited School 99, the kids sang us 'We are the World' and then an amazing version of the murga 'lo que el tiempo me enseñó,' complete with little costumes. We teared up.


It was the most beautiful of first impressions.

Kindergarten Celebration

I really enjoy working with the Kindergarten students at School 99. Their teacher Adela always has them working on projects and making them think hard.




Today the students invited their mothers to class to celebrate Mother's Day. First they surprised their mothers with handmade flowers. Then they sang two songs with Nicolas, the music teacher, including their favorite song about animals. Later, their English teacher, Maria Celia, and I helped them recite a short poem in English. Finally, Adela read a short story about magical mothers to the group.

It was a lovely celebration! I'm glad that I was invited to be a part of it.

Look Familiar?

Some Salto signs caught our attention because they look like home.

But on closer inspection, you see the differences!

Camping gear, anyone?

Back in IFD at last

After an unexpected visit to the capital and its Mercado del Puerto, we threw ourselves all the more into the life of Salto's schools and culture.

We took in a play about the life of the Uruguayan poet Juana Ibarbourou at the historic Larrañaga Theater.


At School 98 we started reading books to the students during breaks, since they're celebrating Uruguay's National Book Day in a few short weeks.



And on Friday, we finally made it back to the Instituto de Formación Docente, where we got to see more of the public school teachers at their meeting to work on next year's English curriculum.

Mother's Day

In honor of Mother's Day, the students at School 99 learned poems in English and decorated cards.


The 5th grade students also worked with new vocabulary and later completed Mother's Day crossword puzzles to practice.

Good work to the students who finished their puzzles in record time!

6th Grade at School 99

The afternoon 6th grade class at School 99 is learning about the USA.

Today they showed me flags that they drew with 50 stars and 13 stripes.

Students also shared the Uruguayan flag with me.

Their research projects look incredible!

I am especially impressed with the banners they made in homeroom.

¿Te late el mate?

We always see Uruguayans hugging their thermos under one arm with their mate in hand. So, of course, we wanted to learn what it's all about! Many thanks to the CERP students who responded to the signs we posted outside the building and shared their mate knowledge with us between classes. We now have an introduction to different mates, the herb, and how to share this very typical Uruguayan beverage.


Most importantly, today resulted in a historic moment: Meara prepared her very own mate for the first time!








See what else we learned in a short video below.

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