Welcome my little kids!!!

Grades 1 and 2 students have been the most recent group returning to our school this year at CISS. Their faces are a mirror in which we see their happiness reflected.

In our aim to keep their achievement levels as high as possible, CISS we have focused on them catching up with Math and English activities, the same with all the PYP students.

However we must not forget the most important part of these young students personalities: their emotions and their feelings. They are still building the base of their developing intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence. Talking in IB language, their social and self-management skills. Processing emotions can be a challenging skill for everyone, especially children. They have been experiencing an unusual time having to stay home , with no apparent reason to them, just because something so small ,that they can’t see or they’re not able to understand , was flying around us. That provokes in them the possibility of frustration, fear, anxiety, disappointment, bareness, sadness…

My intention was to try to help them to deal with some of those feelings, including the positive ones derived from coming back to school. I took advantage of it by building their ¨wings¨ and my ¨plane¨ as social distancing devices (the rule was: nobody can touch your wings or my plane!).

Mr. Maldonado preparing the wings for social distancing. The students happy and surprised wearing the wings.

To promote the hand washing routine, we drew a coronavirus on our hands with markers. At the end of the day, they should have washed their hands as many times as possible to make it disappear.

Self-portrait: They reflected on their feelings, thoughts, activities, the food they ate or places before and after the enclosure time.

The Colour Monster story-teller: Kids listened to the story of the Colour Monster to help them to understand some feelings.

Birthday party: Students who weren’t able to celebrate their birthday with their classmates had their well deserved birthday party at School. I made some birthday tiaras for girls and masks for boys and Madame Duan and Mr. Norman brought birthday cupcakes for everyone…Such a feast! We also tried to pop some balloons sitting on them.

Outdoor activities: Besides the story-teller, we played some outdoor activities to change the school environment during the school day. Musical chairs with rings on the soccer field (keeping the social distancing), racing in different ways, walking, visiting the veggie garden or the famous game called “statues” or “red light, green light” are some of those fun games aimed at making them finish the long school day with a smile. We are very happy to have them back at CISS and have the opportunity to interact with them again.