A Day in the Life

Hey everyone, we are doing well down here. Its hot as ever, but school is keeping us busy. Our trip to Fiji is five weeks away and we can't stop daydreaming about fast food, movies and beaches...we can't wait! For this week, we thought we'd give you all a little tour of a day in the life at our local village school. Hope you enjoy!

The teacher's start the day at their house, choosing from their many options for breakfast. Let's see, I think today we will go with bananas...

(These were given to us on Tongan Father's Day by the men who work in the bush. This is such a generous gift as this bunch could easily feed a large family breakfast and lunch for a week.)

Like all schools, ours begins with the bell...yep...

 

The morning assembly begins, where students say their prayers, sing the national anthem and march. 

Recess happens in the morning. While we may not have a jungle gym, we do have one big ass mango tree that provides all the excitement one might need!

Recess usually consists of the girls huddled around Abby, and the boys engaged in an all out brawl...

 

...Unless, the New Zealand Ministry of Science has recently donated magnifying glasses to your school, in which recess consists of trying to burn paper with said magnifying glass...

A trip to the drinking fountain, which consists of a sima vai donated by the people of Japan and a coconut shell donated by the people of Tonga, before class begins.

Teaching Class 3/4 is up first. As opposed to their usual desk work, English class will be Montessori-inspired centers activities. Take special notice of the magnetic letters from Lakeshore Learning, they were purchased at a momentous occasion, Cassie Louise Kloberdanz's first (and definitely ONLY) trip to Lakeshore Learning in Lakewood. It's a jungle in there, huh Cass?!? :-)

     

      

     

Class ends with a read-aloud. This book is about farm animals. What you can't see, dear reader, is Ryan adding the sound effects to each animal. Our kids have been saying 'oink, oink, oink' for days! So helpful.

 

Lunch consists of, wait for it, yep, more bananas. You probably don't need a picture of that.

Lunch is followed by brushing our teeth. While most schools in Vava'u do weekly teeth brushing, we are proud that our students brush their teeth every single day after lunch. It's always quite a spectacle.

In the afternoon Abby teaches the big class while Ryan pulls out his boys for work in the library. Given the sounds I hear, the crazy activities they do and the laughing that comes out of the library, I'm happy to see a picture of the boys actually getting to work...

 

School ends...except for our 6th graders who will take their High School entrance exam in October. So for them they go home, take a bucket bath, eat dinner and come back for 'po ako' (night school) to get ready for the test.

 

And finally, what would the Instructions Unit be without a little Cha Cha Slide to end the night.

 

Now that's what I call Dancing in the Dark!
(Dear reader, did I want to add in this stupid, cheesy joke? No. But Ryan insisted that it get included for Kapolas)

Well that's it from here. All in all, it was a good, normal, 11 hour day working at school. It would not be possible without our amazing kids or all of the support we get from you in America. 

Ryan's Note:

Given that my crazy wife forces me to work 11 hours per day at school, I present to you payback in the form of my wife trying to teach our 3/4 kids how to pronounce the 'at' sound. Enjoy!