100th...

Day of school and my 100th blog post! I haven't written a 100 blog posts since being in Honduras, but I've written a 100 since I've started this blog and it's so awesome that I'm submitting this one on my 100th day of school!

We have a major trash problem at Santa Clara. Honduras in general has a major trash problem and our students are use to just throwing their trash on the ground. Even though we have numerous trash cans in each of our hallways, it doesn't matter. The trash still somehow makes it out into the field. It's something that all of the teachers have talked about fixing. So I decided that for the 100th day of school the first grade class would challenge the rest of the school to pick up a minimum of 100 pieces of trash.

Each class was given one large trash bag to fill that would then be given to me for judging. The fourth, fifth, and sixth graders however got so into it that they asked Arlington for more bags from the school. I think fourth and fifth grade ended up with four full bags and sixth grade had five. I was so glad they got so into it but I told them they could only submit one bag for the contest.

Carrie was telling me after school that her fourth graders were on their hands and knees begging to go outside and pick up more trash. Mary's fifth graders got so wrapped up in the competition aspect that they actually snagged a bag of trash out of a trash can to submit on their behalf. It had all of the sixth graders in an uproar and that bag was disqualified from the contest. Then Jeff's sixth graders strategically planned out what they were going to do to win. When he asked them what they thought one little boy said "We could all go buy something and then throw our trash away"...haha! Then Jeff told me he had planned to take them out after the little kids recess "to clean house". I love that everyone got so into it. It was great to see all of the kids working together to achieve a set goal.

Even though my students weren't participating in the competition I had them go outside and fill a trash bag. They loved it so much they wanted to fill more. After school today I asked one little girl what her favorite part of the 100th day was and she said "picking up trash" -- how funny!

Section A got to go out first to collect trash for my class. Here is Joseemir carrying a ton of bottles to throw away. It was really sunny out this morning!

Jose Reginaldo got his fair share too...

I was cracking up that Maria Jose told me she was tired after five minutes of being outside. But my 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 really worked because she ran and grabbed all of this...(and even looks excited about it...or is that just squinting from the sun ;) )

When it was time for my first class to pack up Omar decided to do a pile on and crushed Gerardo. Here are the after effects...

These kids are absolutely nuts and I just love them anyways!

Then it was section B's turn...

Mariela is so dainty and does not care for physical labor. I love this picture of her with the princess crown on as she lightly clings to her cup with the tips of two of her fingers.

HAHA

It's so funny that the kids walked with the trash can as they called for students to go and pick up more trash...

This is my favorite picture of the day...teamwork :)

After we got finished picking up all the trash we could find I had ten of my kids stand on the back of this sign to get a 100 fingers shot...

Wendy is subbing for third grade the rest of this week because Kandice left for Costa Rica. She came out with her class to pick up trash at the same time as us and as you can see the kids already miss her -- so cute!

After I took the above picture of her she told me to go and get in one. Anyelo (who's on my lap) couldn't be more excited about it!

Throughout the day (between both classes) we wrote 100 words in English. All of the students had sheets and they copied down what I wrote on the board. We wrote ten words in a sitting. So for example in my morning class we wrote ten words, completed our daily journal, wrote ten more words, had calendar time, wrote ten more words, picked up trash outside, wrote ten more words, etc. The students had to give me all of the words themselves. If they told me an English word but couldn't spell it correctly we didn't add it to the list. I was really impressed with some of the words they came up with. Most of them they pulled off of our word wall. But words like happy, puzzle, heart, and house are not words we've had as vocabulary or on any of our spelling tests. Nice job First Grade -- I'm so proud!

That's a lot of English words :)

At 1:30 all of the classes had to have their trash bags submitted for judging. I based my judgement on fullness, weight, and how well the class worked as a team.

It's crazy that this much trashed was picked up in one day from OUR school!

It was a tough judgement call but the winners had to be the fourth grade class. They filled their bag to the brim and worked wonderfully as a team. Every time I saw them outside they were running around with their trash bags and picking up every piece of trash in sight.

Sixth grade was a close second with this extra large bag they submitted...

After we got finished writing our 100 words I had the kids draw a picture of 100 things. Some of them drew apple trees with 100 apples, which I thought was very creative. Other kids literally started drawing a 100 little things, like Leah...

Then, Kare, I stole your 100 toes idea. I asked ten students to come out into the hallway and asked them to take off their socks and shoes. The way they were smiling and giggling you would have thought it was Christmas morning. They were so excited it was hard to even get this picture, let alone one that focused more on just their toes. Aren't they just adorable though?!?!

Happy 100th day of school!

I can still remember days 3, 5, and 8 of school. I remember thinking then "I have no idea how I'm going to make it to day 100 at this slow rate". Now it's here and the time is just flying by. I don't want June to come too quickly though!

I want to say a HUGE thank you to Carrie for letting me borrow her camera for today's photos!

I'll leave you with a quote from "The Alchemist". I'm currently reading it and loving it!!

"This is the most dangerous of obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here" -Paulo Coelho