First Grade Retreat

At 7:00 a.m. last Friday morning I boarded a bus with all of my first graders and headed to a nearby property to have a spiritual retreat with Sor Magyls.

Francisco, Daniel, and Rolando ready to go

Sor reminds me so much of Julie Andrews in the sound of music and this scene just solidifies it... 

I LOVE that she can do this bird call...

Pretty cool, right?

I am constantly amazed at what my students eat for breakfast every morning. So I took a few pictures so you can see exactly what I'm talking about.

1. Typical Honduran breakfast consisting of platanos, beans, eggs, and cheese with a juice box on the side. But this is for a six year old girl who also ate the equivalent of another plateful of food on top of this and then ate lunch two hours later. She probably ate at her house before coming too. It makes my stomach hurt just thinking about all of that food!

2. Yep - your eyes are not deceiving you. This is a hearty breakfast of fried chicken and french fries - yummy!

3. Roasted chicken, platanos, and beans...

4. Chicken nuggets or "nuggies" as we sometimes refer to them, are the breakfast of champions!

5. Pizza! This child then ate two big pieces of fried chicken for lunch. No wonder she conked out on the bus on the way home!

After breakfast the girls played some b-ball...

And the boys played some fútbol...

Then it was time for some reflective prayer. I love how serious Anyelo was about it...

After prayer Sor told the kids the story of David and Goliath (David ::pronounced Daveed:: and Goliat in Spanish) and then taught them a really cute song. We broke up into groups of eight to complete a crossword puzzle and color a picture...

Here is Rosita's group...

How cute!

When the kids were finished with their sheets we have them about ten minutes of free time before they preformed their "dramas". During that time I was attacked...

The love to tickle me

Next up were the adorable skits each group put on. Someone in the group played David, someone else Goliath, and then the rest of the kids were soldiers!

First up we had Francisco...

Who battled this mighty Goliath (Omar)...

Reginaldo actually played David for my groups skit, but I guess he wanted to channel Goliath for a picture...

Here's Katherine after she was taken out by David's rock...

Before lunch some of the kids did talent show performances...

Milca did a runway walk complete with blowing kisses to her audience members

Alejandra has come out of her "shy" shell so much this year, and I love to see her smile...

And after lots of prayer, playing, and food...

It was time to go back to school!

All of the kids had such a great time, and I really enjoyed spending the day with my students outside of the classroom. Retreats are a great tool to make students more aware of themselves and God in their lives. I'm glad they got to have this experience. I look forward to them going on retreats for years to come!

"Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess” –Samuel Johnson