So this week I decided to break my kids in easy and do the "Getting Ready" section in our math book. Normally they would get a good month of prep before any real curriculum (those routines must be flawless first), but seeing as it's October 15th and today was the 10th, yes, TENTH day of school, I sort of have to move a bit faster. They're smart and well behaved and ready for it, but nevertheless, we took this week to review the basics.
A few days ago our review topic was colors. After the lesson I gave each kid a blank circle divided into pie pieces and instructed them to color the pieces with whatever colors they currently had on. Seeing as they all were wearing the navy bottoms and the white collared AIS shirt required of them, we had to get creative to have differences in their work. I challenged them to look at everything- their socks, shoes, hair accessories, etc. and color any colors they saw on them. We came back at the end of the activity and I let a few present their work to the class. I called one student to the front. We began going through the colors on his wheel with him telling us where they were found. Yellow on his shoes, grey for the stripes on his shoes, green... I looked at him confused. He's pretty much on top of things so I wondered why he possibly colored green since I couldn't see any on him anywhere. So I said, "Green, Ali? Where's your green found?" "In my underwears." Oh. Thank you. You really took the instructions to heart. :)
In happy news... we received an email today stating that our a/c will be allowed back on beginning Sunday. PTL!!! Oh, did I forget to tell you? In order to prevent the spread of swine flu in Egypt we:
1. Closed all schools for the entire month of September.
2. Are required to be in the country 8 days before going to school to make sure we aren't sick. Mind you, we can go to the mall, grocery store, ride the Metro, etc.
3. Have the students wash their hands every hour.
4. Send anyone who coughs, sneezes, or has a temp over 98.6 home.
5. Not use the a/c at school or on buses, and open all windows and doors to have proper airflow within the school. (Did I mention that the playground is behind my class? Or that I live in the desert and it's stinking HOT?)
Yes. So you can imagine the joy that rippled through the school as we heard the a/c would be on when school resumed on Sunday. You know, since we haven't had it since school started and all. But, we all have that Egyptian word in the back of our minds... That one that means, "Maybe, maybe not.", or literally means, "God willing".
Insha'allah.
