Kindergarten Life...

So much is happening in the classroom each day!  It is amazing how quickly these students are picking up English!  Thought I'd catch you up on the first month of school.

During our letter "T" week, we learned about toothpaste and brushing our teeth!

The girls especially enjoyed practicing!

The nurse came in to give a talk about staying clean and healthy.

I could tell he hadn't had much practice when he gagged putting the toothbrush in his mouth!!

We checked our blood pressure....

In math, we've been working on numbers 0-10.  We count, sort, and make patterns.

Counting to 10

Matching numbers to pictures

Color Patterns

Sorting colors and counting objects to 10

Practice writing the numbers

Matching shapes

In the role play area, they just got into buying food at the "market."  Play money is a big hit!

Ironing

We've been learning about how to hold a book and how to locate the letters we've been studying.  This week we also learned about a "full stop" or period at the end of a sentence.

In IT, students use the Paint program to make shapes in different colors.

Classroom P.E.

This was "pink" day, so our Head of Faculty got in on the fun with her pink hair.  These 3 girls have earned 10 stars for good behavior, so they get to pick a prize.

Yellow day

Field trip to see art by UAE students about their cultural heritage

On the bus...

We've been learning about "family," and how families love each other.  These girls demonstrate The Barney Song, and their favorite part is "with a great big hug!"

Our Class

Awwww...Looking at art is tiring!!

Letter "i" week:  Insects in Ice

Comparing insects

Drawing the insects and what was observed...

Making "igloos" out of sugar cubes...

Outside play time, otherwise known as Gross Motor Play

Enjoying the slide

Field Trip to Student's Home

Yesterday we took our first field trip.  We are studying about family and home, so one of the mothers volunteered to have the students come to her home for a visit.  It was quite fun.

Anticipation....

Arrival

We loaded up the bus and drove through the neighborhood to Aysha's home.  Her mother and grandmother greeted us at the door.  We went into the Majlis (sitting room) and the children sat on chairs around the room, while the adults sat in the middle of the room on the floor. 

A HUGE room!

Sofas were lined up end to end all the way around 3 sides of the room.  The 4th side held all the serving dishes and food.

Faisal and Mariam sitting nicely.

They served fruit kebabs, doughnuts, pastries, and juice to the children. 

Rauda and Khatera enjoy the kebabs.

Sulaiman, Athla, and Mohammed preferred the doughnuts.

Amna found the perfect spot perched on the arms between 2 of the sofas!

Hamdan practices his writing skills!  :)

They served the adults tea or coffee, pastries, fruit compote, and some kind of noodles.

The remnants of our repast....

The children were well-behaved for the first half hour, and then the novelty wore off, and I was glad they were contained within the one room.  Some kept trying to slip off and head into the rest of the house, but that's not easy to do with the big doors they had to open!  Then, one of the adults handed Aysha a cell phone, so the kids were enthralled by that....

The I-phone holds their attention.  Maybe I should take my I-pad to school so they will be just as attentive to our lessons!  Ha-ha!

As we lined up to leave, each child was given a goodie bag with more candy and treats inside.

Then we headed back to school to eat lunch.  We tried to keep them at the lunch table for 15 minutes to eat their sandwich and juice, but it was a losing battle.  None of them were hungry or thirsty--imagine!!

35th Anniversary in Muscat, Oman

We flew over to Muscat to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary.  What did we learn after 35 years together?  Well, we definitely aren't 5-Star Hotel people....and especially not during Ramadan

We stayed at a gorgeous place called "The Chedi."  Our room was great, the grounds were amazing, and the view was spectacular.  The food, however, was not any of the 3: not great, not amazing, not spectacular.  I have never stayed in quite so nice a place and almost starved to death!  Lots of funny stories there, let me tell you!  Fortunately, the mini-bar was complimentary, and they kept it well-stashed with drinks.  We also depended quite a bit on room service, which was always "out" of whatever I wanted, but I did manage to order some basics off the kids' menu.

One night we decided to go pick up KFC.  When we asked the Concierge about it, he got a horrified look on his face and said it would be better if we went there.  (I could see the nightmare in his eyes of the delivery car pulling up to the lobby of this posh place!)  We assured him we were not thinking of delivery!  They called for us to make sure it was open....and then when we got there, of course it was NOT open.  So we went straight back to the hotel and ordered room service.

Another night we decided to go to a Mexican restaurant.  Again, we checked ahead, and they said they would open at 7:00 (after sunset for Ramadan).  So, we got a taxi there and walked around the place until 7:00 and finally got some decent food.  Most all of the restaurants serve "Iftar" to break the fast of Ramadan.  This means they don't serve their regular menu until later.  It is VERY difficult to wait until 7:00 pm to eat when you haven't had anything since breakfast!!  By the way, the hotel did serve quite a nice breakfast!!  Just lunch and dinner were lacking.

Choice of cake or champagne.....hmmmmm......Cake, every time!!

Hotel Lobby

Looking back at our room from the beach ~ We were in the middle section on the second floor.

The pool closest to the beach ~ This is the pool where we spent the most time.

Our chairs the first day ~ Until we realized how much nicer it was to sit in the grassy area so we didn't get sand all over the beach chair!

Our chairs the next 3 days!!

Looking up.....

LOVED watching all the wildlife.  The birds were so entertaining!

Crabs....

Brand new Inifinity pool in the newest section of the hotel.  This pool opened up on our 3rd day, so we checked it out.

Another view of the new pool. Can you see Kim at the end??

Okay, here he is!

Such a quiet, peaceful place!