Reaching Brazil's Children at Risk: 2011

This year at the Lar project we got a little more brave in doing our year-end presentation – the students did a skit of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, a spelling bee, and a dance presentation. My younger class sang the A-B-C song and all were presented with certificates of completion for this year of English. It’s always a lot of work getting ready, the students are tired and nervous about their roles, but in end it was all a success! After the presentation, I had a Christmas party planned for them, and in my craziness, decided to have the students make their own sugar cookies. This proved to be a bigger hit than I had suspected – they all loved it! I had three mom’s visit also, and it was fun showing them how to make the cut out cookies as well.

Preparation for Goldilocks

In the weeks before our presentation, my students listened to the Goldilocks story on CD, read the book, watched videos, and did various worksheets and projects to learn about the characters and house items in English. I was going to try and make porridge, but decided against it!

Finished products

The Presentation

Both morning and afternoon students presented, and we had four students be the main characters, with the rest of the students wearing a placard indicating which story part they were: a bowl, a chair, or a bed!

Above, the morning class bears finding baby bear’s chair broken (girl on floor), below, the afternoon class bears and Goldilocks

Above right, Vinicius wrote and told a story of seeing Goldilocks running through the woods after fleeing the three bears house!

The Spelling Bee

Sheer terror struck my students at the thought of spelling words in front of Everyone at the Lar, and spelling in English was even more terrifying, but in the end they took this task seriously, studied, and did a good job! Mayara won the morning session, and Paula and Natalia Sabrina won the afternoon, which had two spelling bees broken down by age.

A-B-C Song

My younger classes each sang the A-B-C song for their presentation and received certificates of participation.

Certificates

Christmas Party

I had a Brazilian friend come help me in the morning session, and she had recently visited the United States, so I had her speak to my students about her trip and the importance of learning English.

I also read the Christmas story, and the kids made crafts, did word searches and played Christmas bingo.

Cookies! Cookies and More Cookies!

Since my students ask me every year for the recipe to make the sugar cookies, I thought it would be fun to show them how to make them. There was flour and sugar sprinkles everywhere, but they had a blast!

Above, two mother’s came to visit and took part in the baking with their daughters

Parting Class Shots

Merry Christmas and Joyous 2012 to all!

“Be glad and rejoice with all your heart.” Zephaniah 3:14

This month I finished my Super Seminars with the local Sao Paulo chapter of Child Evangelism Fellowship, and we had a graduation program to end our training. It was good to get to know some of the people in the area who are running CEF, as well as get the training reviewed and learned in portuguese.

My class (right) and receiving my certificate (above)

SPACE Program

If you recall from a previous blog, I had recommended two girls to be considered for entrance into a local SP private school; one of the girls, Jennifer, was awarded with a full scholarship, and I had the opportunity to meet with the program coordinators at their church on Sunday, where they presented about the program and highlighted Jennifer. It was nice to meet them personally and learn more details of their program. Keep Jennifer in your prayers as she starts a new school year soon in a much more demanding school setting.

AMIS Year-end party

The Morumbi Association that assists in Vila Andrade had a year-end party and gift giving day, which the kids and families in the community really enjoyed.