Week 17

The countdown continues:

One more week until we arrive in Tenerife!

Two more weeks until Christmas!

We are sailing!!

This week found us in more preparations for sailing and Christmas. We have started to decorate the room with snowflakes and lights and the door is now decorated with Christmas angels wishing everyone who walks by a 'Merry Christmas.' Our story this week has been 'Felix's Christmas Around the World' - which has been nice because three of the traditions (North America, Holland and Sweden) we actually celebrate here on the ship as well.

The most exciting (and sad) news of the week is that we are on our way to Tenerife! Friday morning early found us taking our last at sea muster and lifeboat practice and we left around 2.30 Friday afternoon. Sadly, we leave behind many memories and a dock that has served us well as a Preschool class this year, but excitedly, we look towards sailing and Christmas break. Everything seems calm right now, the sea is beautiful and clue and the sky is almost cloudless. The ship rocks, but not bad enough to break anything yet :) We should be arriving in Tenerife sometime the end of next week. School will continue until Friday - hopfully everyone can enjoy this exciting time.

On Wednesday we went down to play on the dock for the last time. We had some stale crackers and chalk and had fun feeding the fish and making pictures. The fish gave us a great farewell show and at the end a giant jellyfish even made an appearence. Jellyfish have been showing up in the habor for the last couple weeks, but it was pretty spectular to see one show up at the end of the dock.

Week 16

The countdown begins:
Two more weeks left until Christmas break!

One more week until we sail to Tenerife!

This week we wrapped up our 'Helping Hands' unit by taking thank you cards around to some of the community helpers here on our ship. Each child picked a department that they wanted to give a card to, decorated it and then we all signed it. I thought this would be a nice way to tell the people who help us that we appreciate all their hard work. On Friday, we spent about 45 minutes taking the cards all over the ship. We had cards for the crew clinic (doctors), the nurses, reception, galley, teachers, post office, the captain, the firefighters and the Gurkhas (security guards on our ship).

As we get ready to sail, we have also started to have 'at sea' musters. Usually we have a muster (ie. a fire drill) every other Thursday - and usually after school. When the alarm goes, we all leave the ship, go down to the dock each group checks to make sure that everyone has made it. For sailing, there is no dock :) so we have to go to Deck 7 where the lifeboats are. We also get to wear super cool bright orange life jackets for the drills. Most adults are pretty good about this, but some of the kids, especially the young ones, really have trouble with the jackets. This past week in preschool, I got permission to get the life jackets out and practice with them a little. I think this helps to take some of the fear out the crazy drills with loud alarms and gets people excited for sailing. The pictures below are from when preschool tried on the jackets and also the all ship drill that we had on Thursday.

Soon, we will be leaving Liberia, which means we will also be leaving behind the great dock that God has blessed us with the past few years. Although it can be warm some days, the dock that we have right now has become a great place to play, draw chalk pictures, rides bikes and feed the fish. This past week we had some new experiences on the dock. One day, some of the girls discovered that if you draw enough in a puddle, chalk becomes a nice paste that you can fingerpaint with. Luckily, hands were the only thing that got covered in the new 'chalk paint.' Another day we took out the hula hoops, which we have done before, but this time lost two into the water. Ooops. One was fished out by a day worker when it came close enough to the ship, but the other has floated off to a new life in Liberia. It was a bit like a math problem 'The preschool class had 12 hula hoops. Two went into the water but one was fished out again. How many hula hoops do they have now?'

Weeks 14 and 15

Getting behind again, so I will have to combine two weeks into one entry.

The 21st found the Mercy Ships Academy piling into LandRovers and heading across Monrovia for a Sports Day at the American International School. They also have about 50 students right now, but an amazing builidng and grounds area that they are slowly rebuilding. Before the war, their school had several hundred students, but just reopened last year. We had an afternoon of coloring, games, playground, bubbles and snacks.

We also had a chance to go visit the crew nurse and doctor in the crew clinic. Most of the children have been there before for shots and check-ups, but it was fun just to go and explore. Frankie showed us how to listen to our hearts and how to figure out our height and weight. Thanks to Frankie and Craig for letting us visit.

This past week we continued our community helper theme by talking about what the students want to be when they get bigger. It seems right now like I have a class of future firefighters, ballerinas, teachers, astronauts and princesses. The Preschool 2's also finished up their community helper book that they have been illustrating. We have a page for people who keep us safe (captain, gurhkas, security officer), people who keep us healthy (doctors, nurses, dentist), people in the post office, people in the ship shop and firefighters. Next week we will be reviewing what we have talked about the past 4 weeks and then wrapping up our theme. This will leave us with two weeks to relax, sail and celebrate Christmas :)
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Water Painting on the Dock

Week Thirteen

Wow, time really does fly when you are having fun :) It is hard to believe that it is already the middle of November. In a few weeks, we will be sailing and getting ready for Christmas already- yikes!

This week found the preschool visiting two different 'helpers' here in our community. Because we do not have police or fire stations to visit, on Monday we visited reception instead. These are the people who we call in an emergency and they can connect us with the right person. We were able to see the computer that shows the fire alarm and the one that shows all the outside cameras. Both of these computers and the people watching them help to keep us safe. Thanks to Robin for letting us come look. On Thursday, we went to the Africa Mercy's post office and visited Patti Cook. We heard about how the mail comes onto the ship and then Patti has to weigh and sort all the little letters and boxes. Each student also had a chance to help with the sorting and weighing. Thank you Patti for your willingness to share your job with us!

One of our centers this week also reflected our 'helping hands' theme - we got out the hospital tent, babies, nurse/doctor clothing and the doctor's tools and had fun healing each other and our babies. The kids were very imaginative and knowledgable - it comes with living with a hospital three decks below us :) The kids were also excited about the green center this week because they finally had a chance to write with the wipe markers on the board. There were many types of pictures drawn including moms with babies, storms, scribbles and fires.

Fun on Deck 7:



3 lions in the den :)

Week Twelve

This week has been fun and exciting - lots of new things and people in our class.

We started a new theme this week of 'Helping Hands' - ie. Community Helpers or talking about people who help keep us safe and healthy. This week we focused mostly on firefighters and police officers. Next week we will be talking about doctors, nurses and people who help in the post office.

On Wednesday night, we had running club as usual, but Marcin, the new second officer, was able to get some pictures of the kids. Running Club is a way to get people out and exercising started last year by Miss Nikki and Miss Page. We start the evening with a warm-up game, let the kids run up and down the dock for about 30 minutes and then have a snack afterward. The goal is in 18 weeks for each child to run what amounts to 26 miles - a marathon. Even the little ones have gotten excited and some of the kids in preschool have already run 15 miles. -- Way to run!

Thursday night found everyone celebrating a day of thanks here in Liberia and on the ship. To celebrate, Miss Emily organized a 'living cornicopia' where all the children dressed as different fruits, vegetables and grains. Very cute and very well done!

Finally, there were some cute photos from our game on Friday. Instead of playing musical chairs where a chair is removed and someone is out, we played that when the chair is removed, we need to work together and all find a seat by sharing. In the end, 10 children ended up sitting on one chair - yeh, go teamwork!

On the first time Friday, Miss Sandy came to help in our class. Miss Sandy arrived on the ship

last week and is going to be the school secetary as well as the preschool assisstant. We have been waiting for her to come, so I think everyone was excited to finally meet her and see her in class.

Week Eleven

This week found us wrapping up our unit 'All Kinds of Friends.' We have spent the last several weeks talking about who friends are, how to share, what we can share and friends who live off the ship. To celebrate our friends, we had a party on Friday. Each preschool student was asked to invite 2 friends to come on Friday morning during break for some snacks and fun. We had friends from other classes in the Academy, parents and other crew members. The following pictures can show some of the fun we had.

Close to 30 people attended with great sucess! Thank you to all who were able to come.
Thank you also to all the parents who have helped this past month in the classroom. Miss Sandy arrived on ship this weekend and will be able to start helping the second week in November. We are looking forward to having her!

Week Ten

A big thanks to all the moms and dads who have been helping this past month. I have appreciated that you are all so willing to help and the kids have loved having you. Thanks also to the friends who left comments - I shared them with the class. Tom -- we are really looking forward to seeing you in a few months! Lili -- Megan talks all the time about her cousin too. There are several pictures of you (drawn by Megan) hanging in our classroom right now. Nova - Mayra talks about going back to Holland often.

Norah celebrated her forth birthday this week. Thank you Norah and Annette for the special candy!

Our outside playtime this past week found us on the dock three times because of work on Deck 7. We are so thankful to have this place to go - I am not quite sure how things will work when we arrive in Benin in Febuary. Thankfully, it is also starting to rain less and get warmer. One day this week we also spent time feeding the fish off the end of the dock. Nothing seemed to happen at first when we threw the bread in, but after some calling (which could be heard back by the gangway) the fish showed up to eat.

The purple center was popular with the girls this week because the babies were out. The boy teneded more to the plastic 'waffle blocks' and the plastic animals. Daniel Adjei in particular seemed to enjoy the animals the best - espeically the lions and tigers -- maybe following in the footsteps of his bibical namesake :)

The older Preschoolers read a poem this week about a new friend moving in next door, but we decided to change a few words to make it fit our situation better. In particular, we were thinking about how we might feel when Tom comes in January. Here is our new poem, modified slightly from Majorie Allen Anderson's 'A New Friend'.

'A New Friend'

by AFM P2's

They're walking up the gangway;

I watched them carefully.

I wondered, 'Will there be a child

Just right to play with me?'

So I peeked through the door

(I couldn't wait to see).

I found the little boy next door

Was peeking back at me!

Week Nine

Ahhhh, I am getting behind! Just photos for this week. Hope they make you smile :)

In line to go to the dock.

Friends on the dock

Playing with patten blocks.

Stringing beads

Class picture on the dock