Week Twenty-Two

Our first full week of Preschool in Benin has gone by quickly. The week seemed to just start yesterday. Thursday and Friday were exciting because many people were off ship working at the screening. Miss Sandy was able to go on Thursday and Miss Elizabeth on Friday. Thank you to Miss Nikki and Miss Sally for covering on Friday!

We continued our transportation theme this week by talking about how our bodies can take us places. We read stories like 'The Gingerbread Man', 'Sounds My Feet Make', and 'Tom and Pippo Take a Walk'. On Tuesday we took turns painting our feet and walking on paper to make footprints. They are hanging in the passage right now with a sign - 'Where are our feet taking us? store, Benin, ice cream place, drink shop, zoo, swimming pool'.


The Bible story this week was Daniel, which was familiar to most of the children. We discussed how Daniel made a choice to do the right thing even if it was hard or no one had been looking. On Friday we had fun watching the Daniel story from the Veggie Tales tape -'Where's God When I'm Scared?' I think everyone's favorite line is when Daniel leaves the den the next morning and says 'Thanks for the pizza' to the lions :)

Centers has been changing more often now that there are less children in the class, so this week we had coloring, play kitchen, block building, puppets, games and puzzles. I think the favorites were the puppets, play kitchen and blocks. On Thursday a couple of students decided to build a zoo and even added some of the plastic animals to make it more real.

Week Twenty-One

This week in preschool was a mixed up, but we still have had fun. We planned to arrive in Benin on Monday afternoon, but engine trouble keep us at anchor within sight of Benin until Tuesday morning. This meant that Tuesday morning we were able to come to class and then head out to Deck 7 to watch the arrival. It was fun to be able to do this as a class. Lots of people were wearing their best clothes for the celebration as well.

Trains was the transportation vehicle of the week this week. We made a train to put up on the wall and decided that it would stop at the IOC, Benin, England, Italy, Holland and South Africa (someone wanted to visit Emily). We also learned the word 'pufferbelly' from one of our songs and discovered that it did not mean that our stomachs were puffing, but that it was an old type of engine with steam.

The excitement of the week was not only reaching Benin, but also having the netting go back up on Deck 7. For those of you who have not been to the ship before, Deck 7 starboard is our 'playground' and has a metal rail a couple feet high, but this would not stop balls and toys from going over the side. To solve this problem, the deck department put up a net for us that keeps balls, hula hoops and other things from going into the ocean. When we sail, for safety reasons, the netting comes down, so for a month and a half we have had to keep most of the toys inside. By Wednesday morning, Betina was already out on the deck putting up the netting and securing it even better than it had been before. Thank you Betina!!

Week Twenty

This week has been great and gone by quickly. It is hard to believe we left Tenerife a week ago tomorrow and already celebrated the 100th day of school today. Time really does fly when you are having fun! :)

We took advantage of sailing this week to talk about ships as a way to get from one place to another -- our theme for the next few weeks is transportation, so it fits perfectly. Read lots of stories this week about ships and then on Thursday went up to the bridge to see how the officers steer the Africa Mercy. A couple students were surprised to find that no one really seemed to be driving the ship, but Jarle (the officer on duty - very patient and great with the kids) was able to show them the computer and even let the kids try to 'steer' the ship. All I have to say is that I am glad the computer was in charge of the steering at the time because otherwise we would have had some really wild turns. We also had fun looking through the windows in the floor on the port and starboard sides of the ship.

On Friday, we celebrated the 100th day of school. We split 100 M&M's between 10 of us, did 100 exercises (in groups on 10) outside at break and put 100 stickers on our '100th day' crowns. For storytime we read '100th Day Worries' and I have also decorated the door with '100 Ways to get from here to there' which fits our transportation theme. Happily, 100 things actually just fits onto the door.