First 1/2 term break

The first 1/2 term break has come and gone but not without leaving some lasting memories... some good, so not so good.

Unfortunately half term got started off on the wrong note when it was discovered that there was some theft going on during "sweets" (a time when each student is alloted "40p" worth of candy to put in their candy jar). Some of the seniors are given the responsibility (and priviledge) of handing out the sweets and they took it upon themselves to give out extras, not one or two, but enough to over-fill their sweet jars. This was bad enough but when confronted about it, several of them chose to lie as well and none of them seemed repentent,rather they were just upset that they had been found out. Their actions caused them to miss out on everything for the rest of the day and they lost several priviledges including all their candy. Thankfully the juniors (grades 1-4) were able to still enjoy their day and a beautiful day it was too! We couldn't have asked for better 'beach' weather as we spent 80% of our day at the river/pool. Of course, being the brilliant person I am, I totally disregarded the sunscreen until it was too late and am now a nice lobster red. Unfortunately many of my students do not understand what it means to be sunburnt and that it hurts me when they tap me on the shoulder or jump on me to give me a hug. :S

At the dawn of Tuesday we were all a little wary of what to do about the seniors, but it was decided that they were going to be allowed to enjoy the days activities. So Lina, Rachel, Mare and I had the pleasure of taking the most senior students tubing. This time there was not great lightening shows or torrential rains, just a leisurly float down the river (getting stuck in a few places). It would have been nearly perfect if one large black spider had not decided to hitch on my tube for the ride. I let him know quickly that he was not welcome and even managed to do it without too much yelling or tipping myself off. :)Just after lunch came the rain and I was rather worried that our staff vs student soccer game would be called off! Thankfully the thunder rolled away and took the lightening with it, so we were able to proceed with out game in a light rain. We had 10 staff show up to play with various degrees of soccer "skills". The first half the students were only allowed to have 10 on at a time. By the end of the first half the score was 5-0 for the staff and we were really ready for a break! The second half we decided to give the students a little break, so they got a fresh "new" team of students and were allowed to add an extra 2 players. Us old 'fogies' rallied together and managed to shut them out until the last minute of the game. The final score was 7-1 for the staff. I was quite impressed with the effort put forth, especially by those who didn't really want to play, but did so because i asked them too. :) It was suggested by some that we have staff/student games on a regular basis. I thought this was a pretty good idea, however, my leg muscles today aren't agreeing with me! Over all it was a great way to end out our 1/2 term break. The extra fresh air, sunshine and excercise wore our more then myself; one of my grade one students literally fell asleep in my arms during video last night and several of them looked rather drousy in class this morning! Hopefully they'll we'll ALL get a good nights sleep tonight and be ready to tackle classes again tomorrow!