April 22nd
While not largely celebrated in Paraguay, Earth Day was my first attempt at organizing and presenting a large scale activity in Ayolas. While there were moments that felt completely out of hand, over a thousand students from my communities largest school were able to celebrate Earth Day and get to see their first tree/man. (I got you hooked, now you want to read the rest of the blog, don’t you!)
El Arbol Generoso
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
The week before Earth Day when I was in Asuncion for an in-service language training session, I happened upon the book The Giving Tree, but in Spanish. I instantly grabbed it off the shelf and ran towards the librarian to check it out. I have always loved the story and had looked for it in the office before, but that day was my lucky day. I have had the opportunity to perform the book before during my summers at Camp Lutherwood, so I was very excited to give it a try down here in Paraguay.
Every school session, morning and afternoon, begins with the students lining up around the school’s court yard by classrooms to sing the national anthem and hear the day’s announcements over a loud stereo system. So I decided to take the opportunity of having all 1700 students gathered in one spot to announce that today is Earth Day and to celebrate we have a short theatrical performance to present. Only with the help of my two site mates, Liam and David, was I able to narrate the story while my two best men put on an amazing silent performance of a tree and a man. Giggles filled the school yard as Liam walked out wearing his over 6 foot tall tree costume that I have made him out of some old boxes I had found in my new house. And David played the part of a young boy aging into an old wobbly walking man right before the kids eyes.
After the skit, we invited all the kids to spend there recess hours with us in and around the library celebrating Earth Day with some fund activities. And what were those activities you ask:
Gracias
Inside the library I made two large banners, one for the morning and one for the afternoon, that said Gracias for the students to color or write some of the things they were thankful for in the environment. Everything from trees, elephants, and family members were drawn all over the banners with crayons and colored pencils.
Quiz Show
Liam put together a great 20 question photo quiz show for the students to enjoy. All the questions were interesting facts we found about some of the local wildlife of Paraguay. Such as in Paraguay there exists 45 different species of murciélagos or mbopi or BATS!
Bottle Toss
David was the master behind the bottle toss game. We created labels for three different buckets that said trash can, water, and soil. The kids were then given two plastic coke bottles to try to throw into the correct location (the trash can). If the kid accidently threw the bottle into the water or soil bucket David would explain why its important to throw our trash in trash cans and not other places.
We spent three morning and three afternoon recess sessions of 30 minutes each, rotating the students through the activities. While I would like to say that everything was completely organized to handle over a thousands students, we were literally swarmed with students! Especially because we were giving out small candies to kids who answered quiz show questions correctly, tossed their bottle in the trash can bucket, or drew an item on the banner. We were overwhelmed and tired by the end of the day.
Oh, I forgot to mention that during the afternoon session we also were requested to watch over 10 kindergarten and 15 4th grade students for an hour and a half while their teachers held a “meeting”. Unfortunately a large group of teachers try to find the easiest way to do as little as possible. Such is the education system in Paraguay. Thank you teacher Liam for your impromptu geography class and leaf tracing session!
However, overall the day was exciting, busy, and memorable. I definitely plan on organizing more celebration days like this one for the students. But I will be sure to ask for even more volunteer support!
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