Mail Service

Friends and Family,

I meant to add this on to the email yesterday, but as of January 1, I will no longer have mail service down in the Dominican Republic.  This fall, I only received 2 packages, and I decided that the $180 affiliation fee wasn't worth only receiving 2 packages. 

IF you feel the need to send me a package or a card, ask me how you can get it to me!

Thanks!

Natalie

Where to Begin?

Okay...so one of my goals this year has been to have my students over more often. I think I have successfully completed this goal! :) at least thus far. I've been blessed to have many students over, both from this year and last.

So here's a quick recap of all of my students' home visits.

1. Rosa and Rosemary.

Rosemary was my student last year and her sister, Rosa, who is one of Miss Staats's favorite students. They came over and we made cookies and ate pizza and talked. It was great!

Rosemary checking out the cookies

Rosa putting cookies on the tray.

2. The triplets

I was super blessed to have a trio of triplets in my class last year. They are bright, mischievous, fun loving boys, and I love spending time with them. They came over one day to play some X-box.

3. Laura, Maryed, and Ana

I decided that it would probably be a good idea to get to know some of the students in my class this year too! :) So I began by inviting 3 wonderful girls over. We made bead bracelets, brownies, and ate pizza. It was awesome. and fun. Enjoy the pictures!

Ana and me bringing the pizza in!

Maryed and Laura making the brownies with excellent teamwork. :)

Maryed, Laura, Ana, and me sporting our new bracelets!

4. THE BOYS

Most recently, this past Friday, I had all the boys in my class over. WOW. What a lot of fun! We made pizzas, played X-box, played basketball, ate a TON, and just hung out. I loved it. (although I was ready for them to go home after 3 hours!)

The boys: Estanli, Cristofer, Luis, Emmanuel, Brian, Ronnie, and Fernando

The pizzas they made!

Luis, Brian, and Emmanuel chillin. :)

The boys got to talk with their friend Dylan who moved back to the United States! They were so excited!

The aftereffects. Wow! What a whirlwind! :)

TO SEE MORE PICTURES: click here

Fun Trips

I've been blessed to take a fun trips lately! I thank God that I have the opportunity to do crazy fun things on this tropical island!

One of the most fun things that I've done is 27 Charcos. Basically you hike up this path, climbing up waterfalls, swimming, getting drenched and physically exhausted, and then at the end you get to jump down these beautiful waterfalls. I couldn't take my camera with me because it would get drenched (if you would like to buy me a waterproof digital camera so I could take it with me next time I go, that would be awesome) but I have pictures from the before and after! I'm attaching the slideshow for you to watch!

For Karyn's birthday weekend, we went to a Dominican baseball game and then on to the beach! The baseball game (Aguilas vs. Licey) was very much like an American baseball game except louder. Not extreme, blow out your eardrums loud, but there was definitely just NOISE all the time. We went with a group of young adults from church so it was good to spend time with both Americans and Dominicans. Karyn and I then went on to Cabarete, our favorite beach, to celebrate her birthday! It was so fun to relax, eat good ice cream, good food, and just enjoy spending time with my friend!

The next weekend, a group of 9 of us piled into a Honda CRV and took off to the beach, with a stop to drop off the two youngins' at Mamacedes house. :) We got to the beach, took one look at our beautiful beach house and felt instantly relaxed. I spent the weekend playing in the HUGE ocean waves, swimming in our pool, and watching football...AMERICAN football. Can life get any better? Probably not. We ate good food, enjoyed good company, and just relaxed.

Update Email!

I just sent out an update email! Let me know if you want to receive it too! :)

The Colts.

Me way happy to be watching my boys! :)

As most of you know, I am a big Colts fan. I miss a lot watching Peyton and the boys. :) So, praise the Lord, I found a website that I could stream the games live. Only problem? It's in Danish. :)

So there ya have it. I love modern technology! :)

Art Class

Since we have yet to find an art/music teacher, the teachers at our school have stepped up to teach our own kids art. 4th grade has done some pretty awesome projects so far, such as magazine collages, insects made out of leaves/twigs/rocks/etc, 'old' paper, and paintings of Charlotte's Web. It's actually been fun teaching art (thank you Art for Teachers class and Kathy Herrmann!). Anyways, if you have any more ideas about a good art project for 2-3 days a week, let me know! Next up: puppet shows for Charlotte's Web. This week: dancing. practicing for Día de la Raza!

nature's insects

my collage ^

students' collages

My Classroom!

Welcome to 4th Grade! :)

the classic door.

the cubby area, behind here is the reading corner

my favorite--the reading corner. it's a little nook. the kids love reading there.

the back of the classroom

the front of the classroom

The back of the classroom--jobs, world map, birthdays, insect poster, and the Stoplight, Stop, Go signs that Josue posted. oh and the most essential classroom object in the top left corner--the fan!

Charlotte's Web bulletin board. yes. i did make the web.

writing corner...with the Scientific Method poster

our daily schedule

the bulletin board outside--we made collages in Art the first week, the kids loved it! (we don't have an art teacher yet, so all the teachers teach their own art classes. I love it!)

Miss Brewer's collage (click on the picture to make it bigger. please note the: Miss Brewer Rocks along the bottom...yes.)

enjoy! it doesn't look too bad, eh? :)