School Activities Day

Everyday is a surprise in Thailand and yesterday was no exception. I arrived at school in my typical attire a smart skirt and dress top only to see all the other Primary teachers wearing track pants, sneakers, and a polo shirt. I didn’t really care that I was dressed up until I went to my first class of the day and found out that it was school activities day for 1st , 2nd , and 3rd graders. This meant that the whole day there weren’t proper classes for those grades. Instead they all got to go around to different learning stations and play or discover to learn the topic of choice. Hence the teachers’ active attire. I went home and changed as soon as I could so I could be scurrying around on the floor with the little guys.

Since I had not previously been told about the day I went to hang out with the Thai English Teachers at their station. They had prepared a day full of vocabulary, spelling, and hands on fun for the little kids. They cut out multiple English vocabulary words to use as flashcards for the kids, made hundreds of Thai characters, and bought plastic English alphabet learning toys for the day.

Once the group of students arrived they were asked to sit and get out a piece of paper. They were instructed to spell the vocabulary words and then swap with a partner to see if they spelled the words correctly. The students who didn’t miss any got prizes consisting of pencils, rulers, erasers, and candy. After the initial learning stage the kids broke into groups and I read a flashcard word to them and they had to go dig through the plastic letters to try and spell out the English word. After correctly spelling the word in English the students had to dig through the pile of Thai characters and spell the word in Thai. It was a very comprehensive game. I was surprised and pleased that the teachers had come up with it and most of the other stations were engaging the students in a similar manner that I had not yet seen in Thailand.

The day was a huge success minus my pounding headache by the end. But hey a little headache was worth the smiles on the kids faces!

I hope you enjoy the pictures of the kiddos playing I know they had a blast!