First day at school

Went to school this morning and there was a teacher there. She was a supply techer and is apparently there tomorrow as well. I am in a class with another volunteer as she is leaving on sunday and they said for us to just stay in the same class this week. I took in the small parachute I had bought with money donated by friends and we used it at break time. They kids absolutely LOVED it. They were very excited and when we put a ball ont he top and played a game where you had to keep the ball on the top they were jumping up and down and screaming until the ball came near them and then they got a little scared.
The school has a main building but the nursery and Year 1 classes are in little round huts that are seperate from the main building. School started at 8 and finished at 12. I don't think today was a typical day as they had a supply, but the kids were very cute. The class has 3 and 4 year olds and not all of them were in. The schools are quite minimally resourced. For the sticking activity they did, the kids got a little glue in a bottle lid and had to dab a little on their finger then put it on the paper they were sticking. They are really good at using minimal resources and not wasting things. Something kids at home could do with learning.

I really think that the things I have bought will go down well, especially the paints as they don't appear to have much of that either. I will take them in bit by bit I think and more when the class teacher is there.

After arriving he kids sang a song and then went to English class where minimal English was spoken and it was held in a language lab style classroom, so the kids are the back were really far from the teacher and just took to flicking through the book they had been given. After this we went back to the classroom for breakfast. The kids all got their packed lunch boxes and produced a bowl or tupperware and a spoon from it!! There was the mother of one of the children there waiting for us and she had brought in the breakfast - cereal and yoghurt. Apparently the parents take it in turn to do this.

Very interesting experience. And I am quite looking forward to tomorrow.

These pictures are ones that I couldn't upload yesterday. A galapagos penguin and a view of the Island of Floreana where we visited on Sunday.