Lets Be Ready

Hello everyone, it is a pleasure to write to you again and inform you everything we do for and for our children.

Well, I am writing to you that in the month of November, TEACHERS 2 TEACHERS International, the Families of Hope Foundation and the Ministry of Education invited us to a Mathematics conference in La Antigua Guatemala; The topic was "Practical Learning in the Early Years"

We learned how practical and fun math can be in our classroom. It was led by a diverse team of international and national educators, the presenter was Sara Delano Moore, PHD; Who is an educator focused on helping teachers and students understand mathematics as a coherent and connected discipline; His work emphasizes the power of deep understanding and multiple representations for learning. She worked as a math and science teacher in elementary and high school grades.

From the group of Let's be ready we attend 8 teachers, one representing the sector where they belong. We were very excited about the invitation, because the area of mathematics is usually a bit complicated for us; But it was very helpful.

We learned how we can use literature to teach math, in an easy and fun way. They taught us activities and games designed to support knowledge and fluency with numbers, addition and subtraction. We saw that it is important to stimulate students' learning with activities that they can deepen, when the problems they solve have meaningful connections to real-world problems. They showed us how we can use materials made by ourselves to improve our understanding of operations with whole numbers.

In the workshop on the second day, they presented how we can work with areas of the pre-primary level - basic concepts, quantities and operations, measures, geometry and location in space, logical mathematical thinking - using strategies from the developmental perspective of mathematical logical thinking, Using resources present in the environment of children. They shared research-based teaching strategies that help students become fluent with basic addition and subtraction. Suggestions for practicing the facts and assessing student fluency, as well as games that students can play.

Undoubtedly, they were two days of much information. We really loved it, because here in Guatemala we are accustomed to a very traditional, difficult and boring mathematics; But this conference made us see how useful, easy and fun math can be if it is taught that way - Easy and fun. Also show the child that will be useful for his whole life.

 We are very happy to be able to tell you again what progress we have made, and to thank you especially for the support provided in this year.

  We want to tell you that in the last month we completed the 2016 school year, and the teachers are very happy that most of their children have completed the year successfully. The most satisfactory thing for a teacher is to see that the effort, the commitment, the love, and the teaching that she gives to her students, has had a positive effect on them.

 It is very satisfying and surprising to see how we have progressed and already reached this stage of the year, and to see the development that our students have had over the course of the year. Many of them came out reading and writing words, others recognizing the form and the sound of the vowels and some consonants which greatly facilitated the writing of their name. Some learned the numbers 1-20 and others up to 30. We taught them to follow patterns, sequence and discrimination in mathematics.

 Finally our biggest goal this year was to involve more parents in reading at home. It was a challenge but we can say with certainty that we put it into practice We still need to improve, but we can say that we are progressing more and more. For example, our teacher Paola in San Juan del Obispo worked with this new system and she says: "We did not expect so much dedication, effort and support from the parents. Applying this method made it possible for both children and parents to become more and more interested in reading "

 We know that it is just the beginning of a goal, but that we want to fulfill it every year, better each day, as people and professionals. That's why Lets Be Ready we are very grateful for so much support and encouragement from our sponsors.

 For the closing of 2016, the children were awarded a diploma in recognition for having been with us this year, we did fun activities with the children and the parents, and in addition the mothers made a rich and delicious lunch for their children.the activities were attended by their closest relatives to share and celebrate this achievement of children. Everyone was very comfortable, and in the end everyone appreciated the patience, the effort, the creativity, the dedication, the support and above all the LOVE that we showed our children during the year.

 Now we just have to say Thank you, Thank you very much for all your support! We successfully completed this year ...

 * Attached are photos of closings in some schools.

Part of education is the change for a better world. That is why this month we will talk about the project that our children made in Santo Domingo Xenacoj, to contribute to the care of the environment ...

The month of August was the Patron Saint of Santo Domingo Xenacoj. For this reason several activities were realized in this community; One of them was Reforestation to help our planet.

The project was called "Reforestando Xenacoj"
The Municipality of Xenacoj organized this activity and invited several establishments, schools, schools and community institutions, including Pequeños Pero Listos. Our teachers Cindy and Gloria, gladly participated in this activity, also invited the Parents to go with their children to plant. The children of Little But Ready of Xenacoj planted 200 trees. Startling, right?
But in all, among those who participated, they planted an incredible 14,000 trees! ... The workers of the municipality were in charge to look for and to clean the place to plant the trees. They selected a place that used to be used as a dump, but soon it will be a forest with many trees.

 In short, it was a fun, productive and satisfying activity for all, because they helped to heal the environment a little.

It is good to raise awareness in children since they are small, that they must care for their home, their planet; And that they should feel happy to have participation in this important part of their life.

We are sure that this event will leave a mark on your life and transmit it to other children at all times.

"The greatest satisfaction a teacher can have is that the teaching you gave your pupil has had an effect on him"

It's amazingly amazing, how far we have come so fast at the end of the school year. I am very happy for the opportunity I had this year to learn from the children, to share, to teach, to play and to love them.

I want to start by describing the activity that we carried out on October 1, the date on which Children's Day is celebrated here in Guatemala. That day we played different games to have fun and ate cake, which was kindly donated by a mother for all children. In short that day we had a great time.

In this month we finished learning about the Human Body topics, such as its parts, the care we must have for our body, health and hygiene, and we learned the most important parts of our Digestive System. The children finished a booklet of strokes, and activities with their name where some learned to write their first names and others their full name, description and strokes of numbers and letters.

In the week of 10-14 October, we conducted the evaluations of the third and final block; The topics we evaluated were: Fruits and Vegetables, Professions and trades, the 5 senses, parts of the human body, digestive system, parts of a plant, stroke and sequence numbers 1-10, writing his name , The patriotic symbols and finally how to follow the traces of figures. I was very proud to see that the results of the evaluations were very satisfying and meaningful for the children; As most reached a 90% understanding of all these issues.

On October 17, the results of the evaluation, the development and the progress of the children were delivered to the parents, we also agreed on the last details of the closure.

The Closing was October 18, which was very emotional and inspiring. We started by calling the children one by one and applauding the culmination of their studies, then we saw a video with the photos that captured the best moments during the year; We gave them a diploma as a certification for having studied this year with the program. Moms prepared food for the children and their families, in order to coexist and share all together. The children presented a dance called El Chango Marango. When they finished, they did some dynamics in which the children and some parents participated. It was fun to watch the parents participate in the games, everyone had a good time; The children broke piñata and ate cake.

It was a day filled with many emotions because the farewells are not very pleasant, most of the parents thanked us for the patience, dedication, effort, commitment, creativity and love with which we care for their children. It was a very special and fun afternoon, both for the children and for us. Finally we encourage parents to continue to support their children in the future as they did this year, in fact I was surprised by all the effort and dedication they showed on their children.

It was a group that gave us "many surprises" and very dynamic, but I would not change it for anything. And I can only end by writing that it was a pleasure to have been part of the life of these 24 creatures, during the year; Thank you!!! Thank you Marshon for all the unconditional support and advice you gave us during this year; And I also appreciate the support and advice given me by my companion Anaelise with whom I learned much more about the Art of being a Master.

Thank you very much for everything

Guatemala, the heart of Central America

"Guatemala celebrates Independence Day"

Hello everyone, it is a pleasure to write you again and tell our adventures and projects so far ...

In our country Guatemala, the month of September is considered the patriotic month, and a celebration was held on 15 September 1to comemorate 195 years of independence, so all of our teachers performed various activities with their children, to encourage civic and cultural values.

The central themes for this month were: the National Symbols, a brief history the anthem of the country, and the importance of the culture from which we come ... We used an Audio of Magical Classroom to make teaching more meaningful and so that children would learn in a simple and concise manner.

Each center Small But Ready classroom organized with the community to have a parade or walk as a sign of celebration of independence. Most of our children participated and made posters with the National Symbols and congratulations on 195 years of independence fulfilled.

This is an example of how we teach the children basic preschool skills through activities.