Sports Day, Saltenas, Foster's Classroom

Preface by Karen: Today was the Montessori School's "Sports season kick-off"--something that apparently all schools do...an all-school Saturday morning pep rally of sorts. The cryptic letter came home last week about how parent-child teams were supposed to run races starting at 8:30am (we skipped that part) followed by an assembly and procession of the sports teams. All students third grade and older are required to participate in a sports activity--E chose soccer. So Susana and Foster and I accompanied Elliott for the very brief assembly and subsequent treats like Saltenas and ice cream. Here are Elliott's remarks on the day, typed in his own hand, followed by some pictures of the event and of the school--Foster's classroom happened to be open so we took quite a few pictures of it. Now here's Elliott:

now today i really can't believe i'm one third
of the way through school here!!! today febuary 27
there was a race in school, well i did not do it because:if you did do the race
after you did it you had to wait an hour and a half till the parrade.
well we got to the parrade part at 10:15,
i was actually in it! /?/ ./either one of those could fit my reacion.
so when i was standing in line waiting for the parrade to start i was pretty
darn nervios.then we started marching,
then the other kids started what i call mumbling-singing a song.so i
just moved my mouth.after all that and we were about to go home(home
in south america)a kid from my class asked me if i waned a icecream,
i said(yes)so he bought me one.(i said thank you a million times)then we started to leave,
but then some kid's dad walked up to us and said(who is Elliott? Matilde talks about Elliott all the time)
well sorry to cut in but everybody seems to know me, i feel like i'm popular
so school is not on a bad start! the people are nice but im jealous that fosters classroom is a lot nicer. mine are small and empty. in the math room the walls are blank except for the alphabet. besides that its fine.

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The school is built into a hillside and the 1/2 covered outdoor gym is on the top floor. Clearly rain and cold are not big issues here. None of the school is heated.
The procession begins.
Elliott marching with his fellow futbolistas

Snacks: ice creams, pizza, and saltenas were all for sale after the assembly.

Saltenas are THE morning food in La Paz...served for any occasion that happens before lunch. They are like a saucy hand-held pot pie, filled with a meat or chicken gravy, with hard boiled egg, black olives, peas and just the slightest sweetness. Really good, and often very messy!

Look, Foster's face is improving!

This is the middle of the school, it's built around a central courtyard. Susana and Foster's rooms are on the ground floor and Elliott rotates between 3 classrooms on the 3rd floor.

Below are pictures of Foster's classroom. Susana's looks the same--both have garden areas inside and lots of wooden Montessori manipulatives. Both of their classrooms are multi-age with 3, 4 & 5 year olds.