A Day at the Beach

This past Saturday myself and 25 other teachers, from Nakhon Si Thammarat and Surat Thani, went to Khanom (1.5 hrs North of NST)  for a day at the beach with 100 orphans from Nakhon. They were mostly boys aged between about 5 and 16 and they were so lovely. It was a great day!

Many of the kids had never been to the beach before and I stopped a few of them drinking the sea water. I assumed they were doing it when they got thirsty but one of the other teachers, who speaks better Thai than me, asked a boy why he was drinking the sea water and he said he wanted to keep the ocean with him when he left. How beautiful. I ams o happy they were able to come along and have a wonderful day.

Charlie, who owns CC's Beach Bar in Khanom, sponsored the day and along with some amazing teachers helped to organise a wonderful event.

There was a band performing live music while the kids ate their fill, played in the sand, made sand castles, went on a scavenger hunt, had their faces painted, took turns riding the banana boat pulled along by a jetski, paddled out on kayaks and toured the area in a long tail boat.  

There was a well organised game plan for the day. There were 10 team leaders (i was team leader for Blue Team) and we were to shepherd our kids through the various activities as the timetable dictated.
The kids were bused in at about 11am (30mins late, off schedule already) and it was about 15 mins before all the careful planning and timetabling went out the window. But as they say here 'mai pen rai' (no worries) fun was had by all, especially the kids and that's what matters.

The all day buffet was a huge hit with everyone, the food truly was wonderful and the staff at CC's Beach Bar are to be commended on providing such great grub for over 150 people. I would also like to give a huge shout out to all the teachers who came along and helped on the day. I had a blast and it was clear that all the kids did too!

The Blue Team who i was hanging out with all day :)

Abim and Lydia strike a pose

Grrrrrr - Richard as a Tiger

My sun and moon face painting 

There was wonderful food for everyone to munch on throughout the whole day

Charlie who sponsored the day

The kids being put into their teams 5 mins after they arrived

This kid was loving the yoyo he won as a prize

CUTE!

Me and a kid from the blue team blowing bubbles in the ocean :) 

More bubble blowing

Kayaking was fun but hard work when 20 kids are trying to climb aboard.

Sami and 2 kiddies at the starting line for the 4 legged race.

Sami's got a great technique - lift the kids up and run :)

Letting our hair down at CC's Beach Bar (owned by Charlie who sponsored the event)

Allison, Meaghan and I having a yummy dinner at CC's  

The Glory of BEANS!

After weeks of practice, weeks of me yelling at them and drilling them and generally being a tyrant, on Friday last week my kids performed their end of term show. They KILLED it! So proud.

The topic (chosen by my Thai co-teacher) was 'Green Beans', yes indeed, soooooooo exciting!
I managed to make it semi-interesting for the little tots with lots of readings of Jack and the Bean Stalk (and one hysterical lesson where we acted it out in class) and i will fondly remember the time we planted seeds, Lego and a pencil just to see what would grow (hint - it wasn't the Lego or pencil). But really the very best thing about performing a show about Green Beans is that was able to teach the kids a song about beans. Here's an example of one of the verses (to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell) 'The beans begin to grow, the beans begin to grow. Hey Ho i like beans, the beans begin to grow' YES!!!! Fun times had by all.

But seriously, they did so well. All their parents were sitting in the audience (and that's gotta be scary for any 4 year old) and they've been practicing and practicing so they know it's important. Some of them were given lines (in English) to learn and they did it PERFECTLY! One of my kids didn't show up on the day and I had a handful of kids who volunteered to step up in front of the audience and say his lines, I mean that takes guts right? So proud of them!

I couldn't wipe the smile from my face, except for the few minutes I had a little cry because i was so, so full of emotion at how wonderfully my little rug rats did.

Nam and Ong speaking their piece in Thai

Me and my beautiful class of kiddies.

Teacher Phu, my co-teacher, introducing the ever exciting (and freshly grown) Green Bean

Paper says his piece PERFECTLY! Yay!!!!!

Skipping happily off stage having spoken very clearly and slowly! GOoooooOOOOoooo paper!

Listening attentively to their fellow classmates, and wearing their beautiful Bean hats :)

Baby explaining the life cycle of a bean plant

Nam pointing out the various parts of a bean plant

Reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' together

The Very Hungry Caterpillar as read by my amazing kids :) 

Filling in 'The Story Of Beans'

Let's all sing the bean song - Hey Ho I like Beans!

Counting to 10 using beans.

After the show the parents and kids worked on a little art project.

Ta-Jui and his mum working on their beans.

So happy!

Teacher Phu and Teacher Bee

Giving out a sticker for a job well done.

'Well done, do you want a sticker?'

J-J and his beans

Tonkaow and her mum with their finished product

A chorus of 'Teacher Bee, i'm finished'

Sticking beans onto beans to make beans

The finished product

Tonkaow's sister, Tonkaow and their mum, enjoying the after show snacks

Tawun and May

Pleum and his granny

Singing their Thai Bean song