Last month we celebrated the Fall Festival 2020, an event that is repeated year after year at LIFE School. Normally, all parents would be invited to enjoy this special day, but due to the current circumstances, the event had to be held without parents attending.
We would like to thank Giselle Campos for representing our parents at the Fall Festival in Mrs Afanasénko´s class and for preparing this article to share with you.
The story
“I was lucky to be invited, to observe the event and tell about the experience. I assure you it was very fun! I was with the preschool students, thanks to the kind invitation of Mrs Afanasenko. I was able to experience the joy of autumn with each of their activities.
It was interesting to see how the teacher developed educational games around an enriching central theme.
It all began with a story about pumpkins that, starting as small seeds, through the care of the farmer, grow until they are ready to fulfill a wonderful purpose. When the time comes, they are opened and the inside is emptied until it is clean. Then, a candle is placed in the hole that has been left. Mrs Afanasenko tells us that this pumpkin is a bit like us, when the light of God shines from within to others. What I like the most about having my son at LIFE is the teaching that embraces beautiful values that are integrated with the academic objectives.
Center time
After the story, the children divided into their age groups and ¨Center Time¨ began. This moment is wonderful! In every corner there was an activity. Some children played “pin the face on the pumpkin”, putting eyes, nose and mouth on it. To make it more fun, they were blindfolded! Another group tried to eat delicious autumn apples without their hands (and they succeeded !!!). Others searched for chestnuts from among a pile of popcorn with tongs.
Each of these activities is designed for children to develop their fine motor skills while playing. And,as we say in Spanish, Mrs Afanasenko no da puntada sin hilo – which means that clearly, everything Mrs. Afanasénko does has an objective hidden within the fun. It is extraordinary!
Decorating our own fall pumpkins
Finally, it was time to decorate our pumpkins all together! First you had to remove the ¨Yucky part¨ from the inside of the pumpkin with your hands, until it was clean and prepared. Then we put a glow-in-the-dark light inside.
To top it all off, there was a cake walk game with music and delicious homemade cupcakes – while practicing numbers! The kids had a blast and although they may not have been very aware of it, they were learning a ton with their five senses!”
