One Zillion Valentines

As everyone knows, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Which means that preparations for the festivities began today.

My students made a valentine with Ms. Souza to exchange with anyone outside of school such as their mom, dad, grandparents, nanny, or maid. (Yes, that's right, I said nanny or maid. It's affordable and very common for the people of Brazil to have nannies and maids. It's actually strange to NOT have one, which is so different from how it is in the States.)

I worked with the students in making a valentine to exchange with their classmates. We traced their hands and used the sign language "I love you" as the idea. I had to explain what sign language was used for as many of them had never heard of it. When I showed the "I love you" sign, one boy goes "ROCK ON!" Close little buddy, close.

 I worked with the students four at a time and each student actually had time to make the valentine today. Ms. Souza said to just assign who they would be giving their valentines to or else some students would receive a lot and some would receive none at all. I had each student close their eyes and draw a name of one of their classmates as their recipient. Some were very happy with who they chose, others were less than pleased. It was a good lesson in being friends with everybody though.

The students had a close to impossible time keeping their valentines a secret. Whether they were telling the person directly or sneaking a peak at other students valentines and going to that person, they could NOT keep it a secret. I had to tell multiple students that it's a really big secret that we want to be a surprise tomorrow. It wasn't that it really was a huge secret, but some students who were upset about who they had chosen were quite obviously more upset when their classmates laughed at them or rubbed in it. This is what I was trying to curb, hopefully it worked.

It was a good self-esteem boost to see the students all so excited about what I was doing with them. They all responded pretty well and kept asking if they were next to come work with me. Some of them enjoyed it a little too much and kept standing near the table as their classmates were working. That'll have to be something to work on for my next lesson.