Kittens in my Classroom?

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So I arrived back to work on tuesday morning and went over to the corner where the notebooks are kept in cardboard boxes and nearly had a heart attack! Two furry white balls closely resembled rats were in one of the boxes. My interaction with the students went something like this:
"Ah!! What's in there?"
"Madame, it is cats"
"why are there cats in our classroom?"
"because they live there"
"since when?"
"since they were born on the weekend"
"oh, how will they live here? what will they eat?"
"they'll suck on their mommie's milk!"
"oh, well I guess that should have been obvious"

So there are two kittens living there while I and my 20+ students try to learn.

And by the way... all women in ghana wear fertility beads so my host-mom said I had to get some... and I refused saying that I don't plan to be fertile at this point in my life. But then she said that apparently they aren't for fertility at all but rather for beautification if a boy happens to be present while you undress. So I bought some and tried them out on thursday... well, on thursday both cassie and kelsey fell ill with typhoid, and then on friday jamena had to go to the hospital, so bea told me I was the mother of the family to care for the other four children and the two sick people... I had to make lunch, dinner, and everything! And now bea thinks I should marry a ghanaian and become a housewife since I fared so well... she even bought me more fertility beads for my birthday but I gotta say... if I keep gaining kids at this rate... whew!

In other news... I need some help and I know there are 10+ teachers reading this so here's my question... how can I get kids from the stage where they recognize quite a list of words and can sound some out as well, to a stage where they're actually reading. We don't own enough books to send them home, plus there's no guarantee that their parents can read english (infact, it's quite unlikely for most of them). The problem is that they've always been taught to memorize and these are the oldest kids in the school so there's no prospect of reading buddies... so if anyone has any suggestions, please help me out, the kids are eager, I just can't help them individually because there's only one of me and when my mom arrives I'm going to make her spend the whole day reading one on one with kids, but until then... any ideas?

I'm going to try to upload some more pictures now... pay particular attention to the one of me in my ghanaian skirt...

I'm in town today because it's my birthday but I'm hosting a party tonight at mama's boutique, the local drinking patio where I have to buy any teacher a drink if they come so I think the turnout might be okay... and I'm on my way right now to buy a ghanaian soccer jersey because our first game is on monday (world cup... I think I will forever be a ghana fan after this 😊 )

Now to post pictures... miss you all!

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Comments

[Dad]

Happy Birthday
Lindsey Thinking of you on your 20th birthday. Two decades...wow. Love dad

[Mike]

Socker Pool
I got Ghana in the Soccer pool at work don't worry :)

[Tiffers]

I'm no teacher...
I'm no teacher, but I know a little bit about memory (ah, cognition class...). Perhaps instead of giving them LISTS of words to read, give them STRINGS of words to read - you know, like, sentences? ;) And, if you're working one on one with them, maybe you could ask them to explain what the sentence MEANS - proving that they understood what they read, not just spoke what they read. ...If that makes sense. I miss you! I love you! And happy birthday! (It's still June 5th, here...I'm not late!)

[Dan]

Phonics
Linds! Ghana and Italy are in the same group - apparently this is Italy's year too! I'll see what I can come up with for the reading...after working at Kumon for the last 8 years you think I could get you something! Happy Birthday! It's so great to hear from you.

[Anchal]

Linds! The skirt is gorgeous, and you look beautiful in it. =) And Happy Birthday. Lots of love!!!

[Your Aunt Bev]

a suggestion
I would make chart stories using the words you have been working on with the kids. You can make a story about the new kittens to make it interesting for them. Any other ideas that catch their interest and incorporate the words they have learned. You can do all sorts of things with the chart stories. Cut up the sentences into strips and have them put it back in order. Have them write their own ending. Blank out some of the words in the chart story and have them put in the right word etc. Hope this helps. You can always email me at [e-mail]. Aunt Bev