Arabic workshop

Following on from the success of languages day ‘ El Bachillerato’ (El bah-chee-yair-ato)  – the secondary part of the school at Manuel Mejía Vallejo learnt some Arabic from Señora Cooke. Here is Kenal in 8th Grade showing off his  linguistic skills! 

Venga COLOMBIA! Come on COLOMBIA!

Senora Cooke and Senorita Blakesley are ready for the Colombia vs. Brazil game on Friday afternoon! Here we are buying our shirts with Luis Miguel, Walter's son. They will be wearing red t-shirts as the Brazilian team are in their home colour - yellow. This is one of the biggest celebrations the country has seen as it is the FIRST time the Colombian team have reached the quarter finals. It is such a huge event that President Santos has announced a half day holiday tomorrow! To see how we get on with the football celebrations check the blog on Saturday...

World Languages Day at Manuel Mejia Vallejo

Yesterday was a  very special at Manuel Mejía Vallejo because Senora Cooka and Senorita Blakesley hsd World Languages Day with the children. Reception did English, Year 1 French, Year 2 Portuguese, Year 3 and 4 Arabic and Year 5 German. We had workshops during the day then had a whole school conversation just like the one at Rise Park last November in World Languages week!

 

 All the children watched our World Languages videos before they started their language workshops

 Martin was having a whale of a time helping Reception with their English

We shared all the work Rise Park Primary had sent and Year 5 enjoyed reading Year 5’s self portraits – so much so that they will be writing their own self portraits in Spanish today! 

A huge thank you to Year 4 at Rise Park for teaching the Year 4 children at Manuel Mejía Arabic – they learnt a lot from you!

 

The children (and teachers!) were BLOWN away with the SALVO pop video – what an incredible achievement! The children were very excited and inspired by the Spanish version of Taylor Swift’s  ‘Nunca volvere contigo.’

 We have had a Rise Park exhibition area for the children to enjoy all your interesting and creative work - thank you Rise Park.

A beautiful panorama of Medellin

We had lunch up in the mountains with the teachers from Manuel Mejia and had this amazing view to enjoy for pudding! The views in the city are very different to those in the countryside when we were in Guatape.

Colombia is excited about our visit ....

Our visit has created a lot of excitement because we are one of only two schools in the UK who have a link with a Colombian school. A national newspaper called ‘El Tiempo’ and the local news ‘Tele Antioquia’ (a bit like East Midlands Today) came to find out more about all our exciting projects. We will be on the television at 1pm Wednesday local time and 7pm UK time. 

 

Prender su propria empresa - Starting your own business fair

  Today was a very special day for the children as they held their own fair selling things they had made themselves. The children were very excited.  Señora Cooke and Señorita Blakesley had lots of fun buying things such as bracelets and home-made cakes. We discovered that here the children enjoy making things with loom bands just as much as we do at Rise Park. What a surprise that was for us!

The children of Manuel Mejía Vallejo are experts at re-using plastic bottles to make both useful and beautiful things, like flowers, jewellery holders and mini-bottles to hold sweets and beads. Señora Cooke and Señorita Blakesley hope to have a lot more to share with you about that when we get back......................

The mini-bottles filled with sweets were Señorita Blakesley’s favourite purchase at the fair and Señora Cooke’s was ‘un oblea’ – 2 giant ice-cream style wafers filled with cottage cheese, blackcurrant syrup  and a very sweet mixture of condensed milk and sugar called ‘arequipe’ . Obleas can be bought as street food too, not just at school fairs!

But the best thing of all was that the children running the stalls used English to sell us their products!!!

We arrive at Manuel Mejía Vallejo!

Today we had the most incredible welcome by the children and staff at the school - we were overwhelmed! The children began by singing their school anthem then they sang two English songs including ‘Buffalo Soldier’ by Bob Marley and ‘Hey Brother’ by Avici. The words to the Avici song were very moving for Señora Cooke and Señorita Blakesley as it talks about being a long way from home but also being looked after in a new place!

Spot the Rise Park Primary logo! 

The children line up outside for their morning assembly.

 'Buffalo Soldier' sang by children in different year groups. 

The children were presented with their ‘eco detective’ badges and shared their recycling book – the one they made at the same time as SALTA made their SALVEMOS EL PLANETA book – how amazing!! We also received an amazing book with the key to the school as a symbol of our friendship. 

 The eco detectives collecting their badges and here we are receiving the eco-ideas books. 

An eco detective at Manuel Mejia Vallejo 

Raquel and Raul have made lots of friends today. Here they are with their hosts for the evening Luis and Salome. The children have taken them home and will write a letter to put in their new Colombian bags!