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Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club visits El Puente!

Last week, we were grateful to have the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club visit us here in Quepos.

Lynn Spafford, along with other members of the Utah Rotary Club, came down to donate their time and resources to the Quepos community. All the kids received new school supplies, in addition to the books that Rotary bought for El Puente after we lost half of our library when the school flooded.

Dr. Gooch also gave free eye exams to all of our students and donated frames for the students who needed them.

Bradley received a much-needed new book bag!

Thank you for sharing your time and your hearts with all of us at El Puente!

Dental Health

Heather and Ara, PA students from Colorado, visited El Puente to teach our students about good dental hygiene habits. They shared with us the reasons why we brush our teeth and how our eating habits affect dental health.

Below: Practicing good brushing habits with our new tooth brushes

Fluoride Treatments! In Costa Rica, there is no fluoride in the water, so treatments like this are especially needed.

Thanks Heather and Ara, for teaching us more about dental hygiene and for giving us toothbrushes and fluoride treatments!

Our First Christmas Pageant was a Success!

Many having never heard the Christmas story before, we decided putting on a Christmas pageant would be fun...and it was!  We were so blessed to have approximately 50 parents and community members show up to watch our small production, and the children did an excellent job retelling the story of Christ's birth.  May we all "prepare Him room" in our hearts more this season and in the coming year.  Merry Christmas and God bless you all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at El Puente!!

To celebrate thanksgiving, some of the older students made hand-cut-out turkeys. Each feather
listed something they were thankful for. Enjoy their artwork. Thank you for continuing to check out our blog! We are thankful for YOU!

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth!

Worship the Lord with gladness!

Come before him with joyful songs!

KNOW that the Lord is God

It is He who made us,

and we are His!

We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter his gates with Thanksgiving and His courts with praise

Give thanks to Him and praise His name

For the Lord is GOOD

and His love endures forever!

His faithfulness continues to all generations!

Psalm 100

Learning about Sharks

Did you know that there are 217 species of sharks and only 5 species are known to attack humans?

Or that while millions of people die in car accidents each year, on average only 5 people die from shark attacks?

These are just a few of the interesting facts that the Oceans Unlimited Team shared with us in their shark presentation this week. They explained that our fear of sharks is often blown out of proportion, and that we need to protect sharks as they are valuable part of the ocean's ecosystem.

The Oceans Unlimited Team giving their presentation

The students working on their shark posters.

The finished posters- they turned out great!

Thanks Oceans Unlimited for coming to share with our class!

These Precious Little Ones

Thanks for all your help in putting smiles on each one of our kids' faces. We are so blessed to be able to work with them and ask that you pray that the Lord will protect them and keep each one of them with us, despite financial problems their families may be experiencing.

Bible Class

Bible class is by far one of our students' favorite classes. They study and memorize God's word and often talk excitedly about wanting to follow Jesus. It is a privilege to be able to share the Bible stories with them, but, as teachers, WE are often the ones who are blessed and learn from their child-like faith and passion!

Noah's Ark.

After learning about Noah and the flood, students painted thier own ark cut-outs!

Students' re-lived the challenge of trying to create their own "Tower of Babel" that reached the ceiling without being able to communicate with one another.

El Mes de la Patria

This month, we celebrated "el mes de la Patria"... Independence day and patriotism month in Costa Rica! The kids were busy all month learning about their home country, including the national anthem, history and customs. As a culminating activity, they made books with pictures of the flag, the carreta (the national symbol of work), and the national shield, among others. We love Costa Rica!

Independence Day in Costa Rica

Feliz Dia de la Independencia!

Students show off their homemade Faroles

Today we are celebrating the Costa Rican Independence Day!

As part of the festivities, the kids at school made "faroles" for the 14th of September. Faroles, homemade lanterns that carry a candle, are a typical part of the Costa Rican celebration. In 1821, Delores Bedoya ran through the streets of what is now Guatamala City (the political capital of Guatamala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica at the time), carrying a farol and calling citizens to gather in the center of town, where a council was meeting. On the 15th, Independence was declared. In rememberence of this event in history, Costa Rican children make faroles and gather in center of town, letting the spirit of independence shine bright!

September 9th is Kids' Day in Costa Rica!

On September 9th we celebrated "Dia del Nino"- a holiday that celebrates kids! The students were so excited at the small party we threw for them and kept exclaiming "This is the best Kids' Day EVER!" We played traditional field games and then after enjoying a snack of cupcakes and ice cream, all the kids rushed outside to take their turn at trying to break open the piñata. Great fun for all!

Keilyn takes her best shot at the pinata...
Look how excited everyone is!

Vielka and Valerie ready for the egg race!

Somehow the "Big Kids" ended up as the bottom of the wheel-barrel... not every day you see a 4 year old taking the drivers seat with no doubt she can handle it :)

Another Rain, More Flooding & Loss at School

My phone rang on the way to school this morning and it was one of the mothers asking if we still had classes today. "Yes," I responded, confused why she would ask. Moments later upon arriving at the school, I quickly realized why she asked. Hard rains had poured down for around four hours the night before and the school had flooded...again. Unfortunately, the events of last June's flooding were not a one-time occurrence. School had to be cancelled and the kids and parents who showed up pitched in to help get the water out and clean up the mess. The hardest part was seeing so many of our precious books damaged by the water. The children put them out to dry and we are doing our best to try to salvage them, but many seem to be a lost cause. Some of the children's homes also flooded and one of our students, Emily, already lost her home this year due to the floods. It is the rainy season here until November, so there is probably more of this to come, but one thing is for sure... we are going to have to move what is left of our small library to the hallway on the second floor! Please contact us if you are interested in making a donation to help rebuild the library or repair other damages. As always, thanks for reading!

Visit to Quepos Public Library

On our class field trip to the library, El Puente students had the chance to browse the shelves and check out a book. It was the first time any of the students had visited the local library and they were excited to sign up for their own personal library card which they still carry proudly in their bookbags months later and pull out for show and tell! Our students have made leaps & bounds in their interest in reading for fun and the local library has an even greater selection of books for the students to choose from. However, due to lack of town government funding, the library is struggling to keep its doors open. If you would be interested in making a donation to the library, please email us and we will provide you with the information of the Save the Quepos Library Fund that has been set up. Book donations (either new or used) are also appreciated and will be shared between our school library and the public library.

Kindergarten graduation

Felicidades Ryan and Vielka!!

Last Thursday we celebrated Ryan and Vielka's graduation from Kindergarten! We are so proud of you guys! Great job!

Receiving the certificate from Teacher Dee


Vielka and mom enjoying Monkey Bread (their favorite treat!)

WHAT!?! I'm in 1st grade?!

Rainforest Group

Two years ago, this is how it all started. It is crazy to think about. I met Bill VanDyk when he was staying at the Villa Pelicano in Manuel Antonio. He was on his anual student Rainforest trip, and because Nicki and Logan Dykgraaf were on the trip, they stayed a few nights in Manuel Antonio...

Last year I had the chance to go on the trip with the group, and this year, the whole school was blessed by their visit. They came and spent time reading with our kids, learning songs in spanish, and praying for our school and kids. It was great to have them and see them catch the heart and vision of what we are trying to do.

Thank you for loving our kids and taking the time to connect with them! They will not forget you!


In the classroom... Singing songs in Spanish and showing off their English singing skills as well!

Bill... promising Nathan a Judy Bloom book :) He will hold you to it!



Above, Kai and below, Emily with thier reading partners!

Carnival!

For a end of the year celebration and fundraiser, we threw a small kids carnival for our kids! There were games, water fights, hotdogs, and lots of prizes! We had a great day (an answer to prayers!) and a lot of fun! Thanks to everyone who helped us pull it off!




Diego by one of the favorite booths- the Pie Booth! Random people were "arrested" and had shaving cream "pies" thrown at their face... I, of course, did not escape...

After getting pied...

The girls ganging up on one of the mothers

Diego played sheriff... which included this spectacular stash and arresting innocent people (like myself) to get pied. I think I got him back though... I told the kids that every time they hit him with a water balloon I would give them each a ticket to spend on the games... thats how the water fight started... it was epic!

Below were some of the games we put together for the carnival!

The Duck Pond:

A carnival classic... each of the rubber ducks in the pond had a number on the bottom. Each number had a prize. The game kind of failed because the ducks kept tipping over, so the kids would look to see which prize they wanted and then would go look for that duck. But they had fun! Shortly after this picture was taken Ethan decided that he wanted to go swimming with the ducks too... and dove in!

The Dinosaur Dig

This game was for the younger kids... inside the sand box we kid about 50 small dinosaur eggs that had baby dinos inside. The kids dug in the sand to try to find them! Thanks to Diego for providing the "Jurassic Plant" and Janelle for her Paper Mache insight into making Dino Bones for decoration!

Paratrooper Drop:

For this game the kids went upstairs and picked out a toy paratrooper. They dropped it from the balcony and tried to get it into the red tub on the ground!

Look out below!!!

Fish Pond:

Here the kids threw a fishing pole over the board.

Someone behind the board would hook a fish that held a prize for the kid... the kids spent a lot of time in class making the fish to decorate it!

Face painting!

Johnny, of of the dads, offered to do the face painting and it was great!! The kids had everything from iguanas to stars to blow fish painted on their faces!

Sucker Tree:

Pick a sucker! if there is a color on the other side you win another!

This was a favorite...

Baseball Pitch:

Throw a strike! Johnny outlined this for us- it turned out great!

Bean Bag Turtle Toss...

Balloon Pop!

Throw a dart to pop a balloon... Also a crowd favorite

Can Knock Down

A few pictures of us getting ready....

the kids wanted to help... so they decided to paint rocks for the carnival with sidewalk chalk... great job guys!

Janelle working on the sucker tree... one of the many long work nights preparing...