Meet Oralia

Each time I get the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with different students, I am just blown away by their soft spirits and cooperation. I got to spend a few minutes talking to Oralia on Tuesday evening right before dinner.

Oralia is a 4^th grader here at City Impact, she was born on January 19 which would make her 9 years old right now. Oralia has 1 older brother, 2 older sisters, and 2 younger sisters; what a big family! Oralia attends Hartley Elementary. Her favorite food is macaroni and cheese from the box and her favorite color is blue.

I asked Oralia to tell me one thing she is really good at and she said writing stories, I asked her what kind of stories and she said this “sometimes I write about scary stories and sometimes funny stories.” I asked her who she loves the very most and she said her grandma because “sometimes when I am at school, without asking her she makes my bed.” If Oralia knew she only had one more day to live she would “make that day the best day ever.”

God Created Us

If you ever get the chance to meet the 1st grade class I know you will be as tickled as I have been.

On Tuesday, the 1st grade class joined together on the floor to listen to a book Mrs. Jamie was going to read. This book was called “Boz Says” and by reading this book Mrs. Jamie had the opportunity to talk to the 1st graders about how God created our bodies to work. Not only did the 1st graders get to listen to the book they also got to participate by doing the things that Boz said to do. So they jumped, they clapped, they hopped on one foot, they hopped like a bunny and made silly faces, I could really tell the students enjoyed getting to use their bodies to do things that Boz said.

Mrs. Jamie has a really great way of transitioning from one thing to the other, on Tuesday after reading the book she went into asking the students what kinds of things they could do to be kind to other friends, and by doing this they would be using their bodies like they had just talked about. Damien said that he could pick up after a friend, Avery said she could draw a picture or make something for a friend, and Javier said he could play with a friend. Talking about doing kind things for others led into Mrs. Jamie talking about City Impact’s “Give Me Five” signal. “Give Me Five” is what we say at program to get students’ attention. The Five stands for 1) Freeze 2) Hands Free 3) Eyes on the Speaker 4) Be Quiet 5) Listen Actively

Mrs. Jamie asked the students to tell her what each essential meant and what they were to do when she said “give me 5!”. I could not believe how in tune these 1st graders were and how well they explained the 5 essentials. Mrs. Jamie presented each of the 1st graders with a treat because last week at worship when Mrs. Ashley said “give me 5” all of the 1st graders did it the 1st time they were asked. Mrs. Jamie made sure she let the students know how proud she was of them for following the rules.