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| The gym being set up for the event... |
Before Christmas, the teachers at Palau SDA Elementary were
told to start thinking about the Creativity Fair at the end of March. Besides the Christmas play, the Creativity
Fair is the biggest event at the school, and it consists of not just a
classroom open-house to showcase students’ projects, but also a stage
performance for each class. It’s a big
deal.
Even though I didn’t have anything to do for the Creativity
Fair, I had a front-row seat to what everyone else was doing. Performances had to be thought up and
practiced, projects had to be assigned, and some classrooms were decorated
according to a theme. Fourth grade had
an “Under the Sea” theme complete with marine life projects, fish taped to the
walls, blue and green streamers in the windows, jellyfish made out of shower
caps and string, and turtle silhouettes against a thin blue tablecloth taped to
the ceiling. First grade’s theme was
“Community,” and the kids made projects about what they wanted to be when they
grew up. The classroom was decorated
with city buildings, a road, a stoplight, clouds…in case you’re wondering, the
teachers did most of the work. Although
for eighth grade, the students were able to make a large cardboard house with
balloons for their adventure theme based on the Pixar film, “Up.” Needless to say, this involved a lot of work.
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| 1st grade |
And then there were the performances. Kindergarten was doing a short play
performing the book, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” 1st grade acted out the life of Jesus to a
beautiful song. 2nd grade
told the story of the Rainbow Fish that didn’t want to give away its beautiful
scales, but found that in giving things away it gained friendship. One 3rd grade sang a jaunty song about
inventors in history (they had the same theme for their classroom), and the
other 3rd grade class produced a rendition of the song, “My Favorite
Things” from “Sound of Music”. 4th
grade tapped and clapped and moved cups in time with the song, “Under the Sea,”
and 5th grade sang, “We are the World.” 6th grade had a bell choir that
produced a sweet version of, “Beauty and the Beast” (complete with two costumed
singers for the main parts). 7th
grade (the one I taught earlier in the year!) did some dry-land synchronized
swimming to the tune of “The Blue Danube”.
Imagine a class with a lot of almost-teenage boys pretending to do water
ballet. It was hilarious, and they knew
it. The other 7th grade did
an incredible shadow theater act for the song, “Colors of the Wind”. And 8th grade projected old
yearbook pictures onto a curtain, and when the curtain was dropped they were
posed in exactly the same positions. I
was one of the people who helped raise and lower the curtain. Some of the students in 8th grade
have been at SDA since kindergarten, so there was a sharp contrast to the
little girls smiling in the picture, and the big girls posing on stage. (That performance actually made us cry as we
were practicing it because the kids have changed so much, and they’ll be
graduating to academy soon.)
Anyway, you get the idea.
It was a grand endeavor, but actually pulling off all of these
performances took weeks of practice. I
subbed for 1st and 3rd grade a few days before the event,
and it was not an easy task to get everyone in their places and doing their
parts. The teachers were stressed, the
students were stressed, and people were working late hours preparing their
classrooms, and getting sick as their tired immune systems surrendered to the germs
that always lie in wait, ready to attack.
I tried to help out when I could.
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| 4th grade ocean projects |
Finally the day arrived. Classes had been practicing most of the week, and teachers had been staying at school into the night to prepare their rooms. When the classroom showcase started at 5, I got some aho at the 5th grade bake sale (aho is sweetened coconut milk with blobs of tapioca starch in it, served hot). I visited Ms. Krissy’s 3rd grade class where I listened to a student talk about the achievements and life of Thomas Edison. I saw posters and dioramas and models about the solar system, the cell, ancient cultures, modern-day countries, careers, knot-tying, etc. It was very impressive. All that hard work paid off.
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| 7th grade shadow theater |
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| Self-explanatory |
And then I got to see the kids do their acts that they had
practiced for so long. turned out to be
a successful Creativity Fair, and it certainly showed a huge range of talent,
work, and ingenuity. I was so proud of
the kids and teachers, and I think the parents were too. They clapped and cheered and took pictures.
But I was probably taking as many pictures as those parents—not
just of one kid, but of every class, because I don’t have a single kid in this
school, but they’re all “my” kids. All
the teachers here call their classes, “my kids.” I think we’re going to have a hard time
leaving them when we get on the plane soon.
Has it really only been 8 months?
The kids know us, and give us hugs and presents. We know them too, and care about them when
they’re sick or sad. We laugh together
and talk to each other about our families.
We teach them about the world, about history and math and science. We teach them about Jesus. And in turn, they teach us about the world,
about ourselves, and about Jesus too. I
think we’ve learned almost as much as they have, and I hope the experience has
been as rewarding for them as it has been for us. It’s hard to believe we’ll be leaving so many
people behind when we go home—so many that we never knew before coming to this
little island in the middle of the Pacific.
It makes me glad that we have so much technology to keep in
contact. And even if we don’t meet face
to face again, I’m really hoping to see some familiar faces from Palau in
Heaven.
P.S.
So here’s one thing I learned from the Creativity Fair, and
I want to pass it on. If you ever come
as a student missionary to Palau, and you work as a teacher at the elementary
school, do yourself a favor—start preparing for Creativity Fair before
Christmas. You’ll be glad you did.
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