Las Palionas

My little second grade girls are so excited. November 4th is the anniversary of LYBS, and every year they do a big parade. All of the students are divided into different groups--there's a band, baton girls, little cadets, dancers and then the teachers get creative and come up with different themes. Apparently last year they dressed a grew of them up as geishas, so now we're trying to think of some good costume ideas! Maryann and I started joking about cowboys and indians, and Mrs. Bueso wants us to teach a group of kids a square dance. We all had a good laugh after school one day last week--Mrs. Bueso started clapping her hands and trying to don a thick, country accent through her British accent, and Maryann and I started skipping, linked elbows and did a little jig. We were a little embarrassed when a parent came walking down the hall, but she just clapped and asked us to continue!

The other day Ms Claudia (teaches computers and tech ed) came into my class and started talking to the kids about the parade. She was only addressing the girls, which at first had me thrown. Turns out last year the first grade girls were the baton twirlers (palionas) and this year they've chosen the second grade girls to fill the roll. The look on my girls' faces when she said they got to be the palionas! It was just too cute. Of course their concentration was gone for the last half of class, but it was fun seeing them so excited. The boys were a little bummed not to have their roles yet, but I heard they'll likely be marching cadets. I think it would be fun to give them a more creative part in the parade, so now we just need to put our heads together and come up with something good.

The thing I think I find the cutest about it all so far is how creative the girls got with their batons. They've all been prancing around school practicing their twirls, and the first day they practiced during recess a rack of them came in with sticks they'd apparently been using. Over the next few days more and more girls were bringing their batons in everyday (which yes, can be unnecessary distraction, but we're working on understanding that batons should only be twirled outside during practice, and not played with during class time...) and I noticed that a few of theirs look slighty different. The kids who didn't have batons at home got incredibly creative, at least I think it's creative. It's what sparked me wanting to write this post in the first place! They kept the sticks they used the first day and covered them with bright, shiny ribbon and a little neatly placed tape on each end. How smart is that? I'm looking forward to seeing my girls twirl down the streets, and of course I'll update with fotos and cuentos from the big day.