A three minute walk away from ISM Middle School lies a little local Myanmar School made up of about 120 elementary students ranging from about 5 to 11 years old. This year ISM 6th Graders embarked on a service learning project which invited ten girls and ten boys from this little school to visit our classroom.
In the beginning to help us overcome some shyness in meeting for the first time, we played some games together and formed "buddies". Throughout each of the five visits they've made so far, ISM students took care of their buddies in the activities we planned for them. Some activities we did included: "Blind Walking" (taking turns guiding each other while blindfolded); "Charades" (to teach and practice new English vocabulary words); "Reading Buddies" (again learning English together); "Lantern Making" (thanks to Ms. Pauline!); Origami; a Piñata; Soccer; Math Games and more.
Many of the students from the neighborhood school live in the village just next to ISM. It's been interesting to see the difference in size of ISM students to the neighborhood kids. It's obvious what the results of poverty and malnutrition can do to a young person's body over many years. And yet, even though our kids and the Myanmar school kids have some differences, they are both finding that there are plenty of similarities. They both love their families, like to play soccer, learn English, do math, play games, do art, etc. They're learning from each other and it's been nice to watch them make friendships together, forming a larger community outside the walls of ISM.
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