The Wild Things Come to La Colonia!

April 23 is International Book Day.  The 23rd isn't just a random choice, it coincides with the birthdays of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes (you know, Romeo and Juliet and Don Quijote de la Mancha) amongst others.  In La Colonia we didn't celebrate any of those authors that happened to be born on April 23, instead we celebrated the lesser known (in Costa Rica at least) Maurice Sendak (you know, Where the Wild Things Are - Donde Viven los Monstruos in Spanish).

Our adventures with International Book Day began on the 15th of April with a book reading and mask making session.  The kids had never heard the story and there were bursts of laughter as they followed the tale of Max to the land of the wild things and back to his bedroom.  The masks that the kids made were quite imaginative.  We had provided them with the basic mask background and some cutouts and they went to town.  All students were proud of their creations and were a little disappointed when we reminded them that they wouldn't get to take their masks home until after Semana Santa.

Students hard at work and showing off their creations

On Monday, April 25 our journey came to its end with a dramatization of Where The Wild Things Are during an assembly for the rest of the student body (rather, two dramatizations since we have two student groups during the school day).  Chris played the part of Max like it had never been done before, steering his sailboat (made out of a shower curtain, bandanna and broomstick) to the land of the wild things where I led the students in a wild rumpus, dancing in circles around Chris until he sent us to bed without dinner.  

International Book Day - Monsters and Dancing Books

All in all it was a wonderful book adventure and we're hoping to do some more dramatizations with students to get them excited about books.