Franzi's and Annelie's Weekly Journal: We had friends from Germany!

[Week 22:  March 18 – March 22, 2019]

During this school week, nothing really special happened despite the fact that we had some visitors again. Franzi’s Boyfriend, Luca, together with her two friends, Julia and Jana, came from Germany to visit her in the Philippines after travelling around Luzon. They were eager to see how our work looks like. 

On Monday and Thursday, we showed them our normal schedule at St. Francis. We first went to our classrooms for English, Science and Math classes, then went to the Library and read stories in daycare and kindergarten. The kids were so excited to see new faces and lost their shyness by asking a lot of questions. It was really fun to see how our friends and the students interacted with each other.

On Wednesday, we could continue with our handball tutorial during P.E. class for Grades 7 to 10. This time, we started to get used to the ball with some passes and throws after a warm up specialized for handball. The students participated very well and they seem to had fun practicing their handball skills and playing with the ball. You could see that they already had some experience in dribbling and passing through basketball. So, we could already play a little handball game at the end of the day with grade 10. We only have few weeks left until the end of the school year so we will speed up and introduce some defending and attacking techniques and tactics. We are confident that we will see a real handball game at the end of our tutorial.

See you next week! 👋

Franzi and Annie

Franzi's and Annelie's Weekly Journal: Our Handball Class has Started!

[Week 21:  March 11 – 15, 2019]

Back to school after that exciting sports week, we had normal schedule back. We experienced again interesting lessons with our grade 5 and 6 students and organized the library where we can already see a progress, but there is still a lot to do until the end of the school year.

We had a lovely time during the storytelling in daycare and kindergarten. This week, we had company from one of the other volunteers from our German organization. Her name is Anis and she is working in an orphanage in Bacolod City, which is about one hour away from Silay City. She was curious about our new work at school. We had a great time together and the kids liked listening to her story.

During their Physical Education (P.E.) class last Wednesday, we started to introduce handball to the junior high school students, which we will cover for the rest of the school year. Few weeks ago, the kids asked us what sport we did back in Germany and when we answered handball, they were quite confused because they have never heard of handball before. So, we started to introduce it to them this week, explaining the sport and its rules. After that, we showed some videos of how the game looks like and their reactions were gorgeous. You could really see and hear their excitement when they finally knew what handball is and we hope they will have a lot of fun playing it in the next weeks – because we are really excited.

See you next week! 👋

Franzi and Annie

Franzi's and Annelie's Weekly Journal Let's Go! - SFAS Sportsfest 2019

[ Week 20 : March 04 - 08, 2019]

The first week of March was a really special one for us because it was St. Francis’ annual Sportsfest week. The students enjoy different sports activities and embrace their skills and talents .

On Monday, all junior high school students from grades 7 to 10 performed their cheerdance, which they prepared very well the weeks before. Everyone did a great job and we really admired their nice dances. At the end, the Blue Panthers (grade 10) won the cheerdance competition for the first time after 3 years! They were so happy and some cried tears of joy. 

Not only the students from junior high school showed their dancing skills on Monday. The kids from daycare, kindergarten and elementary school presented wonderful performances which everyone enjoyed. Congratulations to all students and their teachers!

The following days, the students from different grades, especially junior high school, had competitions in Volleyball, Basketball, Football, Swimming and Track and Field where they competed against each other – everything for fun of course. Every student did a great job and gave its best for the team and had the chance to improve and discover their talents and skills. 

All in all, it was a really nice week again with a lot of fun and sports and we hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as we did.

See you next week! 👋

Franzi and Annie


Please watch video performances below: 

Grade 7 
Grade 8 
Grade 9 
Grade 10