"Mariano Jiménez"
SCHOOL VISIT
Dear friends, we are so glad to be back to our school visits!. Incredibly, Christmas is now coming, and all over in our schools, kids cannot await the moment to celebrate before Christmas vacation begin!. Elementary school “Mariano Jiménez” today, is one more school before the last one we will visit tomorrow, with which we will have covered all of our visits to the whole region of “El Rosario” Sanctuary and all of its elementary and its two middle schools. Welcomed with hurras and excitment by kids, one could hear them saying at VW Rocinante’s arrival: “No kidding, can it be that today is our last school day for our Christmas celebration, and besides our paper butterflies from our friends in the North are arriving to us???.”. “I wonder what our talk will be this year will be, since last year’s was so exciting getting to know about polinators and their importance for our lives”, —another said—; a few girls hurried and asked to be allowed to carry the American, Canadian and Mexican flags with great respect and others the box with their Ambassador Monarchs and books as their gifts. Once in the classroom, we went directly into the analysis of the threatened, endangered and extinct species in our local ecosystem, all of which share habitat with Monarch butterflies while overwintering in our Oyamel forests. They could first idientify, through wonderful, colorful poster showing different species in risk in USA, that most countries in our planet are hard fighting to rescue endemic species in their own local habitats. “what are they doing to protect their species in risk?”; “are they loosing more or less species than we are in México?”; “why are many animals owned private and kept in captivity at homes of famiies?”. Deer, roadrunners, toads, frogs, salamandras, jilguero birds, carpintero birds grey fox, … a few of these animals have disappeared and others have diminished their population in our region…. Through playing our game of the “Web of Life” and writing our letters to be sent to our school friends in the north, we reflected and learned terms as appliable to some species of plants and animals in risk in our location; we learned what the term Habitat implies, what the term endemic means and got to know more about the still considerable richness of flora and fauna in our region being children really knowledgeable, since most of them live near the wild and the woods and their parents and grandparents make a living from agriculture and forest activities. Well, Chrismas is here and today, at the “Mariano Juménez” elementary, as well as at all schools all throughout México, children will, before closing their classrooms, get delicious lunch and will break their piñatas and receive their aguinaldos (chrismas box full of candies and fruits to take home). Piñatas, hand-made by many local families in our locations which crafting is passed over from generation to generation at each family and mean and extra-living source for many of them in our towns and villages, shall be found right now at any store right around the corner from home or school, and which cost can go from 3 to 15 dollars each, depending on their size and decoration and number of peaks, consist of a clay pot or a cartridge box colorfully decorated with paper and getting from five but ideally seven peaks all over its surface, mean, all what represents evil and bad in humans’ life, and, each of the peaks on it, the seven capital sins according to Christian faith. Hitting it until it gets broken means human’s decline to bad and evil. By holding a wooden stick and covered eyes, girls and boys, one by one, hit their piñatas, directing themselves by the shouting coming from their classmates telling them the direction in which the piñata is pending and dancing high in the air moved by long rope which end is held by an adult person, making it bounce up and down, right and left and then to the bottom!!!. In order to have more fun, a few boys, maybe a girl, cheat at shouting telling the totally opposite direction the piñata is really moving, so that the one hitting fails without seeing or knowing!!!. After enjoying delicious pizza (a treat for our children, since pizza shall be ordered and brougth from from our nearest city and is not part of our daily meals at all) and wishing all Merry Christmas with their families, they all broke their piñatas and ended up receiving their aguinaldos and wishing their pals in the North “!Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!, gracias por nuestras Monarchas Embajadoras,!, cuidemos nuestro planeta y sus habitats y nuestros ecosistemas!”
AMBASSADOR MONARCHS RECEIVED HERE.
East Farms School, Farmington, Connecticut
Buckingham Browne and Nichols Lower School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
River Valley Charter School, Newburyport, Massachusetts
Crocker Elementary Grade 3 EHA, Fitchburg, Massachusetts
The Foote School, New Haven, Connecticut
Turkey Hill School, Orange, Connecticut
Marlborough Elementary School, Marlborough, Connecticut
Moriarty Environmental Sciences Magnet School, Norwich, Connecticut
The Foote School, New Haven, Connecticut
Moriarty Environmental Sciences Magnet School, Norwich, Connecticut
Moriarty Environmental Sciences Magnet School, Norwich, Connecticut
Marlborough Elementary School, Marlborough, Connecticut
Breckinridge Elementary School, Fincastle, Virginia
Courtney Retzler - Friends Seminary, New York, New York
Amherst Middle School, Amherst, New Hampshire
Lawrence School, Public Schools of Brookline, Brookline, Massachusetts
Runkle School, Brookline, Massachusetts
Charles Campagne School, Bethpage, New York
Saint Elmo Elementary School, Austin, Texas
Lawrence School, Public Schools of Brookline, Brookline, Massachusetts
Lawrence School, Public Schools of Brookline, Brookline, Massachusetts
Plymouth Elementary, Midland, Michigan
Union Elementary STEM, Gallatin, Tennessee
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Hutchison School, Memphis, Tennessee
Kment Elementary School, Roseville, Michigan
Santa Fe Christian Schools, Solana Beach, California
Leonardo da Vinci Health Science Charter School, Chula Vista, California
Leonardo da Vinci Health Science Charter School, Chula Vista, California
Kings Beach Elementary School, Kings Beach, California
Union Elementary STEM, Gallatin, Tennessee
Union Elementary STEM, Gallatin, Tennessee
Morse Elementary School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Saint John Paul II Catholic School, Houston, Texas
Garden Oaks Montessori, Houston, Texas
Southern Door County School District, Brussels, Wisconsin
Saint Vrain School District, Longmont, Colorado
Probe at STEAM High at McCluer South Berkeley, Ferguson, Missouri
The Tatnall School, Wilmington, Delaware
Saint John Paul II Catholic School, Houston, Texas
Southern Door County School District, Brussels, Wisconsin
Garden Oaks Montessori, Houston, Texas
Saint John Paul II Catholic School, Houston, Texas