Shake, Rattle and Read!

Friday we had one of the biggest tremors that I have  felt in my time here in Nicaragua.    My class and I were in the middle of a math lesson when it started.   At first I thought it was a gust of wind from a big truck passing on the highway that runs parallel to the school.  However when the rumble continued I immediately sent my kids under their desks.   Thankfully we have had lots of earthquake drills so they all knew what to do.  We evacuated the buildings when the shaking stopped.   It turns out it was a 5.1 on the Richter scale.  Here is a link to the official USGS site that tracks all the tremors and quakes worldwide.  http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc00017cj.php

My first graders were so cute.  They didn't really know what to think because many of them haven't really felt and recognized a tremor before.   When we returned to our classroom they were all asking if that was a real earthquake.    I smiled as I told them it was a medium sized one. 

From Blogger Pictures

Before all of the excitement of the earthquake our class met up with our 4th grade reading buddies.   Here are some great pics of some of the terrific reading that was taking place.   My students had read The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle last week and then they made their own version of the story.   My students were so excited to read their own stories to their 4th grade buddies.