SJBS Celebrates Dia de las Americas and Dia del Idioma
SJBS students spent the week of April 14th in friendly competition, bringing out the best of each student and each grade in spelling, writing, public speaking and drawing. Each grade held its own spelling bees (English and Spanish), writing and public speaking contests (Spanish), and art competitions. The winner from each grade moved forward to a competition among the grades. There were three levels of inter-grade competition: 1st through 3rd, 4th through 6th and 7th through 9th.
These contests were held in observation of Dia de las Americas (Day of the Americas) and Dia del Idioma (Spanish Language Day). Students focused on the themes of family, values, and the environment. Beautiful art submissions were hung on the all-school bulletin board. Students from fourth through ninth grade wrote speeches on their assigned topic, and recited them in front of a panel of judges.
On April 23rd, Dia del Idioma, a school-wide assembly was held to commemorate the special occasion and recognize the outstanding achievements of the winners. The assembly featured recital of “Adios a Honduras,” a poem by celebrated Honduran poet Juan Ramon Molina, the reading of a biography of Don Miguel de Cervantes, and recognition of noted Honduran authors such as Clementina Suarez, Roberto Sosa and Alfonso Guillen Zelaya. The event ended with an awards presentation.
The drawing and language arts competitions were enjoyed by students and faculty alike, and were an important opportunity to celebrate important works in Honduras’ literary culture and SJBS student work in both English and Spanish.
This event is scheduled to become a yearly observation. In the future we hope to invite the collaboration of other community-based, non-profit bilingual schools.