Teaching Grade One has been the biggest adventure of my life. I have loved every second and learnt more from the children than they have from me. I try to keep in their good books as much as they try to keep in mine and so far I think I have been pretty good – until yesterday! Let me explain.
Assembly is tough for Grade One – Good Heavens you have to sit still for so long! Yes there are movement songs and fun things to do in between the spells of sitting and being good but so much of it is higher grade thinking. So the principal gives us incentives to be good and after three perfect behaviour assemblies you get to come to school in mufti (civvies to the kiddies) So after last week’s assembly the little girls were informed that on the following Friday they could come to school in their prettiest clothes. The excitement was great but Time is not a strong point for these young geniuses. So of course Teacher writes in the diary or reminds them the day before that the day for the favour has arrived. Except that in our case The Teacher was held up in a meeting for the last part of the day and a GAP dismissed the class. NO reminder in diary and no verbal reminder! Uh oh! Well 26 out of the 31 remembered and arrived all excited and out of control in their stunning attire but 5 did not! Teacher apologized to said princesses and begged forgiveness. Five very different reactions – Laid back O laughed it off and was cool with being in uniform. Another was clearly annoyed but got over it pretty quickly – a more sensitive miss was devastated and burst into tears but accepted a comforting hug. But the fourth was fu-ri-ous and in spite of being offered a treat the following Monday – refused to talk to Teacher and just glowered at her. The fifth one arrived a tad late and refused to enter the classroom until I told her a treat was in store then she quickly got over it and bounced in. The secretary arrived with a message and I confided to her that I was in the dog box. Kind hearted as she is, she said she’d fix it and sms’d the mommies and daddies and before long parcels of clothing arrived to all except one. Hugs and smiles returned and Teacher was back in favour! Phew – thanks Michele! There is no wrath worse than that of a child deprived of her civvies day!
The one whose parents simply could not get to school was rewarded with a treat and that made up for everything, forgiving little soul that she is!
No photographs today, parents, but watch this space – we had a wonderful outing to Rondevlei on Thursday but they’re still in the process of being downloaded onto the school system and I am currently away from the weekend without the memory card.
The term is fast drawing to a close. My career is fast drawing to an end! I am savouring every remaining moment and enjoying my little girls so much.
I have been preparing final reports and awards ceromony certificates and the process has reminded me how far our girls have come. What a privilege to have been part of the process.
Parents please make every effort to be at our last assembly on Friday – It’s going to be a good one!
Author Archives: puppy1952
Back in the Classroom – Three weeks of fun and work
Yes, I know I haven’t blogged for three weeks! And how those weeks have flown!
I think I am in denial and want the last weeks of this year to fold out slowly. I need to savour every moment and to enjoy my last term of class teaching. The fourth term – a time that is so rewarding for a Grade One teacher while at the same time making her little sad that these little ones who have come so far will gleefully be going on to a new teacher the following year!
We have thrown ourselves right into this final term. Over the first weekend back the teachers attended an inspiring course (e-colors in Education) which our parents and pupils will hear about all to soon in the new year. In brief we all learned how to profile our personalities and the got to grips with understanding ourselves and our colleagues better. It was the best workshop I have attended in my entire teaching career.
In the classroom the girls are striding ahead faster than ever. We have learnt about money, time and maps. Homes are our topic for Life Skills. Our reading is bounding at a terrific pace and we have leapt from writing just our news to putting our creative thoughts down on paper.
Assessments have begun and I am confident that all the girls are well and truly ready for Grade Two.
The Red-Yellows – Socialising doers – reporting back on their strengths and potential limiters
Creating a die to help teach us the different coins
Budding Cartographers
An elaborate map
I know where I am going
Just follow the yellow brick road
I can find my way
Such architecture!
Different types of homes
An elaborate building
Busily building all kinds of homes
I’m proud of my construction
Friends help each other read
Lets work it out together
I’ll read first, then it’s your turn
Struisbaai – A brief interlude
For the first time in four years we have stayed home for the school holidays. Well, the intention was to stay home for the school holidays and deal with stuff that term time does not allow time for. For my sins I am involved in several ‘clubs’ and ‘organisations’ that need my attention – I won’t go into the boring details but I had things to do in this regard. In addition I had to deal with things like replacing a lost Identity document – that didn’t happen – queue hours long – it will have to wait till next year!
By Wednesday afternoon I had accomplished most of the things on the list and my darling husband couldn’t take it any longer and insisted that we shoot off to Struisbaai for the last few days remaining of the hols. So much for a week at home!
But did I complain? Of course not – how fortunate are we to have this amazing place to visit whenever we feel like and time allows. I packed in a rush and forgot my shoes and jerseys but hey – what’s wrong with bare feet? And I got to go shopping in Struisbaai’s mini metropolis.
We arrived on Thursday evening and went straight to the local Pizza Place and ordered Al Greco Pizzas to be collected once we’d unpacked. Just before collection time we had a power cut! Luckily our dinner was cooked in a wood fire oven. They were delicious and having no electricity added to the ambience of our evening.
It is always a pleasure waking up in our little house in Struisbaai. The sun poured in and I thought I would survive without my jersey. I did have a light cardigan and jacket. The sunshine did not last long – it clouded over and was quite chilly. I felt a bit foolish in a cotton summer dress and long black cardigan. We went off to Potpourri for breakfast and the coffee soon warmed me.
The old man reading The Times
Delicious breakfasts are served at Potpourri
The purpose of our sojourn was for Earl to do some urgent chores at the house – i.e. put up a 9DB aerial and a weather station. Don’t ask! It’s all to do with talking to the boats at sea.
Friends in Struisbaai picked up on something I posted on Facebook and made contact. They live in Abu Dhabi and Ray is a friend of Earl’s. I had only met Percilla online. They were here to take up residence in a holiday apartment they have just purchased. So we arranged to braai together on Thursday night. What a great eveing. We caught up on their romantic story and how life is treating them in The Middle East. They plan to retire in a year or two and will then spend more time in Struisbaai. Looks like they have similar plans to ours. Thanks for a stunning evening, Ray and Percilla.
The boys at the braai
The Newlyweds!
On Friday Earl had to sort out some details with the council so after cooking us a delicious brekkie he dropped me off to wander around the Struisbaai Metropolis. I popped in to visit friends who have a wonderful gift shop, Southbound, here. Then I found a shop that looked like it might have a jersey or t-shirt suitable for an old lady. By this time Earl had joined me and let me get two cotton jackets, a pair of pants and a boy’s long sleeved T. So I didn’t have to completely freeze my toes off for the rest of the weekend! As Murphy’s law would have it, Saturday was a beautifully sunny and warm day. But the evenings are a still chilly!
We ventured to the beach on Friday but didn’t stay long as it was freezing.
Our dinner on Friday night, cooked by my personal chef – shellfish stir fried into sweet potato and onion. To die for doll.
My special chef
This morning, Earl cooked up a delicious breakfast and we relaxed for most of the day – well, I relaxed and Earl pottered around doing stuff. I did update the inventory and entertain a few people who popped in – namely Steven and his wife and child who are looking for property, some staff members of Earl’s who were up to do a spot of fishing and the grandchildren of the guy who came to fix the electricity – our main circuit breaker burned out! Earl couldn’t fix it himself as it was the Municipality’s jurisdiction.
I don’t think it’s a good thing for a 70 year old grandfather to do all the things Earl does but he thinks I’m crazy when I tell him to be careful. There’s no stopping him.
What can possibly go wrong?
After he’d fussed around the place for hours I managed to persuade him to do a spot of bird watching. Some we found in our garden or around Struis – the rest on the road to Die Dam.
Cape Bulbul outside our house
Cape Sugarbird in our Milkwood tree
Tortoise visiting our garden (I know it’s not a bird!)
Forest Canary on our lawn
Common Fiscal
Weavers Nests
Kittlitz’s Plover
Capped Wheatear
Grey Rhebok
We saw lots of other birds but they refused to sit still for their portraits to be taken. But we enjoyed the bokmakieries, sparrows, weavers, lapwings etc that were enjoying the bounty of the farmlands.There were lots of yellow-billed kites and we also saw a black-shouldered. Jackal Buzzards were conspicuous by their absence! We usually see lots.
We spotted Denham’s bustards way in the distance – nice view through binoculars but only blurred photographs – not good enough to post.
So tomorrow is our last day and rain is predicted. We will probably pack up early and head home. Back to school on Monday – my last term before I retire. Mixed feelings about that!
Back in the Classroom – Proud of My Cool School.
What a privilege it is to teach at a school where things are done properly and learning really happens. I got to know the school well when my grandsons started here in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Even back then I was hugely impressed and soon got involved in the room parent programme – something I’d never heard of in this country before. I had just resigned from full time teaching and so it was great to have the opportunity to sometimes come if for relief teaching too and I always enjoyed it. This is a school where every little person is made to feel special and where everything is done to make sure he or she is happy. There are systems in the school that work and there is always something happening. The children are well catered for and the teachers are kept on their toes – there is never a moment to become complacent – there is always something new to learn.
Last week our special school underwent a gruelling full assessment by a panel of experts who were there to dig deep, to find our strong and weak points and to give help and advice on how we could improve. Everybody from to executive team to the estate staff to parents to children were questioned and inspected to a greater or lesser degree. No stone was left unturned. So when we had our feedback on Thursday afternoon and received the amazing news that we had a perfect score you can imagine the enormous boost to our morale. We have a really wonderful leader and it was great to have him validated by the Department of Education. Thanks to my colleagues who were randomly chosen to have the investigators in their classrooms – you guys are awesome!
The Principal with The Whole School Evaluation Team
Back in the Classroom – Annual National Assessments
We have been preparing our little ones for the ANAs for a few weeks now. It’s not a part of the year that I enjoy at all. It is not child friendly to make Grade One learners sit down and write a formal examination. The test is not difficult. However, throughout the year we do not seat the children in rows. They do not have to cover up their work. They do not have questions read out loud to them and they do not do multiple choice.
We work in cooperative groups. We encourage our children to think creatively. We allow own methods of working out problems and encourage discussion with the group. Concrete apparatus is always available for working out Maths problems.
So having to sit down silently in formal rows for an hour per test was quite challenging for our children. Actually it was quite challenging for the teacher too! After they were all over I apologised to the children for making them do such un child friendly activities. “I know it must have been very difficult for you,” I said. One child said – “Oh no, I loved it!”
I asked for a show of hands. “Who just loved the ANAs? “- 75% of them raised their hands! Why did the others not enjoy it? These were the answers – ‘boring’ ‘quite hard’ ‘too easy’ ‘took too long’
Well I suppose you can’t please all of the people all of the time! I didn’t like that it took time away from our normal teaching time and the way the questions were set. The results are purely for the Education Department to see if the benchmarks for each grade are being met at all the schools. These marks will make no difference to how we assess our children’s real progress. Some of the children who we expected to get 100% did not. Some whom we thought would not do well, did! It all depended on how well you listened to the instructions and whether you were a test writing kind of child or not. Some children, especially young children, do not do well in a test situation. It has nothing to do with being a fast or slow learner. I am glad they are over and I am delighted that the kids did well.
Back in the Classroom – A Fieldtrip to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and A Pyjama Party
Although my energy levels are not up to their usual standard I am back into the full swing of school. Wednesday saw us taking a field trip to Kirstenbosch Gardens – always a fabulous place to visit.
Spring in Kirstenbosch
Ann and Andrea our facilitators were amazing. They told the children all about our useful indigenous plants and how they use the flowers that grew in their own gardens to good use. The puppet show about Monty Mongoose and his friend Bushy the Squirrel went down a treat.
Enjoying the puppet show
There was no rule that said do not touch and the children used all their senses to give them the best learning experience on this field trip. They listened to the sound of water, frogs and birds, felt the leaves between their fingers and smelled the fragrances of the flowers. They even got to taste the nectar!
Listening for the sounds of nature
Can you hear the frogs?
It was wonderful to learn that a Strelitzia has been named after Nelson Mandela. It is called Mandela’s Gold. The girls loved examining its beautiful flowers.
Mandela’s Gold in the background
Trees over 1oo years old are marked with a special badge as Kirstenbosch has just celebrated its centenary.
A tree over a 100 years old
The girls got to creep up on Egyptian Geese Parents and count their babies. They started with thirteen but sadly there are now only seven.
Ann and Andrea knew that children this age need to move a great deal and they were allowed to jump over streams, off rocks and even roll down the grassy banks.
It was a really fun outing and one I am sure the girls won’t forget in a hurry.
Our week ended with a Pyjama party on Friday night. The parents got to have a couple of hours free of children while the teachers had a fun evening with their children. I hope you all made good use of the time to recharge your batteries and bond.
Beginning the evening with Lego
Bonding with friends
Having Fun
Watching a Movie
Back in the Classroom – Spring
The week started so well with SVPS celebrating the arrival of Spring. And yes it did arrive with the most beautiful calm, sunny day. The theme for the day was Spring Bling and the children came in normal school uniform decorated with anything to do with Spring. As we have been learning about the seasons and had done a presentation on the Stage for our Grandparents, this was most appropriate.
A class full of Spring Bling girls
Enjoying the Spring Sunshine
Our little winner and me
I am very possessive of my girls and don’t even like them going to their Art, Library, Physical Education, I.T. and Xhosa teachers, although they of course love all these subjects! So when I was struck down with an infection on Thursday I was devastated that I had to leave the class in the hands of another! I thought I was better on Friday and made it to school but could barely last through Assembly where the girls were absolute stars on the stage. Afterwards one of my girls said, Mrs Fenwick I can hear you are sick – You didn’t say much about the Champion Award Winners and your voice was funny. And she proceeded to imitate how I had spoken – cheeky little monkey – But she was right – my heart wasn’t in it. So I decided to leave them once again in the hands of a very capable substitute. I missed you little angels. Hopefully I will be much better on Monday!
Back in the Classroom – Showing off to our Grandparents
We have been learning all about the seasons so as part of our Grandparents’ Day the Grade Ones gave a stage presentation all about what we know about the passing of time and the changing seasons. Each class was responsible for a season, spoke about it, said a poem and we all sang a song about the seasons too.
My girls singing the Seasons Song
One of the boys talking about Summer
Winter boys and Spring Girls
One Grandparent and Granddaughter photograph I managed to get.
My girls were very excited to don their daisy chains and do their bit for their grannies and grandpas. Unfortunately I did not get much of an opportunity to take photographs as I was having too much fun engaging with the grandparents when they visited us in the classroom. They spent time with their little ones, looked at their books and wrote beautiful comments on their special page.
Many of them told me how impressed they were with our school, our principal and the happy atmosphere that there was in our institution. School was never like this in their day, they told me!
Thanks to these very special people in our children’s lives for visiting us. We believe that grandparents play a very important role in the lives of their grandchildren. The little ones were thrilled to have you in the classroom. We hope you enjoyed the tea and meeting the other grandparents and the teachers.
Back in the Classroom – Work, Charlotte’s Web and Fabulous Funscapes
Wow – what a great couple of weeks we have had at school. This is the time of year when the Grade Ones really take off. They have mastered the basics of reading and are now really getting to grips with Reading, Writing and Mathematics. No longer are they laboriously writing just one sentence and drawing a picture for their news. Now after half an hour when I say write your last sentence and put a full stop I am met with Oh no Mam Please can I write more. Music to a teacher’s ears.
We were also lucky enough to have The South African Youth Theatre present Charlotte’s Web to us in the school hall. They had the children totally enraptured and some of our little ones were called up to take part too!
Enraptured
What will happen next!
Some of the farm animals!
Next week we are having our grandparents to visit. We have been praising hard on our presentation on Time and the children can’t wait to show off all their school to Granny and Grandpa. We are looking forward to seeing here very important people on Thursday next week.
The children, after working so well, deserved a mid-term break and the famous Funscapes were organised for this past Thursday and Friday. In the Foundation Phase there were ten options to choose from. There was Loopy Looming, Creative Clay, Mosaic Magic, Movie Making, Baking and a variety of other exciting choices. I was delighted to share my passion of bird watching with 25 Grade one, two and three boys and girls. On Day 1 they all gathered in my classroom where we went on a journey of discovery and learnt all about water birds. We discussed their bills and beaks and legs and feet. We found out where they lived and what they ate and we learned how to tell one from the other. I was delighted to hear why they had chosen to do the bird watching Funscape – “I have nesting birds in my garden and that got me interested in birds;” “I love listening to their songs;” “I love the beautiful colours in their feathers;” “I just love animals and bird;” “thought it would be fun to use binoculars!”
It was also great to see them so focused when they did the activity sheets. Each child was given a flip file to store their work and it also contained a bird I.D. card game for them to make and a chart with all the birds they were likely to see on our outing.
We found this chaffinch in the playground the day before the outing
Working diligently at their tasks
Have we got the colours right?
This card game is going to be fun
We know the names of some of these already
Three very keen little Twitchers
Taking care to get it right
Even at play time these two sat and compared bird books!
Of course the outing on Friday to False Bay Ecology Park was the best part of all. Thanks to the six parents and my sweet husband who assisted us with lifts. Driving around with a carload of children can have its moments! Having my hubby who is also a bird enthusiast meant we could split up into two groups to explore the park with less chance of the ones at the back missing anything. Each car had a walkie talkie so we could comment on what we were seeing as we went along. I am eternally grateful to my friend Heather who always lends me her three to add to my own on such excursions.
The weather in Cape Town has been cold and wet most of the week but we were fortunate to get a break on Friday and had a lovely sunny day. The roads, too, were not too muddy! However, there were not as many birds around as I had hoped. But we saw enough to keep the kids interested. The flamingos gave a good show and the highlight for most was the Spotted Eagle Owl well camouflaged in its usual bush! It took a while to make sure each child saw it. I took a photo, asked those who were struggling to first find it in the picture then to look for it in real life. It worked like a charm!
Using binoculars was fun even though some of them found it tricky to get them to focus quickly on the birds that duck under the water and then turn up in a completely different place again!
Little Grebes before they disappeared under the water
The flamingos gave us a good show
Cape Shoveller – males and one female
Yellow-billed ducks
Cape Teal
They all recognised the Black-headed heron instantly
First look at the picture – spot the owl then find it in the real bush
Focus your binoculars on him and there he is!
I hope the children enjoyed, this their first introduction to bird watching. It is something that can become a hobby for life!
Back in the Classroom – Creating Pets from Play Dough
It has been a very busy week in Grade 1Fn. As usual we have been working very hard at our Mathematics, Literacy and Life Skills. The week culminated with a visit from two special little kittens brought to the classroom by the parents of one of the little girls. How still they sat and how gentle they were with the two kitties, Boo and Bloo. Some of the girls do not have pets of their own so getting to cuddle and kitty was a special thrill.
Just pet him gently
He’s so soft and cute
I want one of these!
Precious
Pets bring us joy
He is so comforting
Happiness is a furry kitten
Later we had a powerpoint presentation on pets, discussed what pets need and how they benefit us, learned a funny English poem about feeding birds and an Afrikaans one about ‘n apie (little monkey). Then the fun began and we modelled animals from play dough.
Kruger National Park Day 19
17 July Lower Sabie
The day started with a stop at Sunset Dam. Aunt was trying to Skype me and I managed to get through to her. how amazing that I was able to chat to her in Australia and show her the dam on Skype!
After spending 20 minutes there we followed the tar road and soon spotted vultures flying and landing in the trees at the side of the road where a small group of cars were stopped and looking towards the river. We realised that they were looking at a hippo kill and a male lion was guarding it. As the cars moved off we were able to get into a better position and get a reasonable photograph. It was great though to see a variety of different vultures. the smell was pretty awful so we didn’t stay long. we gave up our position to a young family who came toward us.
Earl got some lovely shots.
Hooded Vulture
Lion guarding hippo kill – very dirty face
Close-up
At an omrit to the river I spotted a beautiful bird which turned out to be a little bee-eater although I was hoping for a bush shrike.
Little Bee-eater
We stopped at Nkulhu for breakfast and had boerwors rolls and coffee.
The monkeys and baboons were misbehaving and we saw monkey take a packet of marshmallows from a family wanting them for their hot chocolate
Baboons also cheekily raided the table of an older family group and scared one of the women half to death.
As it was our last full day in the park we decided to take the long route via Skukuza in the hope of finding a leopard.
We found many interesting birds and creatures but there were also long stretches of nothing. On the H4-1 it was great to find a male bush buck.
Male bushbuck
A single rhino lay asleep under a tree next to Renoster Pan.
On the N’watimhin Road just before it joins the S79 there is an afrit to a small puddle of a dam. But what a lot there was happening there. we found wooly necked storks, a hamerkop or two, a jacana, grey heron and a brown hooded kingfisher actively hunting for food. A big male baboon sat at the edge of the pond with his back to us.
Just a puddle – but a lot going on
Baboon
In the company of impala
Hamerkop
Male Impala
After enjoying watching frogs and fish being caught by the storks and heron we were about to start the car and head off. But I called, “Elephant” and a single bull lumbered upon the scene. We thought he would take a drink from the end where he’d appeared but he circled round the edge chasing off the smaller creatures in his way. He came straight for us and proceeded to frittle about in a muddy patch. It was fascinating watching this giant give himself a muddy beauty treatment. First he picked up a piece of litter with his trunk but finding it useless blew it away. Then he sprayed himself with gooey mud; eyes included. This ritual took about 20 minutes before he stared straight at us, waved his trunk and lumbered off into the bush. This interlude was one of the best experiences I have ever had in Kruger.
We were quite breathless after this little escapade and reluctantly left the scene and made our way slowly back to camp. On the way we saw a few more interesting things.
Black Shouldered Kite
Fish Eagle with prey
Kudu
Collared Sunbird
Just before reaching home we were alerted to lions across the river – quite far away but nice to see.
It was our last night in the park so we went to the restaurant for dinner. It was The Mugg but it turned out to be great.
Farewell Meal at Mugg & Bean, Lower Sabie
And that Folks is the end of our tale. We left the following morning and made our way back to Cape Town stopping over in Bloemfontein and getting to Cape Town at 5 on Saturday evening. It was an amazing trip!
Back in the Classroom Blasting into the Third Term
Dear Parents – After three weeks in the foreign land of The Kruger National Park I had just one day to readjust into Teacher Mode before returning to the teaching of my little geniuses. In order to prevent the wonderful memories of the wild time rI had in The Park regressing to my forgetterie, I relived the experience through blogging and neglected to post in Back in the Classroom in the first week of term. I am therefore making that up to you with a mega blog today.
What a pleasure to be greeted by on the first day by 30 eager little faces and the warmest and most affectionate of hugs. It was great to be back!
Welcome Back sweet girls
We settled down to serious work very quickly and I was super impressed and relieved to see that my girls had not forgotten their reading words, how to write between line and were up and ready with their calculations to 10. They wrote wonderful sentences about their holiday and I was delighted to find that one or two had been to game parks too. Julia and I, though, had been to the best of them all – KNP! I knew Julia was to be there for a few days with her family and I alerted them to look out for the cheetahs on the Open Road. I was delighted that they spotted them too!
It wasn’t long before our hyper-active school had us on our toes with events and outings to keep us on our toes. On Wednesday we visited the South African Naval Museum in Simonstown and what an adventure we had there. Our guides were experienced SWANS and they taught us about the Navy then and now, what it was like to be on the Bridge of a Ship, what to do if the ship caught fire and all the functions of the Navy during wartime. We went with our brother class and of course the boys were in their element. However, the girls found it quite fascinating too. One of our girls discovered that being the Captain was not all fun – she had to get the crew to obey her instructions and she had to stay with the sinking ship till everyone else was safe! I will let the photographs show how fascinated they all were.
Trying an oxygen mask for size
Wow all this inside a ship
See that?
A torpedo – omigosh
Old fashioned weapons – used for ceremonial occasions only nowadays
On the bridge – we felt quite sea-sick
The ship is sinking – into the lifeboats girls
She got the answer right and won a sailor’s cap!
The navy divers waved to us while we snacked on their beach
Next on our busy agenda was Creative Expo Day. We have been learning about our community, its buildings and the people who help us. So on Thursday we got busy with boxes of all shapes and sizes and designed and built our own town. It was great fun using the boxes, brightly coloured paper, chalk and toys and putting our ideas together to make a wonderful creation. We had many visitors come to see what we were doing and we hope they were sufficiently impressed to want to send their little ones to our fabulous school.
Diary of an Adventurous Retiree 