Back in the Classroom – Work, Charlotte’s Web and Fabulous Funscapes

2014-08-23 | puppy1952

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

2014-08-08 | puppy1952

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.

Back in the Classroom Blasting into the Third Term

2014-08-01 | puppy1952

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 navy cap!

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.

Kruger National Park Day 11 Olifants

2014-07-26 | puppy1952

9 July Olifants
Left 7:30 Temperature 10 degrees C

Being in The Kruger National Park whether you are seeing abundant game and birds or not is just such a special privilege. We made a later than normal start today and found ourselves on a road where for over an hour we did not come across another car and saw very few after that too. The birding in the first part of our day was good.
Our first bird party gave us Southern masked weavers, Southern Black Tit, Chin spot batis and Golden breasted buntings.
We stopped to eat our packed breakfast next to the river and while there we found Egyptian geese, pied kingfisher a fish eagle, glossy starlings and yellow fronted canaries.

We stopped briefly at Letaba at 11, had a loo break and then bought drinks from the shop to have in the car. The trip back to Olifants was less productive as far as birds were concerned but we enjoyed the usual array of animals along the way. A special treat was spotting a Sharpes Grysbok but it ran off very quickly and we were not fast enough with our cameras.

We had a restful afternoon in camp and braaied early, and went to be in preparation for our departure to Mopani the next day.

Here are some photographs we managed to capture today.

Crested Barbet

Scarlet breasted Sunbird at Letaba

Giraffe

Water Buck

Crocodile

Lilac Breasted Roller

Sunbathing hippo

Impala

Sabota Lark

Brown Snake Eagle

Back in the Classroom End of Term

2014-06-28 | puppy1952

The last week went well. Next term our books have feint lines. Now that we have mastered the essentials of letter formation, our teachers go and confuse us and tell us we now have to touch the lines and fill the spaces! To get us ready for this we have been working on paper so that our mistakes don’t spoil our lovely new books! The teachers call it suicide week but we are very tolerant of them and try hard to get it right before they burst into tears. Teachers are so sensitive and we wouldn’t want to disappoint them would we.
Our teacher has been a bit preoccupied this past week as she has had to get herself organised for her trip to Kruger National Park. Anyway she managed to teach us well enough, told our parents all about our talents at Parentline on Tuesday night and did some other stuff that teachers do at terms’ end – can’t imagine what but hopefully she will have her head together when we see her next term! We hugged her hard when we left on Friday and said we would really miss her. We saw a tear in her eye so perhaps she will miss us too.
She hasn’t got any photos for this blog as she is on the road to Kruger but we guess she will return with renewed energy next term. So moms and dads, have a great holiday with us kids, do lots of fun thing and remember to read with and to us!

Back in the Classroom – Term 2 Winding Down – Preparing for Term 3

2014-06-20 | puppy1952

Grade One as I have said many times in these blogs, is the most rewarding class to teach. Watching the little ones grow and absorb knowledge like a sponge absorbs water is a daily thrill. At term’s end there is no letting up – they do not want to stop – they need to be in a routine and want to continue the learning! So every activity we present must have a purpose – there is no doing anything just for the sake of it or to keep them occupied!

So while we continue with the normal daily routine we are also trying to get things ready for Term 3.

We learn all about space and shape in Mathematics and we see shapes in everyday things. A great exercise for our Maths Book Cover for Term 3 therefore was to create our own colourful pictures by cutting and pasting shapes from bright sheets of paper. What creative designs we came up with!

Lots of colours to choose from

Careful design work here

My teacher loves my gorgeous giraffe

This is so much fun

Lovely work, Birthday Girl

I’m done with my Space Scene!

I am proud of my work

Paper tearing is an excellent activity for little fingers. It gets those tiny fine motor muscles in their three little pencil holding fingers fit for writing. They were absorbed and quiet for ages as they tore and pasted scales on their fish for their Term 3 Literacy Book Cover.

What a lot of colours to choose from

Very interesting fish!

Does this remind you of Nemo?

My fingers are working hard here!

How am I doing?

Sticky fingers – lovely fish

Next week there will be NO HOMEWORK – but please continue to read to and with your girls. Encourage Reading during the holidays too – shared reading I mean – it must be a pleasurable experience.

On Wednesday we have Parentline and I am looking forward to sharing with you how your daughters are progressing. Please be punctual so we can make the most of our 10 minute slots!

Back in the Classroom – Reading with and to your child

2014-06-13 | puppy1952

What is the most important thing a child learns when she goes to school? READING. We can’t get very far in the world without being literate and no matter how far we progress digitally – reading will always be a skill we require. The rate at which a child learns to read differs greatly and in a Grade One class it is possible to have children on six or seven different levels. The challenge for the teacher is to keep them all interested and keen to read with enjoyment.

At school we concentrate on teaching reading skills – decoding, encoding, sight words, using contextual cues, phonic cues, picture cuest etc. We use a graded Reading Scheme. Each level has one ‘Primer’ and three shorter supplementary readers with the same vocabulary plus a few new words thrown in. We keep the children at a particular level until they know the vocabulary out of context before moving them on to the next level. In addition to the books in the Reading Scheme we allow them to take other children’s books home. These have been roughly graded to fit in with the scheme book level but of course they too will have unseen vocabulary in them. Sometimes a long story can be very easy. Sometimes a short story can be quite challenging. The thickness of the book doesn’t necessarily determine how difficult the words are to read. The aim is simply to expose the children to the written word and for them to enjoy books.

How did the pioneers of old teach their children to read? They usually had only one book – The Holy Bible. Quite a daunting book to use as a primer! Yet they did. How did they manage? They read it to their children. The stories became familiar. Eventually the children started to recognise words as their parents read to them. They read together until the child could read on her own. So don’t be afraid to expose your child to a book that might be too difficult for her to read on her own. Share the reading with her. Introduce her to different authors. Talk about the cover, the title and the pictures. Get her to anticipate what will happen next. Discuss the message or moral of the story. Ask questions like What does this story teach us? How else could it have ended? Which was your favourite part? What did you like about the story? What didn’t you like about the story? It will depend on your child how much you discuss the story. Keep it simple and fun.

Often a parent might say – My child is reading her book – but she doesn’t really know the words – she reads off by heart. Don’t worry – this is part of the process. Let your child read the same book as often as she wants to but insist that she points to the words as she reads. Eventually those words will become so familiar that she will recognise them in other contexts. Remember too that reading to your child is more important than your child reading to you. You should be reading to her every single day. It should become a ritual – before bed is a good time – a wonderful way to get her settled for the night. Sit with you child in such a way that she can see the words as your read. Point to the words as you read and even allow her to read the easy ones if she wants to. Getting her to guess what the last word in the sentence is, is also excellent. Part of reading is inferring what the word could be. I never correct a child is she reads a word that is different but means the same as the one in the sentences. E.g. if she reads boy for lad – it’s okay – she has the sense of the sentence correct.

Some parents are worried that their children are reading books that are too easy or not challenging enough. Your child might bring home a book that is very short or easy. Remember that books sent home are to be enjoyed with your child. Sometimes they might be easy – sometimes a bit more challenging. If they’re too difficult let her read what she can and you read the difficult words with her. Once again – point to the words as you read. Discuss the story and help her anticipate what might happen next. If it is too easy and she reads it effortlessly in five minutes and then doesn’t bring another one home for a few days – don’t hesitate to read from your own book shelves or from the library. What is important is that your child is not only reading but being read to as well, the latter being the most important.

Here is a link to an earlier post regarding Reading to Children

https://puppy1952.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/back-in-the-classroom-reading-to-children/

Reading is not of course the only thing we learn at school. Number work is also important. We have been having fun with Mathematics and Money has been on our minds. It is amazing how money helps to teach number concepts. In the good old days I used to bring real money into the classroom but there is little you can buy with coins these days and credit cards have taken over so I don’t usually have denominations of R100 and R200 lying around in my wallet! But there is some very realistic pretend money which works just as well! So we have been playing with that. A good chart also helped and the girls were pretty good at pointing out the different coins and note. Great fun was had making a ‘coin’ die although there was some frustration when some of the little fingers couldn’t quite manage to glue it together. Luckily the more adept ones were willing to help!

What can we buy for R1,00?

Not even the tooth fairy brings 5c coins anymore!

R5 is a bit more valuable.

R50 in my birthday card would be okay!

A R200 note is the biggest amount – Just the right amount for a clever girl!

Two like this will be okay for this amazing lass.

Making the die cube

I’m ready to cut it out.

Today we had our Grade One cake sale. It was lovely to see that the girls were very aware of how much their money could buy! They spent their coins wisely and came back to class on a phenomenal sugar high! Who was the parent that sent those toffee apples! I’m not sure how much we made – but everything went! Thanks to the moms who baked, those who sent donations and the three fabulous ladies who did the selling! You were awesome and I didn’t even have to miss my break!

My R10 can get me quite a bit

Now what shall I buy

What lovely treats

I am going on a sugar high!

Yummy Toffee Apple

They were a hit!

Back in the Classroom – A week of short days

2014-06-08 | puppy1952

The older children have been writing what used to be called exams. We call it Assessment Week and our learners write papers which form part of their term mark. During this week school closes an hour and a quarter earlier. The staff are then given a delicious lunch to build up their strength for marking. Everybody including the foundation phase staff and Gap students assist. At this school we believe in sharing the load. I enjoy it because it’s great to see how past learners are doing and it enriches bonds with my colleagues some of whom I do not have much contact with during the rest of the term.

Having a shorter day has forced us in the Foundation Phase, finished with our own assessments, to fit everything in before 1:00 p.m! The colder weather has certainly helped with this as the children have not complained about shortened outdoor exercise time! At this time of the year the little ones really start taking off. They now have enough Reading and Writing skills to begin to write their own creative sentences. Seeing that first tentative “all on my own” sentence on the page is one of the great thrills of teaching Grade One. We teach them to hunt for words they cannot spell. They find these words in their Reading word lists, the THRASS chart and around the classroom. When writing a story they try out their sentences on a rough sheet of paper first. When they get stuck they may ask the teacher for help and she will either write the difficult word for them or guide them to where they can find it for themselves. They also use their THRASS skills to build three letter words. They get really excited when they find how many words they can actually manage on their own.

Finding a word on the THRASS chart

Let me think about this

Now to draw the picture

I did it!

Yes – the girls are really surprising me in every aspect of their progress – Reading Writing and Mathematics. Keep it up, girls. You’re doing so well!

Doing our Mind Moves before a Writing lesson

Doing our Finger Exercises before a Writing lesson

Mind Moves to wake up the brain

Let’s get started

Posture perfect – Pencil Grip right!

Back in the Classroom – Grade One Assembly and Farewell to a Legendary Colleague

2014-05-31 | puppy1952

My friend and Colleague whom I have known since High School retired on Friday. She has been at my school for almost 30 years and been in Education for 40. It’s a long time to invest in the youth of your community. She taught my grandson in both Grade 4 and 5. For both those years I had the privilege of being her room parent and relieved her for a few months in the classroom when she had surgery that required some recuperation time.

I knew I had to come prepared with plenty of tissues because she was going to have one amazing send off. But I did not anticipate that it would start first thing on Friday morning when, while sipping my obligatory caffeine fix, she came into the staff room, sat down to chat and we both had a little weep! A younger colleague was with us too and she just hugged her mentor.

Before the whole school assembled for the farewell ceremony our little Grade Ones had to do their assembly – “I am Special”. We’ve been practising for weeks and they did their teachers proud! I did not get a chance to take photographs but I know a lot of our parents were there. There is just one little story I’d like to share. A shy little girl in my class had to say a special line – My name is …….. and I speak Persian. I tried to coax her to speak her line loudly and clearly but during practice she was the quietest of all. On Friday, as instructed, she came dressed in an outfit a typical Iranian child would wear. We made a huge fuss about how pretty she looked. Her beautiful outfit must have given her confidence because when it came to her turn to speak she uttered her lines as clearly as a bell!

Our Precious Little Persian Princess with her Friends

After our little ones performed superbly in their Assembly we had a brief time to regroup while the intermediate phase came to join us in the hall. As “Little old Lady of Pasadena” rang out, Miss C was ushered through a guard of honour with two fairies in attendance. She then sat upon a throne and was later presented with her wings so she could fly to wonderful far flung places in this next season of her life.

Listening to stories of her life at SVPS

Both the Junior and Senior Choirs sang for her and it was all I could do to stop the tears from flowing even though I’d heard my girls practising the songs for weeks in advance. Two teachers also sang the powerful song, “You raise me up” which was my late mother’s favourite song so it was double reason to have me in floods of tears! And they sang it so very beautifully!

Some of the girls from my class who sang with the Junior Choir

I was so proud of the girls from my class who sang with the Junior Choir

Saying a few words of her own

There was a farewell tea later in the staffroom and tributes were paid to a teacher who is truly a legend in this valley. I was undone specially by what a number of they younger staff members said. She has been an amazing mentor and they all aspire to being just like her – a caring teacher, a wise teacher, a fun teacher and a very human teacher who has given her all to this profession and has absolutely no regrets for doing it!

Marilyn – I know our paths will cross many more times. Thank you for what you have meant to me so far in my life and to Jay in his. In his words – You’re the best!

Back in the Classroom – Bonds and Skeletons

2014-05-25 | puppy1952

Another late post but I have a good excuse! The past week has been intensely devoted to second term assessment and I spent the weekend downloading marks and writing reports which are due on my HOD’s desk on Friday. Save the tweaking they are done and dusted and it will be back to regular teaching this week! Not that anything was neglected during the assessing time. In Grade One individual oral interaction is the main way of assessing and this does also allow for teaching moments while testing which I just love.

The little girls are well on their way now that we are almost through the second term. They are busy learning their bonds which we call ‘partners’. What better way there is to learn than through play. Each girl is given a number and she has to find her partner to make a certain number.

Two plus three equals five!

So of course two plus three must also equal five!

So of course three plus two must also equal five!

Zero plus Five – Why that has to be five!

Four and one are partners of five!

Four and One are partners too!

We had more fun when we cut out and pasted skeletons on black paper to show how our bodies move. Our skeletons were really flexible the way they got into the oddest postures!

Oh my – what lovely positions

Dancing and prancing

Clever gymnasts

On Friday we are presenting our Assembly – I am special. Those with lines to say are practising madly – please help them at home, Moms. We look forward to seeing you all there at 8:00 a.m.

Back in the Classroom – Beach Outing

2014-05-18 | puppy1952

My post is a little late this week as my husband and I decided at the last minute to take off for the weekend. (There will be another blog post on that too, soon!) Usually I blog when away but there was not internet connection at this particular venue

Children’s development is shaped through the experiences they have. The five senses of hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch are important to help in all their learning. In the classroom and on outings teachers draw their attention to the five senses and encourage the children to use them to explore the world around them. We had a wonderful time on Thursday when went with one of the boy classes to the Fish Hoek Beach – a perfect place to use all our senses.

The forecast was grim – rain and cold was predicted – but I put in a special order for the rain to be held off till later and my prayers were positively answered. We had a spit and a spot at 8:15 but the hours on the beach were perfect and the rain only came down later in the afternoon!

Writing in the sand feels so good

Cloudy, still and warm enough to go for a swim

Building with wet sand

Building with dry sand

We found shells to decorate our designs

The sea was cold

Splashing in the cool sea is fun

We got wet

It was a still, calm day

Fun on the rocks

Snack Time

Tasty Snacks and Cool Drinks

More fun in the sand

Look at my construction

Mud, glorious mud

Thank you all the parents who helped with lifts. It was a delightful outing which I hope you all enjoyed as much as we did.

Back in the Classroom – Family Trees and Pyjama Party

2014-05-10 | puppy1952

It felt like coming back to a new term after a week’s break from school and then after two days we were off for Voting Day again! From now on though we will be back to five day weeks and lots of uninterrupted school work.

We have been learning all about families this term and since returning to school on Monday I have been continuously nagged – “When are we going to do our project?” The dry twigs and coke bottles filled with sand and pebbles arrived and cluttered the classroom for two days. Photographs of family members were ready and the little fingers couldn’t wait to start compiling and decorating their family trees! Finally Thursday arrived. It was an expo day so visitors popped in during the morning to see what we were doing and there were many lovely compliments about what clever little Grade Ones we have at our school!

A lot of work and planning went into our family trees

The older generation are our roots and are at the bottom of the tree

We are the young leaves at the top

I wonder which side I should put Dad?

Placing on the photos is delicate work

I have an elaborate family

A forest of family trees grew in our classroom

Don’t you love my leaves

It was such a fun project

I need to get up to these high branches

On Friday there was more excitement. Everybody came back to school for a fun evening while Mom and Dad had Date Night! As they arrived I heard over and over again from the parents – She’s been ready to come since 3 this afternoon! Well of course – what fun to come to school at night and in your pyjamas too! We all started in our own classrooms then had 20 minutes sessions with another teacher before returning to our teachers at the end. Each teacher did a different activity and it was all great fun. There was much eating of popcorn, chips and sweets. Fizzy cooldrinks helped keep the kiddies awake and active although some were very sleepy when Mum and Dad collected them at 10 o’clock – way past their normal bed-time.