Back in the Classroom – Grade Seven Market Day

2014-11-29 | puppy1952

The term is fast drawing to a close – just one full week to go and then three days of Awards Ceremonies and Breaking Up. It is a time when the children begin to realise that their time in Grade One is coming to an end and they need to prepare themselves change yet again. Therefore they are restless and a little emotional so the best thing to do is stick to routine as much as possible – not easy when there is so much out of the ordinary happening.

I am so proud of my girls, though, as they are still working very hard to that next level in Reading and to master their sums in the higher number ranges. How far they have come since that first tentative step into “big school”

One of our big interruptions this week was the Grade Seven Market Day. Everything was beautifully set up in the hall and the courtyard outside. The girls could buy books of 10 tickets for R10 and then go and spend to their hearts content. And what a lot there was to buy! Our money lessons were put to practical use as they carefully counted their R1 vouchers and considered about how best to spend them.

I got my face painted

A sugar high was the order of the day

The Grade Sevens were super attentive

We promise we won’t be hyper!

Yum!!

Look what we got with money to spare!

I think I’ll try this hat

Everything looked so exciting

But in spite of regular interruptions for all things exciting we still had a good week of work and next week we will be making booklets for our Grade 2 teachers. They need to know how very smart we are!

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.

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 – 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 – 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.

Even the teacher wore pyjamas

We have the same slippers!

We brought our blankets

And our teddies

At one of our stations we got to make a Mothers’ Day Card

A Cup of filled with love for Mom

At one of our stations we got to make a Mother's Day Card

We took care to do our best for Mommy

Aren’t they great!

A Happy Mothers’ Day to all moms and grandmothers reading this blog. May your lovely kids spoil you completely.

Back in the Classroom – Helping with Homework

2014-04-26 | puppy1952

All the holidays play havoc with normal routine but we had no interruptions these past four days and so I can report that we have had a pretty good week. At this time of the year Grade Ones really start taking off. The settling in process is over and they become big Grade One Girls ready to take on any challenge.

Parents often ask how to help their girls at home. The secret is not to make an issue of homework. Do a little every day. Follow the routine set out on the homework sheet sent home each week and go at your child’s pace.
We have recently issued each child with a set of alphabet cards. At school we work with them in many ways – naming the graphemes, repeating the phonemes and building three letter words. At home you can help your child at her level.

Start by getting her to get to set the tiles out in alphabetical order. She can then rap the alphabet as she has been taught in class. Then randomly ask her to name the graphemes. She may be able to rap in order but when asked to point to m or o or q she may still be hesitant. Ask her to point to graphemes as you name them for her. See if she also knows the phoneme (sound) of each of the letters too. When you are sure she can do that ask her give the name and sound of the letter as you point to them.

The next step is to help her to ‘hear’ initial, final and medial sounds in three letter words. Say a word like mat – ask her what she hears at the beginning. You could also give her three words – mat man and rat and ask which one has a different beginning sound. Start with sounds that are continuous – s, m, n, r, f, l, v, z . Once she can do those easily go onto other letters. When she is able to do initial sounds go on to listening for final sounds before trying to get her to listen for medial sounds. Most of the girls can already do this but if your child can’t this is the way in which to help her.

The third step is decoding and encoding. Decoding means sounding out the word to work out what it says. Encoding means putting the sounds together to spell the word. Use the alphabet tiles to build three letter words and see if your child can sound them out before asking her to build a word that you give her. Have fun with these tiles. Make a word e.g. cat change one letter to make a new word. e.g. cat to rat. Keep changing one letter and have her sound out the word each time to get what it is. If she’s good at this let her choose which letter to change to make a new word.

Daily reading of the ‘box’ book sent home – a new one is issued twice weekly – is essential. Also use the little printed booklets – Two Little Birds and Bake a Cake – some children will soon be receiving Paws and Claws. All the reading words are in these books and there are stories to read too.

The Counting Booklet has everything in it to help your child build number concepts. Practising the exercises really helps your child to stay on top of her Mathematical game.

We have been discussing our families in class and have made a booklet all about the people in our houses. We drew our siblings and our parents and wrote sentences about what we like doing together.

Some of the things they wrote – I like to bake with Mom, I like to shop with Mom. I like to drive to ‘accidents’ with Dad. (Her dad has a break-down truck) I like to fight with my brother! I like to ride bikes with my sister. I like to watch TV with Dad. I like to swim with Dad. I like work in the garden with Dad. I like to talk to Mom.

After the break we will be making our Family Trees. I am sure you are all having fun gathering the bits and pieces necessary for this. May you all have a fabulous break with your kids. See you soon!

Back in the Classroom – The Second Term Begins

2014-04-11 | puppy1952

Our whistle stop trip to KZN became a beautiful memory as I hit the ground running straight into the new term. Returning to a classful of eager faces is always rewarding and after listening to all the holiday stories and catching up with all the lost teeth, and outings to Ratanga Junction, the circus and the beach we settled down into our ‘normal’ routine.

The first term is the hardest in Grade One as everything is so very new. Each term becomes easier although the pace of learning increases. The rewards of teaching fresh, new learners is great. I get to watch them grasp new Mathematical concepts with awe and wonder. I experience a special kind of thrill when I see them catch on to how a word can be decoded by using those funny phonemes the teacher has been drilling into them. Even in the first week of term their progress is impressive.

Isn’t it amazing how easy it is to get little ones to do just what you want them to do? Sometimes I wonder what goes through their heads. Is my teacher crazy asking me to do these funny finger exercises? Oh well, that’s what she wants we’ll go ahead and do it! It seems to make her happy. What do you mean sound out this word? Isn’t it a sound already? Hey – this is magic – I can read!

I was feeling very pleased with myself when one of my bright sparks read beautifully to me the other day. “Who taught you to read like that?” I asked. Without a missing a beat she replied “I taught myself!”

No credit to the teacher. No credit to the parents. Because children ‘catch’ reading and no matter how good a teacher you are that child will not learn to read until he is ready to ‘catch’ it. That’s why they believe they teach themselves. So parents, expose your child to the written word. Read to her and read with her. Let her catch this amazing thing called Literacy!

Eye exercises

Concentrating of on focussing those eyes

Een twee drie vier vyf, Vingertjies staan styf

Pointer, Middle, Ring, Baby

Watch the thumb to train the eye

Look at our sentences

May we read ours please?

Come on this is so easy

Now we can even write them by ourselves

It’s a lot of fun

We are working hard at this

Back in the classroom – A really fun week

2014-03-21 | puppy1952

The only ‘normal’ day we had this week was Monday! I put ‘normal’ in parenthesis as no day at my school is ever what I would consider normal – there is always something happening and if you teach here you need to be flexible, on your toes and have a good sense of humour. I am not complaining – I would’t have it any other way. There is never a dull moment. So with a little bit of attitude adjustment I managed to get through Hilarious Heads on Athletics Day and two exhausting days of FUNSCAPES.

So back to the beginning – Monday the ‘normal’ day went off pretty well if you don’t count the chair that fell on my foot first thing in the morning. It was sore for a brief moment but then I forgot about it. But at 1 p.m. it really started to hurt and I couldn’t walk comfortably on it. I sat in on two parent interviews with a colleague and then checked my phone messages only to discover that my dental appointment had been changed and I had 15 minutes to get there! My mouth felt fine but my foot was sore. The dentist apologised that he couldn’t fix that part of my anatomy! By this time I really found hobbling quite painful and as the doctor was just next door to the dentist I decided to have it checked out. She prodded and pulled and it hurt like hell. She told me to ice it, take a Myprodol and go for an x-ray first thing the next morning. I had visions of myself in plaster to my knee for the next six weeks – but a miracle occurred. Fifteen minutes after taking medication, all pain disappeared and I haven’t looked back! Walking normally and not even a bruise.

Enough about me – back to the fun week at SVPS. On Tuesday we celebrated our school’s birthday! 37 years ago my two older daughters started there in Grade One and Grade Three! We even have a member of staff who started there in Grade One too. We celebrated by having a hilarious head day and everyone came in the most elaborate hair styles, hats and face make-up. I wore a wig of red streamers which my amused my little girls no end. But I was so busy taking photographs I forgot to get one of myself!

Such imaginative ideas

Hilarious – these made me laugh

Happy hats and hair

Elaborate hair, hats and make up

Really rather cute

These girls have fun hats

Very smart and cute girls

Love the hair – love the hat

All ready to go down to the field for Athletics Day – Note the big shoes!

The Foundation Phase also had their athletics day which began after the parade of the best hats and singing the birthday song to ourselves. The staff hats were hilarious too.

Winning Staff

The Principal leading a Movement Song

Two of my ‘room grans’ grooving to the movement song.

It was a glorious day and the races went well

Racing to the finish line

FUNSCAPES have taken on a new format. I didn’t get to do what I usually like to do – bird watching but maybe next time. This year instead of the whole school being mixed up into different clubs each grade offered four to choose from. The good part of this was that we got kids in our grade. My Funscape was GAMES. It was well attended by mostly boys! I have to admit it. I missed my girls! But Boys are Fun too – challenging – but Fun. I learned very quickly to change the activity often and to have lots of outdoor breaks too. We played cards games, board games, dominoes, pick-up-sticks, tricky fingers, lego and other construction games. These were wonderful experiences for digikids some of whom had never even heard of snakes and ladders or ludo. It helped with their counting, matching, adding and thinking strategically. Pick up sticks – wow – so good for fine motor coordination. The kids were demanding – I had to split myself in many pieces to help with game instructions, sort out disputes and calm the losers. And it was oh so noisy! At the end of the first day I was wrung out and exhausted and had to brace myself for Day 2 which went way better now that they understood the rules! I asked the kids how they’d enjoyed it. To my surprise the feedback was good. They wanted to do it every day! Well they can as each one received a gift pack of games and a large lollipop to take home.

You go down the snake and up the ladder

Carefully now – don’t let the others move

Construction went down a treat

Now remember which direction to move

Girls are good at this

Now let me think

Back in the classroom – Speaker Reader and Grade 1 Assembly

2014-03-14 | puppy1952

How often do I begin a blog with, “Oh wow, another exciting week at school is over!” or words to that effect. Yes – there is always something happening at SVPS. There is no time to get into a rut although we do make sure we get into good habits! On Wednesday, four of our Grade Ones competed in the finals of our Foundation Phase Speaker Reader Competition.

The week before that, they all said a poem or told a story to their teachers who chose the most promising to perform before the rest of the Grade Ones and from there we chose four to compete against the best in Grade 2 and 3. You have to have a special kind of confidence to stand up on a stage in a big hall and say your piece before so many children, teachers and parents. Your voice needed to be loud too as no microphones were used. Our little Grade Ones made us so proud but I was the proudest of all when one of my girls came in Second Place when she recited the poem about a castle that needed painting!

My little star saying he piece

Receiving her Certificate

The Four Winners

The standard was high and we were all wonderfully entertained by these talented young people. But of course sitting still for so long gets us fidgety and so we had to have a break for a movement song.

The Robot Song

Today the girls arrived at school in a high state of excitement. They were all dressed in their clean white shirts ready to present their very first assembly! Everything in Grade One is new and we have been learning routines and habits this was the theme of our presentation. Congratulations girls, you made me proud. You recited your poem beautifully, moved wonderfully well to the Healthy Habits song and said your words loudly and clearly. I know your moms and dads were thrilled to see you up on the stage this morning.

Our First Assembly for 2014 – Routine and Habits

Take Positive Risks

Our teacher are helping us on this journey

Moving is important – The Healthy Habit Song

Believe it or not Moms and Dads, in spite of all the practising for assembly we still managed to fit in a lot of work this week. Our reading is improving by leaps and bounds, we are getting to grips with doubling and halving and having fun learning big numbers with dot to dot and other counting activities.

We are also playing hard on the sports field and some of us went to an athletics meeting in Kommetjie this week. We have some very talented runners in our class!

Remember our Foundation Phase Athletics Day on Tuesday. The fun race requires mom or dad’s shoes! We are having a hilarious head day – so I am looking forward to seeing some funky hairstyles and hats.

Back in the Classroom – School Ready?

2014-03-08 | puppy1952

I have to confess that this week I have neglected to take photographs of the angels doing their thing. It has been a crazy week of teaching and assessing, Speaker-Reader Round One and Athletics trials to interrupt the normal routine. I am super proud to announce that one of my girls has been chosen to go the the Foundation Phase Final with her poem. This will take place next week – more on that then.

In addition to the daytime chaos – organised chaos of course – my evenings have been pretty hectic too. It is my own fault for having a life outside of school! Isn’t it weird how everything always falls in the same week! There was Book Club and Bird Club and a meeting at school on consecutive nights. In spite of it all I still managed to get all my assessing done and my reports in to my Grade Head by 8:00 a.m. this morning! No I did not do an all nighter – I am an early riser and was determined to get them done before the obligatory trip to the mall!

Instead of writing about the angels today I have decided to tell you about the Wednesday evening meeting I attended at school. At our school we are big on teaching in a brain-based way. We believe strongly in gearing our day to suit the child. We move frequently, we vary our activities, we consider the learning style of each individual child and make our classrooms as child friendly as possible. Much of our movement activities are based on what we have learned from the speaker who spoke on Wednesday night. She is highly qualified in her field and is listening to her is truly inspirational.

She reminded us of how early development is so essential to the school readiness of a child. If they have not suckled correctly, rolled and crawled, their later development will be delayed. The good news is that it is correctable but ideally it should be done before entering Grade R. All too many of our children still have developmental delays which is why they cannot sit still, listen attentively or hold a pencil correctly.

Of course we don’t always have the ideal so we have to help our children bridge that gap. Parents can help in so many ways too. Give your child plenty of opportunity to play outdoors. Let them build their own obstacle courses, swing in a tyre, roll down hills, crawl through pipes or tunnels, climb on jungle gyms or trees. Teach them to listen first time. Make sure there is routine in the home. Have your child do things for herself even it it takes longer. Can she do up her own buttons, put her toys away help with simple household chores? Do you read to her every day?

If you have a baby or toddler, now is the time to get them school ready. Do not make the hole in the feeding bottle too big – working hard to get the milk is essential for the development of the small muscles in the mouth and will ensure that the child is able to talk correctly later on. Do not even think of purchasing a walking ring. Rolling, creeping and crawling are essential. Occupational Therapists have their work cut out to correct the damage that these contraptions cause.

A simple rule of thumb is to do things as naturally as possible. Let your child develop the way nature intended and you will avoid problems later on. Some delays are unavoidable due to premature birth, cesarean sections etc. But there are things that you can do to make up the lag in development.

I am now looking at my girls with fresh eyes and I insist that our mind moves, movement songs and other physical activities are done properly. Together we can make a huge difference to our girls.

Back in the Classroom – Expo Day, a Fabulous Project and Family Campout

2014-03-01 | puppy1952

Another busy week is over. The girls are striding ahead with their Reading, Writing and Mathematics and surprising me with how quickly they are grasping new concepts. We are working at developing good habits of mind and this week our focus was on thinking with clarity and Gathering Data through using all our senses. Well after talking about what all this means the girls amazed me how they could get into these habits at their own level. Listening to all the Speaker Reader recitals I was impressed how the little ones were able to speak out well and capture their audience’s interest.

Some of the girls are good at gathering information using their ears while others prefer a visual approach. All the senses though help us to learn. After giving just a verbal explanation of a task to the girls I found that only half of them understood what to do – the auditory learners – As soon as I repeated the instructions bringing in visual examples on the board and getting them to point to pictures on their worksheet there were no more problems! Playing a game of blind man’s bluff taught the girls how their other senses were sharpened when they could not see. They all decided that they did not want to do without any of their senses thank you!

As always there was a lot of excitement at school this week. On Thursday we had an Expo Day. The Grade Ones showed what learning in the 21st Century was like when they got stuck into their project – Me, From Birth till Now. Their brief was to research the meaning of their names, ask their parents why they had chosen it, find out why they were special to their parents and collect photographs of themselves reaching their milestones. Mom and Dad could type and print out their bits of pieces of information and send materials to school so that they could scrapbook it into an A3 project for display in the classroom. Wow – did they just love this. I was super impressed at the enthusiasm and effort that went into both the preparation and presentation of their work. We had many visitors to the classroom and I hope they enjoyed the morning as much as we did.

Do you know what this says?

My parents think I’m great!

Look at mine!

A little help from the Room Mom

I’m ready to start

Careful thought going into the design

Now let me think

Help me read this please.

I need some help

I know just what I’m doing

Do you like it so far?

You can arrange it any way you like

What do you think of this?

To end the week we had a camp out on the school sports field this weekend! The weather looked a little threatening – the wind was blowing and dark clouds were gathering but the turnout was amazing. What a vibe there was with music playing and the rugby showing on the big screen outside our tuck shop – Birdie Num Nums! I was on duty early on Saturday morning. As I wandered around the field to chat to some of my little ones, it was clear that everyone had spent a very enjoyable night in spite of a bit of rain in the early hours of the morning. It cleared into a beautiful day though, and everyone was rising sleepily, parents getting their caffeine fix while the youngsters bonded with their friends.

One of mine with her big sister (also one of mine once upon a time)

Dad was on duty this weekend!

Another one of mine. (Dad was also on camp out duty!)

At 7:00 a.m. my duty began with serving breakfast at Birdie Num Nums. Wow – new respect for the catering staff – but what fun my colleagues and I had helping them. There was such an amazing vibe with music playing and Mrs J shouting out the orders which we rushed to fill. At first we were nervous about taking money and giving change – after all we only do Grade 1 Math – but when it got busy we had no choice but to help with that too!

Should we change our careers? My colleague and I hard at work!

Getting those hot chocolates and coffees to the expectant clients

All to soon it was over and the field was cleared by all but the hardened campers who did not want to leave. One dad asked us to please make this a quarterly event as it was so much fun! Well – we’ll think about that one!