Grade 1 Teaching | Diary of an Adventurous Retiree

Birthdays for a 7 year-old are very important be it your own or that of your friends. Of course when it’s your teacher that is a biggie! My little girls were thrilled to find out when my special day was and some started bringing little presents weeks in advance!

On Friday morning there was extra excitement as the girls poured into the classroom. My shoulder length, greying hair was now short and youthfully coloured. The little mouths were agape and the complements poured out. – You look pretty. You look young. I like your hair. You look like a queen. (not a princess – too old to be a princess!)

They could not wait for me to open their offerings so we gathered on the mat and I was blown away with all the spoiling. There was so much effort put into the cards and the pretty jewellery just had to be donned immediately. Thank you girls for your drawings, hearts, sums and messages. I will treasure your lovely earrings, necklaces and bracelets. The bunches and bunches of beautiful flowers are now in vases in my house and everybody has commented on how stunning they are. Thank you parents, too, for allowing your children to buy me gifts. My girls are so thoughtful – they chose and made their gifts knowing my colour preferences, love of birds as well as expressing how they felt about me. I feel so very, very spoilt!

After that excitement we practised for our awards ceremony and then did some normal work before playtime. I made the girls eat their healthy snack before celebrating with chocolate and vanilla cup cakes!

I was so impressed at the thought that went into the choices the girls made

Sweet treats and flowers and useful notebooks

Flowers, notes, pretty jewellery and bird pictures.

Thank you precious girls

More flowers and chocolates and a special coffee kit!

Next week is our last week together, girls. It’s going to be a busy one! We have one or two special surprises planned but we will also be putting in that last spurt of work to get you ready for Grade 2. So keep up with your homework and bring your energy and good attitude to school. We’ve blasted off and orbited and are now ready for the final Splashdown! Lets make the final week totally irresistible!

Another very busy week has come and gone with the highlight for the girls being “Hoofies” on Wednesday followed by a show in the hall – George’s Marvellous Medicine, which was very well presented by The South African Theatre for Youth.

Mixing the Marvellous Medicine

Totally absorbed in the show

Grandma’s Gum Gum Style

The girls thoroughly enjoyed the show but there was also the 3 Rs to learn and they have excelled themselves this week and impressed their teacher with their mastery of doubling and halving, odd and even numbers, writing in feint lines and story creation.

Our theme this term is Pets. And what a popular topic that is for small children. I have a class full of animal lovers and they are all keen to tell me all about their pets at home. We have learned about the different types of pets one can keep – snakes, lizards, birds, mice, rats, rabbits, hamsters and the more conventional cat or dog! I have tried to impress upon my girls that exotic pets are all very well if you have a licence to keep them. They understand that not just anybody can keep a monkey or a lion. They need to have a special reason to keep an animal like that in captivity – for educational, research or conservation reasons.

We have had great discussions on the fun we have with our pets, how much they mean to us and the responsibilities we have towards them. Here is what some of the girls said about their pets.

“I have a pet hamster and I love him because he crawls up my sleeve and tickles me.”

I have a two cats – one is scared and one is not. One sleeps on my bed because he likes my blanky!

My pet fish’s name is “Sushi” (Does that not sound ominous?!)

My puppy took my slipper out of my cupboard!

I love my dogs because they are clumsy!

My puppy is really naughty and very funny because she chews my shoes.

I love my dog but I don’t like picking up his poop!

My mom does not like the hair all over the house.

From their comments on pets it was clear that the girls knew about the pros and cons of pet ownership. There was a lively discussion on this before they drew and wrote about what they liked and didn’t like about owning a pet.

The children took recipes for play dough home and most of them brought the final product to school while one or two others brought the bought version and we had fun modelling animals on Friday after break! I was super impressed but their creativity.

The little fingers getting into it

The joy of creating with my own hands

Look at lovely pets

A family of snakes!

Look what I made

I am getting into this

Do you like my cat?

This is right up my street

Can we do this every day?

We do manage to pack a lot into a week and not only do these very young girls work hard at school, they are super keen on their sport too. My little hockey players were beside themselves when they got to play their first match on Thursday. Well done girls – I know you played well even though the other team were not “blown up” for faults you know they made!

See you all on Monday!