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 – 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 – 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!

Back in the Classroom – Group Teaching

2014-02-20 | puppy1952

Because this week ended today at 12:00 noon for a weekend of staff training, I am doing the BLOG early this week. It has been a short week yet we have packed in so much. We have reached the time of term when the girls are really settled and into the routine of school. They are learning so quickly and I am enormously proud of them. I know I say this every year but I am always amazed at the rate at which Grade Ones learn. It is the most rewarding part of this job.

In the first few weeks our focus in on getting into good routines, learning to follow instructions, to work quietly at our tables and to consider others. Once this is established and the teacher has begun to know her learners she can begin with group teaching. This has now started in my class although I am still teaching in small mixed-ability groups. Later in the term I will group the children into ability groups and allow the girls to progress at their own pace. Teaching in groups has so many advantages. It allows the teacher to focus on individuals and to give more individual attention to learners who need it. I also allows her to extend the fast workers.

Working with concrete apparatus at this age is vital

Can you see three with your eyes before you grab in in one go?

How do you change three into four? Just one more!

We are so smart!

While a group is busy working with the teacher on the mat the others have tasks to do on their own at their desks. These tasks are well within their ability and the girls do not need help from the teacher. The girls have to be able to work independently and quietly and with just the odd reminder from me the cope very well indeed.

These girls are working on a THRASS activity while a group of learners is having a group Reading lesson.

I am practising my known THRASS skills

I am colouring the words that begin with the dog phoneme ‘d’ Aren’t I clever!

We do all kinds of activities to learn our phonemes and graphemes. We have made the flying birds for ‘b’ a rabbit for ‘bb’ and yesterday we made a crown for our queen. Don’t forget the queen, queen. Her majesty the queen, queen. Queen begins with ‘q’ queen. And of course she needs a crown!

That is all I have for this short week, folks. It was a long afternoon of staff training where we performed many fun tasks focussing on the Habits of Mind. It’s all very exciting and promises to make us better prepared for teaching your children.

Parents we have already started listening to Speaker Reader presentations so if your child hasn’t anything prepared yet please make sure she has something by Monday. Projects begin next week too. Make sure your child has all her bits and pieces to compile her “Me from Birth to Now” poster.

Have an awesome Long Weekend!