Sentence Building | Diary of an Adventurous Retiree

Another good week has raced by and the little girls are just progressing by leaps and bounds. I have been busy with lots of individual assessments and though I have been back in Grade 1 for two years now – I am still blown away by how rapidly they learn.

We are now up to bonds of seven in Mathematics and we once again played dancing digits to get the feel of how numbers are related. Playing games always makes learning fun and they enjoyed a plus and minus activity on the mat when their work was done.

Who can cover their blocks first

The girls were very excited when I handed out their very first dictionaries. They decorated the cover and took them home to be covered in plastic. Now they are beginning to write their own stories, finding words they need from around the classroom, in their reading, from the THRASS chart and also by asking the teacher. Their first creative assignment was to sequence four pictures in the correct order and then make up the story. Wow – did they have fun! One little lass could not stop at one sentence per picture and almost wrote a novel.

Now let me think

Deep concentration

It’s about a birthday, isn’t it.

Coming to ask for words

We are learning about our bodies and how they move. The girls had fun cutting out skeletons and pasting them in moving positions.

Concentrating on cutting out neatly

Mine is very flexible

This is cool

We have had a few rainy days recently so movement in the classroom has become more important than ever! Here are the girls doing Singing in the Rain – in the classroom while it was raining outdoors!

Singing in the rain

The weather has indeed turned chilly and wet here in the Western Cape, South Africa. Voices on the radio warned that the weekend would be beset with storms and flooding and very low temperatures. Friday afternoon, Hubby left for a business trip, the boys had Scouts so after feeding them pizzas I snuggled under the duvet with my laptop and spent the evening working on reports. By Saturday morning the storm had arrived and poor Josh played a hockey match and came home drenched. I remained under the duvet and by 2:30 I’d completed my reports – such a good feeling to be done!

Forgive me if I enthuse about everything that happens in Grade 1 but really it is the most exciting and rewarding grade to teach. The little ones have been at school for less than five weeks and yet already they have come so far. Yesterday they used their Reading words to build and write their very own sentences. Many of them made up completely new sentences using the words from the vocabulary learnt so far while those learning at a slower rate reconstructed the sentences they know from the story they are learning. This is all part of the process of learning to read. I still get excited when I see the children getting to grips with the written word; there is nothing more thrilling.

Valentine’s Day – what does that mean to a six or seven year old. Well its all about Love isn’t it. And at my school we believe that children learn well when they feel safe and when they feel loved. So celebrating Love is important and fun. Children and staff came to school dressed in red and white, we made Valentine cards for our friends and family and the whole atmosphere of love just seeped into us. The was an atmosphere of joy throughout the whole school.

My girls looking cute in red and white

Late yesterday afternoon the staff all received a text message – Meet in the Staffroom at 7:30 a.m. Prizes for the best dressed teachers! Oh my – what shall I wear? I guessed the idea would be to go fun and funky – so on my way to gym I dropped in at the local super market and bought rose clips for my hair and in the morning put on my best red dress and raided my jewellery box for something red! Sure enough on arrival I was in fits of laughter at what some of my colleagues turned up in. The young men cross-dressed and one even donned fairy wings. The principal wore a jester’s hat and the deputy had hearts on her cheeks. The staffroom was decorated with bright red hearts which read – Your are Loved. It seems a small thing but it really did build morale and made one feel appreciated. Photographs were taken and senior staff announced that Chocolate Cake and Cream would be served at break when the winners would be announced. At break I joked that I only taught at this school because the food was good! My principal said – there aren’t many perks but this at least was one of them! While we indulged the prizes were announced. We cheered for our funky, fun loving colleagues and then my name was called – for the most beautifully dressed staff member! I actually blushed. My prize wrapped in red tissue paper in a red carrier bag – a bottle of win and a PS chocolate! And wow – it made me feel good. Thank you Leadership – it was a really fun day.

My girls just loved the roses in my hair

In Grade 1 – ME is very important. Today the girls did their very first school project which was all about who they are, why their parents chose their names and why they were special to Mom and Dad. They brought photographs of their lives thus far, information that Mom and Dad had prepared with them and bits and pieces to decorate their presentations. What fun they had putting it all together and what fun I had finding out all about them. Well done parents for your special involvement in the preparation and well done girls for your beautiful presentations.

Hard at work with a little help from our GAP

Altogether it was a very successful Valentine’s Day but it was not yet over. When I got home there were a dozen red roses from my Romantic Husband and to end a wonderful day he took me to my favourite Restaurant, Just Sushi, where we were treated to a free glass of Bubbly and a starter platter of Salmon Roses. And Dessert was rather special too.