Back in the Classroom – Time waits for no child

2013-10-12 | puppy1952

Time seems to be a tricky concept for most young children. Now with digital watches and clocks, reading time is a simple matter – but understanding how it all works is still quite complicated. So the best way to get this across is with an old fashioned clock – with an hour and minute hand. We have been learning to count in fives and this has helped the girls work their way around the minutes to 60. All year I have drawn their attention to the clock on the wall to show them how much time they have to complete a task. “When the big hand reaches this number you need to be done.” “Five minutes from number to number – how many minutes it that?” Now at last we are learning to actually tell the time. They know how many minutes make an hour, how long it takes the big hand to move from 12 to 12 and how long it takes the small hand to go from number to number. All of them now know how to read o’clock and some have already grasped the half and quarter hour!

I think it’s four o’clock?

To help the girls become familiar with the workings of time they got down to making their very own clocks. Not only did this task show them the way to measure time, it honed their fine motor skills for cutting and getting a split pin to do its job! They all thoroughly enjoyed decorating their clocks to be the smartest in the class!

Do you like my clock?

Taking time to decorate

Concentrating on the details

These clocks are now being used for time activities at school and are going home with the children daily. Parents, help your child to practise counting the minutes in fives, setting the hands to different times – mainly o’clock at this stage – and asking questions like, “how long will it take the big hand to get from 2 to 6” etc. Remember – always make it fun – this is just an introduction to a difficult concept.

The term is racing by and while I am delighted at the progress the girls have made it is not yet time to rest on our laurels. Now that the girls are confident in the basic Grade 1 skills, we are building on them in preparation for Grade 2. We are working at a faster pace and missing even a day of school means a lot of catching up when she returns. The girls are keen too, and are working hard to get to the next level in their Reading – so parents – don’t neglect the homework. Encourage the girls to be thorough in their word revision, let them read the group reader daily and help them with their supplementary ‘box’ book. Keep counting to the higher numbers and don’t neglect counting in twos, fives and tens. Let’s be sure that they go to Grade 2 thoroughly prepared!

Back in the Classroom – A Good Start to Term Four

2013-10-05 | puppy1952

I can hardly take in that the final term is already upon us. And it is such a short and busy one too. All too soon I will be bidding my little princesses farewell as they shoot up to Grade Two!

They have come such a long way since that first exciting day and what a pleasure to see how ready they are for more advanced work. The plan is to have lots of fun with the Dr Seus stories and one of their first activities was to draw their favourite scene from The Grinch.

Drawing scenes from The Grinch

Starting new Maths Cards was a challenge that they rose to with enthusiasm. Some of those tasks were pretty tricky!

You can’t catch me out – I know all the answers

The girls could tell me all about email and the internet but some of them were not too sure what postage stamp was or how ‘snail mail’ actually worked. So we designed our own stamps and created post cards with street addresses on them which they thoroughly enjoyed!

Creating a beautiful post card

Of course their favourite subject is Information Technology and up until now they have been having lots of fun learning core skills while playing fun games. This week for the first time they learned how to browse the internet! Our upcoming outing will be to Rondevlei and the girls got to find the nature reserve’s webpage and researched what they were likely to see there!

I’m not too sure what to do right now

This is how to scroll through the images

Just a second – I’ll show you what to do

Birthdays are such huge events in a young lady’s life. At our school the children wear ‘civvies’ on their special day so that everyone knows to wish them. On Friday there was great excitement when one of the moms (who is also a teacher at the school) came in bearing a tray of cupcakes, lit up with candles.

The girls all broke into the birthday song

Just look at the delight on that face

After all that excitement the girls settled down to their tasks before we took a break to eat the delicious treats.

We are all looking forward to a happy, hard-working last term. It promises to be filled with plenty of new and fun experiences.

Back in the Classroom – Reading to Children

2013-09-07 | puppy1952

“Whose mommies and daddies read to you, everynight before bed?” I asked my girls . A sprinkling of hands went up. “Whose mommies and daddies read to you before you started Grade 1.'” Just a few more hands went up. I noticed that most of the girls who were still being read to, were good readers themselves. Those who never had stories read to them were making slower progress.

The mistake that many parents make is – Now that my child is reading – I needn’t read to her any more. She must read on her own – she needs to practise.

We talk to our babies before they can understand the words we say – and very soon they’re talking too. It’s the same with reading – first we read because they can’t read themselves but we must continue. Read books to your children that have a more advanced vocabulary and watch how their use of language improves. There are many advantages of reading to your child.

It’s a wonderful way to get your child into bed and settled for the night.
It’s a special togetherness time – sit close to your child and let her see the words and pictures as you read.
Your child will be hearing well-written English which will contribute to her gaining good language skills.
You can use the story for life lessons and discussions.
Books, both fiction and nonfiction, teach general knowledge.
New worlds are opened for you both to share.

Let reading to your child become part of her bedtime routine. Make sure radios and television are off when you read to your child and make it a special time – do not let any digital devices interfere with this time. Put your phone on silent!

What should we be reading to our children? Take them to the library and show them the array of books in the children’s section and let them choose! Some children really love nonfiction so don’t neglect that. Let them browse through a nonfiction book and let it be more of a question and answer session rather than reading it from cover to cover.

There are many modern children’s authors writing wonderful stories with fantastic illustrations but don’t forget the old fashioned fairy tales. The girls in my class love The Three Little Pigs and Cinderella as much as the children who I taught from past generations did. Alice in Wonderland, Peter Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh – just never go out of style.

Here is my very short suggestion list – there are so many books out there but in my book these are compulsory reading.

AA Milne –Winnie the Pooh

Beatrix Potter – Peter Rabbit + all her other books

Kenneth Graham – The Wind in the Willow

The Brothers Grimm – All their fairy tales

Lewis Carroll – Through the Looking Glass

Ludwig Bemelmans – Madeline

Rudyard Kipling – The Just So Stories

Enid Blyton – The Wishing Chair and The Faraway Tree

I read to my girls at school as often as possible. I read stories that we as Grade One teachers have decided on together as well as books the girls bring that they want to share. We all enjoy the stories. But this is not a substitute for Mom and Dad reading to a child. There is not the same intimacy, bonding and sharing. Start the habit now. If time runs out – leave the homework – Read to your child!

Back in the Classroom – Fun with Music and a visit to Kirstenbosch

2013-08-30 | puppy1952

The lucky little girls in my class got to have another fun lesson with a GAP student this week. When I was a little girl the theoretical part of Music was boring and no fun at all. What a fresh approach this lovely young treacher brought to our classroom. The girls now know all about walking notes, running notes and slow plodding notes. They had fun tapping out the beat on rhythm sticks and then listening to differents types of music and interpreting the movement through dance.

An introduction to musical notes

Using rhythm sticks while reading music

Interpreting the music with dance

Winter is determined to show us its coldest face this year. I am sure there can’t be any more rain left to fall and can it possibly get any colder. Rumour has it that there is snow on Table Mountain! I can’t see it from here but I can certainly feel it in my bones. Yet I have tough little girls who strip off their fleeces after break and insist on running around bare foot!. My girls are princesses but very sporty ones!

100% chance of rain was predicted for the day of our outing to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. The other two Grade One classes went the day before and certainly did get a constant downpour. The Botanical Gardens in the rain? Well yes – but not outdoors and even though it did not actually rain our our day we were presented with the same programme. It was just too cold and muddy to go tramping through the Gardens and the Forest area that they usually show us.

Instead the boys and girls had their lessons and walk about in the conservatory. The three wonderful ladies who were our teacher/guides taught them how the indigenous people and early settlers found veld plants and used them food, medicine and freshening their homes. They were fascinated to hear that Buchu was used for healing scratches and stings and that there were several types of aromatic Pelargonium which could be used to flavour food or used to freshen clothes in the wardrobe. The children shared their knowledge of ‘sour flowers’ and were warned not to eat anything in the veld unless an adult told them it was safe to do so.

The puppet show about Monty the Mongoose was a definite highlight and after that they were divided into three groups and shown around the conservatory.

The Puppet Show

Feeling fleshy leaves

Checking off the plants they found

It was a fantastic outing and the children learned so many new things in a fun and exciting way. Well done to the Kirstenbosch Ladies – in spite of the weather they got it just right!

Back in the Classroom – Foul Weather, Food Pyramids and Fun in Afrikaans

2013-08-24 | puppy1952

This has to be the coldest and wettest winter we have had here in the Cape for many years. Or is it that I am getting older and feel the elements more intensely? Here in this southern nook of Africa we are lucky enough to have a Mediterranean Climate – warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters. I like winter because many of the days are clear and sunny and the wind doesn’t blow. But this winter we have had so much rain that the dams are over 100% full and there is snow on the mountain which means it is freezing! After a couple of days of heavy rain there was river flowing outside my classroom door!

A River Runs Through It

Every day I pray that the rain will let up at 10:30 – break time – so that the children get to go out and release their pent up energy – mostly my prayers are answered and luckily inspite of the excessive rain we do find at least a few minutes to get out and play.

A break in the weather and fun on the swings

Something in the weather has caused the birds to visit the garden – when the children are not around. I captured these feathered beauties enjoying some rare sunshine.

Cape Canary

Chaffinch

It has been a busy week and the girls have worked hard. After their two day Funscape they were keen to share their experiences and wrote good sentences about what they had done.

Look what I did at Fabric Painting

Pieces of Eight My Hearties

Anyone for cookies?

Working on our Funscape Report

Having someone different in the classroom is always exciting for the girls and I have been so proud of their welcoming attitude to our visiting student and one of our own GAPs. What a fun lesson they had learning all about the food pyramid and which foods we need for energy, muscle building and fighting illness.