Back in the Classroom – Spring

2014-09-06 | puppy1952

The week started so well with SVPS celebrating the arrival of Spring. And yes it did arrive with the most beautiful calm, sunny day. The theme for the day was Spring Bling and the children came in normal school uniform decorated with anything to do with Spring. As we have been learning about the seasons and had done a presentation on the Stage for our Grandparents, this was most appropriate.

A class full of Spring Bling girls

Enjoying the Spring Sunshine

Our little winner and me

I am very possessive of my girls and don’t even like them going to their Art, Library, Physical Education, I.T. and Xhosa teachers, although they of course love all these subjects! So when I was struck down with an infection on Thursday I was devastated that I had to leave the class in the hands of another! I thought I was better on Friday and made it to school but could barely last through Assembly where the girls were absolute stars on the stage. Afterwards one of my girls said, Mrs Fenwick I can hear you are sick – You didn’t say much about the Champion Award Winners and your voice was funny. And she proceeded to imitate how I had spoken – cheeky little monkey – But she was right – my heart wasn’t in it. So I decided to leave them once again in the hands of a very capable substitute. I missed you little angels. Hopefully I will be much better on Monday!

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 – Another busy week

2014-02-08 | puppy1952

Apologies to my parents for not posting yesterday but I had to leave school straight after sport and then it was into the car and off to Struisbaai for the weekend! So here I am in the most beautiful part of the Western Cape, listening to birdsong in the garden while I catch up on my blog.

Wow – what a great week we have had. It never fails to thrill me when I see the pace at which a young child learns. Already they are able to build sentences with their little pink words – some just the ones they know from the story while others are creating their own, sometimes funny, ones of their own.

Look at this long sentence!

This is easy

Have I got it right?

I am so pleased with myself

I did it all by myself

I can do it!

Can I make another one?

The girls are also learning to transcribe their sentences into their books but the emphasis at the moment is building them with our word cards before we stress over getting them into writing but look how far we’ve come.

I am proud of my work

Is this okay?

I am doing my best

On Tuesday evening we are having a “night school” on how we teach THRASS. Parents, do make an effort to attend.

We have already learnt all about Jean Pierre the brave ant who lives in Paris. We have sung his song and listened to his story. We now know that a is for ant and have found pictures of a words.

I cut out my ant and found the pictures that start with a

I am learning cutting out skills at the same time as learning phonemes and graphemes

It is fun finding the a words on the apple tree

It makes me happy to learn all about this French ant!

I am having fun while learning

Just look at what I can do

I am learning to focus on my tasks too

Now let me think!

I think I have it right

The girls are really making me proud with their beautiful work. Keep helping them at home with the homework tasks as practising new skills ensures that they will become a habit of the mind.

Back in the Classroom – Meeting Our Hoofie Leaders and starting Homework

2014-01-31 | puppy1952

On Tuesday the Grade Ones met their Hoofie Leaders. At SVPS all the children are divided into families of seven, consisting of a child from each grade. These families meet once a fortnight and are headed up by a Grade Seven learner. Before these gatherings occur the Grade Ones are introduced to their Head of Family (Hoofie Leader) who explains how the whole system works. We find that having these families reduces the occurrence of bullying because the children learn to get on with the other kids no matter what grade they’re in and families stick together and help each other out in times of need.

I feel special with my Hoofie Leader

Getting to know what it is all about

I think I’m going to like this

This week was yet another busy one full of new learning experiences. We continued with shapes, colours and reading. What fun it was to create pictures out of our diamond shapes. We had to remember to use our shapes in size order too! That was tricky when you were concentrating on the creative side.

Kites are flying. Have I got the sizes right?

Do you like my colours and patterns?

This week we focussed on the colour Orange. What fun we had honing our cutting out skills and strengthening the small muscles in our fingers and hands by colouring Ollie as brightly as we could. We then mounted him on black paper all by ourselves. Getting him to stand out was quite tricky but we managed!

I must cut very carefully

Tongue out helps me concentrate

So How am I doing?

It’s a piece of cake!

Don’t rush me – I’m nearly done!

Aren’t we clever!

Homework for Grade Ones began at the beginning of this week. We do not require you as the parent to teach your child. Everything that comes home has already been taught and just needs to be practiced. Any new skill that is taught must be practised in order to perfect it and this is the reason we give simple homework exercises daily. Make sure your child does the required homework as specified in the homework diary, remove notices from it and sign. It should take no longer than 20 minutes per day. Then watch your child thrive!

Funny Story of the week:- One little lass had a tummy ache. “Tell me exactly how it feels.” I said. “It feels like my tummy is biting me.” She replied. I sent her home!

Smart answer of the week:- Question: “What is a widow?” Answer: “A black spider!”

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and parents, please cover the THRASS Book sent home with your child today. This book will travel back and forth from school to home every day – it needs to last the whole year so a good quality plastic cover is required.

Quote

The thing I love most about teaching Grade 1 is watching children learn to read. Research has shown that children aged 6 turning 7 are at the perfect learning stage to start reading. In some countries children start earlier than this but by the time they are 10 our children will be at the same level as the 5 year-old starters. Our programme is geared to the 6/7 year-old whereas other countries gear theirs to younger learners.

Six and seven year-olds seem to just catch reading like one catches a cold, only its so much better! The only thing I do is expose them to the written word, provide them with some tools to work out new words and then watch it happen all by itself. Parents too, should be exposing their children to stories and books. More important than getting your child to read to you is for you to read to her. Remember when your baby was learning to talk? You didn’t teach her. You spoke to her – constantly. Well mostly it’s the same with Reading. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to read to your child. Then leave the rest to the teacher and follow the homework procedure vigilantly.

The girls have already started their journey into Reading. They are rapping the alphabet and the THRASS chart. They have been introduced to their first Reading words. It’s happening already!

I can read this!

I love this bird story!

It’s so easy

Concentration is required

This week we have introduced the beginnings of writing and the girls are working hard at getting their patterns right. Imagine having to hold your crayon correctly, remember to start in the right place and touch the top and bottom line. Lots of effort and concentration is required but once those neural pathways are set we will be ready to start on letter formation.

We are also working hard on our mathematical concepts. We know our shapes and are counting beautifully. Now we are working on recognising numerals and spotting how many dots make five no matter how they’re arranged! Some of us still need to count them all but soon we will get to see the number instantly. The teacher has some funny requirements too. We focus on one colour and have to do a page of things just that colour. Then we focus on a shape and have to make a picture of just that shape too! Oh well – we love her so we just do it!

Cutting and pasting a yellow scene

Getting to grips with rectangles

I’m making a rectangle cake

Do you like my robot?

It has to be just right and mine has his own style!

Our school encourages healthy eating habits. We know this is sometimes difficult because of all the tempting treats out there and busy parents find it easy to just pop in a packet of chips or some yummy biscuits into the lunch box. Treats are great but should be just that – treats. They should not substitute nourishing food. Research has shown that children who eat healthily perform better at school. We are a brain-based school and believe that correct eating feeds the brain and reduces hyperactivity and lethargy in children. And surprisingly children like healthy food. It is not difficult to pop something nourishing into a lunch box and if you do your child will be more alert and able to focus better in class. Let’s work together to make the learning process easier in every way possible.

Some healthy options

Funny story of the week —– Each morning we greet each other with a show of fingers 1 for very sad and want to cry, 2 for I am grumpy – 3 for I’m just fine thank you and 4 – I am excited, very happy and just fabulous. One morning a sweet little lass asks – “What’s the number for bored?” And this was Day 2 before we’d even started the day! At the end of the morning she assured me she wasn’t bored anymore!

Back in the Classroom – Welcome

2014-01-17 | puppy1952

To all my new parents – a very warm welcome to Grade 1 Fn! So often the reply to your “What did you do at school today?” is – “Nothing!” This is the place you can log into at the end of each week to see the what the answer should have been!

Two and half years ago I returned to teaching after a 10 year break during which I only did relief work – then the call came again. It was supposed to be for four months —- but still I’m “Back in the Classroom!”

The first day of school is always exciting but for Grade 1 it is a giant leap to the next phase of their lives. Even though the first few days have been short, I am sure you have found your girls to be quite exhausted by the time they got to bed! There is so much newness, so much to get used to and so much excitement. Be patient with them until they get used to their new lives. A good routine, healthy diet and early bedtime will make all the difference in getting them to settle.

There was a fabulous welcome to all the new little ones in the hall on Wednesday morning and then we all trooped to our classrooms and started working straight away! The girls were introduced to The Gruffalow, learnt about RED, made a picture from circles and are getting to grips with writing their names. They have had their minds filled with new expectations and routines and I have to say they’re coping beautifully.

Red is an exciting colour

I made balloons for my clown out of circles

There is just too so much to do!

At last – time to play on the mat!

Back in the Classroom – Civvies Day

2013-11-17 | puppy1952

The term is winding down and we are trying to keep as closely to a normal routine as possible. The girls know that the pressure is off, they will all be progressing to the next grade and they’re wondering whether is is necessary to work so hard now. They are also a bit nervous about next year. They think they’ll miss their teacher and wonder how they’ll cope with a new one. Will they be with their best friend and what if they don’t like the girls they’re going to be with in Grade 2! Of course they will cope but they don’t know that yet. Moving on is good and we are doing everything we can to prepare them for the great move up. In the mean time, parents, keep up the diligence with homework. We want to consolidate those Maths and Reading skills. Some of the girls who made a slow start in Reading are now shooting ahead and I am proudly moving them up to higher levels. The better their grasp of the written word the better they will cope in Grade 2. Mathematical concepts are also falling into place as the children ‘get it’ with great glee. Many are begging for more difficult work cards.

As a reward for excellent behaviour in Assembly they were allowed to come to school in civvies on Friday. Although this usually brings out a slip in good behaviour I love seeing them in Mufti. Once the initial excitement of seeing each other in their lovely apparel wore off and the girls were warned that uniform behaviour was still the order of the day they settled down to a reasonably normal day of school work!

Such lovely Spring colours

Each in her own unique style

According to M on the right – Yellow is my favourite colour and that’s why she wore it!

A very pretty pose

Pretty in Pink

Enjoying the swings

Aren’t we cute

For the final two weeks of school we will be working less in our books and more in a special booklet of fun, educational activities – BUT the teaching will continue. Parents please continue to read to your children and encourage the girls to read, read, read on their own too. Keep counting in ones, twos, fives and tens and try to get into the higher number ranges. Challenge your girls with doubling and halving problems at least to 20 and help them to work with money – a wonderful way to get mathematical concepts across!

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 – ANAs and the End of a Busy Term

2013-09-14 | puppy1952

This is my last “Back in the Classroom” post for this term and I will make it brief. As usual it has been a busy week but the big event was the ANAs – Annual National Assessments. Every child in the country sits this assessment at the same time on the same day. Literacy was on Tuesday and Numeracy on Thursday. There are strict rules governing how the test is administered. In Grade 1 the class teacher is allowed to invigilate and read the paper to her own children. This is a relief as the little ones feel quite insecure in this type of situation. This is because we never assess our children in this way. It is very formal and our way of teaching and testing is far more relaxed in the Foundation Phase.

The children are used to sitting in cooperative groups but for the ANAs they had to sit alphabetically in rows. Of course anything new is very exciting and the new arrangement got the girls completely hyped up. Fortunately we practised a few times before sitting the real thing!

Back to the dark ages in neat straight rows

Back to the ‘olden days’ in neat, straight rows

The two tests were in fact not difficult and most of the girls did well. But the results really make no difference to their overall marks – they are merely an indication to the Powers That Be that the children are reaching a basic standard for their grade. Are the schools achieving what they are meant to achieve? So the girls should do well. Sometimes children who get good results when assessed by their teacher do poorly in an ANA – these are the children who don’t function well in formal test situations although they are perfectly capable. The wording of the questions can be confusing, they’re used to working cooperatively but now they’re expected to act like Matric Students. They’re not allowed to talk and they have to wait until everyone has finished a question before moving on which causes a break in concentration.

But it is a good experience and I am proud of my girls. They performed well but at the end of it they said they were jolly glad it was over!

Next week we will wind down with some fun activities and preparations for the final term. Covers will be made and books sent home for covering in plastic. Parents please be prompt in returning them to school. I look forward to chatting to you all at Parentline on Tuesday.

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.