Back in the Classroom – Fabulous Funscape

2013-08-16 | puppy1952

Our week of hard work and assessments ended with a rewarding two days of FUNSCAPES. Parents, I am sure your little girls have told you all about it and I will be getting them to report back on what they did early next week – so watch this space. For me FUNSCAPES was just fabulous. Imagine being able to use two school day to indulge my passion – BIRDS. I was delighted to hear that my club – Bird Watching – A Hobby for Life was filled very quickly. Those who did not get in – Don’t worry, it will be offered again next year. Twenty-one girls and boys from Grade 1 to Grade 5 entered my classroom on Thursday morning and when I asked – “Why did you choose Bird Watching as your Funscape this year? – these were the replies. ‘I see birds all the time and I like watching them.’ ‘I went to a place with my family once and saw all these birds and ever since then I’ve wanted to learn more about birds.’ ‘I like all animals and I think birds are interesting because they are so pretty.’ ‘My grandpa loves birds and so do I.’ ‘Well, I have two reasons – no actually three reasons. I think birds are interesting. I like all animals and a bird is an animal and I want to save the birds.’ Every one of these kids was there because something inside them made them interested in birds and they had a hunger to learn more. The weather forced me to have our first day in the classroom instead of going on an excursion to Rondevlei. I have used this programme before but it was geared to Grade 3 and above. There was a lot to pack into those four hours and I had a mixed age group – how to manage the content to suit them all was a challenge. Putting them into mixed groups of three was the answer. I made each session short – first a PowerPoint presentation on bills and beaks followed by a group activity – then an outdoor break and back to feet and legs and a group activity on that. Last of all a PowerPoint presentation on the birds we were likely to see followed by creating a card game to help us learn their names. All their handouts were given to them in a Flipfile and one of them said – Do we get to take these flip files home? ‘Of course,’ I replied. “Cool!” One satisfied customer!

I think I know the answer

The older ones helped the smaller ones

What do you think the answer is?

The weather today was not much better but our destination was The False Bay Ecology Park. The ponds here are home to a huge variety of birds. Had the weather been better I would have had the children out of the cars but it was wet and freezing so in the cars we stayed using walkie talkie radios to communicate. The roads were muddy and at one point we had to turn around for fear of getting stuck! My husband was helping with lifts in the Fortuner and went to investigate which roads would be suitable and in his brief separation from us, found a spotted eagle owl. The youngsters with him were over the moon. “Not fair,” I said “that they got an exclusive sighting!” “Tough!” said my deviant husband!

The exclusive sighting – Spotted Eagle Owl in his usual spot.

In spite of muddy roads and inclement weather we had a very successful trip. The children were keen to get the 30 or so target birds on their tick lists and except for a few that eluded us they did very well. They were also thrilled to see a little slender mongoose while we were sitting still eating our lunch. I told the children that we were unlikely to see a pied kingfisher – but I was wrong – right at the end, kingfisher was called! Take a look at some of the amazing birds we saw. As one little lass said – It’s like a bird paradise here!

The best place to find Flamingoes

Red-knobbed coot

Cape Shoveller

The Gulls Flushed into the air caused great excitement

Purple Swamphen

A tricky bird to find – but he appeared just as I’d lost hope of seeing him

Thank you very much to the three parents who gave up their precious time and braved the muddy roads to assist us on this outing. It is really very much appreciated. A big thank you too to my hubby who took the day off from work to help us. Of course he didn’t listen to any of my instructions and spoilt the kids rotten!

Back in the Classroom – Market Day and a Fun Music Lesson

2013-08-09 | puppy1952

As usual time has flown and this short week has been filled with activity, fun and excitement. My carefully planned Monday had to be adjusted when the girls’ favourite teacher (IT bloke of course) came to inform us that we were to have an unscheduled period on the ipads. This on the same day that we have Visual Motor so that set the tone for the day! However, the little geniuses applied themselves diligently so as not to be excluded from the I.T. lesson if certain goals were not reached! Always great to have a carrot to help with discipline.

I have for a few days been assigned a visiting student teacher. She is studying through UNISA and needs to do her practical so I am the lucky one. Her first lesson had the children clapping, clicking and, dancing and singing as they learned to recognise patterns in Music.

Old Mac Donald

Singing, Clapping and Clicking

I am the kind of teacher who believes that junk food is very bad for children. That does not mean that I never indulge in the odd pizza or chocolate. I also use sweeties as treats on occasion. BUT – my rule is that no junk may come to school in lunch boxes – and don’t dare buy lollipops from the school tuckshop! The girls know this and try their best to bring healthy snacks to school. So when The Grade Seven Market Day happened on Wednesday they couldn’t believe their luck when Teacher said – you can buy and eat whatever you like!

The lessons learned went above my food fetishes. At the entrance to the hall – (rain prevented and outdoor market) R1 tickets were sold and with these they could make their purchases. It was amazing to see the little ones work out what they could afford and carefully make their choices for the best bargains on sale. It was also delightful to see the Grade 7s gently being patient with them and helping them to count out their tickets and what they could spend.

These look good

Are you sure I’m allowed to buy these?

How do I look?

We’re all going on a sugar high

Look what we’ve got

All stocked up with treasure

How can I help you Angel?

Coloured hair in Uniform!

I was very proud of my girls when after all this excitement, they settled down well with their Xhosa teacher and impressed him so much that he gave each one a star!

The weather in Cape Town has been that preferred by ducks and chilly on top of it. So it was great to see a tiny bit of luke-warm sunshine on Thursday. The only interruption to our day was a full practice for our upcoming assembly. Moms and Dads you are in for a treat on Tuesday morning. Be seated by 8:15 sharp when your little stars will be sharing with you all they have learned about caring for Pets. Hard work followed and we achieved most of what we set out to do at the beginning of this busy week and then we burst out to greet the long weekend and celebrate being free and liberated women and girls.

For my overseas readers this is why we celebrate National Women’s Day in South Africa. On 9 August 1956, more than 50,000 women staged a march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria. They were protesting against the Urban Areas Act or “Pass Laws” of 1950. Petitions containing more than 100 000 signatures were left the Prime Minister, J.G. Strijdom’s office doors. Outside they stood silently for 30 minutes, many with their children on their backs. They sang a song which translated means – you touch a woman you touch a rock. That phrase now paraphrased to “You strike a woman, you strike a rock” has come to represent women’s courage and strength in South Africa.

Because of our mothers’, grandmothers’ and great-grandmothers’ strength and courage in all kinds of human rights protests, we as women and girls have a better life. And I think that so do our boys and men. And as we celebrate this Women’s Day weekend let us not forget the support and affirmation we receive from our wonderful fathers, brothers, sons, husbands and male colleagues. Have a great weekend everybody!

Back in the Classroom – Third Term, Mandela Day and Creative Kids

2013-07-22 | puppy1952

Although I had enjoyed a stunning three weeks abroad on my own I couldn’t wait to get home to my husband and family. The plan was to land in Cape Town at lunch time on Saturday giving me a day and an half to prepare myself for school. But that didn’t happen did it! Because my grandson was to have a birthday party that night my amazing husband decided to whisk me away for a Romantic Reunion and save me from the invasion of a dozen teenagers!

The following morning we went to see my daughter in her new flat and then to lunch with friends! The last thing on my mind on Sunday evening then was school! Isn’t it amazing thought that when you’ve been doing this job forever you just walk straight in and it is as if you haven’t been away. The only thing I forgot was to bring back the freshly washed chairbags! “You see girls,” I said. “You should never be in a muddle on your first day of school. You should get everything ready the night before!” They all agreed but were very forgiving nevertheless. Within five minutes we were back into the swing of things. The girls clearly had a great holiday and were ready for action. They were excited to begin writing in feint lines and I am proud of how well they are coping. We also began our sum cards which are not very easy to set out, Moms and Dads and there were a few glitches about skipping a line and muddling plus and minus but it won’t be long before these little geniuses have that sorted too.

Mandela Day was the big event of the week. Sadly the day dawned rather cold and overcast and rain was imminent when we all went out to sit in formation on the netball court and sing to Madiba. The photograph of the children with a drawing of Mandela’s face is awesome. Go to the school’s webpage to see this. http://blogs.sunvalleygroup.co.za/

The Grade Ones were about to go and do their 67 minutes of community service and we were ready and armed with our black bags for a litter clean up. One of my princesses piped up “We can’t go out in this weather. It’s too cold. I might get sick.” “No,” I replied, “We’re doing this for Madiba – we must be strong and brave!” “Yes,” replied another “We’re not that kind of princess!” We’re certainly not – we’re the hard-working kind! But the heavens opened and the rain came down so our 67 minutes had to be postponed after all! Even tough princesses could melt in the rain. Instead of the litter clean up and gave the girls a brief lesson on the life of Nelson Mandela and showed them a clip from the internet planning to stop it if it was beyond their understanding. But they were riveted and had many questions to ask. They were horrified to hear that apartheid meant segregated beaches, busses and classrooms. I also showed them a clip of Johnny Cleg dancing with Mandela and that got some of them up and dancing too.

On Friday we got stuck into a cooperative activity. The girls brought boxes of all shapes and sizes and designed a city. The idea was to build the kind of buildings they would see in their community. I was delighted to see how well they worked together and how creative they were with the limited materials they had.

Back in the Classroom – Last week of term

2013-06-22 | puppy1952

The last week of term flew by rapidly. I still had two evening shows to prompt, but at least I had the days to spend with my girls. We kept to our normal routine as much as possible. My angels worked hard at getting the hang of writing between the lines, reading, writing and doing their sums. But there was also time to do some fun stuff. We continued our theme of learning how our bodies moved and here are some photographs of them making skeletons from ear buds or q tips as the Americans call them.

How do these bones fit together?

This is coming together nicely

My skeleton has bendy bones

We all have different ideas

What a bony pair of skeletons!

We’re taking these home

This was cool fun

The Intermediate Phase Pantomime was Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. Lots of the girls had been to see it with their parents and others were about to. So I decided to show them an animated movie of the ‘real’ Snow White. Well – what a good plan this turned out to be. The girls were enthralled and totally caught up in the wonder of the fairy tale. Just look at their faces.

Totally absorbed

Snow White is so beautiful

What will the dwarfs find?

This timeless fairy tale has not lost its appeal

Have an amazing holiday to all my girls and their parents. I am writing this post from my brother’s home in England and will be posting daily reports on my adventures while I am visiting here for the next three weeks. Please feel free to share in my experiences.

Back in the Classroom – Writing, Creating and Prompting

2013-06-17 | puppy1952

The past week has been pretty hectic at school. The intermediate phase are in the throes of producing a their pantomime – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Although my little Grade Ones are not involved, I am. So for four days last week I had to leave them in the capable hands of a GAP student while I was on duty as Prompt. But the shows began at 10 and I was back with the girls by 12:30. So far we have had 2 full dress rehearsals, 2 morning shows and 2 evening shows. There are two more evening shows to go so if you have not yet seen it don’t delay – it is really good.

The teaching of handwriting is very important in Grade 1. So many skills are required to form a simple letter. Posture must be right. The fine muscles in the hand, fingers and wrist need to work correctly. Spacial perception has to be developed and in the beginning it all takes a great deal of concentration which is why children with an attention deficit struggle to learn to write.

Now just when we have got used to how to form the letters and learned how to keep them on a line the goal posts have been moved. The new skill we must learn is to write between the lines and we are practising this on paper before we get our feint lined books!

This takes concentration

A good exercise to strengthen those three fingers required for neat writing – the thumb, pointer and middle is paper tearing. The girls got busy making a new book cover. They had to tear coloured papers into small pieces and paste them onto an outline of a fish.

This is fun

Its good for my ‘three writing friends’

I am working hard at this

Not so good for my back when I stand and bend over my desk when I work!

But the bending over a low desk is not so good for my back!

Do you like the results?

The 16th of June is Youth Day in South Africa and as it fell on a Sunday (also Father’s Day) we got Monday off. I hope all my little ones and their parents had a good weekend. I certainly did – got a lot of Third Term preparation done as well as enjoying a relaxing time with my husband and daughter.

The last four days of term are now upon us. Can you believe it – half way through the year already!

Back in the Classroom – Work, puppies and party time

2013-06-09 | puppy1952

Love is a warm puppy! Two of the little girls in my class have recently each acquired a dachshund puppy. These little cuties co-incidentally came from the same litter. I was delighted to be introduced to the two cuddly bundles last week.

Two cuddly bundles with their proud owners

The most important thing we learn in Grade 1 is Reading. If we don’t grasp this skill all other learning will be seriously compromised. Everything possible is done to improve our reading and writing vocabulary. A good way to revise our reading words is to work on cards based on our Reading Scheme.

Here are the girls busily working at their tasks.

We seem to have lots of May and June birthdays and we had another birthday girl on Friday! And wow were we spoilt – a party pack each and the most beautiful cup cakes! Luckily it was Friday and P.E. for the last part of the day so the sugar high was worked off before home time!

The birthday girl handing out the treats

Things are as busy as ever at school. The older children are busy rehearsing for their Pantomime – Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. As I am the prompt I know its going to be good – so if you haven’t got your tickets – don’t delay and don’t miss out on this hilarious take on an old favourite.

Back in the Classroom – Dictionaries, Story Writing, Skeletons and Reports

2013-06-02 | puppy1952

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!

Back in the Classroom – Beach Outing and Mothers’ Day

2013-05-11 | puppy1952

Another great week at our Fun School under the belt so its a bumper blog today!

We pride ourselves on being a brain based school – this means we consider how the brain works and what it needs to function properly. Among other things we try to ensure that our children hydrate regularly, eat correctly and move! We do things that some might think is hokus pokus. I start each lesson with ‘mind moves’ – little exercises to wake up and switch on the ears, eyes and brain. No writing lesson begins unless we do a crossing the midline action game or song and we get our tiny fingers stretched and ready for fine movement. Our sports field is set out as a ‘walk-it’ circuit with stations at intervals where fitness exercises are done and we take our classes out at any time of the day to make us of this facility. Do these things make a difference? Definitely. One day last week I was really feeling under the weather with a thick head – I actually felt that my brain was missing! I muddled through the day and wondered why my girls were chatty, restless and producing messy work. It took a while for me to register that I had not done a single movement song or vigorous exercise with them – Hello. The next day in spite of still feeling groggy myself I got back with the programme and those girls were back to their brilliant selves!

But enough of my inadequacies and back to the rest of our stunning week. The rewards of teaching the First Grade as I have mentioned many times are great. How rapidly these little girls learn. Remember everything is new – so when they have to write a sentence many things come into play – I must get my pencil grip right, mind how I form the letters correctly and make sure the construction makes sense. Up until now the teacher or room parent has written their dictated sentences into their News Book. But on Monday they got to write their sentences on their own! First they tried it out on a strip of paper finding words on the Thrass chart, in their reading or sounding out phonetically and only when a word was just too difficult did they raise their hands for help. I was super proud of the results.

On Thursday we all arrived at school on a slightly chilly morning but still full of excitement because we were off to The Beach! Were we crazy – no in Sunny South Africa winter beach visits are quite acceptable. By nine o’clock the sun was out and it was just a little breezy. The children were briefed to note all the sounds, smells, feelings, tastes and sights they experienced. They needed no second invitation to strip to their bathing costumes and play in the shallows. We had a tough male gap student up to his knees and they were not allowed beyond him. We drew a boundary line on the sand and they weren’t allowed beyond that mark. The moms and dads were vigilent along with the teachers – there were two classes totalling over 60 boys and girls. And what fun we had – splashing in the sea, playing on the sand and building elaborate sand castles.

Splashing in the cool breakers

Sculptures in the sand

Old fashioned Hop-Scotch is still a fun game

Do you like our castle

A Dad getting wet

Kids don’t feel the cold

What a great classroom this is!

Me cold – Don’t be silly – I’m a water baby

We heard the clackety clack of train roaring by

Getting the feel of the gritty, cold, squishy sand

Boys and Girls joined forces and shared building skills and ideas

What joy on their faces

Smile for the camera

Stuck in the Mud

All too soon it was time to pack up and get back to school. We had given the children our paper coffee cups to use as mini buckets and after making sure these and all other litter was picked up and put into the bin we lined up ready to go back to the cars. A senior citizen approached me -“What school is this?” I told him and he said, “I have to compliment you on very well-disciplined and beautifully behaved children. I am a retired principal from Gauteng and it’s lovely to see the little ones having so much fun.” Of course I was hugely proud! What excellent adverts you are for your school boys and girls. That was not the only compliment we got – Fish Hoek Beach’s regular contingent of retirees were down there that morning and several of them asked where we were from and commented on how sweet the children were. They did not mind the ‘invasion’ at all.

Back in the classroom the children drew pictures and labled them with sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste words like – roaring ocean, gritty sand, squishy mud, salty chips, stinging eyes, clattering train, shrill whistle and pongy sea-weed!

It is Mother’s Day tomorrow – and I wish all my Moms a great and rewarding day with your little angels We had a big discussion on what our moms mean to us and then with great concentration they settled to making cards and creating their own sentences using their newfound skill of word hunting – of course teacher could be included a source for words. I just loved what they wrote and hope you do too:-) This one stood out – I love my mom because she teaches me important things! Don’t you just love it!

Busy making a very important card

This if for a very special mommy from a very special little girl

So Creative!

This is a bumper blog so I just need to write about one more thing! We teach our children to work cooperatively. I saw this working in a natural environment on the beach where the children chose who to build castles with. But in the classroom it might not run as smoothly. The children do not choose with whom they work. They have to learn to get on with everybody and of course there are often conflicts which they have to sort out mostly on their own. On Friday I set the girls to work on a specific cooperative activity. They had to make a graph of the different items in their lunch boxes, deciding who would do what and how to go about the process on their own, knowing their roles of organiser, gatekeeper, encourager and reporter. While they were busy I took a few minutes to explain to a room parent what I wanted her to do for me. One of my girls came up to tell me that one of her group was not taking turns! Now this was a mature, sensible little girl and instead of asking the room parent to wait, in my misguided wisdom I said, “Just let X do what she wants to for now and I will come and sort it out in a minute.” Wrong move, Teacher – those few moments were vital to that group – Justice had not been served and the three ‘good’ ones were outraged. They took the law into their own hands with disastrous results – yelling, pinching, scratching and tears! But it was not too late to save the day. We had a mini care circle and they worked out for themselves how things could have been done differently – what wisdom they demonstrated. The ‘culprit’ served a bit of time out and soon joined her group when she calmed down. Everybody learned from the experience. The interesting thing is that each group had a different way of working out the problem with equally good results. In the report back we all learned not only what we set out to discover – what was the most common item in our lunches – but also how each group went about handling the task. Definitely a good thing to do on a regular basis.

Back in the Classroom – Family Tree Project

2013-04-26 | puppy1952

We have been learning about families. Our own nuclear families, of course are the most important. We have learned that there are different kinds of families – single parent families, grandparent headed families, extended families and so on. The most important thing in a family the girls believe is that each member cares about the others. The girls certainly have a strong sense of family.

We have also focussed on our ancestry and yesterday the Grade 1s constructed family trees. They all brought a bottle filled with sand, a branched twig and loads of photographs and bits and pieces to decorate the end product. They cut out leaves and pasted on labels. It was an Expo Day so many visitors wandered in and out while all this was going on.

I will let the photographs speak for themselves.

Busy Tree Builders at Work

I am the newest leaf

I need to get to the top branches

Grandparents are the roots

Do you like my tree?

Concentrating carefully on the cutting out

Some strong branches on these trees

I have a great family

Back in the Classroom – Learning to Read

2013-02-02 | puppy1952

What I just love about Grade 1 is the way they learn to read. How do they learn to read? Each child has a different way – for some it’s visual – for others auditory then again it may be a combination of both – tactile comes into it too. They use picture cues, contextual cues and a dozen other cues. Some children learn easily for others it takes longer and some might even need specialised help. The good news is that almost every child does learn in the end. I try to make each reading lesson fun and so far the girls seem to be enjoying it.

But before a child learns to read she should have had many many stories read to her. Parents and other adults in the child’s life should not stop reading to the child when she begins to learn to read to herself either. She will be gaining so much from having books with richer vocabulary read to her; books she can not yet read to herself. Hearing language builds language. I cannot emphasise enough how important this is. Then when it comes to helping your child at home the key is – no pressure. Do not ask her to sound out a word – or say things like – you know that word – you’ve just read it. It takes time for the new words to sink in. Make the reading session fun – read with your child – tell her the words she gets stuck on then come back to that word later.

Many parents say to me – my child doesn’t really know the words – she is reading the book off by heart. Or If I cover the pictures she can’t read the story. Please, parents – all of this is part of the learning process. Do not cover the pictures – they give important clues as to what is happening in the story. Learning by heart is also part of learning to read – eventually those words will be recognised. Let her read off by heart and then point to random words and see how many she eventually learns to read! Let her work out the word by its position in the sentence. Referencing is also a way that gets that word embedded into her head.

Over the past few weeks we have had fun doing lots of different activities.

We learned a new word – Symmetry – and filled in details on a face.

Trying to get the symmetry right

Aren’t they lovely – the girls and their work of course

Such creative girls

We know our colours and had fun colouring octopuses orange, cutting them out ( a good fine motor skill) and puffing them out to look 3D on our own.

Orange Ollie Octopus

We are learning positional words (prepositions)

She is standing on the chair.

After our work is done we can do puzzles, play games or read on the mat.

Fun with a puzzle

Enjoying a good read

Back in the Classroom – Welcome 2013

2013-01-18 | puppy1952

In the South Africa, most children who were born in 2006 started the first year of their formal education on Wednesday. There must have been great excitement and enormous anticipation for this big day. At my school they arrived at 9:00 a.m. They’d been up since 6, fully dressed in their crisp new uniforms and right from my house I am sure I heard them nagging – When are we going? Please Mom and Dad, I want to go to school!

Of course their parents had prepared them for this big occasion and of course they couldn’t wait to get there and for most the whole rah rah welcome was fun and there was no problem separating from their parents. But for one or two, the reality was daunting. Suddenly they found themselves in an unfamiliar environment, noisy parents, teachers and children surrounded them and the butterflies in their tummies took over and there was great reluctance to let go of Mom or Dad’s hand. The hardest thing for a parent to do is leave a screaming, terrified child. I had one who clung so tightly I had to prize open her fingers and unwind her from her mom. I saw the despair in Mommy’s eyes but I had to insist – “Go quickly – I promise she will be okay.” Reluctantly she left and my heart went more out to her than to her little girl.

When a child is in a complete state like this, you cannot reason with them. They are not listening. They are functioning in survival mode and need to be made to feel safe and loved. I hugged the little girl tightly and said, Mommy loves you and she will come back. I love you and I am going to look after you till then. We are going to have fun and do lovely things at school. I am going to leave you here on the mat now and you can tell me when you’re ready to go to your place. I then assigned my GAP student to keep an eye on her. It took a while and a few more hugs and reassurance about what time school would end, and that the first few days were going to be short and she would have time to settle in. Once she knew the facts and had her reassurance she stopped crying. I told her that it was now up to her to decide to enjoy the rest of the day. When she was ready, she went to her place, put a big smile on her face and settled down to enjoy all the activities with the other girls. Today she came into class and I asked, “Where’s Mommy?” “Gone,” she told me with a big grin.

It takes me a while to learn 30 new names. I put labels on my girls on Day 1 and asked them to cover them with their hands to see how many I could remember. Some were quite patient with their old teacher and gave her clues or helped her guess. Others said, No – you must try again till you get it right! With such strict pupils I learned fast and am proud to say that today I got them all right!