Back in the Classroom – A Creative Christmas Week

2013-11-29 | puppy1952

All this week I have been striving to keep the routine as normal as possible – difficult when you have to take in the reading books and start sending home exercise books and artwork – a clear indication to the little ones that the year is fast drawing to a close. To soften the blow we have stopped working in exercise books and instead concentrated on Educational and Creative Christmas activities. The girls have enjoyed the cutting and sticking, dot to dots,fun sums, word searches, crosswords and creative writing that we have done in various forms.

Of course the Grinch who tried to steal Christmas has continued to be our focus.

The Grinch Pops out of the page

A very good interpretation

Stunning Santas

I really don’t like this time of the year. It’s not that it’s the silly season – it’s the approaching parting of ways that is so hard. Of course the children must move on and there is another class waiting to be welcomed but somehow that doesn’t make it easier. The emotions are just there! The children are excited about next year but at the same time anxious about leaving what they know and it is my job to reassure them that all will be well when what I really want to say is – Don’t leave me Angels – and some dark part inside me says – the new teacher won’t love you as much as I do. But of course that’s not true – she will and my angels will continue to grow and I will start again with a new lot!

When I look at this photograph I felt so enormously proud – look at them engrossed in their books. That is what teaching Grade One is all about – they come illiterate and leave reading and loving books. They have learned the most important skill necessary for further learning. They have learned to READ!

A class full of readers

Enjoying the process

Deep into the stories

On Wednesday I will do my last Back in the Classroom Blog of the year. I look forward to seeing all my parents at the Awards Ceremony on Monday. Your little ones will make your proud!

Back in the Classroom – Grade One on Show

2013-11-09 | puppy1952

Teaching very young children has both its challenges and rewards. They arrive on the first day of school, brand new, excited, full of enthusiasm and raring to learn. Each child wants the teacher’s attention immediately, as she is still egocentric and the centre of her own world. Teaching thirty little girls to follow a classroom routine, sit still, wait their turn and consider their peers has to be done along with the 3 RS. It is at this time of year that we see the results, and it always amazes us.

Learning to Read

Each grade at our school has a turn to demonstrate what they have been doing in class, at an Assembly. As our turn came around each term, we chose the more confident children to take the leading parts, making sure as many as possible got a turn. This term we were blown away as many of the less confident children got their chance to shine. Just a few months ago they would not have managed it, but all our children have grown so much in maturity and confidence, that even the shyest were able to learn a few lines, stand up confidently, and say them.

We, the teachers, breathed a sigh of relief when at the performance went off without a hitch. But when the principal complemented our little ones with the words, “You were beyond phenomenal,” we could have burst with pride.

Back in the Classroom – Excursion to Rondevlei

2013-10-25 | puppy1952

My girls are very much into Nature and Wild Life. I can’t imagine why. Could it possibly have something to do with a bird-mad teacher frequently asking them to be still and listen – Isn’t that the Klaas’s cuckoo calling? Or when on our way to the Walk-it circuit she gets them to stop and look – the chaffinch is They all know the distinctive – “Marietjie” sound of the cuckoo now and they are the ones to tell me what birds are foraging in the school garden. We don’t do birds specifically as a topic in Grade One – but water and its importance is something we do learn and of course water birds come into that!. So an excursion to Rondevlei was on our Agenda this wee

After researching “Rondevlei” on the Ipads my little Nature Freaks were keen to find all the creatures they’d seen in the images but high on their wish list was – Hippo! Rondevlei has a population of about eight but they are seldom seen during the day – However, a skull of a dead one caused great excitement and our brother class were particularly thrilled to hear about their strong teeth and fighting ability!

Some might big teeth in there

After listening to all the exciting things you could find in the sanctuary from mongoose to Egyptian goose the children were divided into three groups. I went along with 20 of my girls and we started in the museum. Here they learned all about the creatures that lived in the area and then they were sent on a “treasure hunt” to find ‘something soft’ , a leaf that smelled nice, something that began with s, etc. etc. There was hippo poo everywhere and the boys weren’t shire to pop a handful in their packets while the girls were totally grossed out!

On our route to find our treasures we stopped to learn important eco facts, climbed a tower to get a panoramic view of the vlei, and popped into the hides to see the water birds.

Walking on the path and learning lots of things

View from the tower

Winterbottom Hide

Pelicans and Cormorants

Oh my a stunning Yellow Bishop

Karoo Prinia

We found something beginning with S – but didn’t put in the packet!

A grey heron tryng to catch a fish

Yellow-billed duck

The darter preened and preened

Picnicking at Rondevlei

After our exploring the hides we returned to have a snack in the picnic site – a highlight for some of the children! Then we went back indoors for a fabulous puppet show about how a baby spoonbill found his mother by checking to see if his bill and feet looked the same as hers!

Some amusing things from the mouths of babes!

Why do you think the spoonbill is so named? Because his ‘nose’ is shaped like a spoon.

What is a river horse? A horse that swims in a river! Actually it’s a hippo!

Finally it was time to go home. How amazing lucky are we to have a place like Rondevlei right on our doorstep – just half an hour’s drive from school. The children returned with new knowledge of how water is purified by the reeds, now creatures depend on a healthy ecosystem and what our duty is to protect all wildlife. It was a stunning excursion enjoyed by both children and teachers. Let’s hope we are raising a generation of eco friendly children who will look after the planet when we are gone!

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!