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Published: September 27th 2013
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My little rascals getting creative with the pipe cleaners I thought it was about time I wrote something about my work, seeing as its the reason I'm here.
I've been mainly working in Top Baby class, which is children aged about 5-6yrs. most lessons the teacher will take and the kids will come to me to mark their work ango for help. it's the cutest thing whthe they get everything right and I write a 'good work' or '😊' on their work they go dancing around showing all their classmates with the biggest grins on their faces, one little boy George even has a little dance he does! haha. it can get very frustrating sometimes trying to explain to them what they've done wrong or the right answer, especially in lessons like social studies where we do things like matching the word to the picture of household items like pots and chairs etc. The language barrier makes it very communicated demonstrate the difference between a zip and a hill! Haha. But the teacher is very good at taking the kids I toned to her for a swahili explanation.
Last week I played a bit of a game to help me get to know their names, asking what is
My little rascals getting creative with the pipe cleaners your name (or unatwa nani) and having them reply with 'My name is.. ' as well as creating little name badges with them, as some of them don't know how to write their names. The lesson side of things, especially having the little conversation in English didn't work so well but they had a lot of fun and very proudly showed off their badges to the other kids at break.
This week I got a parcel from home full of games and a crafty things like pipe cleaners, pompoms and texts, things they've never even heard of here! I thought the pipe cleaners would make a good educational tool especially for the younger kids, teaching them the basics like letters in a funnier and more tactile way. And more of just a fun, creative construction type activity for the older kids. With my class I handed out the pipe cleaners and showed them a few different ways to make letters and other simple objects, though once I showed them a pair of classes I made they were hooked and it was all they would make! Other next day I went to class one, which is sort of like the
My little rascals getting creative with the pipe cleaners start of proper primary school education with an age range of maybe 6-8. They are incredibly well behaved, the education is very formal here and they all stand up when I enter the room and chant 'how are you teacher welcome' and 'I'm fine thank you teacher welcome' when I respond. They also got hooked on the glasses idea and we also played a puzzle I bought with creates a different sets of sequences, like wheat to flour to bread. We played as boys versus girls, scoring with ten points for search set completed correctly. It was a lot of fun and when the teacher put up the scores for the boys they sweet absolutely mental leaping up and down and cheering, you should've seen their faces when we put up the girls scores and it was a tie! Hahahah. And today with class four, the highest class of the school with mainly 12yr olds, we made like placemats with their names as a bit of an art project.
And in the most exciting news I finally used some of the fundraised money! I've been looking around for the past week at prices in several different places so on
My little rascals getting creative with the pipe cleaners Thursday I dragged poor Jane, the owner/director of the school, around town collecting piles of exercise books, pencils, blackboard dusters, pens, glue, balls, hula hoops and skipping ropes. I managed to get it all for just over a hundred Australian dollars which is fantastic as its enough of the standard stationary type supplies to last them a while as well was the sports equipment which is a great treat for the kids who never really have access to 'luxuries' like that. It means I still have about $380 of donations for the school, I'm planning to get them a first aid kit, they have no medical supplies whatsoever if kids hurt themselves, not even tissues as I discovered the other day when I had to dig through my bag for some to clean up a girl with a blood nose! I also for the next two weeks, the only time I have left there!, I am going tprovided lunch for all the children. Normally those who can afford the 20shillings a day get a plate of rice and potatoes with a bit grated carrot/tomato mixed through, the other children go home for lunch or more commonly, do without. So for
Me and little George with our glassesthe next two weeks ill be making sure they all get more nutritious meals with a lot more vegetables and things like beans and corn with rice or ugali. I've also for the past two weeks bought morning tea (they normally get only lunch and they're at school from 7-4) of bananas or biscuits as a special treat once a week, but I think as I have more money to play with than I expected ill be doing that more regularly! Especially as I got a box of about 400 biscuihundred about four or five dollars at the wholesale supermarket!
Anyway that's enough babbling on about my school, enjoy the pictures of these beautiful little children!
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