Kids blow me away.

So I got to work early today thinking well if year 2 are going to present tomorrow I will need extra time so I will be ready just in case I get the chance to do more work with them.  I got a lift to work which helped, so was there by 9.30.  But no one came and got me for extra time, so instead I prepared my afternoon teaching and started preparing for next term, I even got a rare moment on the printer. We have subscribed to a website that enables us to print little books, so I have been trying to work through the instructions.  I know from when I worked on the paper that working out double spaced is not easy especially for the spatially challenged. . So I got a lot done, then went to lunch, and went to the classes with year two and thought okay let's see what happened. Two things happened. One thank goodness the head was free so we could go over everything with her help, which helped with some things, but interestingly did not resolve all the issues, two some of the kids have really made an effort. Somehow one of the narrators, usually a very quiet girl, a girl I have noticed has been making quite an effort for the show, compared with the rather bossy girl who behaves like she is set for a career on the stage, has gone the extra mile required and has somehow got her lines (including the stage instructions) written in a sort of phonic English/kyrgyz so is able to replicate the sounds she needs to make and she had shared this version of the script with one of the other narrators, which makes a huge difference. So now they do not have to try and remember they can read the script and present it.

The other class is not so fortunate, they seem to have forgotten their dance moves, but today we at least had speakers, so for the first time they have practiced with the music. They are not perfect, but given that most English country dances are fun rather than accurate, I am hoping that they will be allowed to try and perform with the others. We all get breathless practicing, I think that is the air here, but it is a good work out for me.  

Afterwards as there was no sign of the after school class students I popped back into the year one class.   The group who are performing the lion chunk, includes Aman. Yesterday after their practice he came up to me and said that his mask was too small and that he wanted to make a bigger one.  I had been surprised when he made the original mask that it was so small but  left it at that, but I was really pleased to see that he too had been thinking about his work and wanted to improve on it. So I took him in the paper he needed to make the new one and immediately he and a couple of others started making a bigger mask. Whilst they were doing it a couple of other children in the class came up to me, one saying this is red, this is green, which was good, as I have not deliberately taught them colours, another came up with drawings of all the animals and knew the words,  so I realise that they really are beginning to absorb words and be able to use them. My colleague taught this group last year and that included some colour work, but that is over a year ago, so this is pretty impressive.  In the end it turned out that the after school class ha been cancelled so I piled into the school bus with the same group of children, when one of them lent over and did an action, which I realised is from the Bob the Builder song that they had listened to in September when I first arrived at the school. This will be a good song to learn next term, so I will have to find a way to revisit the video with them so that they can learn it properly, so thank you Siel for helping me with my planning, but it just shows ever time I think that I am not succeeding, the kids just blow me a way with their dedication, intelligence and loveliness.  Tomorrow is the last day of term and it will be presentations and a party, which I am really looking forward to.  Then another term is over.

New Year tree being decorated. 

Preparing tomorrow's meal.