Monday morning started with Finger Painting with
Wings Art which they really enjoyed; when we sent them back to class not only
were faces, heads and shoes covered in paint but we were exhausted! It was
absolutely freezing so as the children played football Chelcie and I walked
laps up and down the pitch, much to the bafflement and amusement of the
children, in order to keep warm.
With the G3’s, G4’s and G5’s lessons we did Origami
in Art to add to the Asia board – with the G3’s whales, G4’s penguins and the
G5’s birds. They all enjoyed it although the G3s were significantly better (I’m
sure nothing to do with the fact that the whales were a lot less complicated to
make!). They all started off on a practice piece of paper and then they made
their real ones on different brightly coloured paper. With the scraps of paper
they then made little animals so at the end of the class we ended up with
families of animals! With my boys craft group we made Chinese Lanterns which we
hang underneath the Asia board and they look really good. Figo (G4) turned up
to my Craft group for the second week running which was incredibly impressive –
these are the only two times he has come in the last two terms; I think he has
heard rumours of a craft party at the end of term!
Our G3 music class was very lively and we taught
them 3 new songs – “She sat on her hammock and played her guitar”, “I’m taking
home a little baby bumble bee” and “John Brown’s body lies amouldering in the
grave” which they loved. I’m very aware that all the songs I have taught them
involves someone or something dying and there are a lots of worms featured! Not
really sure what this tells you about my childhood and what my parents taught
me! The new GAPs are going to find the children’s repertoire of songs very
bizarre and maybe slightly inappropriate?!
My G7 boys turned up to Remedial definitely not in a
conductive working mood and were much more interested in the laptop in the next
door room where Carla and Hannah were making our 3D Big Ben. They were very
un-amused at the boy’s behaviour; luckily I am more used to them and could see
the funny side of it. At the moment they are being pushed so hard for their exams
that they are exhausted and I don’t feel the need to push them quite so hard in
Remedial and am happy to relax a little bit. I also know which battles aren’t
worth fighting!
I have now also worked out the perfect sleeping
arrangement to keep me properly warm at night; I have a blanket under my sheet,
I’m sleeping inside a silk sleepliner with a blanket on top, then my duvet and
then another blanket. Also when necessary I can add a jumper and hot water
bottle. I think it’s going to be a real shock to my body when I come home and
it’s not sunny every day. Going to need to invest in some warm jumpers!
On Thursday, while collecting the Irish Sashes from
the Costume Room I managed to fall of a stool and ripped my black jeans all the
way down the inside of the right thigh which was a bit of a disaster. All my
clothes are dying on me and not really sure what I’m going to wear for the rest
of this term!
On Thursday afternoon we had the G7 behavioural
meeting which was very entertaining. All the hostel staff, teachers, Mrs
Vermaak and Gilly met in the staff room after lunch to discuss the G7s. Between
us we had to fill in a form about each child which would be sent to their
prospective high schools. This included things like their behaviour in class,
in the hostel, respect for teachers, and compatibility with other learners…For
each category we had to stay whether they were excellent, above average,
average, below average or awful. It was a very amusing meeting as everyone had
their favourites who they stuck up for fiercely and there were a number of
disagreements. Certain people dismissed the child if they weren’t academically
capable and others who could see past this were fighting their cause. We also
had to decide which High Schools they were going to apply to. The children had
already indicated schools that they were interested in but we had to check that
they were financially viable as well as if they were academic enough to get in
and if not make other suggestions. Out of all the children Diodores caused the
most controversy and disagreement. Ken and Rob were very pro him even going as
far as saying he could have been Head Boy (even I think this is going a little
far) but Mrs Vermaak and a couple of other teachers were very down on him – he
isn’t bright and at the moment his average is only 43% so he will really
struggle getting a high school place. I am so protective over him and won’t let
him go undefended if people are criticising him. I ended up going bright red
and very hot fighting his cause and Gilly and Chelcie were laughing at me.
Luckily he has ended up with a very good behavioural report which should help
his High School application. I really want to get him into Outjo High School as
Brenden (his best friend) is going there and is sensible as well as lots of
other people from Otjikondo so there will be people to look out for him. His
best friend, Sagittarius, from last year is also there along with other boys so
lots of people to look after him. It also means when I come back I could visit
him!
We were very cheeky and during G3 music and Wings PT
we got the children to clean the bid display boards which we would use to
display the children’s art work for Parents Day. On Friday and Saturday we
spent the whole day camped out in the Art Room working on the North and South
America boards. We have one board for North America and two for South. The
North America board is a city sky line (New York) and it will have the G7’s
collages displayed on top. It’s all done in black and white except some of the
windows that are painted colours and it looks really effective. The South
America boards have become a rainforest. We dyed tissues light and dark green
which we stuck over balls of tissue to make a 3D background. We didn’t have any
dye so we mixed paint and water together and used that to dye the tissue which
worked really well, the only issue was it worked rather too well and we ended
up green too. We then added vines and giant leaves before displaying flowers,
butterflies and frogs which the G1’s and G2’s coloured in. The butterflies are
attached to pipe cleaners so it looks as if they are flying away. I’m uber
happy with how these two have turned out as they are just how we pictured them
in our heads when we planned it all. We have now also stuck up the ‘hello’
words in different languages upon the walls which looks good – they are either
orange, yellow, purple or red and really pop out on our cream walls.
Friday is keyboard lesson day – as usual Theopoldine
progressed really well and we learnt a new piece. Revonia on the hand seems to
have gone backwards again. I have made the decision to give up on teaching her
to read music and teach her by heart – this is how she learns the recorder and
I think she will enjoy it more if we give up the reading music battle.
The norm here is that various children end up
wearing my jumpers when I’ve taken them off. Friday night was no different and
Damian was curled up in my lax jacket – it looked slightly like a dress on him.
The only difference to normal was that I was wearing Diodores jumper – he had
given it to me after the matches at St Michaels to wash as it was black (it’s
supposed to be white) and then I put it in the kitchen to give back to him.
However, this meant that when I was leaving the house without a jumper I would
see it and just end up wearing it. It is a really comfy fleece and to be honest
I think he quite likes me wearing it although he pretends to be outraged!
Having promised to sing weekly until we leave
Chelcie and I sang ‘Lord of all Hopefulness’ in Church accompanied by Hannah on
the piano, which went well. My Intermediate recorders played ‘Amazing Grace’ on
the recorders, which was interesting. At the end of the service Chelcie, Hannah
and I sang outside for ages. We made Gilly nostalgic for her school days as we
were singing lots of different English hymns from my Marlborough hymn book. We
have also started to teach the children ‘Shine, Jesus Shine’ which was an
instant hit and is now going to be used in the First Communion service. Before lunch I went for a run and on the way
back to Otjikondo I got clapped by a group of tourists who had got out of their
car on the road side. Quite embarrassing! We went for a braai at Paul and
Sara’s and Peter and Byron were also there which was really fun. We haven’t
seen Peter since we stayed at Ohorongo in October! Everyone was on really good
form and it was great fun.
I really can’t believe this brings me to the end of
another week at Otjikondo. Time really does seem to fly when you most want it
to slow down – not only do I not want my time here to finish but there seems to
be an inordinate amount of things to do before Parents Day. Sundays are now
very scary days as the each week it is one less week until we fly home. At the
start of this year Wednesdays were very special days as we would exclaim “I
can’t believe that we’ve been away for three whole weeks!” it seems ages ago
since we started counting in months rather than weeks! Love to you all as
usual, soon you can be talking to me in person rather than reading blog to hear
all my news, can’t wait!
Love Me xxxx
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