This week has been a busy week preparing the children for their return to school as well as myself. On Monday Paul returned to the college to only half a class of students. Myself and the children set off early to walk to Dunes Hotel so I could use the internet to update my blog whilst Abigail and Bradley played in the pool. The walk took us past the Golf Course with a couple of pigs in the grounds then to the beach passing Fajara Craft Market. We took the road to Bungalow Beach Hotel which is now very much a small tourist resort as there were plenty of coaches, taxis and bumster touts offering their services. We then walked along the road and crossed over Kotu Bridge where we saw some more bird life luckily the bird guides left us alone. We continued on in land until we joined the small path which runs parallel with Senegambia highway before turning right down a sand track back towards the beach and Dunes Hotel. The walk was a pleasant stroll which took us just over forty five minutes. On arrival at Dunes the children quickly changed into their costumes to test out the water which proved to be rather cold at this time in the morning. I found a seat in the sun and managed to upload a good amount of my blog before joining the children for an afternoon around the pool. At 4 o’clock we packed up and walked up to the main Senegambia highway where I quickly called into Kariba shopping centre before jumping in to a taxi. Balancing Abigail and Bradley on my knees whilst holding on to two bags wasn’t easy, fortunately the driver didn’t complain when I produced the 5 dalasi for only one fare.
Wednesday morning was spent making one of Abigail’s Christmas craft presents painting on glass. The paint proved to be poor quality it just wouldn’t go onto the glass we eventually finished only for me the next day to knock it onto the ground which resulted in the paint falling off Oops, Abigail was not amused. After lunch we spent the day at Safari Garden bumping into James, Sam, Felix and Georgia who is currently off work as she has hurt her back yet again since returning from the UK. She had pulled a disc a month ago before going home for Christmas.
Thursday was back to school day for Abigail and Bradley and as suspected proved to be another tearful morning for Bradley. However when I picked him up he was full of beans as he had enjoyed playing with his friends Cediff and Patrick. As for myself I was also back at school, after a warm welcome by the year 1 children I joined Mr Jadama in year 2. The morning was spent with the children building sentences and drawing, I also spent some time getting together the items I had asked to be photocopied as I am hoping to teach some Jolly Phonics next week to year 1.
On Friday the morning was taken up with myself in year 1, Mr Jadama in year 2 and Mr Jow in year 3 as all the French teachers where away for the weekend on a training workshop. Mr Jadama prepared a few tasks for the children in year 1 to complete with myself overseeing. The morning was going well until Omadi decided to start fighting with Abdoulie who he sits next to. This resulted in some disruption to the class once separated and after a quick chat I told Omadi to stand outside the classroom until he had calmed down. After picking up Abigail and Bradley from school and lunch we made our way back to Dianna Mariam to meet with Cathy, she has agreed to come in to help with the teaching of the Jolly Phonics structure to the teachers and myself. Cathy started with teaching us the first group of letter sounds, actions and songs. We then made our own set of resources to help us in the classroom flash cards, jolly clock face and a set of family cards. We finished off around 4 o’clock with the view to return for workshop 2 tomorrow.
I was up early cooking our usual Saturday treat of pancakes, after breakfast I quickly had a very cold bucket bath as the water was off before leaving for the school. Cathy was all prepared with the day’s workshop, for the first hour we continued with the making of our resources until all the teachers had arrived. Eventually the workshop commenced with the next few groups of letter sounds being taught by now we were all enjoying singing along to the songs and doing the actions. Mary was busy in the corner putting our attempts onto film for further training opportunities. We then acted out the roles of children and played some of the games which complement Jolly Phonics. We broke for a turkey sandwich lunch provided by Mary and then we were back in the class room to make more resources, string joining, missing sound game, apple and fish game. We ended the afternoon with more letter sounds and revision of the previous letter sounds and songs. The day has been very enjoyable not only for me but I think also for the other teachers who were still busy making resources when me and Cathy left for home.
Thursday was back to school day for Abigail and Bradley and as suspected proved to be another tearful morning for Bradley. However when I picked him up he was full of beans as he had enjoyed playing with his friends Cediff and Patrick. As for myself I was also back at school, after a warm welcome by the year 1 children I joined Mr Jadama in year 2. The morning was spent with the children building sentences and drawing, I also spent some time getting together the items I had asked to be photocopied as I am hoping to teach some Jolly Phonics next week to year 1.
On Friday the morning was taken up with myself in year 1, Mr Jadama in year 2 and Mr Jow in year 3 as all the French teachers where away for the weekend on a training workshop. Mr Jadama prepared a few tasks for the children in year 1 to complete with myself overseeing. The morning was going well until Omadi decided to start fighting with Abdoulie who he sits next to. This resulted in some disruption to the class once separated and after a quick chat I told Omadi to stand outside the classroom until he had calmed down. After picking up Abigail and Bradley from school and lunch we made our way back to Dianna Mariam to meet with Cathy, she has agreed to come in to help with the teaching of the Jolly Phonics structure to the teachers and myself. Cathy started with teaching us the first group of letter sounds, actions and songs. We then made our own set of resources to help us in the classroom flash cards, jolly clock face and a set of family cards. We finished off around 4 o’clock with the view to return for workshop 2 tomorrow.
I was up early cooking our usual Saturday treat of pancakes, after breakfast I quickly had a very cold bucket bath as the water was off before leaving for the school. Cathy was all prepared with the day’s workshop, for the first hour we continued with the making of our resources until all the teachers had arrived. Eventually the workshop commenced with the next few groups of letter sounds being taught by now we were all enjoying singing along to the songs and doing the actions. Mary was busy in the corner putting our attempts onto film for further training opportunities. We then acted out the roles of children and played some of the games which complement Jolly Phonics. We broke for a turkey sandwich lunch provided by Mary and then we were back in the class room to make more resources, string joining, missing sound game, apple and fish game. We ended the afternoon with more letter sounds and revision of the previous letter sounds and songs. The day has been very enjoyable not only for me but I think also for the other teachers who were still busy making resources when me and Cathy left for home.
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