Week 2

 This week the children had a lot of new things introduced to them. We started with our regular routine of morning meetings, choice time, group meetings, and closing circle along with all the other things we do throughout the day. During the morning meeting, the children are now reading a calendar and reporting the weather as a class. The calendar helps the children learn to read from left to right, counting up to 31, recognizing and reading the months of the year, and reading the days of the week.
 
In addition to the calendar and weather, the children also participate in Coffee Can Theater. This is a fun way to introduce children to letters. Everything for the theater is in a coffee can and I use props to tell a story about a mama and baby Zebra who live in the bush. Each morning the mama Zebra goes out to find baby food, while baby Zebra decides to go exploring in the bush…while baby is exploring he bumps into several things that start with the letter of the week! This week we did letter “M” and the baby Zebra found a monkey, mud, a mat, manzi (water in Tonga), and a few other “M” words. By the end of the week the older class had the letter down and the younger children are still working on it, but are beginning to recognize the letters.

The children are doing an excellent job of articulating what they do during choice time when I ask them about it in group meeting. A lot of the children say the same thing, so when another one brings a new idea to the conversation, I get really excited and try to expand on their play by asking them questions about what they were cooking in dramatic play, or where they were taking the animals in construction. They are definitely getting more comfortable in the classroom and moving from center to center using whatever they find in the way they wish to. I even notice the animals talking to each other now, not just making noises :o)

Another important thing we started this week is treating each other with respect. I have noticed that often when a child wants something, they will just snatch it from another child and often the child who got the toy snatched allows this behavior. So we had as short discussion about it and the children agreed that we should ask for a turn, and whenever the person allows us to have a turn should be okay with us. Zambian children are very aggressive when playing together outside or in the classroom, so I will have my hands full getting them to respect one another and require respect from one another. However, these children are very clever, so I think they will get the hang of it :o)
 
Chalkboards were introduced in writing center for the children to practice  writing the letter “M” or anything else they wished to write or draw. A lot of the children sat down and tried their best making an “M”, but also drawing things that start with that letter! They had a lot of fun thinking of Tonga words, since I think almost ALL Tonga words start with an “M”...hehe I discovered that almost every feature of the face starts with an “M”, so one  of their projects available in the art studio was to draw a face with “masusu” (hair), “menzo” (eyes), “masaya” (cheeks), “malomo” (mouth), and “matwi” (ears). Their pictures turned out really well and I was excited for them to see their art work and get excited praise for their accomplishment.


I still have a coupe 3 year olds that are uncomfortable being away from moms, so please keep them in your prayers and that this week will be a good week for them to relax and enjoy learning at school. Also, I have hired a part time lady on a trial basis…I am trying her out for a couple hours a day for two weeks and then evaluate whether or not she can do the job. Please pray that God has His hand in it and that if He wills for this young lady to work out that her motives and heart are pure wanting to better the children in her community.