31.12.2009
Last day of teaching. Last night, we spent some time packing the stationery - pencils, pens, erasers, rulers, sharpeners and exercise books into ziplock bags. 150 packs altogether.
We were very worried if the kids would turn up today at school. Surprises were never new! Nevertheless, we brought these packs of stationery, and all the teaching materials and story books to the school.

We heaved a huge sigh of relief when we saw the field with kids! They had a proper morning assembly- the kids filed neatly in their classes, sang national anthem, flag raising, morning exercise. When the kids were back into the classrooms, we went to each one to give out the packs of stationery. A total of 5 classes and to almost 80 students. After giving the packs, we continued our lessons. But today, wendy and I split into our own classes. We basically taught the same topic- time

For my class, level 3- started the lesson differently as i let them try filling in the blanks on their own. It was all about numbers, the kids have to write down in arabic as well as the spellings. There were kids who were very fast, and could get all answers correct! Next we went through what is morning, afternoon, evening and night. Using the mahjong papers and my limited artistic talents, taught them the different time of the day. The kids then matched the relevant pictures to the words in their worksheets.Using a paper clock, taught them the time based on per half hourly and quarterly time. To have a more interactive session, the kids were asked to come up to the front one by one to play with the paper clock. And they themselves asking their friends what the time was. (for your info, the classroom has no actual clock, the students had no watches either)

One kid started to show a time which is not quarterly or half-hourly. And amazingly some of them know! So, at the last minute I decided to go through the time on the 5-min interval, like 5.10, 5.15, 5.20 and so on. Taught them to write in words, like five-ten, five-fifteen. So they drew a clock on the worksheet, and label the number with words. All keen and eager to learn new things, they were consistently checking with me if they were doing the correct things.

Next, taught them the basic greetings-good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Then started doing the card handicraft which required them to use the ready cut out moon, stars, clouds and origami stars to stick on the construction paper and to illustrate the different time of the day- morning, afternoon, evening and night. As I showed them mine, which was done earlier on, and the evening portion I used hills instead of clouds. So the hills were vertically pasted on the sun on my sample card. But I gave them clouds instead, and they pasted the clouds vertically too!! My very wrong demonstration!Then we went outdoor. Using paper plates to make clock! The kids draw on the paper plates while I helped them to put in the clock hands supported by the split pins. Again, we went through the time. But this time, they showed me the time using their handmade clock, we then ended off the class with giving out prizes for the best made clocks and cards. And a class photos.

Before we left school, passed today's teaching materials to the principal. Just as we were about to go, a kid from my class waved to us and wanted us to go back to the classroom. But when we reach the classroom, they then stared straightly at us! Hahhaha.. So we asked them to sing "Heads shoulders knees and toes". And they did it well!!

Somehow, this song became the “farewell” song…