Experience South Africa With Mrs. Ketchum: Days 10 and 11

Day 10 - Monday:

Today we traveled back to Emafini Primary School and I was able to meet the Grade 1 primary teachers. I am assigned to work with Vivi until Thursday and then I will rotate to another teacher. The students in Grade 1 speak mostly Xhosa - their native language but are beginning to pick up a little bit of English. Vivi is great with this transition. After completing their math lesson on grouping a set of ten and adding numbers, I read them a story. The story I read today was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. While reading I showed them pictures, acted out some portions and pointed to items around the room. I wasn't sure if they had understood what I read so Vivi and I decided to I would reread and she would write vocabulary on the board and we would go over also in Xhosa. This helped them comprehend and be able to retell the story with a higher percentage. After reading the story I had to leave for the day for a language class at NMMU. We decided that when I left Vivi was going ot have them draw pictures and write the words in both English and Xhosa. They did a terrific job with both of these.

Vivi and I. I am enjoying working in her Grade 1 classroom. I will move to a
different room on Friday. They will be rotating me all around.

Two students and their caterpillar and butterfly pictures.

The pictures with Xhosa translations of the

book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Day 11 - Tuesday

Back at Emifini and back with Vivi today. We again began the day with math and groups of ten. I worked with a lower group of students to help them understand the concept. (Well try to help them with the language barrier and all.) Luckily they were counting in English and I was close enough to the board to point. I think all in all I did ok. On to reading... I decided that today I would read another book dealing with animals, the word hungry and days of the week like in the book yesterday. So we read The Tawney Scrawney Lion by Kristen Depken. With my new found acting abilities they actually laughed at appropriate times during the reading and got wide eyed at the right sections. I was ecstatic. Vivi did however reread the book in Xhosa just to check for comprehension then we had them act out the book the best we could. Vivi's class is in a small outside container so there is not very much room for 30 students and 2 adults trying to act out a story. We also discussed how in the story all of the animals became friends at the end. They then wrote the word friend in English and Xhosa and drew a picture of the story. Lunch was next in our schedule and on the menu today was mealie meal, a fish stew, cabbage and butternut squash. The students bring their drink and spoon with them to school each day and if they do not want the free school meal they are allowed to bring their own meal. Their food is delivered to the classroom and that is where they eat. After lunch they receive a hour break where they are allowed to "play" and the teachers get free time. So you understood me correctly no one covers "recess". Judy McMullin our PE teacher form good Ol' North Carolina had our PE time after break. Judy did a great job introducing the Hockey Pokey and Chinese Jummp Rope with the students. We then went back to finish last minute items, clean up and leave at 1:15.

Today was Helen and Elanie's last night here in South Africa so Christine our "house mom" cooked us a delicious meal of curry and chocolate desert. It was amazing.