Life at school

Habari za mchana? (How's your afternoon?)
Nzuri Sana! (very good!)

First, thanks to all for the encouraging words about my frustrations. Last Friday was a great day. I had gone over regular verbs w/ them on Wed & Thurs, so we were practicing on Friday. I wrote sentences such as , "She danced at Adventure (local restaurant) yesterday", "We will walk to church on Sunday".
I asked, "What is the verb?"
DANCED!
"What tense?"
PAST!
"How do you know?"
YESTERDAY!
"What's different about the verb?"
ED!
"Why?"
BECAUSE OF SHE!

OOOOOOhh-sweet VICTORY!!!!!! We did several sentences like that on the board. They were on the ball! It was so fabulous. And to boot=the teacher Stanley was in my room at the time. YES! The kids get a kick out of me too-when they get it right, I practically do a jumping jack w/ my hands in the air. Also, I learned "dole" (doh-lay) which means "thumbs up" so we all shout that too. Granted not every day is like that one though! Monday they were totally unfocused, talking too much & not paying attention. But Friday was a terrific day.

Fridays are FUN days too, so I brought in my frame drum & played for them, which they loved. Then I pulled out the Hershey Kisses & they totally freaked & SCREAMED! I've created monsters....

So, so far I've gone over with them the past, present & future forms of "to be", "to have", "to do" & "to go". I give them example sentences which they copy, then I ask them to write sentences. The room is so tiny & they sit so close to each other that they always copy from each other. I don't say anything cuz I'm only there for 3 weeks & they're so close to each other, it's hard not to. One day was funny- I had them write sentences w/ whatever verb we were learning & one 1/2 of the room had the same sentences & the other 1/2 had the same sentences! I shake my finger at them.

Did I mention the star stickers? Gee wiz- they ask me to give them MORE tests just to get another sticker in their book! Try getting that kind of response in America!

I don't remember if I mentioned the red pen either. They LOVE when you mark their work w/ a red pen. On the 2nd or 3rd day, one boy said, "Teecha, why you no write 'good' or 'very good'?" I said ok, I would next time. So the next round I drew a smiley face instead. Oh Lord-you think I gave them the best prize in the world. It was sooo cute.

They also LOVE Hangman! I had some students try it themselves. I was so proud- they'd even change the topic like, kind of animal or kind of person. It got them thinking of words themselves & working on their spelling. It was great!!

I've also worked on asking questions like who, what, when, how, etc.
We started common nouns vs proper nouns the other day too.
Tomorrow will be a, an & the -which they don't have in Swahili.
It's going fast!!

I'll write more about school & the town soon.
love,
Jes