Working with Firsties in Africa!

I'm working with firsties again!
I met a wonderful first grade teacher, Nonuthado Mazantsi at Emafini yesterday.

I worked with her in her first grade class yesterday and today.  (She is one of six first grade teachers.) It was great to be with the little ones again.  :)  Here, students are called learners, and there isn't a grade level for kindergarten, so first grade is the beginning of school for kids. The majority of learning is done in Xhosa, so I only understand what is being said when the teacher translates for me.  But I get the general idea, and it is interesting to see her teaching style. First graders are the furthest from the office and are in what they call "containers". They are just individual, tiny buildings. They have electricity for lights, but the school, like most places here, do not have heat/AC. I've noticed that teaching supplies are sparse, but students work together to share what they have.

That's quite a word!

Lessons take longer than usual since learners are sharing pencils, and crayons are not a part of the day's routine like I am used to. On the flip side, because of the lack of supplies children learn patience and know to help others.

Pete the Cat lesson

I got to to do today's second language (English) lesson! I brought my favorite book, Pete the Cat, and did a read aloud/activity with them. The kids loved drawing/coloring their own Pete and choosing his shoe color.  Fun times with literacy!

She drew a great Pete the Cat - with red shoes!

Our  Carolina Forest PE teacher, Judy, stopped in and we took the children outside to do Chinese jump rope.  They loved it! We send them home soon after that, and I received a happy  chorus of "See you tomorrow Teacher!"