Winding down and a night at the village!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Message of the day:

As we walked to school on yet another glorious Cretan morning we began to realise we a only had 3 more days with the children and started to reflect on our time here. We agreed that teaching and lesson planning had become easier during the second week.

Grade 1 introduced sensory play, using shaving foam, water, bubbles and balls to demonstrate the letter “b”. The bubbles were a great hit and little kids could be seen chasing them all over the playground.

Grade 2 continued to work mainly without a translator and the volunteers noticed how keen the children were to learn, sitting with eager faces waiting to be given direction by the volunteers. They began to learn an American style dance, which they all took to with great enthusiasm.

Grade 3 continued their food theme and introduced meat, asking for example which animals we got beef or pork from. They also learned some new foods like sandwich, pork chop, salad and hamburger. These food names were later used in the outdoor play time in the new, but very popular competitive game of ladders.

Grade 4 began the day by listing various items that would be found in rooms in their homes. This brought some amusing confusion amongst the volunteers, between British English names and American English names, for items such as wardrobe/closet and cooker/ stove. They then drew 2 pictures of rooms of their choice and wrote 4 sentences about them before coming to front of the classroom to read them to the rest of the class. Practice of the song continued with the 2 new children picking up the actions if not the words very quickly. After playing ladders with Grade 3, the class split once again into the 3 small groups for a rotation of 15 min activities. It has been noticed that the quieter children respond well and talk better in these smaller groups.

Grade 5/6 continued to practice their play and moved out of the classroom into the main school building to take advantage of the larger space. One volunteer has noticed the girl who had been very reluctant to speak at all is now opening up to her and little by little starting to communicate when they are working 1 on 1. Progress indeed.

Cretan dancers.

Dancers.

In the evening we all headed to Arolithos for an evening of Cretan culture, where we were treated to a great feast of Cretan food and traditional Greek and Cretan music and dancing. The volunteers were able to put their newly acquired dancing skills to the test by joining the professionals on stage and then making their way around the village square that had been laid out as it would be for a Cretan celebration, such as a wedding or Baptism. A very enjoyable evening drew the day to a close, a day in which all of our team goals had been achieved. – Lesley.