Grannies are great!

On Friday, to complete our mini theme, inspired by the second chapter of the Owl Who Was Afraid  of the Dark On Friday we had a day dedicated to grannies.

We started the morning by writing an acrostic poem about grannies as well as drawing a granny face to go with it. I was so pleased with the results. They are now proudly on display in the classroom.

After break we invited Granny Dawson to visit us. She was simply amazing and had the children hooked on her every word. She brought a granny case, out of which she showed our classes items accompanied by wonderful stories.

They were simply fascinated!

Granny Dawson told us all about her
suitcase - no carry bags or wheelie
bags in her school days

One of her favourite stories
from her youth - Pookie the
flying rabbit. Her grandchildren
 have all had the story read to
them as well. She left the book for
us to read.

                                                   

Grannies just love to knit -
she showed us a scarf that
she had knitted to keep her
neck warm.

Demonstrating how to cast on.

                                                     

Telling the children how you can
never tell your granny I love you, too many times!
She says grannies just love it when you
sit on their laps and give them a huge hug!
Note her special tea pot as well as her
cup and saucer. No mugs or tea bags for
a granny. She explained how to make a
'proper' cup of tea!

Granny Dawson showing us
her beautiful hankie. She explained
how everyone used hankies in her
day. Ladies hankies were always
very pretty.

                                                     

Grannies like to have a knee
rug, especially while watching
TV or knitting!

Thank you for your visit - we all agreed that you must be the most fabulous granny ever!

We ended off our day by making pom pom owls. We still have to add the eyes and feet, but they really turned out well.

What a busy, fun filled  Friday we had!

Orals - Kiara, Daniel and Shristhi

Yesterday Kiara told us about her granny. She is still young  as she was born in 1960! Kiara told us that she liked to play games like 3 tins and hopscotch when she was little. She used to wear bell bottoms and miniskirts and walk to school.

Daniel told us lots about his grandpa - He was born as the second world war was ending. he loved to play marbles, tops and build kites. Guy Fawkes was his favourite time of the year because he got to make a guy and set it alight. Movies were in black and white and were shown on a big reeled projector! His whole months grocery bill was a whopping R60 - how times have changed! 

Daniel showed us this iron that his
grandpa used. You fill it with hot
coals to warm up before ironing.

Shristhi had to interview her grandfather over the phone because he lives in Joburg. He grew up in a very strict home - children were seen and not heard! He loved to ride his bike. Shristhi said that he had to be very well dressed for school - there was never such a thing as civvies days! He said that children of his time really appreciated what they had unlike children of today that take so much for granted!

Well done children we enjoyed your orals.

Grandparent orals - Akhil and Bhavan

I really enjoy listening to these orals. The children find out how it was in the good old days. 

Akhil started off everything off by telling us about his grandfather growing up. He lived in the center of town and had to walk to school. In fact they had no car at all. Akhil told us how he loved playing outdoors playing marbles and building go carts. 

You were well prepared Akhil, well done.

Bhavan told us a lot about his granny. She lived on a farm in Empangeni, but went to school in Tongaat. There was no running water on the farm so they had to walk to fetch what they needed. Because of this they could only bath twice a week! He told us that his gran only had one pair of shoes, so if it rained she would take off her shoes to walk to school and put them back one she arrived. The children believe that Bhavans granny didn't even have a fridge. How times have changed!
Thank  you for your well prepared oral Bhavan.

Shopkeeper - Inkanyezi

Inkanyezi proved to be a capable shopkeeper last Friday. Well done!

Visit to an old age home

In the next chapter of our book Plop meets and old lady who tells him that dark is kind because it hides her wrinkles, gnarled hands and shabby furniture. It also gives her time to think and remember her husband and family.

For this reason I took my class to visit the residents of Kloof Rest home. Each child brought a gift of chocolates or flowers to give to the grannies. They chatted to them about their life growing up and how things have changed. The children read and played cards with the grannies. We ended off by singing three songs. 

 I was really touched at how much these old people enjoyed having a visit from us. A big thank you to my wonderful parents for being so generous with the flowers and sweets that you sent, it was greatly appreciated.

Introducing themselves.

Reading stories.

Playing cards.

Just look at their happy smiles!

Getting ready to sing some songs.