Curry, Rangoli patterns and Mendhi

On Friday we had a wonderful day, ending off our time in India. In groups we made chicken curry from scratch. We used the amazing rocket stoves lent to us by Liams dad, to cook on. They worked so well. Once the curry was cooked each child made their own roti. The children were so proud of themselves and everyone agreed that the curry was delicious. I was delighted that most children had more than one helping. Even better...there were no cuts or burns!!

After break, we made Rangoli patterns and had some fun with Mendhi.

I have to say that this was one of my highlights of 2016 so far!

Namaste!

This week we are in India. One of our pre-school teachers, Vanessa, has recently come back from India. She went to learn to become a yoga teacher. She stayed in in Ashram in the south of India. She came and told us all about her visit. It was very interesting to hear about all the things she did. To finish off she taught us a few yoga positions.

Once she had gone we ended off our introduction to India by attempting to learn the steps of the Jai Ho dance, from slumdog millionaire! We will have to keep on practicing!

Shopkeepers - Tye and Swara

Tye and Swara had a variety of goodies in their shop. I was pleased to see how confident they were when adding up and giving change. 

Making Gods Eyes

Last Friday, we ended off our time in Mexico by weaving God's Eyes. Originally the Mexicans made these when their children were born. They believed that they would protect them from evil spirits. Today they are made mainly as decorations. 

Some children found it a bit tricky to start, but soon they got the hang of it, and were so pleased with the end result.

Paralympics

We have been watching the progress of the South African athletes at the Paralympics. We were so proud of Ntando who is only 14 and won a silver medal.  He ran 200m in 24 seconds - we wanted to go out and see how fast we could run that distance.

It was raining so we will try tomorrow instead. We looked up in YouTube and found out all about him.  

This lead to discussions on other Paralympians - we were so amazed at how people without limbs can swim so well.

 

Then the discussion turned to the amazing things these physically challenged people do - we tried writing names with our toes and mouths.

I could see how intrigued my class was, so tomorrow we are going to have our own Paralympics - with a few challenging events lined up - watch out for the photos.

Shop keepers - Kaydon and Kripa

There was so much excitement today as we started our weekly shop keeper.  A practical way for children to gain confidence by working with money.

Kaydon and Kripa were fantastic shop keepers. They had a wonderful selection of goods. They confidently added up the prices of their goods and easily gave change. Well done!

Save our trees!

Both Brazil and Mexico have rain forests. But sadly today they are diminishing with devastating results. These rain forests are home to more than half of the worlds total plant and animal species.

Mexico has thousands of Monarch butterflies that migrate there every year, but deforestation is having a huge impact on this. 

After discussing the effects of deforestation we made posters about saving trees that are on display outside the classroom. Do come and see them.