Picture of the Day 03/09/2014

We have been giving English lessons to the teachers at the EPR school - today we talked them through personal pronouns, possessive pronouns and demonstrative pronouns!

Sam and Claire talking through the sheets

Picture of the Day 02/09/2014

At the nursery today we were teaching the children about fruits, we did this by getting them to paint and colour in stencils, as well as drawing the fruit from real life objects!

Getting all messy with the paints!!

Nursery School Visits

During the last four weeks of our placement in Rwanda we will be teaching at a nursery school from 7.30am to 10am every Tuesday morning. The headmistress has requested that we follow the schools normal curriculum throughout our lessons, the entire team of eight will be splitting across all three levels. In total across the classes – baby, middle, top – there is about 65 children.

Playing games with the children

The headmistress also asked us to try and make sure that our lessons are as fun and interactive as possible; focusing on activities like music, games and arts and crafts.

The first sessions that we ran on Tuesday the 19^th of August had a central theme of animals; with the top and baby class focusing on domestic animals, and the middle class on aquatic. Before each individual session started we played some group games outside, so that the children would feel comfortable around us, and also so that they would be energised and ready to learn. 

'London Bridge is falling down'...

Once we were finished with the outside games, we took the children into the classrooms so as to begin teaching them about the animals. We taught them songs that we had written about each animal. The top class learnt about: cats, dogs, goats and pigs. The middle class about: fish, frogs and octopus’.  Finally the baby class learnt about: cats and goats. Each song was incorporated with actions to help them to remember them, and also to keep them active and on their feet.

Some of the posters we used as visual incentives

Throughout these music sessions we also played an animal stretching game, whereby the children would have to pretend to be a certain animal. In the baby class for example we used animals such as: giraffes, frogs, cats, birds – so as the try and keep the children as engaged and active as possible.

In the top class during their indoor session they went on to do arts and crafts. Chinwe and Henry who were leading that class go them to draw each of the animals that they had learnt about, as well as trying to label them. 

Chinwe leading an arts and crafts session with the top class

Our second session at the nursery also had a central theme of animals, this time focusing on wild and aquatic! We had a really great time interacting with the children, playing games, making them laugh, teaching them new songs. They particularly enjoyed making conga lines and doing the Hokey Cokey.

Playing follow the leader

Next time we will be focusing on fruits, and hope to get the children really engaged by bringing in practical examples that they can touch and see and smell!

Overall we have had a fantastic time at the nursery, and have really enjoyed getting to work with the children for extended periods of time. This has been a really rewarding project and one that we have all looked forward to going to each week - despite the stupidly early wake up!!

Henry teaching the top class about cats and dogs

Picture of the Day 01/09/2014

So we kicked off our September with a bang - planning out the rest of our week, and completing the planning for tomorrows lessons at the nursery school!!

We will be leading all three classes in a lesson about fruit!

Picture of the Day 31/08/2014

We had such a lovely afternoon going to Caplaki market and buying lots of gifts - many of which are for ourselves but shhh don't tell!

Lovely afternoon at Caplaki market, browsing all the stalls, haggling like complete pros

Picture of the Day 30/08/2014

We climbed Mount Kigali with three lovely tour guides from a local village - we didn't manage to find the cafe at the end, but we had an absolutely amazing time and saw some breathtaking views!!

We are now officially explorers

Gahanga Catch-Up School Video

This is a video that shows the time that we spent at the Gahanga catch-up school, teaching the children, dancing, singing and playing games with them. 

To find out more about what we have done at the catch-up school go to - Catch-Up School