Rainy Thursday

Today was a rainy day, so we stayed inside and sang some rainy day songs. We also talked about the day and the weather. We are showing a lot of progress with following directions and schedules, it will not be long before we can do a lot more stuff.

I hope you understand the implications of this. I will not spend my time in class telling students to sit properly and listen if they go wandering around the classroom, but it does mean that we can only do some activities. It also means that some students will get less out of the classes. For many activities the students are interested and return from their wanderings. However, not every activity can be very exciting.

We looked at new sight words, I, my, me, we, you, and a; and looked for them in today’s story, “Peter’s Chair.” We finished the day by looking at the drawings we have done so far and making them better.

Sunny Wednesday

It’s Wednesday and so nice to see everyone again. We stayed inside today, it was a bit hot outside this morning. First we reviewed the days of the week and the weather; we also tried spelling out names, which was easy for some and more difficult for others. We did some movements inside and then we sang some songs. We heard the story, “The Three Little Pigs” and everyone was interested in that story. We drew a picture about the story, which produced some good language production from some students, but other students were more interested in sticking markers into pencil sharpeners, with mixed results. A lot of students are starting to use English more. It was a good day.

We are the Happy Mondays!

It’s Monday and everyone had a wonderful day, so happy to be back at school and with our friends. We started the day by talking about the weekend, although we might need more practice at that. Then we went outside to do some movement activities in the playground. We also did some dramatic play, which worked well and we will have to do some more of this. This is a good chance for us to practice listening and following instructions, and we showed some improvement in this area. Later we came inside and read some stories. Jerry brought a book called, “I Like to Hop” and we read the class books, “Am I Big or Little?” and “How Big is Big?” We then tried to start an exercise to help us improve our drawing, but we ran out of time. We are trying lots of things and we are making improvements every day.
All the children seem to have good listening skills, and many understanding the class. A lot of students, even the quiet ones, can speak in English when necessary, but like to speak in Chinese, even if I tell them I don't understand. I work on the assumption that you want your children to speak English, and that is why I encourage them to speak English. They will learn much more English if they learn to speak to each other in English. If you agree, we will encourage this.
Kenny is adapting to the class much better now, he speaks some Chinese but can talk well in English. Andrew, Hugo, Teresa, Tin Tin, Howard and Olson appear to be able to speak English well, but prefer to speak Chinese. Michelle, Sean, Benson and Lucky are more quiet, but they respond in English very well. Hank speaks Chinese almost exclusively, but can speak English, it is easy for Hank to become upset. I know Jerry and Celine from their previous school and they have fitted into this class very well. Sherry has not spent much time in class, so I don't really know her.
Apart from their language abilities, the class seem to be very smart and able problem solvers. Generally they work well together and I look foward to reporting on their progress throughout the year.

Is it really Friday?

The end of the first week, a short week. We had another wonderful day today. The sun was shinning for the first day this week, so we went outside to look at the weather. While we were outside we practiced some movements and following directions. Although we like to go outside and move, we still need a lot of practice at following directions. In fact this is what we will have to work on outside and inside. When we don’t follow directions, not a lot gets done. When we came inside, we sang some new songs and did some old ones too. We reviewed the names of the parts of the body before we played a new game, Teacher Says. Then we read some books. It was a great day.

A Lovely Thursday

Good morning everyone. We had another wonderful day today. We greeted each other and talked about the day and the weather. We learned a few new songs and sang a few of our favorite songs. We played a new game and talked about how to behave so we can be safe. When we read some books about good behavior, we decided to write a list of rules. You can see the new rules on the website https://sites.google.com/site/tbfhb1/.
Glen.

Happy Wednesday

Hello everyone and welcome to Hossanna B. Today was a great day and I meet many wonderful children. We learnt each others names. We talked about the day and the weather. We sang some songs and played some games. We read some stories and at the end of the morning we could draw. Everyone seem to have a fun day. I hope you can follow the class online at the website https://sites.google.com/site/tbfhb1/ and a blog at http://hossannab.blogspot.com/.
Glen.

First Post

I hope you can come and follow Hosanna B throughout the year.