Furahi siku wamama...Happy Day for women!....but work still goes on!

My lessons always begin with one of the students writing in English: Today is..... The date today is...... Today I showed the Form 1's how to write it as Today's date is 8th March. From this came the explanation of what an apostrophe is and when it is used. Pauline visited us and reminded us that it was Mama's Day.....So more discussion about this day and....another apostrophe! So easy to use every minute to advantage!!

VERBS and NOUNS; present and past and infinitiveTENSES.....can be so confusing for them.
Outside we went.
ACTION......VERBS.....let's play and have fun and really understand action words! NOW! (present tense
.....instead of doing what the leader was doing let's touch something starting with 't'..tree.... 'c'.....car.....'f'....flower/Fran (mmmmm lots of hugs from that one!) ......What can you see starting with....'b'...bird.....good. It is a noun too.
Reinforcing...reinforcing.....VERBS.....present tense......
Back in the classroom we then talked about what we had done..(past tense) I used the flashcards I had already written and they wrote sentences using present and past tense of the verbs we had used and the nouns. They identified the verbs and the nouns in each sentence.
It was so much easier even for the slower ones to understand having played it out! Learning can be so much fun...especially with these girls who are so eager to learn.

Extra curricular activities occur during clubs after school from 4-5pm. Monday is run by the Science and Commerce faculty; Tuesday = Debating however Mgonja, our Tz English teacher, wasn't available today so Stephen, in charge of Sport, organised a working bee to prepare the new Volley ball court for Thusday Sport club.
It's always much more fun getting involved and joining in so off I went with the girls as they excitedly realised that they were going to teach me how to cut grass, Tz style!!

No dressed in my usual outdoor working gear, I didn't care as Dina showed me how to hold the scythe and swing it quickly and efficiently. There was hysterical laughter from the girls as I tried hard to slice the grass and not collect wads of dirt which sprayed dust and grass into the air.
Pole pole....slowly slowly....I tried slowing down my swing to get close to the earth and not disrupt it whislt still slicing the grass cleanly! Slicing cleanly doesn't happen when you go too slowly! Everyone wanted to show me how to do it and there was a frenzy of activity as over 20 Form 1 girls swung their scythes rapidly and effectively whilst simultaneously yelling 'Madam Fran...Madam Fran....Madam Fran....Look at me!" If nothing else, atleast the grass was getting cleared quickly. I still don't know how nobody wasn't hit. Not an activity Aussie students would be safe at! I guess they have had more practice at this than our kids! I relaxed and enjoyed the activity even though it was really hot.I soon got the hang of it and the girls were impressed that I could move quickly and continue for so long. I challenged them to keep up just to encourage them to keep working as there was a large area to do and not all the girls were enthusiastic after 2-3 minutes of swinging!!!

Not only did the grass have to be cleared but we were required to mark out the boundaries for the Volley ball court. Stephen, Meshack and Rhoda were responsible for measuring and stepping out the distances.

The form 2 girls and I scraped wide tracks into the ground along these guidelines to ensure the grass wouldn't grow back and obliterate the boundaries. I have 2 large blisters as a result of my efforts.

Lots of questions were asked as the girls haven't played volleyball before. Their excitement is growing with their anticipation of being able to learn the game very soon.