Investing in the Neighbourhood school - # 5

I visited my 1st grade daughters class the other day to do a craft. Yes I was invited to come into Lydia's class this year and do crafts like I had done with my 1st daughter for her 1st and 2nd grade years. 

I was so grateful that I was able to go. 1st grade in Turkey can be very difficult.  They go from Kindergarten where there are toys, games and singing to having 2 or 3 hours of homework a night depending on the teacher. In 1st grade here the main topic of study for the first semester is learning to read and write Turkish. Every child will learn to read by the time they leave 1st grade.

The class has recently been looking at clocks and working with telling time so we made Tp tube watches.  We used pipe cleaners and a hole punch to secure them on their wrists. :)

This picture is of my little girl laughing at her mom! (I think she is a little embarrassed;))

Here we are singing the wheels on the bus (well I am singing)...and we are all doing the actions. :) They loved this and we did it twice!

I have committed to going once a month to Lydia's class and doing a craft with them the last hour of their school day.  Of course I do this to serve our school and because these little kids get very little of crafts and projects in 1st grade but I mainly do it to help my little girl feel secure and confident in her environment.

I think that it really has helped both my girls to see me step out and do things that is outside of my realm and watch me fumble and bumble in my Turkish while I explain and share in their classes.  I want to be an example of stepping out and serving others for my kiddos. My oldest that I am homeschooling came with me and helped me with the project. Her help was GREAT and needed.

Here is my helper Dilek. Her daughter was in Autty's class and now her son is in Lyida's class. So she has helped me every time! Soooo grateful for her. :)

Off I go to put my kiddos to bed. Enjoy your morning, afternoon or evening...whatever it may be for you right now. :)

In my west corner investing with what I have,
Becky

The Napkin Snowman ~investing in the neighborhood school # 4

Hey, meet the Napkin Snowman 

He is a close cousin of the Orange Napkin Pumpkin (found here)

Last Friday I went to Autty's class and did the Napkin Snowman with the kids.This is my 5th time going to Autty's school and spending an hour or so with them doing a craft I have prepared. However this time was

my first time this year.  The kids were chanting my name when I arrived and were VERY eager to create something. I love going and giving these kids this creative outlet.  

Supplies I used:

I cut the contact paper in advance into a long rectangle

String for the scarf

Foam for the nose

Black paper for the hat 

Napkins for the the snow part of the body

Marker for the eyes, mouth and buttons.

*This project for 25 children cost me 10 lira (6 dollars).

Snowman body how too:

Have the kids take their contact piece and crease it half way 

then have them open only one half  of the contact paper (up to the crease) 

then place the cut up pieces of napkins on the sticky contact paper, 

then have them open the second half of the contact paer and press both sides together. 

Outline a snowmen in marker and let them cut it out and decorate their snowman.

I took my camera but forgot the battery. :) oops. 

So these pics will have to do.

Three of Autty's friends came over after the Friday craft and here are there creation's and

 cute little faces and uniforms. 

Here are the girls and Isaac playing with the fresh play-dough the kids I had made the day before. 

 There is something to be said about fresh soft play-dough....hours of fun, literally!

In my west corner of the world,

Becky

( For anyone who was interested in my post on the orphanage part #1 (here), I will be waiting to post part #2 for a bit I am wanting to find a way to write out my experience without being too negative to the country I now live in. ~ Thanks for your patience.)

Investing with paperdolls and (a give away)

Investing in the Neighborhood School ~#3

(to check out 1 and 2 - click on the number)

Trying to find ideas for a 1st grade full of 25 children that I can explain in Turkish and is 10 liras or less was a little tougher for me this time.  However thankfully I was graced with an idea.

I wanted to remind the kids that we as individuals are truely unique, each of us with our own special fingprint and yet each of us as humans alike in so many other ways.

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We talked about our body, becasue it shows how much we are alike and yet how differnt we are.

We sang the song head and shoulders knees and toes in English with the actions and they LOVED it.

I shared fun facts like: we have about 206 bones in our bodies and approx. 5 liters of blood. Also this is when we talked about how each finger print (parmak izi) is differnt and unique, and how each of them are each unique and special.

I made little clothes and photo copied them on one sheet of paper. There was a set of boy clothes and a girls set. I passed out one sheet to each child according to their sex and then they cut the pieces out and traced them onto colored construction paper and then glued them on their paper doll.

The goal was for each child to make paper dolls of themselves.  We then went around the room and took their fingerprints that they then glued on back with their name and date.
 We did this as a reminder of their own uniqueness.

Here they are making and showing off their paper dolls. My daughter is in the bottom left corner. :)

Each child recieved:

A paper doll

Set of paper clothes

Half a sheet of colored construction paper

Small white piece of paper for finger print

Each child brought:

Glue

Wet wipes

Colored pencils/crayons

(some kids do not bring their items so I always have things on hand and encourge lots of sharing with seat partners)

For the finger prints:

I brought a small water bottle of water, paintbrush and some water paints for the finger prints. I used the brush in the water bottle to wet the black paint and then had the kids wipe their fingers with a wet wipe after we took their print. 

GIVEAWAY for Turkey dwellers :)

If you make it to the bottom of this post :) their is a fun treat for all those living in Turkey who follow my blog.  INVEST in others is part of my theme for this season so I want to invest by doing a give away for anyone who currently is living in Turkey.  

Come back Friday to see what I want to INVEST/GIVEAWAY to you and how you can win.

It is super super simple. (really super simple) ;)

~in my little west corner~ thank you for stopping by

becky

ps. those of you who don't live in Turkey and are feeling left out, no tears I have something fun up my sleeve for you really soon. :)

Investing in the neighborhood school #2

In April I prepared a fun project for

Autty's 1st grade class about Art.

(I am a little behind in some of my posting:) so this one is a month old)

I displayed 3 differnt types of art :

 Pointallism,  Brush Stroke and Cube art.

I then told the kids that today we were goign to be artist and we attemped to do pointillism painting with q-tips.

The kids really enjoyed it and took there time to make sure their pictures were full of dots.



Here I am explaining what we are about to do. :)
This dot to dot q-tip painting is an inexpensive craft for kids and teaches them to take their time and learn a new techinque.
This is a good group craft I think.

~ becky

Check out this link to see more dot to dot art by my daughter.:)

Also George Seurat is a famous pointillism painter, who developed the technique. His famous painting Sunday Afternoon On the Island of La Grands Jatte took him 2 years to paint and is comprised of millions of dots to form the picute. It is spectacular.

Investing in the neighborhood school

We send our children to Turkish schools here in our neighborhood. My oldest is in 1st grade and my middle girly is in preschool.  This choice was not an easy one but we are confident of the choice we have made and it was in no way made out of ignorance.

Here is the project we did together in class.
Lots more pics as you scroll down. ;)

Truth is many would say the Turkish school system is not working properly ...without getting into all that I would say that this journey of our kids education overseas has probably been one of the harder issues we have faced as a family living overseas.  In it all we have done something that was somewhat unexpected, we have united with our neighbors we have felt the struggle and the real concerns for their children, we have been learners and are walking along side them as we too struggle through helping our kids get the best education. We do not feel that our children are getting a poor education, yes we have to be involved a lot with our 1st grader but our kids are succeeding, bilingual and doing well and we are so grateful for that. 

A little twist to it all, is we not only send our children to the public Turkish schools, but I also homeschool my kids in English and eventually a few other subjects along the way. Still trying to juggle that. :)
While we are here we take one year at a time regarding our kids education. We want to be sensitive to our kids educational progress as well as emotional and spiritual needs, so one year at a time we press on. 

Meanwhile to get my foot in the door and to promote Turkish creativitiy I asked my oldest daughter's teacher if I could come in and do a craft with the kids. I was readily given permission and now myself and two or three other moms go in every other Wednesday for the last hour of the day and do an educational craft.  The moms and children are both very excited and the response has been inspiring. 

I love that I am closer to my daughter, her friends and her atmoshpere at school. My daughter is very much a visual learner and I am so glad to be able to give a little bit of that to her in her public school setting.  An added bonus of course is that I am giving into my community.
Here are a few pics of the craft we did 2 weeks ago.
The next one is this week and I am goimg to share about Pointallism a bit and show pictures of different art forms and then do the q-tip art from this post.

It started out with TP rolls. I mean really doesn't every good craft need a TP roll.
Can you imagine I had enough rolls for everyone in the class..
I am a compulsive tp hoarder.
(a moment of confession)

Here is Autty helping get things ready.

Here I am giving it my best in Turkish to explain nocturnal and some of the different animals that are nocturnal.
I taught the names of the animals in English and Turkish.

I had a captive audience for the first 6 or 7 minutes.

Here are some of the students holding up their owls.

Here is the owl in it's natural habitat.

Unfortunatley Autumn was sick and couldn't come. ;(
I was sad that she was unable to be there.
However she will be there this week and I am sure 'help' me out with my Turkish. ;)

  I have been praying almost daily that I could find a way to use my creativity to invest in others and

 this has been a pure delight and one way to do that.  All the children call me Rebecca Teyze (which is Aunt Rebecca) and I love hearing it so many times.

 Click here to see this same project we did at home a few months ago.

~becky

Investing in the Turkish Neighbourhood School  Series #2  #3  #4
Click on number to visit the posts.