Third week in Kenya!

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New week and the last week for the girls!

Day 7

Well, our week started with an uber strike and road block (yet again!)

Monday morning I woke up and ordered an uber to take us to the school and the price was crazy! We thought it was because it was monday morning but it turned out that Uber drivers went on strike to make Uber lower their percentage and to increase the mileage fee! We went from paying $11 to $26.37! Just crazy!

Once we got close to the school we found out that the road was yet again closed so we got off and walked to school carrying all the materials!

On this day it was all about about math!

We separated the classroom into three groups, all doing a different activity, and switching after a while so all kids were able to do all three activities.

The first group was given math link cubes and number cards. The children had to snap the cubes together to match the number on the card.

Another group got baby bear counters with some numbers.

So much fun!

Some kids even got to do high numbers!

The third activity involved the abaci donated by my aunt Estela!
We had a teacher at the table telling the children to count to one, then to two, then to three etc. The abacus is a great tool for the kids to get a visual of how the bar increases as you keep on counting. Also, as they advance it helps with skip counting, counting by 10, addition, multiplication, subtraction etc.

After lunch we went out to play with the children.

And brought out some of the elastics we bought at the CBD and had a blast teaching the children how to play it:

In the afternoon we headed back home... in the back of a matatu!

Day 8

Day 8 was teacher April's last day 😓
For her last day it was all about colours!

The principal had been invited to watch the lesson so she could have an idea of what the mzungus were bringing into the classroom.

I started the lesson by first showing the colour in the chart and then going around the circle and showing the children the colour cards my friend Marcela had gifted us.

After going around the circle I did a three-period lesson of colours.

Here the kids are coming one by one to each show me what colour I was pointing at or tell me the colour.

"Show me blue"

"What is this?"

After the three period lesson I went around the circle and distributed colour cards and colored blocks. Then, I asked the children who had a specific colour to stand up and walk around the circle showing their friends the colour cards.

Kiddos with Orange:

The principal got green:

Pink!

Orange!

Blue:

White!

Yellow!

For the colour lesson I had prepared an art protect! I love art!

The children were going to make binoculars out of toilet paper rolls!
I went around the classroom telling them that we were going to spy different colours and put the binoculars on and started walking around the circle and telling them the different colours I saw.

"I spy BLUE!"

"I see red!"

The kids got to glue different colours on them!

While kids were waiting for lunch (because every day when they wait for lunch it turns into crazy time) I got out some toys that Sita had brought and gave them to the children so they could play and use their imagination. The classroom went from a crazy mess to a quiet classroom. Children started playing together and instead of pushing and shoving each there they were all entertained and the classroom was peaceful.

That day we brought the last of the materials that we purchased so I got busy organising everything.

First I started with teacher Laura's classroom:

We left behind a collection of 25 books, which I think it's a good start!

Then I moved on to teacher Virginia's classroom which has a very big storage space and cleaned it up and organised it. As I cleaned it up I found a lot of materials from last time not even opened, the foam letters and numbers still wrapped, the watercolours never used, colored paper, even a stack of half a dozen deflated soccer balls!

To me it was very frustrating because I am putting so much work and effort to bring them materials and have the kids have a more fun and enjoyable school environment but then the things that I left are not being used. And I even wonder, "do they do anything of the things that I have taught?" there really is no point of me coming if there isn't even a little bit of continuation so having a talk about using the materials was very important.

By then it was wednesday and there were still stored balloons from the birthday party on friday. Why were they keeping them in storage? The whole purpose of bringing things in is for the kids to enjoy them. I asked teacher Virginia to give the children the balloons, I think they have this mentality of "not wasting" them but all these things are for the kids! The balloons would deflate and go to waste instead of giving them to the kids and have them enjoy the moment. Like the soccer balls, why weren't the kids playing with them? Why after eight months half of them are deflated and half of them nowhere to be found? I just didn't get it.

With the donations we bought a huge box and filled it with paper: white paper, colored paper, construction paper, and lots of colouring books!

We also got another box and filled it with pencils, colored pencils, crayons, washable markers, permanent markers, ink pads and some other stuff to last for a very long time.

At the end the storage closet looked much better! One could see where things are are!

From the donations April collected she got the children some hoola hoops... they absolutely loved it!

Day 9

Day 9 brought the kids a lesson on shapes!
We pretty much did the same lesson as the colours but changed it to shapes.

Many of the children bent the cards and were playing with them so I thought it was important to teach them how to take care of them. The rule was to have the card on their lap and look at it, and it actually worked!

Then when I called on a shape the children got up and went around in the circle and showed their classmates.

The shape activity was to match the shape with the printouts activity from Pre Kinders using the Learning resources pattern blocks.

This time we put in the middle of the table a lot of pattern blocks and let the kids pick and recognise the s=shapes needed in order to complete their activity (while we kept an eye out for missing colors/ pieces.)

To some of the kids we gave only shapes and encourage them to come up with their own designs and patterns.

During recess I wanted the kids to play with the soccer balls so asked teacher Laura to get them out of the storage and on the field so the kids could play with them.

A totally fake Mikasa haha

Some of them got very territorial with the soccer balls!

Game of catch with the soccer balls!

Some of them had a hard time understanding that "hands are not for soccer!"

They look so happy!

My favorite though was to watch them play with the tires!

The older girls absolutely loved the hole hoops, and even got creative turning them around their neck and arms

I absolutely love the picture below. She looks so serious and relaxed with the hoola hoop.

Even I got on the hoola hoop action!

It was so much fun to see them play. Teacher Laura translated for me that the kids were building houses for each other with the tires, making a stack so high that the kid would be burried at the bottom!

Then it was lunch time!

Day 10

Friday was the last day with the girls so I came up with the activity of colouring themselves and the teachers!

My best attempt to draw! haha

Since on my birthday party face painting was a total fail I decided to bring the paints again and give it a try. While the kids colored I called them in groups of three and painted their faces.

This drawing was one of my favourite, Shabil drew me wearing my big yellow earrings! so cute!

After the face painting we went out and attempted to take a group picture.

Notice how NO KID is looking! haha

Better? Maybe!

In the afternoon it was time to say goodbye!
The teachers were so nice they had presents for us and even sang a farewell song (or at least I think it was a farewell song!)

When Sita was saying goodbye teacher Laura said: "They all want to go with you" and Sita said "I only have space for one in my suitcase, and many of the kids raised their hand and said "Meeeee!" haha It was adorable!

Selfie time!

Last matatu ride deserved a picture!

On saturday Sita and I went for our last meal to our favorite Indian restaurant! 💜💜

See you in London! 💗

About Post Author

Andrea

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!