Friday ( 11 - 04 - 2008 )

Hello,
I had again a very nice day with the pupils and the activities of the students.


Eva: Music
The first activity of today was a music lesson.
Eva started with teaching about some basic theory of music. I was very suprised because of Eva's original approach to teach this.

She told the children that the staff was a house. The children had to say what you need to enter a house. After they said the right answer 'a key', Eva drawned a musical key (de solsleutel). If you don't have a musical key, you can't play the music piece.

After this Eva told the pupils that there are living children in this house who are all different from each other. The names of the children were different, how the children looked was different and every child has an other tone that sounds a little bit higher then the previous tone of a child. In this way, the pupils learned step by step the different musicnotes. First they learned the name of the first child/note 'do' and then they saw how you draw this note. After this Eva sang this note whit the right tone.
The children also tryed to sing the note.
After these steps, the next child/note was teached. After each new note, the previous ones were repeted.

I think it was very good that Eva teached the children this in a not to theoritical way. She did it in a original, childish way! This made it very interesting for the children. It was also good that she repeated everything several times with the children. In this way the notes were printed in their memories.

This exercice went so well, that Eva decided to take it to a higher level. She wrote a little song of different notes on the blackboard. The children had to tell which notes there were written. Everyone was joining this activity! Even Omer (a boy who can't speak) was joining. He could type the names of the notes on his computer and let them hear it to us. He was very interested in this lesson. I could tell it because he had payed so much attention that he typed all the notes of the song correct, without any help!

After decoding the notes of the song, it was time to sing this song. When we did this several times, Eva asked if there were some children who dared to try it on their own. All the children wanted to do this!



It was remarkeble that all the children wanted to try it on their own. I was expecting that some of them wouldn't dare to do it. But because we all encouraged eachother and it was so interesting to do, everyone joined!

Now it was time to sing a funny song with "jabbertalk"(meaningless words). Eva and Xanthi wrote the notes of the song and the lyrics on the blackboard. It was now interesting for the children to see the notes with this song because they know them now. If Eva didn't teached them the notes, this wasn't necessary.

The notes were looking a little bit different than the ones they had learned. Eva explained it again in a original way why they were different from each other.

There are notes wo have no filling.This is when the child hasn't eaten a lot and is tired. They dure a long time. Other notes are filled. These children have eaten and are more active. They dure less time then the previous one. There are also notes with a little tail. They are written here together with an other note. They are very quick.

To understand this better, Eva practiced the rhythm with the children. They had to say the song in rhytmical language (pam pam paam...) and afterwards they also beated the rhythm with a instrument. Omer, who only can move his right foot, was hitting the rhythm on a tambourine with this foot.

The pupils were again really good at it! They all had a very musical and a rhythmical feeling in themself. It was also because Eva teached them everything in steps and that is necessary when you teach something completely new.

On this picture you can see Eva in action. Xanthi is holding the tambourine near the foot of Omer so he could also join with this exercice.

Here you see some other children in action:



After this exercice it was time to sing the song. Eva took her guitarre with her and played it while she was singing the song. The children got the lyrics and after a couple of times hearing the song, it was time to join in. They could sing the song and use their instruments on the rhythm of the song.





I think you did noticed that i really liked this activity! I was really suprised by the original approach of Eva! She did a great job with this activity. It was especially good that she did everything in little steps so that all the children could follow and got a good feeling because they understood it. It was also good that all the children could join this activity on their own way! She really thought things through! Big congratulations for Eva from me!!!


Monika: Painting flags
The last activity of today was also an activity which the children liked a lot!
Monika told first something about her country, the Czech Republic.
She asked if someone knew where the country is on the map. There was no child who knew this! After giving some hints and letting a boy search on the map, they found it!

After this she told some sentences in Czech language. The children never heard this language. This was an new experience for them to hear this.
The children could also hear on the computer the national anthem of Monika's country. The children asked her to sing it, but it was a little bit to difficult.
She didn't want to disappoint the children and sang a childsong in Czech language. I think this was a very good idea from her to give something else in return!

After this, Monika told something more about the Czech flag. There is a special meaning for the colours of this flag.
- The read colour stands for the ground, the earth or the hell.
- The white colour stands for the sky or the heaven.
- the blue colour stands for the water, the rivers...



After all this interesting information, it was time for some action! Monika told the children that they had to paint the Czech and Belgian flag. They had to do this on a special way. They couldn't use bruches, but corks. We wanted to let them do something different then they are used to do and that is why we let them work with corks in stead of bruches.

Here you see all the children in action:







During the work, all the children could hear some Czech music on the background. In this way they also learned something more about music from another country, because every country has its own kind of typical and traditional music.


All the children were joining this activity. This boy had to use an adapted cork, but also used the same technique.


Also Omer was enjoying himself with the painting. He did it with his right foot and with some help of the students. On the second picture you see him proud next to his work.

You can see that Omer was happy with the result!

I think that Monika also did a good job with her activity. It was something very interesting and amusing for the children. I also think it is good that all the children could join the activity. She also did a great job with something unexpected: When the children wanted to hear her sing her national anthem, she sang a child song, because the anthem was to difficult! She reacted very good with this, because she pleased the children with something else!

The end of the day:
When all the activities were done, we went to the big circle with all the children. The head master wanted to do somethinig to end this week with the children.
He gave to all the pupils a paper with 'good bye' on in all the different languages. The pupils all said it loudly in all the different languages. That was really nice!

After this we all said good bye to the children, gave them hugs and kisses... I am really going to miss them, because the children were so sweet and lovely! They amased me with their talents and their good hearts!

Bye bye!