Dwarf workshop
Text and photos: Nicoleta Oprea
Because at this time of year, nature delights us with its flowers and colours, at the Dwarf Workshop we brought a piece of nature into the classroom and made a flowering twig. Initially, we wanted to decorate it with popcorn to make it more realistic, but the irresistible taste of popcorn lured us in, so we had to make do with paper flowers, which we glued onto our green branch.After all that work, we relaxed, creating stories based on pictures in books or we competed in modelling various figurines out of plasticine.The song accompanied us in this hour too, so we imitated the dwarves going to the forest to pick strawberries and blackberries, listening to the song "We are the dwarves".After such a long drive, we were tired and sat down to catch our breath, but found a good place (curtain) to play hide and seek.We'll meet again at the Dwarf Workshop with new adventures after the holidays. Until then, I wish you all a wonderful time!
Romanian language and culture
Text: Eliza van Peppen
Again, last Saturday, we had a wonderful reunion! What a pleasure to work with your little ones! In a beneficial and entertaining race, we re-entered the fascinating world of geese. Impressive how much they have mastered the notions they learned the Saturday before. A gentle rain of answers!
As our thirst for knowledge drives us towards new adventures and experiences, last Saturday we discovered a beautiful and exciting story about bees and bumblebees. We learned new words like bumblebee/ bumblebee, bee/bee, goose, honeycomb, dragonfly. We learned curiously what fairness is, lying, what a judge does and how we can resolve a conflict situation. After the reading, to make sure we understood the message of the text, but also to practise our vocabulary and direct communication, we used a role play. Each child was given a role and had a line. Successful exercise!
You won't be surprised to learn that we love to write! Every lesson, we play with a mischievous letter, either drawing it with our finger in the air or with our body, or writing it on the board. This time, we took it a step further, each child wrote a letter on the board and so we formed words like 'butterfly', 'eye', 'bee', 'bumblebee'.
Afterwards, we continued with a ball game, a game of movement and interaction, testing our reaction power and concentration.
At the end of the lesson, for our creative moment, we chose to create our own paper flyer using the folding technique. For isn't it better to admire the butterflies flying around merrily and playfully than to catch them?
See you with good cheer and a quiver full of stories on 26 May. Until then, have a nice holiday!
Play, personal development and photography
Text and photos by Raluca Tudorache
Since the weather is nice, almost wintry, we don't get under our skins with joy and we romp around outside restless and restless, mixing playing with relaxing and learning.
We are always careful to learn and repeat new words, to supervise our behaviour, how we move, how we cooperate and communicate with others, and especially how we manage our emotions and understand some of our choices.
Last Saturday's session was extremely dynamic and full of excitement, as part of the surprises of our Bucolic lessons. Under the pleasant late April sun we frolicked freely, but also applied strategies for teamwork, conquering new territories, body and mind training.
After a few exercises where we stretched to get a better feel for our bodies and muscles, we noticed that some of us became huge. Those who didn't grow actually had other, magical powers. The two sides, the giants and the wizards, tried to conquer their territories. The giants through physical strength, cleverness and even cunning at one point, and the wizards in turn very clever used their mind power and defended themselves with energy balls. The battle was eventually won by the sorcerers who found all sorts of bizarre and surprising ways to defend their territory.
We then took the freezby for a few laps, after which, egged on, the kids chose to play football, which was not only fun, but really quite addictive. A few of the children have some training under their belts, so the football session was a real challenge and even a lesson for some.Afterwards, we regrouped and played a game called "Woosh-Bing", where we trained our reflexes, attention and coordination, besides having a lot of fun when right and left got mixed up and vice versa.
Playing "Poison Bottle" afterwards, we learned and repeated new words, while the hopscotch continued without a trace of exhaustion. Because at the end there was one more round of football, in which spirits got hot and we had to calm down by analysing and discussing the day seriously like grown-ups and concluding that getting angry is pointless, that it's just a waste of time, and that it's best to play full of good cheer and buoyant or daring ideas.
This is what the children at the Romanian School learn: that it is good to want to win, to be competitive, but if the result happens to be different from what you want, there is always room for improvement and even improvement. We can learn from any situation, and in the end this will make us stronger and wiser.
Until next time I wish you a great mini holiday and good weather!
