January has been a good month thus far with week four being the best week. All expected learners have reported back to school and learning is running smoothly. Cases of absenteeism have drastically gone down making it easier for the teachers to achieve their set objectives on time. We may be having quite a challenge with the pre-primary 1 in matters absenteeism, but we are hopeful that come February we will have a better report.
One of our main goals this year is to make learning as fun as it can. It makes mastering of concepts easy and memorable for the kids. Tr. Justus and Tr. Lucy devised a way of making their Environmental lessons more interesting. They combined their classes Grade 1 (A) and 1(B) in teaching about SOIL as a sub-strand of ENVIRONMENT AND ITS RESOURCES. Learners seemed to enjoy the lessons as well as playing with soil at the parking lot. They wrote their names on the soil, drew themselves, drew shapes and much more on the soil as required by the syllabus. On the other hand, Tr. Linda Opiche and Tr. Monica Njeri made their Environmental studies fun by having the learners walk around the school naming the different structures like kitchen, classes, offices while also learning about the people found within those places and what they do. A couple of parents kept sending in positive feedback; mostly being impressed with how fast their children are learning.
The pre-primary 1 students enhanced their critical thinking and problem-solving skills through mastering the concept of grouping similar bottle tops and separating the ones that do not look similar. They do such activities in groups which enhances their socializing skills, working in teams and also being outspoken since working in groups entails taking in suggestions from different members to get a unified result in the end. They also learnt how to write sounds and numbers. According to Tr. Linda, the very first step in this is pencil-holding and eye-hand co-ordination of which a good number of the new learners are showing good progress.
The scout movement is doing so well. The passion and work that Tr. Justus puts into this is commendable. The members have already memorized the scout motto, the scout oath and the Sungura Scout Law and Promise within three weeks. One can easily tell that they have familiarized with the idea, therefore, enabling them to recite lines and answer most scouting questions with ease
We experienced a minor water shortage on Wednesday, but the matter was attended to and we are hopeful that we will not have a repeat of the same.
Our environment may not always be the best for liberal existence of the kids. Especially when it comes to free socialization, interaction and playing with kids in the neighbourhood. On Friday 31St, Jonnel Macharia, a learner in Grade 2B, got into a serious accident while playing with some friends after school. His mother reported that he is suffering from very severe injuries which include: a huge lump on his head, a sore eye and severe pains in his abdomen area which make eating uncomfortable and painful for him. It is said that he may have been pushed and hit against rocks by some older boys while they were playing in the area playground. Kariobangi can be a quite ‘rough’ area sometimes. This forces most guardians to bring up their children in a hardcore manner while teaching them self-defence and how to toughen up because it is deemed necessary. The problem usually comes in where they are engaging as children or playing and they fail to know where to draw the line between what is acceptable or civil and what is on the extreme hence dangerous. Jonnel is still receiving medication and we pray that he will recover sooner.