Wow what a day!!

Another busy day at the school started with counting up all the collections that were so generously donated by all our Yellow Dot parents and team. This is what we collected:-
Toothbrushes 217
Toothpaste 137
Calpol 60 bottles
Nappy cream 50
Teething gels 13
Colouring pens and pencils and chalks189packs
Colouring books 21
Pencils 45 packs
Pencil sharpeners/rubbers/rulers 74
Note pads 32
Pens 12 packs
Stickers 10 packs
Other medicines 11
Soap and sponges 8
Baby bottles and teats 8
Toys and games 47
Tape and string 4
Story books 6
Shoes 40 pairs
All the above was very much appreciated by the school.
After this we spent some more time in the nursery classes and asked to see the teachers teaching.
Baby class teacher - Saline
All the children were sat at tables and the teacher was at the front teaching with a stick in her hand pointing at things and children. She started by saying welcome and the children repeating. She then Asked them to say the Days of week and whether they were a Girl or boy. Next she did letters and their sounds and pictures, Rhyme with colours,Naming fruits and Colours. She Worked with lots of pictures she had drawn on sacks. She then sang a Number song to Tommy thumb. "Number 1 number 1 where are you here I am here I am how do you do".She then did recognising and naming numbers she had written on the blackboard making children put up hands to answer. Children will move on to this class from day care at the age of three, to progress further each child will take exams and this decides if they are promoted to the next class.
Middle class teacher - Jackline
This class were doing simple sums on the blackboard. 1+2 = 2+2=. The Children were asked to come up and do the sums on the board. When they got it right the children sang a well done song to them. All children were keen to get up and have a go. They were working out how to do the sums by drawing circles under the numbers and counting the circles. They then sang a number song. " I am number 1 i am number I have come to dance dancing in the middle dancing in the middle and then I run away and then I run away". The Teacher wrote some sums on the board and gave the children books to write sums in. Teacher Jackline showed us her planning weekly and daily. In their books the children write the date, day, class and name of the school before doing the work.
Final class teacher - Mildred. youngest 5, oldest 10
This class started with saying the days of the week. What is the day today?  What was the day yesterday? What is the day tomorrow? They then named all the vowels. On the board the teacher wrote sentences with missing words starting with a vowel. The children had to say the missing word. "An" if the next word starts with a vowel or "a" if the next word starts with a consonant. Children stand to do activity. When she asks them to sit they say thank you teacher. The Teacher then rubbed of answers and got the children to come up and do the answers. All clap and sing a song of well done. Every day they do a health check on the children to make sure they are well, their clothes are clean and finger nails cut.
Once the children stopped for lunch we went with Alice to the local food market, we were able to buy maze, millet and  surgun to make a porridge type mix for breakfast for the nursery children. We also got some rice, beans and green lentils for lunch that C4C paid  for! All together we had six 80kg bags that we loaded onto a tuc tuc. We then went into the town and got some rolls of the materials they use to make their school uniform.

A cool day in Kisumu

This morning we started in the Yellow Dot Elite Nursery making sensory bottles with the children. There were all 7 children in today and they were all very keen to join in with making them. We were able to make 12 bottles with them with a variety of different materials from sticks, bells, Pom poms, buttons, tapioca, feathers and food colourings. The children understood what we wanted them to do and were able to pick up the items and put them into the bottles. After we had made them they played with them mostly shaking them and making lots of noise. Some explored the bottles more looking at what was inside and tipping them from side to side watching the materials inside moving. After they had had a play the children stopped for a snack which they had brought in from home. They had cake, biscuits, doughnuts, chapatti or sandwich and all had a drink of either warm tea or juice. We asked the ages of the children in day care and they ranged from just 2 to 2 and a half. The children move up to baby class when they are 3. They don't all move at the same time. After snack the children did some colouring. The teacher drew a picture of a cat and gave the children a crayon to colour it in. The children were very good at holding the crayons in a tripod grip and all held the crayon in their right hand. The teacher said this is from the parents. She tells the parents it does 't matter what hand they use. They then continued to explore the toys and sensory bottles. The teacher left the nursery so we decided to do a circle time with the children and Shirley and Jude joined in with us. The children are very quick at picking up new songs and the actions. We sang twinkle twinkle, head shoulders knees and toes, Leo the lion, roly poly, baa baa black sheep, incy wincy spider and tiny turtle.
It was then lunchtime so we went over to the kitchen and helped to serve the lunches. They started with the youngest class and work up to the high school last. The children all sit outside to eat. We then sat with some of the girls from the school for a while talking to them. They played with our hair and seemed to be examining us very closely. 
In the afternoon we had a meeting with Alice and asked her lots of questions about the school. It seems they have a curriculum very much like ours and plan for the children short term and long term. They test them regularly every term. Their equivalent to our EYFS is ECD ( Early Childhood Development). It was all very interesting to find out a lot more about the school. The more we got talking the more questions we thought about asking.
The weather was a lot cooler today so it was easier to spend more time in the classroom with the day care children.

"You never let go"

There is no school for the children on a Sunday, however James does run his church from the school. We went along as guests this morning and wow what an experience. We noticed that lots of the children from the school attend the church and we were impressed with the singing and dancing that a group of the girls performed! We had many local pastors come and speak to the congregation and before we knew it we had been there for over three hours! We all enjoyed joining in, dancing to all the very lively music, and Shirley spoke some very powerful words explaining how much support we give them at the school back in the UK, and how we all raised money to build the new school and that we will continue to support them with the education that they are providing. She quoted some great song lyrics that had the whole congregation on their feet from the song "You never let go" to remind them that no matter what happens in life God is always there for them. The congregation all prayed for us for the work we do which was quite emotional. Carolyn found her friend from last year who came up and sat on her lap again and fell asleep. Her name is Anikah and she goes to the Yellow Dot day care.
After church we all went back to James and Alice's house, where they had prepared us a lovely meal after a long morning that we all enjoyed. We had a selection of beef and chicken, rice, salsa, cabbages  and chapattis. Alice is now eight months pregnant and was telling all of us about the cost of care needed when having a baby, and we heard some very sad stories of what happens to mothers and babies if they cannot afford this care.
Once we were full, Shirley had some dresses to give the children that Alice and James foster, made from pillow cases. All the children were very pleased with their dresses and we also found new shoes for most of the children in their home. We took the face paints along with us this afternoon and Hayley spent some time painting flowers on all the girls faces. After that Sarah and Carolyn gave all the children visiting the house after church, a small colouring book and a pack of pencils to take home with them.
We have also managed to work out figures for the cost of breakfast for all the nursery children. To feed around 100 children breakfast will cost £5 a day. We are planning a trip to the food market with Alice on Tuesday to start the breakfast project off. We're hoping to buy enough to provide the breakfast for a whole term. We will also be buying materials for school uniforms, and looking at costs of 5 new tables for the day care class in the nursery.

Hustle, bustle and bartering

Another great morning with the children in nursery today. We did more Boogie Mites with them and used the instruments this time. They were happy to share them and take turns. We did the songs a couple of times each to give them all the opportunity to join in. It was very good to see that most of them had remembered the actions and words of the songs from yesterday. Even the teachers got really involved singing and dancing and encouraging the children. The children's rhythm with the drums and tap sticks and their dancing was very good. The children then sang 2 of their own songs to us and showed us the actions.
After the Boogie Mites we did the stories with them. They liked the props for the Dear Zoo book and were all naming the animals in the book. Then then sat quietly and listened to the story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears. The teacher then asked for volunteers to come up and read from the books. 3 children came up and their reading skills very really good and they made very good attempts at pronouncing the words they didn't know.
Next we did the natural art in the picture frames made by one of the nurseries. We did this in 2 groups as a lot of children were keen to join in. 3 children sat with each frame and really used their imaginations to create their own pictures. They made some good pictures and especially liked the match sticks, making houses with them.
We then went into the garden with the children and they started up ring games and we joined in with them trying to learn the songs and actions.
We felt the children got a lot of pleasure out of the activities we did today. They came in especially on a Saturday to do this with us.
At lunchtime James came to collect us and took us to the site on the slum where the old school used to be. It was very sad for Carolyn to see the site having seen the school there last year and Hayley and Sarah- Jayne were surprised how small the site was. It is now just waste land and not being used for anything. We stopped for a while and had a drink from a shop on the slums and watched children playing with a ball they had made from bags and some plastic cups.
We then went to the Maasai market and bought items to bring back to the nurseries and some items to make a treasure basket for the 0-2 year old nursery. It was very nice to be told by James this morning that they actually call this nursery Yellow Dot Nursery.
It was very hot at the market so it was lovely to have a nice dip in the pool back at the hotel and a relax for a while in the sun.

Dishing out the dough!

First job of the day was the Supermarket. James took us to the Metro and on the way he showed us the dump site where the school and nursery was started, and children were taken off the streets. At the supermarket we bought flour, salt, oil, food colouring, essence and cream of tarter. We also bought a bowl, spoon, cup and rolling pins. Airtight containers were bought too. A kettle was purchased for boiling water for the playdough. A cd player and a 25metre extension lead was purchased for implementing Boogie Mites. We needed the lead as the electricity is only in the main building. The staff in the supermarket tested our electrical goods, as there are no refunds once you have left the shop. Then we returned to the nursery.

We visited the children in daycare and sat with them while they ate their lunch. There are seven children in daycare at the moment. Two were off sick today with malaria. All the resources that were bought last year were being played with, or were still there being used. Lunch was beans and rice, but we were informed that the children do have a variety of different lunches. They were offered a drink of water or a cup of warm tea. They ate until they were full, and didn't spill a drop of drink. After lunch the teacher did a circle time. She said this was to wake them up after lunch!They sang us a couple of songs and then we sang 5 of our songs, using the props made from our nurseries. The children played with the sensory pouches which Hayley made. We were impressed that the children who were aged two and under were writing numbers and shapes in the pouches. They could count up to ten and name their shapes. They demonstrated their counting using the number cards which were made by one our nurseries. 

Next we went in to nursery classes baby and middle. We showed the teachers how to make playdough. They were enthusiastic about this and made things alongside the children. The children and teachers made numbers, letters, bowls and even tea cups! The final class teachers made the playdough themselves. 

We then carried out a Boogie Mites session with all of the nursery and Years 1,2,&3 primary. All the children joined in with the actions and were enthusiastic. They focused and concentrated throughout. The children picked up the actions quickly. 

Lastly we sorted through some of the resources that have been kindly donated by parents this year. We audited how many of each resource we had. We still have some to sort through! 

A busy but enjoyable day. 

Day 1 part 2

We made our first visit to the Life Centre School this afternoon and met all the children. The primary school has now been located on the nursery site after the school on the slum being bulldozed by the Government. The head teacher Sos Peter showed us around all the classrooms and the children welcomed us with songs and showing is what they had been learning. All the classrooms were very proud of role play shops that they had set up and their nature corners where they were growing beans and maize. We talked about maybe the enhancement of role play and planting on future visits. The primary school were all sitting exams during our visit today and we were also shown exam papers for the children in final nursery class. They are all doing very well and we were surprised that they were doing exams at this age. We also looked at the 0-2 year old nursery but there were no children in it at the time. They all seem to go home early so we will return in the morning to see the children using the nursery. We have discussed a plan with Alice and James of what we would like to do with the children while we are here. We have a lot to fit in as they break up on Tuesday for a 2 week break. An early night is needed by us all tonight for a new day to start our activities tomorrow.

Missed Flight but arrived safely ......

What a long and tiring journey we had to get here but we have arrived safe and sound. After an 8 hour flight from Heathrow to Nairobi we missed our connecting flight to Kisumu because we were sent to the wrong place in the airport and then the visas took a long time to wait for. After another 3 hour wait we finally got a flight to Kisumu and arrived at 11am Kenyan time (9am UK time). This afternoon we are going to visit the children at the school and take them all the very generous donations given to us. We are all really excited about starting our adventure and meeting the children. We are putting plans into place for all the resources and activities we are going to be doing with the children while we are here. We are planning to end our trip with a boogie mites performance after teaching it to the children and teachers over the week.
Carolyn, Hayley and Sarah-Jayne