Bellaire Primary School

My first days at Bellaire were very interesting.. I observed the PREPS classroom, which is Kindergarten in the states (ages 5-6). It was interesting to observe because I was able to relate to what I know about kindergarten in the states and compare that to what I was seeing. The Preps' classroom consists of 38 (5-6 year olds) combined in two open classrooms. The two teachers, Blanche and Nigel team teach during the day.

Of course as I was talking and getting to know the kids, I get corrected about fifty times a day and always get asked silly questions like; "Why do you talk so funny?" The kids were very interested in knowing how long it took me to get to Australia from where I lived and they enjoyed the slide-show of pictures I put together of family, friends, puppies, vacations, Kentucky, etc... They especially loved the picture of Zadeh on my back and loved hearing about her piggy back rides! :)

The daily words that they use has been a bit hard for me to catch onto right away. I try to listen to words they use after they say things that I don't understand just to see if I can figure out what a word means. I do this at "home" too with the Wilkens', I like to try and figure out what it means before I jump right to asking them. It makes it a bit more fun! Shane tells me that Americans cannot spell or speak.... for example- the way they spell color (colour), or organization (organisation)... I look at these and think- "You all don't know how to spell!" It is getting a bit easier though, I'm starting to pick up on everyday words and trying to use these words such as zooms, textas, and rubbers during the school day. I really don't like using the last one, just doesn't sound right with PREPS! If you need help figuring these out:

Zooms= crayons

Textas= markers

Rubbers= erasers

Rubbish= trash

Z (as in the letter)= zed

H= hay-ch (sound it out? Yup, try remembering to say it like that everyday!)

Funny story about the letter Z : Actually, I was working one on one with two students the other day on their handwriting. Both of them had a hard time making the letter Z... so I traced it out for them in their writing books and said "Ok, trace out the capital letter Z and the lower case letter Z and then write them a few times for me on your own." They both gave me this stare, like (the letter z????) and then repeated "Z" like hmm.... I didn't catch on to that at first and after school we rushed to the bank to make it there before they closed to exchange some money and the bank is called ANZ (Carol said "I will run in and meet you inside, the bank is right over there... see the sign? It's A.. N.. Zed" So, as I was walking with the little girls into the bank I asked "What Zed was?" and Shani told me "It's just Zed." So, I finally put 2 &2 together and said "So, when you say your alphabet you say, W..X.. Y.. and Zed??" She said YES! No wonder why those poor little PREPS had no idea what Z was!

It is interesting seeing how the schools across the USA are run. They certainly do save a lot of money here at Bellaire because students pack their lunches everyday, except they can order from the Canteen on Monday's and Friday's (which the student pays for up front)... so you have no students that never go without eating or having to worry about borrowing money for lunch and racking up a lunch charge! They have specialists teachers (such as music, art, and religion teachers) and the students in the PREPS at least see them once a week and the classroom teacher works as the librarian and computer teacher as well. We went to the library the other day and I was waiting to meet the librarian, but no one ever came in. Blanche worked the book scanner as the children were checking out their books and got them all settled to go! It was amazing to me to see what all goes into their day of planning because not only are they planning their classroom activities but also library time, computer time, sport time (which isn't taught in the Preps) but they basically do it all.

Another thing that caught my eye, was that the students eat snack and lunch in their classrooms. No cafeteria here! There are picnic tables set up outside, if the bell rings before they are finished but generally they like the students to be done before they go outside (at least in my room, that is).

My schedule goes by pretty fast, there is a lot that goes into a day but it sure does fly....

8:55am : Morning Music/Bell

9:00am: Students check their name on Smartboard for attendance (which I love seeing this age group use the SmartBoard)!

9:00-10:00: Morning Circle/Reading/Centers & Reading groups

10:00-11:00: Writing

11:00-11:30: Fresh Fruit/Vegetable time/Show & Share/ Outside play (which the students do all themselves.... of course there are yard duty teachers outside... Our day is Monday! And the fresh fruit thing.. My favorite... I think this should be in every school system! 11:30-12:30: Maths 12:30-1:30: Specialists class (computers/religion/art/music/science, etc...) 1:30-2:3o: Students eat lunch in classroom 2:30-3:30: Any follow up work/Assembly (every Friday)/ GO HOME! Pretty fairly easy day but a lot that goes into it! I am really enjoying my time here at Bellaire and I'm so glad that I took on this experience! It truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I really am learning a lot!