Cooking And Dancing, Indian Style.
There was a dramatic sky as I set off for work this morning. Further into my journey the sky became pinker with the clouds making fantastical shapes. A treat for the eyes before a busy day.
The children and I have had a really good day at school. After initially writing their spellings and a phonics lesson it has all been practical activities with just some maths at the end of the day. First all 29 children made chapatis and 2 kinds of raita (yoghurt with mint & cucumber or coriander). The classroom was filled with the smell of garlic and fresh herbs, the mint came from the children's school gardens and all the children were eager to try out their Indian cooking. But first the chapatis had to be cooked, this was done by my TA and 2 adult helpers while I and the children had a SEAL session in the hall with a specialist teacher, taking part in co-operation games, anger management and relaxation techniques. We could smell the chapatis being cooked but had to wait until the afternoon to taste them. First thing after lunch we went in the hall for some Bollywood dancing. I've never been the most graceful of people but thanks to the web where I found some Teach Yourself Bollywood Dancing videos I had a practice at lunchtime which combined with a lively dance number on my Bollywood cd got us all dancing. The children were really enthusiastic and after I told them that the best pairs of dancers could teach their dances to the rest of the class they were ultra keen. They were even practising at playtime and this included the boys. The children finally got to sample their cooking along with some mango chutney and poppadoms. Comments such as delicious, scrummy and fabulous say it all though not everyone enjoyed the new tastes. I threw in a bit of data handling using a program that gives quick and simple graphs and pie charts for the children to interpret and that was our day.
(SEAL - Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning).
The children and I have had a really good day at school. After initially writing their spellings and a phonics lesson it has all been practical activities with just some maths at the end of the day. First all 29 children made chapatis and 2 kinds of raita (yoghurt with mint & cucumber or coriander). The classroom was filled with the smell of garlic and fresh herbs, the mint came from the children's school gardens and all the children were eager to try out their Indian cooking. But first the chapatis had to be cooked, this was done by my TA and 2 adult helpers while I and the children had a SEAL session in the hall with a specialist teacher, taking part in co-operation games, anger management and relaxation techniques. We could smell the chapatis being cooked but had to wait until the afternoon to taste them. First thing after lunch we went in the hall for some Bollywood dancing. I've never been the most graceful of people but thanks to the web where I found some Teach Yourself Bollywood Dancing videos I had a practice at lunchtime which combined with a lively dance number on my Bollywood cd got us all dancing. The children were really enthusiastic and after I told them that the best pairs of dancers could teach their dances to the rest of the class they were ultra keen. They were even practising at playtime and this included the boys. The children finally got to sample their cooking along with some mango chutney and poppadoms. Comments such as delicious, scrummy and fabulous say it all though not everyone enjoyed the new tastes. I threw in a bit of data handling using a program that gives quick and simple graphs and pie charts for the children to interpret and that was our day.(SEAL - Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning).
