St. Lawrence Orphanage School

Sunshine and Smiles!

We are excited that the sun is shining here in Cambridge today.  We have had lots of rain here lately, too!  There are some areas that are not that far from us that have experiences flooding also.  We are glad that you have not had more flood damage and we hope that flooding continues to avoid your school.

Shelby – Right now our class is working on making Action and Adventure stories.  Our stories have a superhero for the main character and a villain who does evil things.  We have to include information about the problem, characters, and setting in our beginning.  In the middle, we need to write at least 3 events and they have to be in order.  We use the words FIRST, THEN, NEXT, AFTER THAT, and FINALLY to organize our events.  In the end we have to solve the problem and the superhero needs to save the day. My story is going to be about a mean girl who is hurting people.  The superhero will put a potion on her to make her a good person.  We will be writing them on our blogs and you can read them there when we are done.

Jordan -  The Global Art Show website is one that you can request to join for free and add your work there if you are comfortable using a wiki site.  If you prefer, you can send us your art pictures and we can add them to the site for you using our account. We can add a special page to the website for your art projects.  You can either email the pictures to Ms. Gill or you can add them to this blog and we can save them from here.   We would love for you to get involved and share your creative work with us!

We have started to take pictures for a local art show called Imagine a Show.  Students in our region get to submit pictures that show either COMPASSION, RESPECT, COLLABORATION, PROFESSIONALISM, OR POSITIVE ATTITUDE.  If our pictures are selected, they get published in a book for people to buy and our pictures also get displayed in the art show that is inside a shopping mall.  Some of the rules are that you can’t have faces of people and the pictures have to match the groups.  Each student can submit 3 pictures. We hope at least one of our pictures make it into the show! We’ll let you know after the photos have been selected!  Here is one of my pictures that I am submitting.  It fits in the RESPECT category.  This picture shows respect for our country, Canada!

Andrew – Mondrian was a famous artist that used red, yellow, and blue in his art.  He uses squares and leaves white spaces.  Here is a website that you can go to make your own Mondrian art on the computer: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/paint/artists/mondrian/coloring/matrix.shtml We tried it and here is an example of one that we made.

Our class is working with different people in different places to make a big art display.  Each class in the group has to colour section of the art and them mail it to the other people in the group.  When all the pieces arrive, we put them together like puzzle and it makes an interesting work of art.  We got our first piece in the mail yesterday!  Here is a picture of the display. Can you see the 2 pieces that are finished? Our art display will change as all the parts arrive in the mail and we fill in the missing sections.

Isaac – Natalia, if you like our wild creature activity, you might also like the habitat dioramas we are working on. The habitat that I was learning about is the Canadian Shield. In this region, there are forests, hills, and flat land.  There is lots of rocky surfaces.  Commander Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut currently in space, recently shared this picture of the Canadian shield in Ontario (where we live) from his view in space!! You can see the picture here: https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/status/325752591051022336/photo/1   In my diorama, I added a fox, a mouse, trees, and rocks.  Here’s a picture of my work:

Ms. Gill – We love sharing our learning with you on this blog. We hope you like to hear about the projects we are working on.  We like reading about the projects you are doing also.  It is a blessing to have great learning partners that are so far away!! We enjoy learning with you.  That’s all the time we have for today.  Until next time, take care and be safe!!

The Floods are back!!!

Hello friends,

It has been a while since we communicated,we apologize for this.As soon as we came back from the Easter Holidays,we got busy studying for the end of the term exams.Here in Kenyan education,every student is tested every end of the term.Then after the exams the Schools were closed for the official academic recess.The Holidays run up to May 7th. After closing School we got a privilege to visit our distant relatives and friends.But now we are back home to the Orphanage.

It is always exciting to hear from you and know about so many topics that we hadn’t come across.We deeply appreciate you friendship and sharing.

Amos:Hi Andrew,we were all excited to know about the global art Project that you are undertaking with other students around the world participating.Definitely you know that we are interested in taking part and we can’t wait for you to introduce to us such an exciting exercise.Does one need to pay to be part of the Project? We don’t know Piet Mandarin and we have never seen his art of colors.May be you can help us know this better.

Walter: Wow Alex,as you explain about your Easter Egg hunt,we can’t help salivating,it looks so appetizing! We did’t have much to prepare during Easter.We had our normal diet,songs in the Church and services,and that was all.We wish we could know how to prepare such like appetizing cakes.May be in future we will be able to do this.

Frank: Jordan,yes we have been able to see your art on the website.It is a great piece of art.We also know how to draw and moult art.We have used the dough you sent us to create a number of things from it.We are posting this in the near future so that you can put into your website.Please Joradn kindly help us started.Thank you for your kindness.

Natalia:Hi Isaac,your story about creating a fictional creature sounds imagery and inspiring.We have seen it on the blog and everybody in our School likes it.When we shall also study about animal habitats and adaptations,we shall use your example,hahaha!!

Godfrey: Hi Ms Kim and your Class,it is always fun to read from you and to exchange the news and thoughts.I want to thank you that the money you sent us has been able to purchase part of the material to construct our toilets and the Boys dormitory.Unfortunately the floods are back.It has been raining heavily in Kenya over the past three weeks and already over 200,000 people have been displaced.We thank God that we have not been affected this time.We look forward to your more funding in order to jump start the project.Thank you.

Spring Greetings!

Hello friends, we apologize for the delay in responding.  Our normal routine has been altered a little with the March break and Easter long weekend holidays.  We are back and excited to be communicating again!

We were very excited to see the pictures of you and the toys.  It brings us great joy to know that you received our gifts and can put them to good use!  We like to use games and special tools to help us learn in creative ways.  We hope that you will too!

We would like to share some of our activities and learning that have kept us busy over the past few weeks!

Andrew – We are working on a global art project with other students around the world.  We colour a section of a piece of art and mail it to the other classes in our group.  When all of the pieces arrive in the mail, we will have a complete puzzle.  When it is finished, we will take pictures of it and share them with you. In art, we are learning about different artists.  The artist style we are using for this project is Piet Mondrian.  Have you ever seen his art?  He uses the primary colours yellow, red, and blue and likes the square shape in this art.

Alex – We had an Easter Egg hunt in our classroom before the Easter holiday.  We got to make cupcakes that looked like Easter baskets.  We made them with icing, coloured coconut, chocolate eggs, and a piece of licorice for the basket handle.

We also boiled eggs and decorated them with colour dyes.  We made a fun recipe called Deviled Easter Eggs.  They are a special recipe that look like chicks in broken eggs.  The adults like the taste of them better than kids because it had olives and a spice called paprika in the recipe, which many kids don’t like!  They looked too cute to eat. What did you do to celebrate Easter?

Jordan – We are showing off our art projects on a website. We want you to see it, too!  Other classes around the world are also contributing.  You can see all of the work by visiting this website:  http://globalartshow.pbworks.com  We have a special page with all of our work.  You can find it by clicking the link on the right side of the webpage. This project is open to all classes if they wish to join.  You can also be a part of this project.  If you are interested, we are happy to help you get started.

Isaac – We are learning about habitats and animal adaptations.  We created a fictional creature on a website called Build Your Wild Self.  Our animals had body parts from a variety of different animals.  Some had gorilla arms, bat wings, snake tongues, lion manes, and rattlesnake tails. We had to decide what region in Canada our creature would live. We decided based on the parts of the animal and how they would adapt to the climate, landforms, and other animals living in the region.  You can see our work by reading our blog posts on our class site: http://kidblog.org/gill-villeans. Although our creatures are not real, the details about the Canadian regions are true.  You can learn about the different regions in our country if you read our posts! Here is an example of one of our “wild selves”.

We liked the story and learning that you shared with us.  We have a song that we would like to share with you that teaches you about the primary colours.  We don’t count white and black as they are shades and not colours.  White and black are actually the result of NO colour (white) or ALL colours (black)!

01 The Red and Yellow Blues

That’s all the time we have for today!  We’ll write more soon.  Take care.

THE BIG PROJECT

Hi friends,

Happy Easter.We have just come from the Easter Holidays.Ofcourse as you are aware we just break away from the daily routine but we actually remained at the Home.We celebrated the Good Friday,the day we Christians believe that Jesus Christ was crucified,then we had an Easter Sunday.We did many prayers.

We have very good news! Few days ago,a lorry full of sand and again full of ballast arrived in our School.We all ran to go and see,this was the beginning of the BIG PROJECT.We are very excited to know that your School and friends are going to fund the construction of the Boys Dormitory and bring back our toilets which were washed away by the floods.We have asked our Director to allow us help in the construction.We hope he will allow us participate in providing labour however small.Here are the Pictures of the lorry and the ballast.We are waiting for you to write back.

With all our love and appreciation.

St.Lawrence School.

Materials for Boys Dorm & Toilets

More pictures.

We just wanted to post more pictures from our School.We hope you like them.

We wish you all the best and a very Happy Easter.

Thank you a million times!!

Hello there!! You are such amazing friends!

Thank you a million times for the gifts we have received through the kind hands of Mr.John Carson.

The toys, cards,balls,drawing books,crayons,the globe,and all the playing items have excited all of us here!

It is not so much the kind of gift a friend gives to another but the kind of heart that gift is given with.Your hearts are big!!

We want to assure you that we shall use all the gifts well and to help learn new things.There are a few questions and stories we want to ask and tell you:

Natalia;Hey Andrew,I want to know at what time do you play cards? Is this taken as part of the School Program? In Kenya,not so many Primary School Pupils play cards.Only High School do,but sometime it is seen as a game for adults.But with your explanation to us,we have come to appreciate cards as a game to help solve sums.

Lydia: The bubble game is very exciting! Thank you so much.In a rural are where I come from,we use some flying plants and by blowing at them they fly up in the sky.This bubble game is exactly compared to what we have naturally here.I believe the person who founded this came to Africa and saw the flying plants!!ha ha ha!! When you come to Kenya we shall introduce you to flying plants.

Amos; Alex,I wanted to ask you if you celebrate your birthdays at School? Do you know your classmates’ birthdays as well? At St.Lawrence we know all other students Birthdays,and every week celebrate 2 to 3 Birthdays,sometimes we have 10 children sharing a birthday.So we are very grateful to have the toys,because we shall be giving those smallest in School these toys on their birthdays.We are so lucky to have good friends like you.By the way Alex,when is your birthday? Do you receive cards and presents from friends and parents?

Mary; Hi Shelby,please tell me  what is your favorite pet?

Ana Bell; Hi Emilee,in we our School we learn so much by story telling.Do you have story telling sessions in your class? Even at home many African children learn by stories being told by their grandparents.Some stories help children to grow strong,other stories warn them against bad habits.Today I am going to tell you a short story as I was narrated by my late grandmother:The  story is about  generosity! The story goes that two young men were friends.One was called Peter and another one called Paul.Peter’s father was a king and Paul’s father was a very poor peasant.Many times the Peter’s dad did discourage the duos friendship,because he did not want his rich son be associated with the son of a poor man.One day Paul visited his friend Paul at the place.Unfortunately Peter was not at home,so he met the king,who welcomed Paul at the place.Because he didnt like the young man,he thought this was the best time to eliminate him.So he took a piece of bread and poisoned it,in his heart the king knew that he was going to kill the poor fellow.After taking the piece of bread Paul thanked the king and left the place.On the way he met his best friend Peter coming back from a walk and he Paul told Peter that he was from the place and his father had given him a piece of bread, and he wanted them to share.Because they were great friends they shared the poisoned bread and guess what happened? They both died,because the king was a selfish man and the son was a generous one.I hope you like my story>

Godfrey; My heart is filled with deep joy as I watch these kids playing with these toys and all the items.I want to thank you Ms Kim and all your class for this great union.May God bless all of you.

Thank you Friends

Hallow  friends,

We are so excited to write to you again,so happy for the wonderful gifts,we appriciate and love all of you for your big heart,God bless you and your school.Thank you for the instuctions about the games it is good because  before Mr John Carson comes we will already have the idea on how to play the games,my classmates are excited and longing to see the gifts.

Amos:Alex……we are happy for you,how is the new Principal,a big welcoming hag from St.Lawrence and Margaritta Dorsal School.

Alex we are now on half term,this means we are  not attending Classes but this is because our Country is on elections,it was supposed to take only three days but it has prolonged,please pray for our country because it is always violence after elections due to tribalism,i think our politics is still low,their delay has affected our lessons,everybody is worried now because in 2007 it was very bad,so many people lost their lives and others left homeless infact some are with us in the orphanage,do you experience such in your country during elections?

Lydia:Shelby……your method is simple i like it,in our class we draw balls or sticks to count,for example

32   +  34  =

000        34 0000

000 +   32  00 =66

6    x     2   =  12

Hope  you will enjoy our simple method Shelby.

Natalia:Emilee…….We also do

SORRY FRIENDS

Am so sorry friends the post was published by mistake before we finished writing,here is a continuous of the post.

Natalia:Emilee…..We also do colors in our creative Art lessons,we have primary colors and Secondary colors,primary colors include Yellow,Blue,black,red and white,when you mix primary colors  you get secondary  colors,for example

Color black  + Color white  = Grey

Yellow       +     Blue           =   Green

so  green and grey are some of the secondary colors, which is our favorite color?

Mary: Isaac……There are almost ten schools near our school,we do athletic competition and music competition together but they have more Pupils than our school.

Lales:Andrew…….Yes… we read Story books,the one we are reading now is called GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY…..It is about a lawyer and his client in Court,it is so interesting because I would to be a lawyer in future

Godfrey; We are so excited about the new projects in our School.Soon we are starting the foundation of  both the ablution block and the Boys dormitory,

Thank you for your friendship.We shall share every bit of the construction phase.

Gift-Giving is Great!

Hello friends, we are so excited to write to you today.  This morning Mr. John Carson came by to visit us and pick up a package that we are sending to you!  We love giving gifts and we hope that you enjoy the items we are sending.  We didn’t have very much space to pack the toys so we had to choose items that were small.  We have included a variety of different toys that you can share with your classmates. We would like to take a moment to tell you about some of the items.

Playing Cards – We like using playing cards to learn math in our classroom.  Playing cards are great for boys and girls that are about five years old or older. We also play strategy games with them.  Sometimes we even build towers or houses out of cards.  Playing with cards helps you learn numbers and patterns.  Here are some websites that teach you some math games you can play with playing cards:

http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/math-with-playing-cards.html

http://voices.yahoo.com/educational-card-games-teach-math-1518163.html

http://www.ehow.com/info_8256529_educational-games-play-deck-cards.html

Spinning Tops – Spinning tops are fun for young children to play with.  They are not good for babies and children that are younger than 4 or 5 years old.  You make sure the point in on a flat surface, like a table top, and you quickly spin the object and watch it twirl around.  When you are good at spinning the top, you can have challenges to see which person can make the spinning top spin for the longest time.

Rocket Balls – Rocket balls are mini footballs that are fun to throw back and forth.  Be careful when you throw them to make sure your opponent is looking!  They feel different when you catch them.  We hope you have fun playing with them.

Play Dough – Play is not a good toy for babies to play with because they might put it in their mouth.  You do not eat play dough!  Play dough feels cool when you squish it in your hands.  You can mold it and sculpt it into shapes, animals, or whatever creative idea you can think of.  It is good for children from age 4 and up.  Even older children like to play with play dough.  We wonder what creations you will make!

Paddle Balls – Paddle balls are challenging to work!  It takes a bit of practice to be able to hit the ball with the paddle.  It’s easy to hit it one time but it gets harder to hit it over and over without missing!  This activity is better for older children because younger children might not be coordinated enough yet to hit the ball.  Although you play with this toy by yourself, you can challenge a partner to take turns and see who can hit the ball the most times without missing.  We wonder who will be able to get the highest score!

Yo-Yo’s – Yo-Yo’s are fun to use but a little tricky to get the hang of.  This toy is better for children that are a little older.  You control the toy by putting the string loop around your finger.  Then you let the toy roll down and try to roll it back up using the momentum of the spinning yo-yo to keep it moving.  Some people practice lots and learn how to do cool tricks with them.  Here’s a website that shows you some yo-yo tricks: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/easy-yo-yo-tricks.htm or http://www.365yoyotricks.com/

Silly Putty and Blurp – Silly Putty and Blurp are fun toys that are a lot like play dough. You can mold it into different shapes.  You can be creative with the silly putty. The Blurp makes funny sounds when you squeeze your finger into the gooey material.

Crayons and Activity Books – We like to use the colours to make pictures come alive!  We hope the children will like to colour the pictures in the colouring book.  We also added a math puzzle and word puzzle book too.  We take turns solving puzzles like this sometimes.  Children of all ages like to colour and solve puzzles.  We hope you do, too!

Stuffed Animals – We included a variety of different stuffed toys. Some of them are little bunnies, some are ducks, and some are different animals that make noises or sing when you squeeze them.  These toys are great for babies, little kids, and small children.  We like to snuggle with toys like this.  Sometimes we sleep with them.  Sometimes we pretend they are real creatures and we act out plays and puppet shows with them using our imagination.

We hope you like all of the toys and have fun using them.  We are eager to hear about the games you will play with them.  The students also have messages for you in response to your post.

Alex – We have a week holiday taking place next week. We call it March Break.  Do you have a break in the Spring time? Amos, I don’t go to church on Sundays but some people do. It’s a choice people make if they want to go. We had a special assembly to say goodbye to our old principal. We gave him gifts and the whole school did a dance to surprise him.  We call that dance a flash mob.  Our new principal is named Mrs. Duncan-Peacock.  She is nice and we think she is going to like it here at our school.

Shelby – In math, we are learning how to skip count by 100s, 10s, and 1s to add on and subtract numbers.  We use an empty number line to solve them.  Here is a picture of a sample problem that shows the strategy. Can you see how we solved it?

Lydia, pastries are foods made with dough.  Here is a picture of some different kinds of pastries on a platter.

Emilee – In art class right now, we are talking about different kinds of lines.  We are making an abstract illustration using a variety of lines. We are outlining them in black marker.  Then we use colour to create moods and feelings.  Warm colours are red, orange, and yellow. They make you feel excited, angry, and energetic.  Cool colours are blue, purple, and green.  They make you feel calm, confident, and relaxed.  Can you see all of the different lines in our art work pictured here?

Isaac – We would love to visit you in Kenya but it is not possible because it is too far away.  It costs a lot of money and takes a long time to get to Kenya from here.  We wish we could come but we will have to settle for communicating on the blog.  I was wondering how many schools are near you in Kenya?  How far do you have to travel to get to another school?

Andrew – What kinds of books or stories do you read?  We read a book called the One and Only Ivan. It was about a gorilla and an elephant that are friends.  Ivan, the gorilla, draws pictures with paint.  Ivan lived inside of a mall instead of in the wild. It was sad for a gorilla to live in a cage.  In our class, we pretended to be Ivan.  We used brown paint to pretend it was mud.  We made creative patterns in swirls in the paint as if we were an animal. It was fun.

Ms. Gill – We hope you enjoy reading about some of the things we are learning about.  We look forward to hearing back from you soon!

Greetings From Kenya

Hi friends,

How are you,how is school?we are fine and doing well in school,we  are glad to hear from you again.and to thank you all for your big hearts!!

Lydia: Hi Shelby…..am happy to learn how to make biscuits from you,it is so interesting and fun,unfortunately we can not make biscuits in our school because we dont have an oven,we use firewood to cook food in our school,I pray that one day God will bless us with a modern kitchen and an oven so that we can also bake.

Shelby, it is funny but we also dont know how to make Pastries,what are they,how much is enough for 200 children at the orphanage,how do you bake them?

Amos: Hi Alex……You are lucky!!!we don’t have time to sleep,we get up early everyday because like  on Saturday we do cleaning of our classrooms and dormitories then on Sunday we go to Church in the morning then rest in the afternoon.Do you go to church on Sundays with your parents? it is sad that your Principal is leaving your school,am sure you will miss him,but it is good that you will be getting a new one,will you tell him about our friendship,will you celebrate or party for the coming of the new principal?

Amos: Hi Andrew…… it is really fun to go mountain climbing,it is not dangerous as long as you are careful,will you mind coming to our school for holidays this year so that we go mountain climbing together?

Natalia:Hi Emilee…….Music is good,I love singing so much, I love your picture it is so lovely,you are so creative Congratulations,in our class we call that subject CREATIVE ART.

In our school we do cultural music,in this we use beads that are made from seeds and reeds from specific grass that are found from the bank of a river,you will see them when you visit our school,we are preparing for music competition among schools,we are sure we will win because we have the best songs and very unique costumes,if we win we will get a trophy for our school,we will send those pictures to you,am sure you will like them.You can see pictures of our daily activities in our blog site:

Godfrey:Hi Gill,the entire Staff and all our children are excited and grateful to you for this meaningful relationship.