Less than a week before the Junior Bikeathon

We have had one practice run, and, I, the grown up, had more pain in my legs than the kids!  Gosh, I am getting old!

Well, the park is beautiful.  It has a great paddling pool area, fantastic climbing frames and, if you are lucky, a couple of bouncy castles, lest not forget the famous ice cream van.  I am hoping that we have great weather so that we can have a relaxing picnic afer the event.

The plan is to meet up at 2:00 next Sunday, at the paddling pool area.  The kids and I, and any other keen rider, will then do our treck while the other parents will huddle in either a picnic area or on the benches baking in the sun, sipping their cola/juice drinks.

I am hoping that the cycle round the park will be completed in two hours, but, who is in a rush when the weather is beaufiful?  The kids are desperate to jump into the paddling pool straight afterwards, so, you may as well plan to be there for the rest of Sunday.  I know I am.

Just to avoid embarrassment, I will be practcing again this week, so that I can, at least, go ahead of the kids and stop to take photos as they approach interesting spots, such as the water falls, the canal boats, and, probably a few dogs following us.

And, don't forget to either sponsor us or get a sponsorship form, as the class rooms urgently need laptops to help them with their teaching.  The school currently shares two laptops between four classrooms as we are discovering that kids learn more from the interactivity that the computer can provide instead of the old fashioned black board.

Hassan

The parents were more nervous than the kids.

It is good to see how many parents preparing their kids for our assesment tests.  Masha Allah, you will be proud of the results that were attained.

I could not help but smile when I saw the parents asking questions and telling me about what they do and do not know, as if they were being tested themselves.

The kids, on the other hand, did not even blink.  They actually enjoyed the competitive atmosphere that I created in the classroom, especially with the recitation.

Two children stood out from the crowd, one boy and one girl, who were reciting with tajweed and tarteel, which encouraged me to get a competition going.

Now, I need to honour my promise and give out two special certificates.

Well, we have one more test next Saturday, in Islamic Studies.  I will then collate all the results and give the children their personal certificates to laminate and stick up on the wall.

I was told by one of the mums that, in India, weekly tests are the norm, so children grow up used to the idea, which strikes me as a better way than an end of term/end of year exam, when you cram everyting into an hour.  What do you think?

For us, we tend mark the children on an on-going basis, but, still wanted to give them an overall test to assess how muc they remember.

Until next time, when Level 2 will be tested

Oh dear, poor kids have a test

Well, the kids are too care free about the tests, as they just see it as a game, which is how it should be.

We tested the children in Beginners before the Easter break, with results that make us proud to teach these angels.  It is so cute hearing them recite the sura's with a hint of tajweed.  They are also so so eager to answer questions in Islamic Studies.

Now, it is time to do the same for Level 1.  I will be listening the the children reciting all the suras that we learnt in the past two terms, to see how much they can re-call.

The only writting paper will be the Arabic subject, as they have had a lot of practice on joining the letters, so, I pray to Allah that they do well.

We are blessed with the commitment of our teachers.  Eventhough one is stuck in Saudi following the volcano eruptions, we have still manged to get the rest of the teachers to fill in and continue teaching.  This is the beauty of having an electronic lesson/term plan that any teacher can just pick up.