1st Grade Preparatory Camp 2021 AUGUST
Welcome in our 1st Grade!
What happened this week? For the 1st week of camp, the students were introduced to a variety of activities, from storytelling, to vocabulary games, to interactive smartboard games. These activities were introduced to have the children use their comprehension skills, a bit of literacy skills,
Ágnes Forro ' 1st grade teacher
Joseph Williams English teacher and an introduction to digital learning. These activities were chosen to give the students an equal balance of usage in literacy skills. Storytelling was an excellent way for the students to stay focused for an extended period, and their interaction of opinion and feedback gave them an opportunity to demonstrate comprehension.
The vocabulary game was an excellent way for the students to do some decoding, and the smart board activities were a way for them to recognize words and objects, matching them to demonstrate their comprehension of both. With a changing world of technology, smartboards will become a dominating piece of equipment as the students progress during the school year.
Language skills
Fanaru's language skills She is a quiet and calm girl but she likes to participate in all the activities.
Fine motor skills
Fine motor skills are essential in aquiring first grade's most important task that is in reading and writing. In the camp we had so much fun through activities where we trained the muscles in our hands and fingers just like creating wonderful shapes and forms out of plasticine or learned some rhymes and games for training our fingers. In our games we traveled through forests and jungles, imitating rain and thunder and wind, all of these complex activities in order to get us ready for the most exciting challenge in first grade that is learning to read and write.
Fanaru's motor skills Fanaru has good fine motor skills, she is able to form shapes out of plasticine and she enjoys taking part in all games involving fine motor skills.
Social skills
Strong social skills are as important to success in school as academic ones. Sharing, being polite, resilience, the ability of being patient are key elements of a successful start at school. Students in first grade need to learn how to communicate their needs appropriately and how to interact with their teachers and classmates. The activities, role plays, drama games we involved in the camp’s schedule have been designed to help them achieve these goals.
Fanaru's social skills Fanaru has shown us her friendly and nice personality from the first day of the camp. She has made friends easily and enjoyed all the activities with her classmates.
Mindfulness skills
Mindfulness is a mode of mind with a conscious awareness of ourselves and our environment. By practising mindfulness students can improve their emotion regulation, emotional flexibility, empathy, self-awareness and self-acceptance on the long term. With mindfulness approach the students can learn how to decrease their stress and anxiety and prepare themselves for challenging situations. In the preparation camp the idea of mindfulness was introduced to the students starting with the initial steps: observation and participation. Students tried fun relaxing, calming, energizing and selfesteem boosting techniques as well as observational pair work.
Fanaru's mindfulness skills
Fanaru cooperated well with the tasks. Sometimes she needed some time beforehand to understand the instructions and see how others perform. She worked really well with her peers. Fanaru herself could master and focus her attention on inner and outer environment, which made her a wonderful and reliable student in the camp.
Shen Fanaru
My favourite moments
I liked... ... playing with clay ... drawing and painting ... the team-building games
Thank you for joining us!