Kindergarten Placement 4, Sindanno - 10/12/11

Due to little access to internet I am slightly behind on posts and so this refers to a couple of weeks ago.

The fourth and final kindergarten Ester and I worked in was Sindanno, the final one because the schools were closing for Summer. Sindanno is, in my opinion, the best kindergarten for resources. There are two classrooms with boards and posters, several offices, toilets, a kitchen, a vegetable garden and a large playground with swings, slides and climbing frames. Just the plot itself is large.

Previous GX volunteers had introduced a timetable, gardening scheme, educational songs and a few other things. Being the last week of the year we decided not to be too intense since they have had all sorts to take on from the weeks before. I bought in a team/house point system to help the teachers focus on praising the children for being good rather than just punishing those who are bad.



One of the days the teachers took the children to remove the tomato plants from the garden. At one point the teacher suddenly started shouting in her local language and all the children ran away – I stood looking on unknowingly. Eventually it became apparent that the teacher found a snake amongst the plants. A child bought a large stick for her to lift the leaves up with to reveal the snake, at which point Ester ran too. It was around 4 inches long and not poisonous however the teacher continued to whack it with the stick. After several hits she called for an even bigger stick and with it crippled the snake further. She then hooked it on the stick and took it out of the garden where she, and around 10 children, ensured it wasn't coming back by all simultaneously smacking the snake with even more sticks for about 5 minutes.

On the last day the winning house got sweets and a large meal of liver and rice was cooked for everyone. Lots of games were played and reports were handed out. Some children passed and progressed onto grade 1 where as others passed but for some unknown reason did not progress. The grades on the report cards didn't seem to determine whether they moved to grade 1 or not but having worked with the children all year the teachers knew who was ready and who wasn't.