Kindergarten Days
Nicole has achieved a major mile-stone, she has finally started school! And what a relief for all concerned, as we can now breathe a sigh of relief, everyone that is except her poor schoolteacher! Nicole started school on the 9th. January 2001, she is attending Fgura Primary School "A" . She is under the able hands of Ms. Mangion who has 14 other little devils besides mine own. (Poor Ms. Mangion! Kindergarten teachers should be nominated for sainthood for their patience and sheer guts, or is it nuts?? Only kidding, of course!)
Well, here are some things done by none other that Her Majesty Little Princess Nicole and her fair (Ahemmm, soiled with jam/water colours/chocolate/strawberry flavoured milk/all of these) hands.
The first thing to grace our fridge door and consequently the bedroom walls is a little cardboard kite...
This was accompanied by (guess what?) a nursery rhyme, yepp you guessed right, the refrain goes on like this:
" Kieku kelli tajra zghira,
Kemm kont nilghab b`dan il-gugarell!
Intajjar, intajjar! Inholl l-ispaga!
Kemm kont nilghab b`dan il-gugarell!
Intajjar, intajjar! Inholl l-ispaga!"
Translation: If I had a little kite, how I would play with this toy! Fly it, Let it loose! How I would play with this toy!
Next came a little orange fish pasted on a jar painted blue. Can you imagine the mess of 14 toddlers with fingerpaints? Miraculously Nicole came back home ALL clean and tidy, how on earth could this be??
This of course had it`s own little nursery rhyme which goes like this:( To be sung to the tune of Frere Jacques)
"Ghandi huta, ghandi huta,
qieghda go vasett, qieghda go vasett,
Ara kemm hi helwa! Ara kemm hi helwa!
Gol-vasett! Gol-vasett!
Ara x`gara! Ara x`gara!
Gie il-qattus, gie il-qattus,
Telgha fuq il-mejda, telgha fuq il-mejda!
U kielilhi! u kielilhi!"
A few days later Nicole came home armed with this charming little collage doll. I must admit that her teacher is a masochist, all those kids messing around with GLUE?! Ok it`s only PVA glue, but it`s still messy...
For once this brought no new rhymes so I tried, with some success, to teach her an old favourite of ours :
"Ghandi pupa wisq sabiha,
ahmar wiccha bhal pepprin,
par ghajnejn mill-lewn is-sema,
bhalha zgur ma ssib imkien!"
Soon enough Carneval was round the corner and of course this brought along the good old Carneval Anthem which I`m NOT repeating here. On the last day of school before the Carneval Holidays the children were to go to school all dressed up in Fancy Dress. My Princess was no exception and she graced the school with her gracious (?!!) presence dressed up as some fairy princess or other! The previous day they were set to tone by being all geared up by their teachers: they did a mask, which is shown here, they each had a balloon tied to their wrist by fancy ribbon, and a Rambo-style sash tied to their fore-heads of the same fancy ribbon. To cap it all and give it a complete look fake moustaches were painted onto them!! The kids looked absolutely delectable!
This is the Official Class Photo taken in Carneval in the vividly decorated corridor. The kids are all dressed up as their favourite characters...Nicole is the "Fairy" sitting down in the middle of the picture.
Standing up Left to Right: Jacob, Raisa, Lindsey, Stefan, Keith and Nicholas.
Bottom row Left to Right: Semira, Robert, Shannon, Nicole, Stephanie and Sherianne.
Class Teacher: Ms. Mangion.
Nicole is setting new sights, as this picture shows... My little Gutenberg is printing cows. So much for Mad Cows!
These are her attempts at drawing circles, not too bad for a beginner, no?
Well, the last project that I`m putting in is The Finger-paints Butterfly, basically all you have to do to create this wonder is to take an A4 sheet of paper and fold it in half width-wise. Next open up the page, splodge (I think that`s the word!) liquid finger-paints or poster-paints on one side of the paper, the more different colours the better, and finally re-close the paper along the fold line and press well. Presto! you`ve got a finger-paints butterfly. Also you`ve got one mighty mess to clear up so make sure some points:
1. Wear old clothes that can be stained with paints. (No. No matter how careful you are they are still going to make one big mess, so better dress them up in something old, so that you won`t have to fret about a stained Sunday Best blouse...)
2. Avoid acrylic colours. Children especially toddlers aren`t fast enough when dealing with paints, ordinary paints tend to dry out before the child is ready from his/her project but that`s no problem as ordinary finger-paints only require some water to be brought to liquidity. Acrylics have to be removed and liquified using a solvent which may be toxic as well. So better to stick to plain old finger-paints!
3. Spread the work areas with LOTS of old newspaper. Cover the floor underneath the children, and the chair, and the ... Got my message?
4. Enjoy youreself! This is a chance to enjoy yourself and be a child once more. After all, it is our kids that make us re-discover the simple joys in life.
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