TEACHERS' RESOURCES TRAINING IN SRI LANKA 2008 SHIVA CHARITY (UK). Please click on the photos to enlarge!
Three teachers from the East Coast and three from the West attended the first training session at the new Resource Centre in Seeduwa. They were each given a box of educational resources for their schools, and shown how to use them. They also shared their expertise with one another.
A paper craft punch can give you shapes which can teach visual recognition of number and quantity. Use the familiar patterns you see on dice or dominoes. Glue the shapes onto paper and use as flash cards. Play dominoes.
Coloured paper, craft punches, glue and scissors can also produce stunning greetings cards. Young children (and teachers) enjoy the results, which can be used as classroom display, or given to friends and family.
Nowadays beads made from wood, plastic, foam and glass, can easily be bought, but it is also possible to make them very cheaply from drinking straws, popcorn, macaroni, rolled paper and play dough. In the photos the teachers are threading them with fishing line.
Puppets are a very useful teaching resource. They can be half prepared by the teacher, so that the child can add eyes, hair, ears, clothes, or animal features. They can be made from cloth, felt, envelopes, spoons, pencils .... anything... but it is important to have a curtain or the back of a chair from which the children can show their puppets, with a little simple drama.
Children under stress will often talk to the teacher's puppet about his/her problems.
Ruwan Marley, (Head of SHIVA Pre-school in Negombo), and other teachers from the West Coast, share some of their expertise with the others. In the photos (left) are demonstrated how to make waterproof cups, paper handbags, plastic bag dresses, tissue men, lotus flowers on a pond (paper plate), and other paper crafts.
The resource boxes also included educational games, puzzles, and a digital camera, so that the teachers can record the childrens' activities in the classroom.
