Another Saturday in Ms Małgosia’s class brought plenty of excitement. The pupils entered the world of autumn, tackled grammar, made artwork and had several reasons to celebrate.
The seasons and autumn
To begin with, the children recalled all the seasons and thought about what characterises each of them. They paid most attention to autumn: they found out exactly when it begins and what changes take place in nature at that time, and they consolidated this knowledge on autumn worksheets. Astronomical autumn begins on the day of the autumn equinox, around 22–23 September, when day and night last almost the same length of time.
Noun gender and number
Then it was time for grammar. After revising what they had learnt about nouns in the previous lesson, the pupils learnt about noun genders – masculine, feminine and neuter – and about the singular and plural. The easiest way to recognise the gender is to add a pronoun: ‘ten pies’ (this dog), ‘ta kłódka’ (this padlock), ‘to serce’ (this heart). It was quite a grammatical ‘tough nut to crack’, but most of the children coped brilliantly. There was some head-scratching and searching for answers together, but above all a lot of hard work and commitment. In the coming lessons the class will keep returning to this material to consolidate it well.
Autumn artwork and celebrations
Next, the class produced colourful pictures of autumn animals – little foxes and hedgehogs under umbrellas. The class wished the boys well for Boys’ Day, celebrated in Poland on 30 September, and sang ‘Sto lat’ (the traditional Polish song of good wishes) to those celebrating their name days. One of the pupils described how she had spent time with Cezary, the class stork – another interesting encounter with this cuddly toy hero.
Finally, the children played interactive games that helped them consolidate their knowledge, and the class chose its ‘Star of the Day’ – the person who had worked especially well, been active, completed their worksheets conscientiously and remembered the classroom rules. The pupils also read another chapter of their class reader and found out what happened next to its characters.
It was an intense but very successful Saturday. Ms Małgosia thanks the children for their work, commitment and smiles, which make the Saturday lessons so special.
