OST Team watch Sunrise

Teacher Training morning

Mandoor photos

Chenkalady photos

D&D Dinner Photo

Culture show photos

Kirankulum Playgroup photos

Tegan's teacher training

I felt teacher training morning was a success. We started the day with Zip, Zap, Boing which worked well as an ice breaker and brought the energy of the room up. It was lovely to see women of all ages in their sari's 'zip', 'zapping' and 'boinging' with such enthusiasm! I based my session on developing the imagination and active learning. I started the session by taking the ladies on a Gruffalo walk and getting the group to react the story as we met up with the creatures in the deep dark woods,although one group had not read the Gruffalo so I had to think on my feet and alter the activity to meeting some animals in the woods and creating our own story. For the second half of my session I drew a large box in the sand and asked each of the 'children' to tell me what the box represented eg house, school, mini van, hospital. I then asked them to describe their imaginary surrounding; what colour the walls were, who was there, were they were going, what they were doing. This activity worked really well and the teachers were very responsive and each group came up with some completely different scenarios. It was lovely to hear one of the teachers say she had loved being a child for the morning and did not want to go back into the real world as she would have to behave like an adult again. I feel similarly about leaving Sri Lanka, I would much rather stay and do the hokey cokey every day than return to England. Hey Ho back to Colombo we go. Our drive was broken up by a surprise elephant ride through the jungle. Then further down the road some wild elephants crossed the road in front of our mini van which was a lovely magical end to a magical trip.

Wendy's Teacher Training Morning

The teacher training again took place in the local hall. The preschool/ nursery teachers came from far and near for the training, one teacher getting up at 3am in order to travel to Batticaloa to attend the day. After introductions some games were played and then the teachers were divided into groups so that they could rotate and take part in all the activities. Amali and I were doing the creative group and we asked the teacher to create a collage of the Gruffalo, his friends, the woods etc. We asked them questions in an effort to make them think imaginatively. Various craft techniques were used painting, gluing using material, rope gems, crayons and pencils. Each group created some very creative but different work. At the end of the morning we all assembled and certificates and resources were handed out. This was also a birthday celebration for those with birthdays on October, November and December as well as the OST birthday in January. Lunch followed and the team had to pack up and leave at 2pm for the long journey back to Colombo. Our journey to Colombo was very long, but uneventful, so we arrived about 11.30pm to find members of OST team waiting up to meet up.

Judy 31.10.2013

31 10 2013 Spending time with the D & D parents and kids was pretty special. Mainly because it reminded me of this community in whatever country and how complicated not having a sense of hearing can be. It was added to here by the fact that the government don't pay for hearing aids so if you need one and have no money you remain deaf. I talked to one of the children who was very bright and very articulate with great English and a clear career plan – to study medicine in Australia, she already has a brother who is a doctor, a sister economist and a little sister who wants to be an engineer. Her father is a carpenter. Great she has all these plans but I hope Sri Lanka doesn't run out of carpenters either. The next day: a really brilliant day at Kurumavelli nursery (me and Andy, Kriti and Thula) 55 kids and 52 turned up so nearly a full house The room was large, newly built by John Bunter's school in the UK in the grounds of the methodist preacher's house. The kids all had little plastic chairs that ringed practically three walls of this big room. We started off with their teacher giving them prayers and exercises – all very healthy, and then rolled into the usual routine although to my delight they threw themselves into every game – they wriggled on the floor as snakes and all leapt up to be frogs and foxes nd deafened us as frogs. The games I tried elsewhere that did not always work, all worked here and then some. I even felt brave enough to launch into zip boing although we did it as a chant zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zzzzzzip zzzzzzip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip zip BOING BOING A great energy arouser although this is perhaps the one nursery group that doesnt really need energising. They had excelled in Keepie Uppie, keeping the ball up in the air pretty well, although adding a new twist to the game in that every time it fell to the floor they turned it into a mad rugby scramble – momentarily forgetting my instruction that this was a game in which we have to work together. At the end although there was only time to make and decorate the masks so we were finishing with no follow-up gruffalo game they didnt need one as they marched around the room, masks on faces, doing gruffalo growls and gestures off their own bats completely – credit here to Andy's manful reading of the Gruffalo, actually getting all the way through the book with them We've arrived at cinnamon lakeside hotel, which has given me a chance to catch up on some sleep and think about the week we have just spent together.

Judy - Teacher training morning

Friday Part One Teacher training morning: Interactive story telling today. Five times. Some sessions dragged a bit but some interesting topics for stories came up, and in the last session one of the Ocean Stars teacher trainees said 'Oh this is great, a new experience that I can use in the classroom!'. We had: a few teddies as key characters, including a convincing retelling of Goldilocks and the three teddies; lots of nature; animals; fruit; a mother with babe, drawing water; the fox and the turtle: The fox climbs on the turtle, planning to eat it. The turtle's shell is too hard but the helpful turtle says, 'Put me in water and my hard shell will become soft.' Little does the fox know that the turtle then plans to escape. He goes in the water and his leg becomes soft but he doesn't escape as the fox eats his leg. and........: Once upon a time there was a little girl who had a stomach ache. This was a dream stomach ache. This stomach ache has two legs, two arms and two heads. One head can see and one head can talk. The stomach ache argues with the little girl. The stomach ache says. 'Leave me.' She says, 'I wish I could.' The stomach ache picks up a stone and throws it at her. So now the girl also has a headache. So she goes to hospital to get some medicine. Surreal and the last one – perhaps this is why Surreal. Part Two The trip to Columbo was sparkling with unforgettable scenes: roads lined with pyramids of coloured fruits lorries painted so lavishly one such with no door elephant ride uncomfortable but so peaceful everyone should go at an elephant's pace elephant ride taking me to heaven a bat hangs from a telegraph wire dead or folded like a bunch of dry brown leaves dark bumpy road dark excellent juice bar eco agricultural project healthy sustainable avocado juice creamy liquid meal three or four wild elephants crossing the road just in front of us egghoppersegghoppersegghoppersegghoppers the mountains of sri lanka popping their heads up and down and up on the horizon orange yellow sunset gorgeous repeated streaky shapes in the sky appear and disappear behind a fringe of palm trees

Judy Teacher training day

Judy Blog Friday Part One Teacher training morning: Interactive story telling today. Five times. Some sessions dragged a bit but some interesting topics for stories came up, and in the last session one of the Ocean Stars teacher trainees said 'Oh this is great, a new experience that I can use in the classroom!'. We had: a few teddies as key characters, including a convincing retelling of Goldilocks and the three teddies; lots of nature; animals; fruit; a mother with babe, drawing water; the fox and the turtle: The fox climbs on the turtle, planning to eat it. The turtle's shell is too hard but the helpful turtle says, 'Put me in water and my hard shell will become soft.' Little does the fox know that the turtle then plans to escape. He goes in the water and his leg becomes soft but he doesn't escape as the fox eats his leg. and........: Once upon a time there was a little girl who had a stomach ache. This was a dream stomach ache. This stomach ache has two legs, two arms and two heads. One head can see and one head can talk. The stomach ache argues with the little girl. The stomach ache says. 'Leave me.' She says, 'I wish I could.' The stomach ache picks up a stone and throws it at her. So now the girl also has a headache. So she goes to hospital to get some medicine. Surreal and the last one – perhaps this is why Surreal. Part Two The trip to Columbo was sparkling with unforgettable scenes: roads lined with pyramids of coloured fruits lorries painted so lavishly one such with no door elephant ride uncomfortable but so peaceful everyone should go at an elephant's pace elephant ride taking me to heaven a bat hangs from a telegraph wire dead or folded like a bunch of dry brown leaves dark bumpy road dark excellent juice bar eco agricultural project healthy sustainable avocado juice creamy liquid meal three or four wild elephants crossing the road just in front of us egghoppersegghoppersegghoppersegghoppers the mountains of sri lanka popping their heads up and down and up on the horizon orange yellow sunset gorgeous repeated streaky shapes in the sky appear and disappear behind a fringe of palm trees Judy Kendall The Sri Lanka trip with Ocean Stars charity: ostsrilanka2013.blogspot.com

Amali final day

We've arrived at cinnamon lakeside hotel, which has given me a chance to catch up on some sleep and think about the week we have just spent together. It's great to have a chance to relax and catch up on sleep but I also find the reality that the people I have worked with this week will never experience this way of living quite difficult to comprehend. I suppose this is the way of the world we live in and I feel comforted knowing that although ocean stars works with people from very difficult backgrounds, they clearly have a strong sense of community, a proactive work ethic and are looking ahead to the future with a positive mentality. It's been great to share this trip with such an enthusiastic group of people and it's also been brilliant to see how the various ost projects have developed and grown since I was last here. Now for the journey back to fleet...

Andy and Theresa - teacher training morning

We enjoyed an extra hour in bed this morning even though we had to pack for the return journey to Colombo. We took over our usual mini bus to a hall in the town where we unloaded the resources we had and prepared to welcome nearly forty pre school teachers many of whom we had worked with during the week. They all arrived in their beautiful 'Ocean Stars' sari and astonished us by their flexibility of movement in the sports workshop. The saris were no handicap when they shied each other the ball games they used with their nursery children. Other workshops included Theresa's session sharing resources to help develop language skills with the children. Presentation of certificates to the teachers and speeches preceeded a shared lunch before we departed by mini bus on the ten hour journey back to Colombo. This was broken by the excitement of riding on an elephant along a jungle path, the highlight of which was watching our elephant juggle and eat his mangoes.