SK Sungai Rual is rural school of about 120 students and 18 teachers. The vast majority of the students are Orang Asli from the Jahai Tribe. The schools Principal Tuan Hj Bahauruddin was a fabulous host accepting the constant flux of mentors and managing his team to be so cooperative. All the teachers there were gems, they opened up their classrooms and hearts to us. Did I forget to mention, this school has no phone, fax or internet. However, there was no lack of effort for communication between the guests, teachers, pupils and villagers.
I had the good fortune to volunteer on Monday, 13th of October. The camp began at 8am, while the fog was dissipating this wonderfully wet and cool morning. It brought back memories of an earlier time of mine in Mendocino County, Northern California. It wasn't long thereafter that sun came out with vengeance and pounded the temperature upwards. The day began with the whole school being taught long vowels and the actions that accompany them. Soon we split into smaller groups. I was responsible for the tapir group, a mix of students from YR 3-5. There were 16 students and a couple of teachers around for the activities section.
The task of the day was to review the short vowels from the previous day. Using a phonics friendly approach, we used word family cluster flashcards to achieve our goal. We started by writing the word families: e.g. bat, cat, fat, hat, pat, sat and rat on the whiteboard. Next, we projected flashcards of the word families with pictures, but the first letter missing. Collectively we wrote the missing letter of the simple word and pronounced it together. Thereupon, students were giving a sheet of paper with three flashcards and instructed to cut out the flashcard and write in the missing letter. Mind you, a sample of every word was still on the board.
After the students completed the task, they were instructed to exchange their set of flashcards with their neighbours. Students had about 30 seconds to practice each set of three flashcards, before they had to continue to exchange until all cards were reviewed. Thereafter, we played many visual and audio games with the words. Duplicates were randomly distributed amongst the class. I'd point at the word on the board, while two students would compete to be the first one to bring the matching card and pronounce the word to the board. Another game consisted of spreading many flashcards on the floor and saying the word and action, while pairs of students raced to the other side of the classroom searching for the correct word. I won't bore you with details; however, we a played a couple more games.
The camp contained many "Bridging the Gap" activities. I took my tapir class out of the classroom to sit in the shaded dewan in a circle. Then I read the Orang Asli tale, How Lake Cini Became a Lake. We brought the story to life by giving actions to the verbs and repeating the word several times. I tried to introduce some questions based on High Order Thinking Skills, but the class was not yet ready for that line of questioning. Instead, they succeeded in many questions based on character identification. Story time was a good time.
The climax of my sessions concluded with my signature English Water-Ballon Toss Activity. It was definitely a party pleaser; furthermore, it provided a little succour to the scorching afternoon heat. Students paired up. In the first couple of rounds, students were shown a flashcard with a picture and word and asked to pronounce it properly. Upon completion, they were allowed to toss the water-ballon to their partners. If your water-ballon bursts, then you are out of the game. After each round, students were asked to take one step back to increase the difficulty. Consequently, only the picture image of the flashcard was shown and the students were required to the speak the word. Many of the shy students from early in the day roared out the three letter short vowel words properly on the playground with a water-ballon in their clutch. It was big fun had by all.
After a tasty lunch, we were treated to a traditional craft activity by the village ladies. Guests, teachers and students participated in workshop on how to make a decorative apparel using a long leaf of a local plant. The decorative product was collected for the Thursday's camp finale. The students, teachers and villagers of SK Sungai Rual are remarkable. Thank You for an exquisite day!
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