Day 24: Kindergarten

The kindergartens here are totally different than the kindergartens we have in the US. Kindergarten ages are 8 months - 6 years. Sometimes they are splint into two groups (older and younger) but often they are all together.
The year before the 6 year-olds are going to start school, the 4th graders get to start becoming friends with them. When the 6 year-olds are in 1st grade next year the 4th graders(then 5th graders) will be in charge of them at recess to make sure they are having a good time and they have a friend to play with.
I wish we had something like that in America. It wouldn't be that hard. One big kid for every little kid, make sure they are having a good time. But then we don't really need to have that because our kids don't all go out to recess at the same time.

The 4th graders and the kindergartners went on a walk today. When we got to the spot we were going to have lunch the kids immediately ran off and started playing. They slid down the muddy hillslide, bounced on moss covered rocks, tried to pull tree's out by the roots. This last one they actually succeeded in doing. It took 8 kids 20 minutes of work. At first I was pretty horrified "You can't do that to the tree!" and I don't know that I liked them doing that. But Hilde said it is good for the kids to be challenged sometimes. And getting the tree up was challenging, they had to use their weight and their brains to get it up.

One of the kids was complaining about being thirsty.
"Well, let's go down to the river and get a drink." Hilde said. She led the kids down to the river and they got to experiment on how to get a drink! I told her how we shouldn't drink straight from the rivers in the US. She simply responded "We're vikings, we drink from the river." I loved that response!
She actually used that response a few other times while we were there. She told me that the kids are tougher, which I believe. The kids can fall down and suddenly they are okay.

One little boy fell down  and Hilde asked him what was wrong. He told her he got his shoes muddy and she said, alright do you want to try and drink from the river. He was so involved in drinking the water that he forgo to be upset about his shoes. I loved that!

On the way back I asked a student to teach me the Norsk Alphabet. I don't know that I have ever had a better teacher! She sang the whole thing for me and then went through it letter by letter. When I did something correctly she would praise me "Good job!" and then continue on. When I had trouble she would say the letters and have me repeat it at least three times. Then when I had successfully learned the alphabet she praised me some more then encouraged me to sing it for everyone around me individually. She was a perfect teacher! I hope I can be like her when I grow up.

Day 11: MORE Songs

Assemblies are always awesome. But Norwegian assemblies are the bomb! 
All of the kids in the entire school (which would be just the 1-3 grade in any American elementary school) went into the gym. Then they proceeded to have an entire hour where everyone just sang! I tried to write down at least the first line of each song so I could find it later. 

Lille Føken Kantarell - these are the lyrics to the first one. I know, they are in Norwegian, but I couldn't find the music. 

The next song is called Sambalele. The kids loved it! I think it was translated from Spanish, but I couldn't find it. 

Another was the Valen Skule Song. It was so cute! I wish I could at least get the lyrics. 

The next has a first line that goes like this " krystallklare dagar, ja no er det haust." I couldn't find the lyrics though. 

The last (that I got the name of) was called Regnvæsang. Apparently the Internet doesn't even know what that is, so that is cool. 

I wish we had times here we just sang in America. I think I might put that in my classroom. This assembly connected to the Utah Core music standards for 4th grade, standard 2, objective 2. 

Another thing I have been thinking of to do in my classroom is to have a classroom library. I was already going to have one bu I have a really good plan now. In my library I will have at least one book on every level in every genre I can think of. Then I can give kids the books on their level  until they find one that they really want. Then I can either have more books, or a list a books they can get from the library of other books they might like. As I am typing this out I am thinking to myself "Don't you think that is what every teacher tries to do?" Well, yes, but I haven't tried it yet. 

Day 10: Songs!

I got some cool insight today. There is a Norwegian Student Teacher here who is in her second year of university. She said that in every year there are 2 weeks of observation before Christmas and 4 weeks of teaching after Christmas. I thought that was rather brilliant. She is working on her bachelor's degree and when she is done (in 5 years, but only because she is going part-time) she will be able to go right into teaching!

The students 4th grade and under at my school have been learning some songs for the Christmas program (which I will miss by ONE DAY!!!!!) But I got the music for the songs so that I can learn how to sing them with the kids!
Here are the songs.
Lille Måltrost

Skippervise

Blåklokkevikua

Julekveldsvise

Musenes Morgensang
(This one is a link because I couldn't find a video.)

Having the students learn songs like these follow the Utah Core music section, standard 1, objective one.

As I was talking to my mom last night we discussed how there are not a lot of books here. That got us thinking about the literacy rate. From what I can find online (which isn't all the reliable at the moment) Norway has a 99%+ literacy rate by the age students are 15. Some places say 100%. Either way, that is super high! I wanted to compare that to the poverty rate, but according to CIA World Factbook their poverty rate is NA or unavailable. However they only have 3.5% of their population unemployed. I compared this to the USA. We have 15.1% of our population under the poverty line, a 6.2% unemployment rate, and our literacy rate is 97.5%. Overall, not too bad. But wouldn't it be grate if everyone could read? At least read enough to be able to shop at the grocery store, cause I am here to tell you that I know how hard it is to shop at the grocery store when you can't read anything there!