Week 2 - Teaching starts! (Ashwini and Felicia)

Monday, 13th May 2019 

Today marks the start of our very first lesson. We began the day by teaching the 6th graders English. For this lesson, we started off with a listening comprehension exercise. Afterwards, the students watched a short video clip about Edward Whymper, the first man to have climbed the Matterhorn. We went through with the students the chronological sequence of events in the video so that the students could write the summary of the story in their own words.



Listening comprehension exercise
Summary exercise on 'The man who climbed the Matterhorn'
Snippets from the video on 'The man who climbed the Matterhorn'
Ashwini discussing with the students about the video they watched

For our next lesson, we taught the 5th graders English as well. For this lesson, we introduced to them "Totem animals" which was a part of their new unit. Students watched a Microsoft sway created by us on the 3 main types of Totem animals as well as the characteristics of different Totem animals. After which, the students tried to identify their own Totem animal by comparing their personality with the characteristics of those animals. Then, we conducted a short vocabulary quiz and a fill-in the blanks quiz for the students to test them on the new unit's vocabulary. 
Textbook unit on 'Totem animals'
Microsoft Sway we had designed on 'Totem animals' on Nearpod

Snippets of our Microsoft Sway
                                               
Snippets of our Microsoft Sway

Vocabulary quiz on Nearpod
Fill-in-the-blanks quiz on Nearpod
At the end of our lesson!
                                       

Tuesday, 14th May 2019
                                              
Today, we conducted an Art lesson for both the 5th and 6th graders. For today's lesson, we introduced paper cutting to the students and shared a bit more on the history and significance of paper cutting which originated from China. We then taught the students how to cut out a Chinese character (囍) that symbolises double happiness. After which we taught them how to go about creating simple paper cuts with various designs.
Felicia explaining the steps on how to fold the coloured paper
                               
                                
            Felicia guiding the students on how to cut out their desired designs
                                    
            Felicia presenting her completed design to the class

                                      
                                        
                                        Our 5th graders attempting to create their designs
         
              Snippets of the completed paper cut from our 5th-grade class
                                     
 
Felicia demonstrates on how to cut out the Chinese character (囍)

 Wednesday, 15th May 2019
Today we started off by attending our school theatre performance. The theatre performance was put up by the 3rd and 4th graders in our school. The entire school was gathered to watch their performance. We could certainly see how much effort these students had put into making this play a success. We were very proud to see our 3rd and 4th-grade students from our English class perform so brilliantly. 



3rd and 4th graders' choir performance

Snippets of the students' performance in the play

Snippets of the students' performance in the play
Snippets of the students' musical instruments performance in the play

 Snippets of the students' dance performance in the play 
At the end of the day, we travelled to Zurich to watch the Knie circus, a famous performing group in Zurich.

                                         






Thursday, 16th May 2019

Today we began the day by accompanying our form class to a High school in Maur where the annual hockey tournament was held for all elementary schools in Maur. It was indeed exciting and heartening to watch our students perform their very best despite the tight competition from other elementary schools. 





After that, we returned back to school where we taught English in our 3rd-grade class. Although this was our first time teaching this class, we were very comfortable as we had observed this class in our first week and managed to help them out during their class work. For this lesson, we attempted to teach new vocabulary words as well as the context in which they are used through a skit.

Students performing the 'Big bad wolf' skit
Students performing the 'Big bad wolf' skit
Students performing the 'Big bad wolf' skit
At the end of the day, we went to visit the Kunsthaus Museum in Zurich that was holding a special exhibition that week. 









Friday, 17th May 2019


Today after our usual lesson observations, we met up with an incoming exchange student from PH Zurich to NIE. We went to a street food festival in Zurich and had so much fun trying out the different cuisines.

Michelle, our incoming exchange student 
                                               
Our happy faces and filled tummies :)

   
   


Saturday, 18th May 2019


Today we went on a hiking excursion with our PH Zurich buddies and Geography professor Stephan to Mount Rigi. It was really amazing learning about the different rock types found around Rigi as well as the history of Rigi. We were blessed to come across many breathtaking views during our hike. We even came across snow and had to hike through the snow as it was still very cold this May. After our hike, we took a boat ride to Lucerne.
The view from the Mount Rigi
                                     
Bergsturz Museum where we learnt about the history of Rigi 

Professor Stephan explaining about the rock forms

Ashwini's feeble attempts to clean her muddy boots

Our hike through the snow
The end of the snow covered trail

Felicia at the base of Rigi

Our relieved faces when we saw that we were approaching the bottom of Rigi

When we were too tired to walk we simply posed for pictures :p

Ash made a new friend with the cute golden retriever! 

Model Felicia gazing at the lake on the boat ride to Lucerne ;)
Lucerne's famous bridge
View of the city in Lucerne
Sunday, 19th May 2019


Today, we travelled to the Wilderness Park in Zurich where we did a little hike to see many animals!























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