getting ready for school...

i've spent the last few days getting ready to start school again tomorrow. i'll just be teaching 2 days a week, and this year i'm teaching bike-riding(!), maths, computers and an inquiry unit about india. to weave a bit of the inquiry unit into my maths sessions, and to trick the kids into practicing counting while they think they're playing a game, i made this:



(don't look too closely! it's my first attempt at quilting and i should have actually consulted some kind of expert. anyway...)

snakes and ladders was apparently invented in india. i made this using an old skirt (black) and an old shirt (white). the numbers were painted using a fixative medium in normal artists paint, and i used freezer paper (the special american kind) to make the number stencils. i love peeling the stencils off when the paint is dry, to see how well the stencil has turned out. the snakes and ladders are made of felt. the aim was to make the game as user-friendly for my visually-impaired student as possible. it's a very feely game - you can feel the numbers if you trace over them with your fingers.

i've also been checking out you-tube clips of classic sesame street number songs that i can play to support the students' counting - so much fun! these things make the thought of going back to work and leaving missy in child care less scary.

take care,
em