Dhoti kurta

Madhu wore his dhoti kurta for us to see. A dhoti is the traditional dress in rural Rajasthan which is in north west India. A dhoti is worn each day by men. Dhoti is the name for the pants/trouser part of this clothing. The top part or shirt is called a kurta.

Madhu looks very handsome in his dhoti but he does not wear it every day in Dunedin. He wears it for special occasions. We were lucky that Madhu wore it to show us what it looks like.

Sri Lankan sari and cooking

We learned how to make Sri Lankan cutlets. They are small balls made with potato, tuna and some spices. They were really delicious. Mrs Navaratne and her frien

ds helped us to make some cutlets in our classroom and we ate them for lunch with lots of other wonderful food cooked by other classes on our cultural day. We took turns to do different things in preparing the cutlets.

We helped to mash the potatoes and it was hard work. Mrs Navaratne and her friends showed us exactly what to do. We wrote down the recipe and the ingredients so that we could cook the cutlets at home or again at school one day. We had not eaten cutlets before but they were fun to make.

Mrs Navaratne ( lady on the right) is wearing a beautiful sari. She and Mrs de Silva showed the children at school how to put on a Sri Lankan Sari. The sari is made up of a long piece of silk or cotton material which is carefully wound around the lady and worn over a jacket .

The Sri Lankan sari is put on in a different way to an Indian sari. They are made with lovely materials and they both look very beautiful and graceful on ladies.

Raymond Huber talks about bee keeping

Each week we have an adult conversation class at school. Sometimes we have a guest speaker so that we can get used to listening to people speaking English. One week we had Raymond Huber come and talk to us about his hobby of bee-keeping. He has written a book about bees. The book is called "Sting" and has been nominated for the NZ Post Book Awards.

We enjoyed listening to Raymond - he taught us so much about bees and honey.

Mrs Navaratne leaves our school

We are missing our teacher aide, Mrs Navaratne, now that she has left us and gone to live in Australia.

We often talk about her and wonder what she is doing. She helped many of us to become better at reading and writing in English.

Mrs Navaratne also helped at our conversation class. She is chatting to Chaminda in the staffroom.

1:1 English language support

Our experienced teacher aide provides additional support to our beginner learners of English language. Learners may be supported 1:1 or in small groups, in larger groups or within the mainstream classroom.

Flexiblity is important and ensures that each learner's needs are met in an optimal way. Some learners require longer one to one support, in order to gain confidence in listening and speaking in English. Learners can progress to working in a small group work within their mainstream class. Their peers present them with valuable age appropriate language models.