The Portuguese Language reading and writing development workshop - 10th September 2010

The group sitting in Beat's patio

This one day workshop on the development of the  Portuguese Language reading and writing skills was attended by the ADEC football group of children (Jilson, Nessa, Kevin Patrick, Renildo, Bruno Miguel, Nilson, Junior, Denilson Keven, Edgar, Aldino, Valdir Nataniel, Elisiana, Larissa, José Domingos, Leida and Lolita- this last one having been the only one who hadn't yet attended any of the previous workshops) and was held at Beat's.

The methodology was the same used in the April 2010 workshop and proved once more to be effective. 

"The tin soldier" was the book sellected for the activities. We focussed on vocabulary extension; intonation of difficult words;  writing of words the children didn't know or those they had difficulty with;  development of their hand writting; interpretation of paragraphs, etc. 

They all showed to be enthusiastic and committed. Having been "accompanied" by a local ADEC teacher since April, I realised they had progressed immensely since I had last seen them. 

Concentrated on what was being read and said.






Writing the difficult words




Not to have them get overtired, or lose their concentration,  once they had finished every page they were allowed to colour it.

Colouring the pages

Prior to flying to Cape Verde I came across a children's book on football rules, strategies, scenarios, situations, etc. , on whose pages children are expected to glue stickers, as in accordance with the guidelines defined at the bottom of evey page.

 I  then decided to introduce this activity at the end of the morning and afternoon, by having children queue  up on every side and be entitled to sellect a sticker and with the help of one of the three adults in the room (Sibylle, Beat and myself) put it adequately on the page.

 "On the football field" and "At the football ground balneary" were the two pages chosen for this activity. 

Aldino sellecting the sticker  (Right) and putting it adequately on the designated page (Left) with my help and Beat's

Leida sellecting the sticker with Beat and Sibyle's help.

The activities were interrupted over lunch, which was carried out at Sibylle's restaurant, where we all assembled to eat.

Prior to the afternoon activities, the children were distributed by 4 tables (in groups of  four), each of them headed by one adult (Beat, Duche, Bernardino and either Sibylle or myself).

Having lunch (Left). Playing games (Right)

The day was soon over ... but we all felt the children wouldn't have minded if the activities had gone through the night ... and neither would we ...