South Hebron Hills

9:00 – 12:30

Goal: Activity in the Huda kindergarten in Hashem-el-Darage

Activity Olive tree picking

20 children were present at the preschool, most of them new.  2 preschool teachers (Huda and Chaula), and Amna, an assistant were also present.  The staff and the children received us warmly and enthusiastically.  We were pleased with the reception.  It seems that there is value to creating personal connections – after all, we have been coming to this preschool for 5 years.

When we arrived, the children were sitting and listening to Huda tell a story on the topic of growing olive trees, occasionally showing them the pictures in the book.  The children sat on the carpet and participated in the story telling.

The art activity included pasting paper and fabric cutouts of olive leaves and olives, also real olive leaves, soil, and coloring and pasting brown crepe paper on the outline of a tree drawn on A4 paper.  Huda agreed to having soil brought in from the garden so it could be pasted on the picture even though it spilt on the tables and floor.  The children were enthusiastic about the activity; it seems that some of them never used glue or scissors.  There is a need to invest in staff education so that they teach the children to work independently on the activity rather than doing it for them.  With that being said, we feel that there has been a real change in approach.  Huda herself requested that we leave materials so they could continue the work with the children.

At the end, the children wanted to take the work with them. And we sat contentedly for a short while enjoying tea and cookies with Huda, Chaula, and Amna.  It turns out that there is a significant delay in paying salaries to the staff – the salary comes from contributions.  We hope that the preschool will be able to continue functioning.  We try to help them with by supplying work materials. 

Pictures of the activity –  The 13.10.2016 album:

   https://photos.google.com/u/1/albums