In May, South African Au Pair Grace N. presented to the Kindergarten class at Kingswood United Methodist Church & School in the Atlanta, Georgia area. This is what Grace had to share about her experience:
Today I paid a visit to my host child’s Kindergarten class for my Global Awareness presentation. The class consisted of 11 children, ages 5 and 6. For my presentation I asked the kids some questions about their own country and gave them some insight into mine. We compared some of our languages, the geography, the wildlife, I spoke about my culture and my languages.
First we did a little “seek-and-find” to find North America on the classroom globe, then I asked them to look for South Africa on the globe. After we found South Africa, I showed them a bigger pictures of my country from a book I got at the library. On the map I pointed out where I live and how the different regions differ. I showed them pictures of the animals in South Africa we call the Big 5 and spoke about why it’s very important that we protect them. I taught them how to say a couple of words and phrases in my language (Afrikaans) like “thank you,” “you’re welcome,” and “please.” I also taught them how to count to ten.
There were a couple of kids who mentioned that they have either friends or family in South Africa or that they know someone who is from there. This made me aware, yet again, that the world we live in is so big, yet so small. They really enjoyed learning something new. They all had some questions, even the teachers.
Altogether I loved talked about my country. I’ve never been one with the talent to be the teaching type, but this class was amazing. I realized that it’s not as intimidating as it feels at first. I was overly prepared when all they needed were some pictures. They were all just excited to learn something new.
Community Counselor Cindy Hallen presented Grace with her Certificate of Recognition several weeks after her presentation.