KSG students were so thrilled to receive beautiful sneakers from our sister school, Chapin, in New York City! Thank you, Chapin!
Visiting the Nairobi National Museum
During their last week of Spring Break camp, the entire school visited the Nairobi National Museum for a field trip. The students loved exploring all of the exhibits and were especially fascinated by Kenya's history and the plethora of taxidermy animals.
Learning the Recorder at KSG
KSG students are so excited for their upcoming music competition! They have been diligently practicing the recorder twice per week, including during Spring Break. This is the first year the girls will compete, and they feel very excited and hopeful.
KSG Graduation!
On December 20, the Kibera School for Girls capped the academic year with its annual closing ceremony. Performances included the Luhya dance by Grades 3 and 4, the "I am Learned" poem by the Pre-K class, and the "We Love Kindergarten" poem by the kindergarten class. The Grade 1 class presented a play with a storyline focused on the theme of child labor, while the Grade 2 class delivered two poems entitled "I Have Not Existed By Chance" and "Dreams of Today’s Girl Child."
Credit: Candace Hope
Field Trip to Nairobi's iHub
At the beginning of October our third and fourth graders took a field trip to Nairobi's iHub. The iHub is the epicenter of Nairobi's growing technology scene and provides working space and support for technology organizations and entrepreneurs. One of those amazing organizations is the AkiraChix. AkiraChix is a group of Kenyan women working in ICT related jobs that uses training and mentoring to inspire and grow the number of women working in technology. When we heard about AkiraChix we thought they were such an inspiring group and reached out to them about ways we could work together. They are currently working on developing an after-school program to teach our girls in computers and technological literacy. However, they were also gracious enough to give us a tour around this amazing facility. The girls were able to meet people working in many different technological sectors -- and asked many questions. It was a wonderful experience and we know that in addition to a few doctors, lawyers, and teachers, some of our girls at KSG will grow up to be Kenya's top coders and tech experts.
Personal Narratives
Do you remember writing story after story when you were in school? Our girls love to write! Here are a few of their recent "personal narratives":
Yoga!
Each and every Monday all of our students pack into our Great Hall for yoga, one of KSG's favorite extra-curricular activities. Led by teachers from Nairobi's Africa Yoga Project, the classes are great way for the girls to relax, learn about keeping their bodies healthy, and, of course, to have a LOT of fun.
Standard Chartered Volunteer Day
Last Friday we were joined in Kibera by the amazing team from Standard Chartered here in Kenya. Every year they take part in a branch-wide volunteer day where their employees come together to give back to the community. This year we were fortunate enough to welcome them to SHOFCO!
The volunteers joined us first thing in the morning to listen to our CEO Kennedy Odede tell the story of SHOFCO. Kennedy thanked them immensely for coming and then the volunteering began. The volunteers (whose numbers were in the hundreds) were split up into teams for many different projects. Whether it was by reading to our girls at the Kibera School for Girls, building sanitary community latrines, constructing shelfs for our library, training our Group Savings and Loans members on business marketing and sales, helping our IT and HR teams, the Standard Chartered team made a huge impact in a single day. In addition to all of that (and more!) they also held an eye clinic called Seeing is Believing where people from Kibera, and especially children, could come to get their eyes checked. We had over 2000 people, mainly school children, come to the clinic!
Overall it was a fun, activity-filled day with the wonderful people from Standard Chartered in Kenya. We can't thank them enough and welcome them to come visit us anytime!
Pre-K Reading Journals
Every morning at the Kibera School for Girls our students have an hour long literacy session. This is a time when they either read as a group or independently, using reading techniques passed on to them by their teachers. The daily literacy session, which allows students to work on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and much more, is a key component of the KSG curriculum.
This June, during our Summer Institute program four teachers from the Chapin School, our sister school in New York City, came to Kenya for the third straight year to work with our teachers on developing our curriculum. While they covered a range of different topics and subjects, one very beneficial development was introducing reading journals to the daily literacy session. Each girl now has her own journal and uses it to write down details about the story they just read and their thoughts about the book. The Pre-K students use the journals to work on their spelling and vocabulary. They are urged to try their best to spell difficult words, even if they don't know exactly how to spell them. The results are just what our teachers want -- the girls may not spell the word right, but demonstrate progress in using how specific letters and letter combinations sound to "sound out" a word, a key tool in developing future spelling skills. We hope you'll enjoy a few photos of the Pre-K students and their new reading journals!
Field Trip to the UN!
On Monday, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to take our 4th grade class to the United Nation's Headquarters in Nairobi! Our new Country Director, JM, set up the trip in part as a gift to the girls for placing number one in their district examinations.
It was also a wonderful opportunity for our girls to widen their views of what they can be when they grow up. Many of our girls want to be doctors, teachers, lawyers, and pilots -- and many will be exceptional at those professions. However, we also want them to be exposed to a wide array of other possibilities. We want them to know that, if they set their minds to it, they can be computer programmers, architects, or, as they discovered yesterday, a delegate to the United Nations.
We had a great tour of the vast UN compound. The girls were treated to an exceptional presentation about the UN's history and what it is that the UN does around the world. During the presentation they were challenged to say what problems in Kenya needed solving. Many of the responses -- "We need to create more jobs for people." "People don't have food and shelter." "Our environment needs to be protected" -- made you ask, "Are these these girls really only in Fourth grade?!"
After the presentation and discussion, we walked around the grounds, seeing gifts that other countries had given the UN in Nairobi, learning more about what the UN offices do, and even touring a new state-of-the-art 'green' building, completely energy and carbon-neutral, equipped with solar panels and specially designed to recycle all water and provide abundant natural light. The girls even had the opportunity to go up on stage in the general assembly room, where large scale international meetings happen. Everywhere they went, the girls, always inquisitive and eager to learn, were constantly shooting up the hands to asks questions. It was a wonderful day!
Early Monday morning as we were driving to the site, JM asked the girls who had heard of the UN. Nobody had. "Not to worry," he said, "by the end of the day you'll all be experts." Sure enough, after their tour there's no doubt in our minds that our girls will grow up to be leaders in charge of promoting peace, justice, and well-being in Kenya -- and around the world. Just take a second to imagine that world.
From the Classroom: Six Word Memoirs
For the Summer Institute, students were asked to describe themselves in just six words, and we love what they came up with!
My talents are acting and painting.
My favorite color is pinky rosy.
By Lorna, 4th Grade
I love my family so much. – Molly, 2nd grade
We are smart in our family – Melvin, 2nd grade
I want to be a scientist – Mary, 2nd grade
I like writing letters to sponsors. – Prudence, 2nd grade
Busy with work but always best. – Eunice, 4th grade
I love my family the best. – Lydia, 2nd grade
I am an innovative girl today. – Juliet, 2nd grade
I like learning more than playing. – Joyce, 4th grade
Kibera School for Girls is good!
By Susan, 3rd Grade
I love Kibera School for Girls. – Beldin, 4th grade
My tiny brother likes playing football. – Christine, 2nd grade
I am a very good girl! – Ashley, 2nd grade
I am bigger than that baby. – Pauline, 2nd grade
My brother and I like dancing. – Marion, 3rd grade
I want to be a nurse. – Makesh, 3rd grade
I am shining like a star. – Sofi, 1st grade
My family takes care of me. – Beatrice, 1st grade
The school I love is KSG. – Mercy, 1st grade
Recorder Workshop
Performance has always been an essential part of the culture at the Kibera School for Girls (KSG). Our girls are constantly singing, dancing, and reciting poems – and they love it! Last weekend, we expanded this tradition by inviting world-renowned musicians and music educators, Nina Stern and Matilda Gianpietro, for a music workshop with our teachers and girls.
During the music workshop, our students had their very first brush with formal music training. They struggled with the Bs, As and Gs of recorders, multi-tiered harmonies, and music terminology – and came out beautifully on the other side! This is just the beginning of a beautiful relationship with music. We look forward to integrating the music curriculum into our school day – to keep their recorder fingers sharp and move them towards more complex instruments over the next few years. Almost every day at KSG we see how performance makes our girls confident, disciplined, and creative, and we can’t wait to see how the addition of recorders will impact our girls in the future!
Nina is an internationally recognized recorder player and Julliard Professor. She has been called a “recorder virtuoso” by the New York Times, and plays the recorder, clarinet, and chalumeaux. She has developed music programs around East Africa, including Burundi and another school in Kibera. Matilda has been teaching music at Montessori schools for nearly 30 years, and teaching the Montessori music curriculum to Montessori teachers for nearly 20.