Madagascar Morning Meeting
Welcome to the Madagascar Morning Meeting. It is great to see you all. Well, maybe not "see", but you understand. Before we begin, let's make sure you know where Madagascar is. Give the globe a good ol' spin and see if you can find where I am and where you are.
Greeting:
Morning Meetings start with a greeting, so click on the movie below to get started. (The movie was filmed while I was still in France a week or so ago).
Activity:
Madagascar kids do have some games that are all their own, but today we will play one that you and they both already know. I'll explain the rules; you see if you can figure out what game it is. Everyone needs to sit in a circle. One person will be "it" to start. She will walk around the circle gently touching each person on the shoulder as she goes. Do you know the game yet? If you think it is Duck, Duck, Goose, you're wrong. This is Madagascar. Here they call it Gàna Fòtsy, Gàna Mèna. It means White Duck, Red Duck, but the game is exactly the same. When someone says Gàna Mèna, the chase is on. Good luck and, since you are inside, no running. If you run, you go to the middle. Unless of course you want to pop outside for a couple of minutes. Then you could run.
P.S. Here's some help with the pronunciation. White duck sounds like this, "Gana foots" (but the "foots" sounds like "hoots" except with an "f"). Red duck sounds like this, "Gana men."
Sharing:
Scroll on down the page and have a look see at one of the posts. Your teacher knows which one is best for you, but here's a reminder:
Grades K-2 should read the post that is just under this one and it is called "Out of the City and Into the Country."
Grades 3-5 should read the post that is two below this one and it is called "Back in Madagascar Again."
Please, please, please, please, please, please leave a comment when you're done reading. I would very much love to hear from you.
Goodbye:
I hope you had a good time and learned a few things about Madagascar. If you would like to do this again, just let your teacher know and maybe we could do one meeting every month. I miss you all. Take care
Velòma.
9 comments:
We like your song, Mr. Lebo. And it was very nice of you to bring us this song and thank you for the game.
Love, Vendela
I miss you. I liked the game. How long are you staying in Madagascar?
by Sebastian
Where did the game come from? We liked the game.
Love, Joyce
I liked the game. It was very fun. Thank you for telling us how to play the game. We played that game outside.
Love, Sonia
Mrs. K's 1st grade
So cool! And what's with the "Just Philip" part!?! Weird...
Maddie Norman
(Well, you know the rest.)
Philip is in our class, you know!
Dear Mrs. K's Class,
I'm glad you liked the game. Some school children in the south east taught it to us. It's fun to think that 8000 miles away kids are playing the same games. I hopefully be back next November to say hello, but then I will be heading back to Madagascar for another year.
Hello, it's Georgia your former student from Little Brook.In the clip about the manowna greeting( I don't know how to spell manowna so I just sounded it out!!!!!!)who is the girl (or should woman)that said manowna when you said, "Now ladies!"? Was she your wife or was she just a random lady who just happened to be there at the time of the clip? Love your former student, Georgia
We enjoyed playing the Madagascar version of "Duck,duck, Goose" last week. The next day we left for Gettysburg. It was great but a bit soggy.--Mrs. Schwimmer's Class
I liked all the animals and how you explained each and every one.
-Simon
I was interested of all the animals, extinct and endangered and learning about what they were.
-Zakaria
I liked seeing those pictures.Did you take them?
-Julia
I love the pictures you put on your blog.The politics in Madagascar are pretty scary.I mean,who burns cars!?Were did you find that dodo go round?It had some cool animals,anyways.
-Julie
Mr.Lebo,
I really enjoyed learning abut the extinct animals on the carousel. I had never heard of most of them.
~Hannah
Was the snake you took a picture of venomous? It was bigger then my dad! In science lab with Mr.Emmons we cloned plants. We miss you!
-Trish
I really enjoyed learning about all the different animals in Madagascar
and how people made their things like the mattress.
-Alexandra P.
I liked the small frog that was the size of a marshmallow. I think I know its name, Marshmallow Frog.
-Pete
I didn't know snails were so big!
-Jordan
What has been your favorite place to live so far - Madagascar or France? I'm sure both are very different!
~Alexandra S.
-
Dear Georgia,
That lovely woman is my lovely wife, Dr. Frasier. You can call her Cindy. I do. She is a botanist (plant doctor). She is working in Madagascar to classify and protect the unique plants of the island.
I hope you are well. I miss being able to watch you be a scientist in class.
Dear Mrs. Schwimmer's Class,
I hope Gettysburg was a great time, soggy or not. Was the giant diorama painting up? I used to go to Gettysburg every year when I was a kid. We only lived 45 minutes away. The giant painting was one of my favorite parts. Devil's Den was always very interesting too. But I was never allowed to climb around like I wanted to. Oh well, now I am older and I can climb mountains anywhere I want.
Thank you for playing the game. I'm trying to find out some more Madagascar games for the next morning meeting. I have started volunteering at the orphanage, so the kids there should know lots of games.
Do I like France or Madagascar better? Well, France was very nice, but it didn't feel that different than Princeton even though every one was speaking French. Here in Madagascar it does most certainly feel different. That can make it hard, but it is a wonderful experience and I think I like it here best. It is hard to not be able to joke around and teach the kids I see though. It will be awhile until I will know the language well enough to do that.
How did you clone the plants in science class?
I miss you all.
Mr. Lebo
Dear Mr. Lebo,
We miss you so much and we are so happy to have your blog to read. It feels like you're not so far away. We really liked hearing you read The Gruffalo. Your voices
made us laugh.
The pictures of the lemurs are awesome. It's so cool to see animals that we may never have a chance to see in person.
We hope to set up "SKype" to talk with you live.
Mrs. Thomas' Class - 3rd grade at CP - Arden, Alan, Chloe, Clara, Georgia, Jaylin, JoJo, Leah, Louis, Momoko, Niklas, Noah, Parsa, Ruth, Sophie, and Will.
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