Celebrating Heritage Day

Today, 24 September 2017 we are celebrating Heritage day in South Africa. Also well know as "Braai Dag" (Barbeque Day). South Africans celebrate their culture and diversity of their traditions and believe.  We are truly the rainbow nation. It was first time celebrated on 24 September 1995 and is a public holiday. Now, this year it is on a Sunday, that means tomorrow is a public holiday. Yippy! For a long weekend!

Celebrating Heritage Day

 We celebrate the day at school and the learners had the opportunity to dress in their traditional clothes. They all looked so colourful and beautiful. 

Learners in their traditional clothes

Maybe you don't know it, but South Africa have 11 official languages. And most people here are fluent in two languages. For example I'm Afrikaans but can also speak English as my second language. I'm teaching Afrikaans as First Additional Language at a Primary School. But for most of my students it is their third language. Most schools in South Africa are English or Afrikaans and not the learner’s home language.

Today I’m sharing words that some learners told me in their mother tongue.

	ENGLISH	LANGUAGE
yiyakubonga	Thank you	isiZulu
Goeie nag	Good night	Afrikaans
izala	Come here	isiZulu
isitunsi	shadow	isiZulu
dumelang	hello	Spedi
unjane	How are you?	isiZulu
umuhle	You are beautiful	isiZulu
hatic	I know	Swathi
Mobimo	God	isiZulu
Modimo	God	seSotho
gogo	Granny	isiZulu
margo	but	isiZulu
umama	mother	isiZulu
isea	come	Xhosa
Inkosa zana	princess	isiZulu
molwene	hello	Xhosa

Look at the beautiful beads!

 It is really wonderful it is to live in a country so diverse and beautiful. 

DIY paperclips

Like so many other people, especially those I follow on Instagram are big time into planning.

My Filofax aren't as awesome as most, but I'm trying. Maybe in the future I will share a page or two.

I always see the most beautiful paperclips. Most of mine I bought,  but I decided to try and make my own.

DIY Paperclips for my planner

Now the materials are very simple:
❤ Bright big paperclips
❤ Embellishments
❤ Glue gun

I'm lucky enough to have a Cameo Silhouette to make my own embellishments. I decide on some animals to make. Got the cutest designs from Silhouette Design Store.  You can use any embellishments that you have or make it  yourself.

Cute Animal Embellishments

After cutting and assembling the embellishments I got out my glue gun. This I used to stick the embellishments onto the paperclips.

I went a little overboard,  because this was so much fun to make. I decide to make some nice packaging and give it to some friends.

Cat and dog embellishments

Hope you like it as much as I do!
You are welcome to share your DIY paperclips and ideas with me.

DIY UPCYCLING TINS

I'm so happy and excited about my new classroom. I'm a Afrikaans Second Language teacher at a primary school in Middelburg, South Africa.

The year started out with me teaching in a tent under a tree. This alone was an experience. From mud, rain,wind blowing me and the learners away, very hot and sweaty conditions and even a scorpion one day in the tent. This is Africa for you!

Six months down the road and we have a new school building, I have a classroom made of brick and that is  brand new.  

The fun and creative part of teaching can start now!

This means I can start decorating my classroom. Yeah! Happy times!

Some of the few things I made is stationary organisers for everything that the learners leave behind in class.

Upcycling Stationary Organiser

I made use of all the stuff that I had around in my house. I reuse some empty tins and a Pringle container. The rest of the materials were washi tape, brown paper, twine, beautiful ribbon and vinyl.

I made labels from black vinyl and a cutoff piece of vinyl that you use for lining your cabinets. 

Cutting is very easy if you do have a cutting machine. I used my Silhouette Cameo for this purpose. But you can make labels from paper, stickers or anything that comes to mind.

Materials used to upcycle tins

I covered the Pringle container with brown paper.  The tuna tin I just made use of washi tape and twine to cover it. The other organisers for the pens and pencils I use washi tape and ribbon.

Like always I have to make use of my glue gun. Most things I stick together using it. What is a crafter without a glue gun!

Starting out I thought I'm going use more embellishments and decorations. Simplicity got the upper hand. I didn't go overboard. Sometimes you just need to know when to stop.

This reuse and decorating of tins went so much quicker that I thought. I'm happy with the end results and think this will make my classroom just that little  bit more personal.

DIY Stationary Organisers

Look out for future posts for ideas and decoration of my classroom.