As an English teacher, words and their spelling take on a special meaning. The alphabet is also important, and to those who are learning our alphabet, no matter what their age, visual examples are part of how a letter is remembered.
This summer I have worked with students at various levels of achievement in English. Most do not really know the alphabet and they struggle just as I do with their 39 letter Armenian alphabet.
In my experience, the letter "F" stands for" FLOWER". It is also the first letter of the word "FORK" .
The impact of these particular visuals is far less for my students than for me because this spring David and I , with the help of our friend and my team teacher, Christina, planted a FLOWER Garden at our apartment. We scattered a collection of seeds which Christina and I had collected from various places, watered them well and waited.
In a few weeks, we began to see tiny seedlings popping up in the bare soil where grape vines previously grew. The need for water grew and continues through the summer. That has become David's job! Then came the tedious job of transplanting many of these babies into different areas of the garden because there were too many plants trying to grow too close together to thrive .
Here is where the FORK came in------it was my tool of choice and it worked fabulously!!
Learning these words in the Armenian language is more difficult. There is not just one letter to begin these 3 words. In the transliterated form of Hayeren (Armenian language) , flower is tsaghik, fork is patarrakagh, and friend is anker.
I hope you have many flowers and friends in your life and a few forks, too!!! Judy
This summer I have worked with students at various levels of achievement in English. Most do not really know the alphabet and they struggle just as I do with their 39 letter Armenian alphabet.
In my experience, the letter "F" stands for" FLOWER". It is also the first letter of the word "FORK" .
The impact of these particular visuals is far less for my students than for me because this spring David and I , with the help of our friend and my team teacher, Christina, planted a FLOWER Garden at our apartment. We scattered a collection of seeds which Christina and I had collected from various places, watered them well and waited.
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| Christina planting seeds in our new garden. |
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| Watering of this garden must be done by hand since there is no outdoor faucet available. |
In a few weeks, we began to see tiny seedlings popping up in the bare soil where grape vines previously grew. The need for water grew and continues through the summer. That has become David's job! Then came the tedious job of transplanting many of these babies into different areas of the garden because there were too many plants trying to grow too close together to thrive .
Here is where the FORK came in------it was my tool of choice and it worked fabulously!!
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| This is the FORK which transplanted hundreds to seedlings in our garden. Soon, our flowers began to grow in abandon, during the lengthy, sunny , warm days of our Armenian summer. This is a cottage garden and some of the flowers remain nameless to us and to our Armenian gardening friends. None the less, "F" signifies FLOWER and FORK and now, FRIENDS.
I will not forget the letter "F" in our alphabet and maybe my students won't either because of the MANY photos of flowers I make and show them.
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Learning these words in the Armenian language is more difficult. There is not just one letter to begin these 3 words. In the transliterated form of Hayeren (Armenian language) , flower is tsaghik, fork is patarrakagh, and friend is anker.
I hope you have many flowers and friends in your life and a few forks, too!!! Judy
