GIRAFFE HOUSE
Every term we have many exciting things happening, but none as exciting as an outing day. When outing day finally arrived, the little ones in Pre-Reception and Reception came to school very excited for the trip to Giraffe House.
The students and the teachers had a lovely time as always. We saw many amazing animals from little baby lemurs to big, beautiful giraffes. The students also attended a lesson presented by the Giraffe House staff, teaching them about the animals housed there. The students were very brave as some of them were asked to hold snakes and bearded dragons; luckily no one had to touch the big spiders!
On our return to school, the students shared some of their most memorable parts of the day. It seems the giraffes won as their favourite, that and off course going on the bus, which is always very exciting.
Monique Meyer
Foundation Stage Coordinator
Read More
InterSEK 2022
An experience that can never be forgotten, a trip overseas to compete in the sporting InterSEK among our sister schools from IES and SEK. Eight BIS students travelled with their guide, Mrs Diana Rubio to Valencia in Spain for this prestigious event. They competed in Basketball, Soccer, Padel, Athletics, Volleyball and more…
Our students did very well and won a few medals:
Tawany – Gold medal High Jump
Teeyana – Silver medal High Jump
Tawany – Silver medal 1500m
Tawany – Bronze medal 60m
Teeyana – Silver medal 60m
Boys Soccer – Bronze medal
The most important aspect of this trip was not the medals or competition, it was the experience and precious friendships the students made during the week of enjoying the culture and hospitality of our hosting families and school. We would like to thank them all for hosting our students in such a warm and wonderful way. A bond that we were lucky enough to capture on a few of the images below.
Well done on being true ambassadors to our school Lunje Languza Year 6, Donsima Sima Year 6, Teeyana Shaik Mahomed Year 8, Ian Scrooby Year 8, Gabrielle Adamson Year 9, Jens Buchwald Year 9, Geneva Cohen Year 9, Tawany Maurits Lasoen Year 9, Karabo Kalane Year 9 and Jessica Smith Year 11. You have made us so proud!
SRC 2023
The Student Representative Council (SRC) of 2022 was one of Blouberg’s smallest SRCs. Yet what was lacking in size was made up for in willingness and determination. Led by Kazimla Dyakalashe and supported by a strong Matric class, they led and excelled in every task assigned to them. Not once did they tell us that something could not be done. Thank you, SRC 2022, for your dedication in serving your school. You have set the bar high for the new SRC.
A bigger class than that of 2022, the SRC of 2023 comprises of eight students. Our congratulations go to Oscar Berger, Shaylee Brandt, Philade Luthango, Landelwa Maqanda, Nadia Mohamed, Daniel Moodie, Chidozie Muoka and Erin Stewart on their selection for this important role.
2023 will see the implementation of some notable changes to student leadership in the school, including greater involvement of the Student Leaders and the introduction of cheerleaders. The SRC will be involved in many of these changes. They will also attend workshops, many of which will be designed to help them develop their leadership skills.
We look forward to watching our SRC grow in the year ahead, as well as to all they will help develop and initiate at the school.
Sheila Marais
SRC Coordinator
Top Row Left to Right: Oscar Berger, Shaylee Brandt, Philade Luthango, Landelwa Maqanda Bottom Row Left to Right: Nadia Mohamed, Daniel Moodie, Chidozie Muoka and Erin Stewart
Read More
Convincing Careers
Year 5s started with a new topic in Global Perspectives for Term 4, called Will a Robot Do My Job?
Students had to identify the career that they would most like to pursue as an adult, giving reasons for their choice. They had to use a KWL chart to help them think about the career they have chosen:
- K – They started by completing the “What I know” column with any information that they already have about their chosen career (for example: the skills and knowledge they think are needed to do the job, and any qualities that are required).
- W – Students then completed the “‘What I want to find out’ column with any questions about their chosen job that they want to find the answers to. They shared their questions with other students in groups, and discussed where they might be able to find the answers.
- L – We will research these questions during the next lesson and complete the “What I’ve learned” column.
As we continue with this unit, the students will also have to come up with convincing arguments as to why or why not a robot will be able to take over their job one day.
“The only way to do great work is to LOVE what you do.” – Steve Jobs
Take a look at the exciting careers some of our students would like to pursue one day!
Ria du Plessis
Year 5 Coordinator
Read More
Live Sketching in Arts and Craft Club
“Art has the role in education for helping children to become more like themselves instead of more like everyone else. “ – Sydney Gurewitz Clemens
The Year 1 and Year 2 students in the Arts and Craft club thoroughly enjoyed a quiet lesson on Monday, completing a live sketch of a plant. They had the choice between an orchid and a bonsai tree. This took a lot of concentration and visual analysis of the different parts of a plants structure which the Year 1 students mastered in Term 3.
A live sketch is also known as a life drawing which is the drawing of an object through observation. We found this form of art something new and different for the students to try which completely blew the teachers away by the interest, concentration and beautiful sketches that were completed.
We found this form of sketching encourages students to make use of visual analysis, a lot of concentration, aids in creative problem solving and helps hand-eye coordination as well as fine motor skills.
We are grateful to have such talented students in our Arts and Craft club and look forward to watching them continue to grow more skills over this last term.
“The arts can help students become tenacious, team orientated problem solvers who are confident and able to think creatively.”- Arne Duncan
Erin Hierse
Year 1 Teacher
Read More
Holiday News in Reception Year
The students have come back from the term 3 break and were brimming with excitement to share all the interesting things they had done in the holiday. These are the most memorable things they did:
Sofia Haskins (6 yrs old): “I went to a sleepover with my friend.”
Omime Ogumah (6 yrs old): “I went to the braai and pool.”
Nikraad Manoucheri (5 yrs old): “I went to the dentist.”
Rume Oriesa (6 yrs old): “I went to the zoo.”
Chaitrika Kotari (6 yrs old): “I went to the pool.”
Kaedy Frey (5 yrs old): “I went to my granny’s house.”
Grayson Muller (5 yrs old): “I went to the dolphin show.”
Tiwatope Olanrewaju (5 yrs old): “I went to the braai shop.”
Zion Durojaiye (5 yrs old): “I went to the beach.”
Ariah Mukubvu (5 yrs old):” I went to the park.”
Amelia Engelbrecht (5 yrs old): “I went for a walk with my dog.”
Joshua Mpako (6 yrs old): “I went to shop.”
Chiamaka Davidson (6 yrs old): I went to the pool.”
Jonah Atson (5 yrs old): “I went to my cousin’s house.”
Bronwen Nuthall
Reception Year Teacher
Read More
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…
This week we learnt all about different sea animals. How some live in the ocean and others can live both in the sea and on land. The students loved learning more about the sea: who doesn’t love sharks and jellyfish!
We did the following hands on learning activities this week:
Numeracy: The students had to find different numbered shells in the sand to complete the number line.
Literacy: The students wrote their names and sounds in the sand with the shells, this activity strengthens their pencil grip.
Fine motor activity: The students enjoyed building and creating ocean sculptures while developing their problem solving, fine motor and social skills at the playdough area.
Construction area: We have added boats, ocean animals, shells and gems to our construction area. The students were very excited to build something new, which will extend their thinking as they build something different than they usually do.
Arts and crafts: The students made lovely crafts this week practising and developing their scissor and fine motor skills.
Music and Movement: The students shake out the sillies by copying the actions of the ocean animals. They had to “wobble like a jellyfish”, “clap like a seal”, “slide like a sea snail” and “leap like a dolphin “ .
Sensory Area: We created an underwater sensory bin filled with water beads and sea creatures for some imaginative exploratory play.
We reminded the students to be safe when they go to the beach and follow the following rules:
- Wear a hat with a wide brim to shade your face and neck.
- Sunglasses can help to protect your eyes.
- Cover up with a t-shirt to protect your shoulders and upper arms.
- Always wear sun cream.
- Drink lots of water.
- Just swim where it is safe.
- Make sure you can swim NEVER swim alone and make sure you are always supervised by an adult at the beach.
We also encouraged the students to get involved in protecting the ocean by:
- Reduce and recycle.
- Joining a beach clean up.
- Asking shops and restaurants if they have plastic-free alternatives.
The students had a blast doing all of the activities.
Martie van Dyk
Pre-Reception Teacher
Read More
Creating community in the Spanish class
Building community is one of the most important aspects in the Spanish class.
Personally, I have the feeling that I have failed in the past to build a more positive environment with certain year groups that would have improved the quality of my Spanish lessons and the learning experience of my students.
For that reason, my main objective for this last term and for the whole 2023 is to improve that relationship with my students, focusing on making genuine connections.
This aspect based on my experience is key to creating a better dynamic in the class, a class where the students can find a safe place with low levels of stress and zero anxiety.
My first step to achieve this goal will be to give them the opportunity during this last term of asking me questions in Spanish through an activity that I have called: Interviewing the Spanish teacher.
I think that by giving them certain details about my family, pets, travels, favourite things, and memorable moments will help me to build better connections with them.
Generating an excuse to start a conversation
Secondly, I am planning to have more conversations with the students about things and topics that interest them, of course they must be able to understand the message to start a conversation and the teacher must be the facilitator of the language acquisition.
Introduce more projects that interest them and topics that would like to talk about.
Some of the Term 4 projects:
Year 5 and 6 – Interviewing the teacher. Every student can ask me one question in Spanish.
Year 5 – This is me: the students are going to introduce themselves in groups of two having little conversations asking each other’s names, ages, nationalities, place of residence and grade.
Year 6 – Interviewing a classmate: Asking questions about his or her favourite food, music and sport.
Other little thing on my list that helps to connect and establish better relationships with them:
· What would my students like to be called? Are they using other names rather than the ones on your class list?
· How much do I know about them? Hobbies; sports that they practice; siblings…
Learning about each other
The students can also learn about each other to create bonds with other classmates over common interest they may not have discovered yet
From little conversations to great conversations
Engage them in a follow-up conversation, simplest way is by using WHY? so, they can express themselves further.
Making learning fun, useful and interactive
In this article’s featured photographs you will find some special moments of the Year 5 and 6 students performing their role-play activities: At the restaurant and at the clothing shop.
At the end of each role-play, the group has been asking questions in Spanish to their classmates about their stories promoting their interaction.
I look forward to a wonderful term of building a strong community in the Spanish class.
Javier Vidal
Spanish Teacher Primary School
Read More
Welcome back to school!
There was much excitement in the Year 2 classes as they returned to school this week! Watching the different facial expressions as they walked into class, one could definitely see that, most of them were very happy to be back.
Within the first hour, however, questions like: When is it break? Can we eat yet? Do we have to do more work? Or statements like I’m tired, made me realise that it was going to take a while for the students to get back into their normal routine.
When asked what they missed about school, answers like, break time, playing with my friends, free time in class, or we missed you, were quite openly shared. Obviously school work did not rank high in the popularity poll!
However, given a few days to settle in, the students were soon eager and ready to start learning again. I was reminded that, especially, with younger children, their minds absorb information like sponges.
As we enter the final term of 2022, one looks back at the beginning of the year and appreciates just how much they have grown, academically, emotionally and socially.
Kim Coetzer
Year 2 Teacher
Read More
From the German Classroom
In German, the Year 4 students have been learning vocabulary related to items that we use daily and that one can buy at the shops. They then learnt simple sentences related to going shopping and asking for that specific item.
Role-playing is the perfect way to put the learning into practice. This enhances the students’ speaking skills to make the foreign language meaningful and useful in conversation. It improves the students’ communication skills in learning a new language, and then in turn develops their interaction with one another. This also strengthens social skills including student collaboration. Role-play gives students the opportunity to experience real world/life scenarios in the classroom and learn from each other.
We first watched a short video showcasing Year 4 students from a school in Germany, who role play going on a shopping trip using the same vocabulary and sentences that the students had learnt.
This gave the students some inspiration to work on their own role-plays. They were then divided into small groups to plan and practice their own shopping trip. They chose the roles of either a shopkeeper/assistant or the person shopping and selected the items they wanted to purchase using some props in my classroom. Then the students were given the opportunity to present their role-plays.
The students were really motivated and had a lot of fun acting out the conversations and were able to put what they had learnt in theory into practice.
Looking forward to many more.
Frau K. Pani
Primary School German Teacher
https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide/role-playing.shtml
Read More