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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Year 6 – Term 3 At a Glance
Our year 6 students enjoyed an exciting and adventurous term. Throughout the term, the students broadened their knowledge by learning about fractions, circuits, ecosystems and more. They developed insight into the educational struggles of others around the world through the inspirational story of Malala and got a taste of entrepreneurship by designing and creating products from sustainable materials.
During our insightful skills periods, the students became aware of good online conduct and how to use social media in a positive manner.
As the year 6 students will become the leaders of tomorrow, they went on camp at Bonamanzi. Not only did they learn to become independent, but also discovered which qualities are vital to be a good and influential leader.
Tired does not even begin to explain how they felt after they returned from camp. They went river rafting, created flags, competed in various group activities and went night walking, where they discovered scorpions, as well as the importance of covering your legs to avoid pesky ticks. Snacking was of utmost importance – who knew that 11-year-old students could eat so much!
The students also came into personal contact with the wild side of camping, with mosquitoes that must’ve originated in the Jurassic era, big and sneaky, causing them to all return home, looking like they might have the plague – they definitely would’ve made quite an impact on dot day! Poor Miss Nel injured her foot while running, having to hop along after the students as they ventured out and about.
Ending the term on a high note, the students hosted their very first student led conference. During this conference, the students chose which work they were most proud of during the term and presented it to their parents themselves. They were able to explain to their parents what they had learnt during the term, as well as how they improved and what they found interesting. Both the students and the parents thoroughly enjoyed this special bonding time together.
As another term ends, the year 6 students will definitely be able to tick off a few things from their bucket lists – yes, pun intended.
Rochelle Oosthuizen
Year 6 Teacher
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Adventures In Space
In English this week in Year 1. we have been working on our creative writing skills as we dramatised stories of our adventures in Space. Turning our desks upside down in class, we pretended they were our ‘spaceships.’ The students worked in groups and had a lot of fun acting and narrating out their space adventure stories. We then used the ipads to video their stories before writing about them. The class has a lot of fun working together and creating their own space adventures!
Clara Chassungo wrote: “I am going to space, I’m taking my brother, Geraldo and am also taking my mum and dad. We are going to look at all the different planets and we are landing on the moon! We will land at 3 o’ clock in the morning and we see aliens and footprints. We will jump in the sky…”
Buhle Sibiya writes: “ I am going to space so I can see the 8 planets in the galaxy and I am taking Ozzie, she is my friend. We landed on the moon and we saw aliens and we are going to land…”
Charlotte Cronje
Year 1 Teacher
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A fun way to learn our initial sounds of words in Pre-Reception
A fun way to learn our initial sounds of words in Pre-Reception
It is important for children to learn letter-sound relationships because the English language uses letters in the alphabet to represent sounds.
Phonics teaches this information to help children learn how to read. Children learn the sounds that each letter makes.
A fun way through which the Pre-Reception students learn the initial sound of words is… I would like to introduce you to a very important member of our class. His name is the Sound Monkey and the students take turns to take him home with them and find something that starts with the letter of the alphabet that we are learning about that week.
The students are always very excited when it is their turn and can’t wait. It is always very interesting to see what the sound monkey has in his bag the next day. It’s usually things that I did not even think of.
It is very interesting to see how quickly the students have been learning the initial sounds of words in this manner. Now let us see whose turn it is today!
Cindy Nunan
Pre-Reception Teacher
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Shaping Positive Eating Habits
Wow! What a busy week it has been. Our main focus in Nursery this week has been on Healthy Eating, and believe me when I tell you that I have had to explain why chocolate is not a fruit more times than I have had to sing “Let it go”, and that’s A LOT.
Explaining to our students why their chips and chocolates should not be eaten in the morning, is similar to arguing with a qualified lawyer about the law, it hardly ever ends well. However, as the week progressed, our little ‘pre-lawyers’ began enjoying learning about healthy eating so much, that we actually had to send some of the unhealthy snacks back home, and that itself is like a snowy day in summer.
This has reinforced my belief that teaching young students about healthy living does not have to be done through a strict, structured routine, but rather through fun, play-based activities. Play-based learning helps support our children’s desire to explore and interact with the world around them. Providing them with opportunities to explore and learn about foods, separate from meal times, not only exposes them to new foods but allows those fussy eaters to explore non-preferred foods in an encouraging way.
As our school follows the wonderful Traffic Light System, our students are already aware of the foods that are not healthy, but maintaining that diet can be tricky with toddlers. So this week, we introduced healthy eating through colour, exploration and a lot of gentle encouragement. Some of the students helped create a healthy eating colour chart that explored the principle of ‘eating the rainbow’ and even chose some of their favourite fruits and created crafty fruit baskets for our next picnic. We also explored shopping for fruits and vegetables, and students picked out various healthy foods that we can find at the grocery store.
By making healthy eating fun, engaging and hands-on, our students found it less daunting to face the vegetables on their plate and supported our long-term goal of building a foundation for lifelong healthy eating habits.
Jo-Anne Dickason
Nursery Teacher
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Administrative Professional’s Day
On Wednesday, 7 September, we celebrated Administrative Professional’s Day aka Secretary’s Day by thanking and paying tribute to all of the wonderful ladies in our Admin department at school. They received cards, sweet treats and a guard of honour from the children throughout the phases as an early morning surprise.
We have such a diverse team of people who fulfil very important roles; Avril – our front desk secretary, Aftercare manager and Mr Swart’s right hand “man”, Razonne – the lady we run to when we need some money for our classrooms, Diana – if it wasn’t for her our children wouldn’t have uniform to wear, Eldri – our school representative and admissions person, and last but not least, Trindade – our librarian and master of communication!
As you can see our team is extremely essential to ensuring that BIS is the well-oiled machine that it is! As these faces are so busy behind the scenes I thought I would ask my Reception Year class what Aunty Avril does all day – here are their responses:
- She works on her computer and in Aftercare sometimes she comes. – Lolwam
- She works in Aftercare. – Amelia
- Aunty Avril is strict! – Naif
- When people don’t listen and they go to Mr Swart then she sends them to his office to visit. – Purity
- She always wants to go home. – Enhle
- When my dad drops off something for me, like money, she will call me. – Anam
- Aunty Avril is a good teacher. – Kopano
- She always comes to Aftercare to talk to the teachers. – Samuel
- She works at the office. – Isabella
Thank you for all that you do, not only on Secretary’s Day, but every day!
Kim Hahn
Reception Year Teacher
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