Patience!

The Grade 5's hosted Assembly last week and introduced the character trait of Patience - Mrs vdM talked to us about learning how to wait and being patient, after which the class gave us a "rap-up" (literally!)

Well done to our Merit Award children for their great work too!

Keep it up, we are proud of you!

The Peace Movie - Finished Product

Do you remember the Blogpost where we told you that our Grade 4's were participating in a Global Peace Movie?  Last week we received the final product.

I had seen all the clips that were submitted for the movie, and it was so heartwarming to see all the children of the world sharing their idea of what peace means to them.

The final movie is really also a testimony of great work done by Garret's Class in the USA. They have put together snippets randomly from all the schools with the children's messages - it must have taken hours of diligent work - but the result is just great!

If you would like to see the other countries that participated and their clips, please visit: http://globalpeacemovie.weebly.com/participating-schools.html

We so enjoyed this project and hope to partipicate with them, and others, 

in more joint class ventures in the future.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

The Grade 2's have had a very busy and exciting time learning about the 3R's.  They have even added Rethink and Respect to their R's:  Rethinking how we use materials and Respect for our world.

Mrs D introduced this with a great Jack Johnson music video using her e-beam, it was followed up throughout the term with visitors coming to spend time with them in class showing them what can be made from used plastic containers, eMzantsi also visited, they followed it up in ICT, and the whole school was treated to a 3R's workshop.

One day, a very nasty letter arrived from the 'Mayor' informing the Grade 2's that they were running out of space for dumps and that they would be forced to use the Schools' playgrounds as dumping sites or, if the schools refused, then the rubbish would be dumped into their back yards. Of course, the whole letter was a wonderful trick destined to shock all the Grade 2's, it was a great success and they sat down and drafted their letters voicing their horror at the thought.

They ended off, in groups, writing and performing their own songs - it's been a fabulously interactive theme for the term, and the children have enjoyed it and learnt so much.

I hope that you have enjoyed their Reduce, Reduce and Recycle with our Grade 2's!

Teachers in Training

It may be holidays but our teachers are using this time to do some training. You will remember that we have just had our e-Beams installed and the first day of holidays all the teaching and itinerant staff were involved in a 5-hour session of training.

That's not all. The following Friday and Saturday, our Principal, Foundation and Intermediate Phase Heads and our ICT Teacher attended the Elkanah EdTechConf eXtended conference. A conference aimed at getting Principals and Teachers excited about integrating technology into their teaching. We participated in various workshops from Social Bookmarking, Tweeting for Teachers, Tech Tools for Classroom Use and InDesign, we were treated to great plenary sessions by keynote speakers and various teachers shared their ideas with us all.

 

Groups who experience similar challenges in their approach to technology discussing solutions

Social Bookmarking Workshop



Lunch!

Maggie V with our HOD's and Principal

Maggie V with our ICT Teacher, and the winners of the Africa Innovative Teachers Competition.

The Innovative Teachers Panel getting ready to present their projects.

The Twitter for Teachers Workshop



 

Tea!

Some of the participants at the end of the final session.

It was extremely well organised and we came away feeling enthusiastic, filled with ideas and having made valuable connections with others in our field.

We know that ultimately your children are going to benefit from these conferences!

Art!

This term we have been concentrating on working towards entering the Longbeach Mall's "Loving the Deep South" competition.

We have had outdoor art classes with Grades 4-7. Grade 4 spent a morning on St James beach sketching and painting the colourful bungalows. The Grade 5's spent the morning at Fish Hoek beach, the Grade 6's set up at Kalk Bay Harbour to paint, while the Grade 7's spent their morning painting at Simonstown.

Afterwards we went to visit Heather Aner's Art Gallery where we had the opportunity to discuss art, techniques and meanings.

Grade 1-3 worked on their entries in their Art class.

We are thrilled to have 5 out of the 20 finalists be our children's art!  These pcitures below are the 5 finalists from our school and you can see for yourself the excellent results.

So, congratulations to:

Ashleigh in Gr. 1, Josie in Gr. 3, Jhenn in Gr. 4, Rachel in Gr. 4 and Rachael in Gr. 4.

Please go to the Longbeach Mall Facebook Page and "Like" their art!

Carguards Giftpack

The Grade 3's had collected soap and face-cloths for an Outreach.  They had a look around our community and decided that the Carguards at our local mall worked long hours, even in the rain and were always so friendly.

So this week Mrs B took them down in two groups to go and hand out their gifts. On their return she mentioned how heartwarming it was as they were so happy and overwhelmed to receive something for free!

Here are some of the children's comments:

"Today we went to Pick 'n Pay to give the carguards soap and a face-cloth. I felt good afterwards, I felt like i had done something good for someone."  ~ Luke ~

"Me, Shaun and Megan went to the Mall and we handed out a (new) face-cloth and soap that was wrapped in the face-cloth. We walked in the mall and out again and then me and megan saw these carguards and we handed out the face-cloth and soap. Then we went back to school and had free time!"  ~ Chloe ~

"One day we went across the road to the Pick 'n Pay. Luke and I each asked if they wanted a soap and face-cloth. I felt good that we did that and Michaela felt so good she gave two of the car guards a hug." ~ Matt ~

"We went to the car park to give the poor people soaps and face cloths. Michaela gave them hugs."  ~ Josie ~

Attentiveness, Merits (and Funny Cats)

Friday's assembly began with a short video clip about 'Funny Cat' moments.  Mrs V used this to illustrate "attentiveness", the character trait we've been working on these past two weeks.  We all had a good laugh at the clip and she was able to draw from them some instances that we, like the cats, are so focussed on what we want or where we want to go, that sometimes we are not quite as attentive perhaps to what God is saying to us.

The Grade 4's did a brief piece to further illustrate the fact that God knows our names and wants to be involved in our everyday life - they used the example of Samuel and Eli.

 

Congratulations to our Merit Award Boys and Girls from Assembly on Friday!  Keep up the good work.

Cobra Camp Hike

Hiking Club has been really super this term - we were able to do 2 new hikes:  The Old Mule Track and Cobra Camp.  It really is so nice to have everyone together outside of the classroom and we hope that there will be even more keen hikers for the last 2 hikes of the year during next term. 

Thank you to those who constantly make an effort to participate - it really is rewarding once you get out there.  Remember that there will be a Hiking Award at the end of the year for those who faithfully attend. 

Keep it up!

~ Mrs L! ~

Photographs courtesy of MelB

Global Peace Movie

The Grade 4's are taking part in a Global Peace Initiative.  The invitation was extended to Primary School learners worldwide to submit a short clip of "What peace means to me".   The clips submitted from around the world will then be blended together to form a Peace Movie by all the children.

Here is the clip that we submitted today.  Enjoy!

Merits, Music, Song and Drama...

Friday's Assembly was wonderfully varied. 

The Grade 6's did a "Skit" on Attentiveness, which ended up with "a chicken in a nappy, a baby in the oven, ironing the floor and sweeping the clothing"... clearly the instructions were not paid attention to!

We then had a handul of the Grade 5's who did a very theatrical remake of  "In Dreams" from their recent production.

Finally, we ended with a stunning guitar duo - such talented young men and a treat for us all. Well done!

Well done to our Merit Award children - Great work. Keep it up.

It was a lovely morning!

E-Beams and Beaming Smiles

It's happened!

Last week, while the children were busy entertaining you with our production of "A Kidsummer Night's Dream", there was alot of drilling, measuring and installing going on upstairs.

Andre, the gentleman from HIMeducators, together with his assistant, Kevin were preparing the classrooms for the students return.



What a lovely surprise for them!

The teachers have wasted no time in getting started and experimenting with their new technology.  The entire staff will be undergoing intensive training in the holidays. This will be ongoing as new software is released.

I couldn't help but get a couple of clips as I sneaked into their classes - it was fun to see that even the Grade 3's had slipped into the Grade 4 class to view some of their English lesson!  One can see from the children's participation and expression that they are loving it.

I foresee lots of learning for everyone in the future!  Staff too! 

What happens in the wings...

Backstage Moments at

"A Kidsummer Night's Dream"

(Music: All of Heaven ~ Third Day)

Professional photographs and DVD will be available within the next week or two. Watch this space.

Pajama Day

The week was our School Play - "A Kidsummer Night's Dream".  Everyone has worked so tirelessly over the last months and finally, this week, the show was ON!

So now, today, the show is over, teachers and students alike can be seen in their PJ's, just taking it easy as reward for a fantastic production.

Here are some PJ scenes ....

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 5

PT in PJ's

Movies in PJ's

Grade 6 hard at work in PJ's

Relaxing with a good book in PJ's

Grade 5's watching their Egypt Orals in PJ's 

 Hanging out together..... in PJ's

A fitting end to an action-packed week!