Flat Rosie Skype Chat

If you read this post recently, you would be waiting for details of of the Skype chat that our Grade 2's had with the Grade 2's in Australia.

This all happened on 5th November 2012, the webcam and laptop were all set up in the Grade 2 classroom and an excited class waited for their phonecall.

Questions had been swapped between the classes previously to ask one another so each child would have something to both ask and answer.

You can watch the chat here - it's quite long, but very sweet to watch!

Magical Mystery Men

Last night we had an absolutely wonderful time at our Intermediate Phase Production of The Magical Mystery Men.

Mrs Brink and the Grade 4-8's put on an enthusiastic production of two children who were dissatisfied with life as they knew it and who thought that it would have been better to be around at another time.  The Magical Mystery Men and their team grant their wishes to live in different times and countries, until one day, they realise that "Home is Best!'.

The audience participated in getting Reeve and Melanie (the two children) to their next destinations by standing up and doing various actions, while the younger Grades lent their voices to the choir.

It really was a MAGICAL time enjoyed by everyone who was there!  Below are a couple of the photo's but please see our Facebook Page for lots more!

Rosie's Adventure Continues!

We are well into Flat Rosie's adventures now! She has been home with almost everyone in the class! She has had staring competitions, climbed trees, been ziplining, jumped on trampolines, been spider hunting and learnt to ride a scooter! She has even been to a few birthday parties!

Rosie is getting around Cape Town and we are loving hosting her.  The next exciting part we are looking forward to, is our Skype Party with her class in Sydney. Their class is actually COMING BACK to school at 6pm just so that we can try and fit in the same time zone! Parents have been invited to come at 09h00 if they would like to be part of this Video Chat.

This is the second time this year that our Grade 2's have had a Skype Video with an international school and I think they must be looking forward to it!

Feel free to have a look at their Wiki for more photo's of Rosie on her adventures!

Watch this space for the Skype Clip!

Arboretum Outing

On Wednesday 24 October, the Grade 1,2 and 3's donned their civvies and headed off to the Tokai Arboretum for an educational walk in the forest.

Some of the Grade 1's decided to dress for the occasion and we had woodland fairies and bright little bunnies bouncing along the way.  The weather was just perfect, and everyone had a great time! 

To see more photo's - please visit our Facebook page!

Grade 1 & 8 UK Peace Pod Arrives

The Grade 1 and Grade 8's embarked on an exciting journey in early September. 

The two grades joined forces to put together a PEACE POD to send to a school in the UK, and they put a Pod together to send to us.  This was done for Peace Day 2012 and the contents had to be typically South African. We had lots of fun bringing in all sorts of things and ended up with a lovely parcel which was beautiful wrapped in some REALLY typical SA paper!

We sent our Pod off on the last day of the last term, and are waiting to hear if they have received it. Their parcel arrived on Tuesday last week and the Gr.1&8's got together to unpack.  Amidst plenty of "wow's", "ooh's" and "aahs", Mrs Holgate and Mrs Nass unpacked the box.

Once they have received our parcel, we will have a Skype Video chat between the two classes and talk about the contents of our boxes and ask questions of one another.

Below are a couple of photo's of our Peace Pod before it was sent, and a video clip of our classes opening their Peace Pod from the UK.  We are looking forward to the Skype Chat now!

Getting into the excitement of sending!

The Grade 8's making sure that Mrs Holgate does a good job! 

What would an SA Pod be without Mrs Balls

Our Pod... 

All sealed up and ready to go!

Opening our UK Pod!

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

The Grade 2's have been learning about the 3R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.  Today in Assembly we were treated to their own songs that they made up to remind them to be wise in how they treat the environment.

Well done Grade 2's!

eMzantsi Assembly

Our final assembly for the term we were treated to a wonderful musical show presented by the children from Rock and their partner School in Masi. For months now they have been getting together, creating their own instruments, props and costumes, as well as learning dance sequences and scripts. This all came together on Friday morning where parents were invited to come and watch what they had been doing. Here is a cast photo and a clip of their production.

Psalty & The Rock Kids

This term there has been a lot of singing heard in the school. 

It has been the term of our Musical: "Psalty & The Rock Kids".  We had a matinee and two evening performances that were well attended.  The show was bright, cheerful and filled with colour and catchy tunes that many children (and parents!) may have found themselves singing along to!

It was a fun evening and we thank Mrs Brink for putting it all together for us, and for the team who supported her in every way.  We do have a DVD available of the complete show! Contact the school for a copy.

Don't forget that in November we have the Senior Musical: The Magical Mystery Men - A Story about Family Values.

Flat Rosie Arrives!

If you have been following our Blog, you will have noticed that we have embarked on a journey with an Australian school, where we host "Flat Rosie' for a period of time.

Grade 2D waiting for Flat Rosie to arrive!

Flat Rosie is a paper friend, who has travelled around the world together with her koala bear companion and a book about Australia and an "I Wonder" book of questions about South Africa, which our Grade 2's will answer.

Flat Rosie arrived on Friday last week, and spent her first weekend with her Grade 2 friend.  Today, the class has been busy learning about Australia, colouring in pictures about it and watching some wonderful You Tube clips on Ralph Harris' Australian songs, which of course, if you remember them, were a lot of fun!

Flat Rosie Arrives!

Our Principal. Mrs Oelofse, is being shown Rosie's new friend, an S.A Bokkie!
He and Koala have become good friends!

Keep your eyes open for updates!  You can also follow Flat Rosie's Blog and see what she is up to in other parts of the world!

The Rhino Awareness Project

The Grade 8's initiated a fundraising and awareness project for the protection of Rhino's.

Through selling chocolate treats (affectionately named "rhino droppings" made by Mrs Hain, a colouring competition (won by Faith) and a drawing competetion (won by Kyra) and a competiton for the best powerpoint/movie presentation (won by Isaac), we managed to raise R1011.00

The funds were donated to Aquila Private Game reserve.

Thank you to all the children and parents for supporting this worthwhile project!

Isaac's winning movie

Bella & Krissie Powerpoint.

Save the rhinos! from Mrs_LG

Michalea K's Powerpoint

Save the Rhinos!! from Mrs_LG

Mrs Nass with Kyra's winning drawing and Faith with her winning coloured in picture.

Well done girls!

Collaborative Projects!

• The Peace Project Returns

Some may remember the Grade 4 Peace Project last year and we have been invited to participate again. This year we have been asked to show us "Building or Doing Peace."

We will be using our interaction with eMzantsi as our contribution. We will be taking video clips of their workshops, talking to the children and staff involved, and will then create a short clip of their time together.

 We are looking forward to it being as exciting and as successful as last year.

• Grade 2 Flat Friends

The Grade 2's will be receiving a parcel in the post soon! They will be hosting a FLAT FRIEND from Australia.  The friend will be accompanied by a notebook with some interesting things about Australia and the areas that Year 2 class live.  In turn, they will have an "I wonder" section, asking us to answer some questions about where we live.

We will then return the parcel to Australia, and follow up our interaction with communicating via the Australian Year 2's Class Blog, Voicethread and possibly, Skype.

So, soon, the parents of the Grade 2's may have a FLAT FRIEND over for the evening, and be asked to take some photo's of our friend visiting our lovely City.

We will send more news home about this project as it unfolds.

BookWeek!

We have recently had BookWeek which is always such a treat for everyone!

Mystery Readers, cosy corner reading, paired reading, poetry recitals and dress-up!

We hope that you will enjoy these photo's!

eMzantsi Carnival Workshops

At the first eMzantsi Workshop we spoke about our family and who was in it. It was interesting to see how different children's family units look! If your child is attending the Workshops I am sure that also know the words of "Ntombi had a ball" and "Hey Marlaina!" ~ catchiest song and coolest moves ever!

 ~Michelle Gatley-Dewing~





Grade 4 Victorian Outing

Last week the Grade 4's went on their Victorian School Outing. The girls had to put on pinafores and the boys had a good Victorian look about them too! They could buy liquorice chalk, use a proper slate, and were promptly well scolded if they so much as whispered. It was an eye-opener for them and they all enjoyed the experience.

We hope you enjoy the photographs!

Compressed Air Project

The Grade 4's had to design something that would move using compressed air. Below are a couple of photo's and comments they wrote about their project:

"I started with  bottle and then I cut a hole in the bottle. Then I got a straw and some cellotape and a balloon and then I cellotaped the balloon onto the straw. then I got a skewer, and a straw and 4 bottle tops and I made a hole in the 4 bottle tops and i cut the straw in half and the skewer in half. I stuck the straws to the bottle and then i put the skewers through the straw with the bottle tops and is is my compressed air.  Its name is ZOOM!"

"My compressed air project I made a car. I took 4 discs, pipes, 2 litre Cream Soda bottle. We stuck the pipes in. We made a stick man and he sat on the car."

"I made a moon rocket car. I used polystyrene and a few straws and a balloon."

"I took an appletiser bottle and made a hole in the middle. I took the lid off and stuck a few straws in it. i took two sticks and cut them in half and stuck them to the bottom of the bottle and put straws on. I took milk bottle lids and put them on. I drew some cars on pieces of paper and stuck them on."

"My compressed air project is a rocket. I like my rocket because it can fly very high. what it looks like: My rocket has a sharp cone nose on top and it has three small wings on each side."

"I made an air balloon. The air balloon had helium in it. The helium was compressed. When you let it go it will fly up into the sky."

Making Bags!

"I started with a big piece of paper and then I stuck it all together and then
I put straps on it and i also put a flap onto my bag. Then I decorated it. That is my bag!"

"I like my bag because it has little straps and it is strong.
I made my bag with paper, gluw and sticky tape."

"I like my bag because it has a bow on it and it has stickers, a picture and fun cupcakes."

"I like my bag because it is nice and strong. I made it with paper.
It is really awesome . It took about 3 days."

"I like my bag because its really cool and fun. I made it by taking
A3 paper (8 sheets) and stuck it together."

"My bag was made out of paper. I had to use a lot of cellotape and glue. When I tested it out, it broke but then I fixed it and now it works."  (Unknown)

"I stuck two pieces of A3 paper together. Just glueds the sides and took another piece of paper and made a flap. I drew a picture of a horse on the front. i took some paper from home and glued it to the flap. And that is my bag."

"I like my bag very much because its safe to put my toys and
other stuff. I like my bag, it is strong.  I like my bag it is not material,
it's paper for not putting everything in."

"I like my bag because it is strong and I like my bag because it is cool.
How I made it is that i used paper and tape."