Vongai teaches us to SEW

During break today Vongai took out her sewing machine and explained how to sew. It really was very sweet and all the children were fascinated. Keep it up Vongai - you could become a fashion designer one day!

Eva shares some thoughts on England

Eva came to school today armed with a sticker book from her dad which showed all the sights of London. She delighted in sharing her stickers and each child went home with a one....... I even noticed some stuck on their bags! Thank you Eva.

Choosing stickers

Showing off their English stickers

Such glee

Eva's Aunt visits France

Eva was also one of the few who had a wonderful introduction...... Bonjour!

She told us about her aunt who loves France! Luckily for her she lives in England so is able to travel by car through a tunnel under the English Channel. The children were all fascinated by this.

She loved duck served with beautiful wine followed by a stroll on the beach or into the mountains .... sounds like heaven! She also loves attending the Jazz Festival.

She ended her oral by saying 'Merci' ..........

Unfortunately we were unable to download the photos that her mum had sent through so hopefully we can see them tomorrow.

Siya's granny visits Swaziland

Siya did a wonderful introduction to her oral .... of the few to do so! She explained how her granny had visited many places but her favourite was Swaziland. She brought her passport to show the stamp that allowed them into Swaziland

There was great hilarity when she showed us a picture of her gran fast asleep in the car en route.

Her other funny story which she shared was when her gran was going to ride horses but when she saw them she got scared and ran away!

 She also showed us her present from her gran..... a beautiful traditional dress ( which unfortunately is too small for her now). There was lots of discussion as to why there was no top but I explained  the tradition of Swazi people. 

Kyle had also done his oral on Swaziland so it was lovely to discuss the differences and similarities between the two visits. A good learning experience.

England ...... here we come!

On Monday Mel and I decided that we would introduce the children to a new word ... levitate. So after explaining this concept we asked them to get onto our magic carpet and begin to levitate........

And eventually we arrived at our destination.........LONDON !

                                             

where we were lucky enough to be welcomed by our own beautiful English princess ...... Eva
                                                            

Through another wonderful power point we learnt a few facts and even listened to the national anthem ' God save the Queen' 
(I was asked a little later ' I didn't know that God had saved the Queen!) 
 

Today we learnt how to bow and curtsy and I was very excited by being called ' Her Majesty' all day!

Cancer awareness

Yesterday we let off a whole lot of balloons as a tribute to all cancer sufferers within our school and community as well as the world. It was a wonderful initiative.

Mrs Peens explaining.....

All the school assembled

And off they go.....

                                                     

Shaked interviewed her friend Jenna

Shaked decided to interview her friend Jenna. Jenna's favourite place to visit is Cape Town .... I think I agree with her!
                                                     
                                                     

She arrived at the airport and hired a car to travel around the city.She stayed in a hotel which had a beautiful swimming pool, a few horses, ducks and geese too. She loved eating icecream and her favourite restaurant was called 'Salty Sea Dog' where she ate pizza. She also loved collecting Gem stones at the scratch patch

A funny/terrible thing happened ....... they arrived late at the airport, missed their flight back to Durban so they had to stay an extra night!


Shaked pasted her pictures on card which she then used as key cards ....... a lovely idea Shaked.

Kuhle showed us France

Kuhle went and interviewed her mother's friend Aunty Miriam. Although she loved the peace and quiet of the Maldives she also loved France but specifically Paris! Lucky lady!

Kuhle said that Aunty Miriam had told her all about the Eiffel Tower. It is very high and is the tallest building in Paris. 
Like all of us girls, shopping is high on our agendas and Aunty Miriam felt the same! She would go back just for the shopping!

She ate lots of delicious breads and pastas and then gave Kuhle some good tips for travelling:
1. Pack a passport
2. Always take takkies
3. Don't forget your clothes and camera.
4. And of course a BIG bag to bring home all the things you buy!
Some good advice Kuhle!

Kuhle interviewing Aunty Miriam

Shriya's 'Ma's' trip to Brazil

OLe ( hello in Portugese)

Shriya started of telling us that her she called her grandmother 'Ma' and so from then on we knew exactly who she was talking about! Just looking at her we knew exactly which country we would be visiting.......... BRAZIL!

 She used her poster all the time and told us lots of exciting things: The Iquassi Falls were made up of 275 smaller falls.... it was so wet that some splashed on her Ma's clothes!; the Maracana Stadium which is the biggest stadium in Brazil: Favela where her Ma saw so many poor people that it made her very sad; and then of course coffee ....

Smelling the coffee beans

Of course there are lots of festivals and Shriya even showed us a dance!

A very informative oral Shriya - thank you for going to so much trouble!

Adeus ( goodbye in Portugese!)

Shopkeeper : Ziyaad

There was great excitement when Ziyaad told the class that he would be selling ice-creams on his shopkeeper day! He duly arrived with his ice-creams to explain to the class that he thought that he might AUCTION them off! Kyle was the only one who knew what an auction was so after explaining we proceeded to open the shop! I thought it was fair to sell them normally at first but we auctioned the last three off! 

Well done Ziyaad!

Talia interviewed a friend who loved the Kruger National Park

Talia was very excited to share the information that she had managed to get from a family friend, Sue. Sue's favourite part of the world is the Kruger National Park where she camped in a tent! As they traveled in a car most of the day exploring and looking for animals, she loved to eat all types of 'snacky' food. Her favourite animal is a Wild Dog...... one of mine too!

Amal interviewed his granny

Amal came into class bursting to tell us what he had learnt from his granny. She has traveled to many places like America and India. As a result she has tasted many different foods like pizza, pasta and vegetarian dishes. She felt incredibly sad by all the poverty she witnessed in India especially all the people begging in the streets.

Photographs of a plane trip through the Grand Canyon

A dream catcher from America

One of the temples she visited.

Geetali's Great Granny visited America

Geetali interviewed her Great Granny who is 85 years old and has over the years traveled to many places but her favourite trip was when she went to Disneyland in America. Although she flew to America and met all the Disneyland characters her highlight was her stay on a cruise liner!

They ate a lot of McDonald burgers, takeaways and pizzas. She brought these fabulous Minnie Mouse glasses for Geetali! All the children were desperate to wear them! 

A lovely oral Geetali - you put so much effort into it.

Japan - the land of the rising sun

Mel and I decided that it would be a great idea if we could get all our Grade 2 pupils down onto the beach to see the sun rise ....... after all Japan is known as 'The Land of the Rising Sun'. We were thrilled that everyone in both classes were able to be there to witness the sun rise - for many it was a first ( even for some parents!) THANK YOU parents!

We all traipsed down onto the beach and after waiting patiently the sun rose midst great excitement.

We started off the morning with some yoga ...... thank you to Mrs Gaylard who kindly led them.

We realized that few children would eat traditional Japanese food - fish and soup - for breakfast so we gave them hot chocolate and muffins but the muffins had to be eaten with CHOPSTICKS!

We had explained to the children at the start of our theme about how the earth moves around the sun. We conducted an experiment to show them this fact. We divided the children into groups, used a stick as a marker and got them to draw around a group members shadow. Just before we left we compared their shadows once again.They were amazed at how different their shadows were and could not believe how much they had 'moved'!

The next activity was met with a mixed response. As Japanese eat a lot of fish and our phonic sound for the week was the 'sh' sound, we decided to dissect a fish! Some of the children were horrified at first but the more involved they got, the more their inhibitions vanished! By the end I was proud to see that everyone was messily involved!

We left the beach at 8.30am with many of the children asking if when they returned back to school would it be second break!

A special THANK YOU must go to Mel for managing to capture these beautiful moments. Such a privilege to teach with her.