Nursery Tackles Responsible Hygiene
It’s probably not surprising that learning about hygiene and self-care at a young age contributes to healthy social and emotional development. Encouraging independent self-care skills has a significant long-term impact on children, and attempting to complete these self-care tasks, builds on their confidence and promotes a healthy lifestyle.
Good hygiene expands further than just using hand sanitizer in class – it’s about keeping our surroundings clean and maintaining that cleanliness whenever possible. That’s why this week, during our Skills Programme, Nursery took the opportunity to learn about taking responsibility for our personal hygiene – as well as for the hygiene of the classroom.
We embarked on a fun-filled adventure to the garden, where we cleaned all the class toys with warm water and soap. The students worked as a team, learnt about germs and enjoyed cleaning all the crevices of their much-loved toys.
The best way to encourage good hygiene habits in our little tots, is to be a good role model and to set the standard at home. Keeping the conversation going will not only normalize the responsibility, but it will also ensure that the children are keeping their body happy and healthy. Self- care is the most important skill we can learn and starting today, no matter the age, will ensure self-love.
I am so proud of how far the little tots have come and I am so excited to put this new skill to good use in our future lessons.
Jo-Anne Dickason
Nursery Teacher
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Habitats
A habitat is a place where an animal lives. It provides food, water and shelter. There are many different types of habitats around the world from forests to grasslands and from mountain slopes to deserts. Different habitats are home to different animals. They live well together because they all do things to help keep the whole habitat healthy and in balance.
This week, the Year 4’s have been learning all about habitats and the adaptations of animals for their habitats.
Have you ever wondered what the purpose of a cockroach is? We often see them as dirty pests that infest the spaces they live in. Animals like cockroaches are really important in a habitat—they eat the dead plants and recycle the nutrients back into the soil, which helps the plants to grow.
The Year 4 students were curious about animals in their own habitats and they decided to observe snails. To fulfil this curiosity we designed a choice tray. We planned how we will test some snails to see where they like to be most in the environment. We placed 4 variables on each corner of the choice tray, twigs, leaves, sand and stone. We observed where the snails ventured towards, over a half an hour period, and noted our findings.
There were interesting findings across the year group in the different classrooms. One conclusion we could all agree on- if the environment changed, animals can sometimes change the way they behave.
Well done to our budding scientists!
Nadia Mahomed
Year 4 Teacher
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Lights! Camera! AND … Action!
In William Shakespeare’s play ‘As you like it’, he writes:
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”
Children have the innate ability to turn a simple game into a dramatic event. With that in mind, the KS1 Drama and Music Club was established to nurture and develop these skills.
There are so many benefits for children joining a drama and music class:
- They develop friendships and self-confidence.
- It helps them with concentration and reading.
- It further develops communication skills.
- It encourages teamwork and co-operation.
- Assists in building emotional intelligence.
- It inspires their natural creativity.
Young children can create a ‘make-believe’ world, without really trying. It is up to us to nurture and develop the skills they need to transfer this into everyday life. They might not all end up acting on Broadway, or appearing in a television show, but they will have had fun along the journey.
Watch this space… Mrs Cronje and I are optimistic about our Drama Club. The possibilities are endless!
Kim Coetzer
KS1 Drama and Music Club Co-coordinator
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Show and Tell – My Family
Last week, the Foundation Stage classes learnt about different families and what makes each family special.
The little ones are always very excited to do Show and Tell, and even more so when they have the opportunity to talk about their families.
The student were thrilled as they arrived at school with their beautiful posters, eager to share their presentations with their friends. It is always such a pleasure to see the little ones so proud to tell their friends about their mom and dad, siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins and even the very special furry friends that make each family special.
A big thank you to all the parents who helped the little ones prepare their presentations. It was so lovely getting to know everyone who forms part of our BIS family!
Monique Meyer
Reception Teacher and Foundation Stage Coordinator
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Year 1: Sensory Learning In Art
“There is no must in art because art is free.” – Wassily Kandinsky
The Year 1 students have thoroughly enjoyed their first art lessons for 2022. We have been focusing on the basics of learning about different lines. The students were asked to go outside with some chalk and freely draw different lines they had just learned about, on the bricks.
As teachers, we find this form of practical learning important as the students are not limited to space and creativity, and they are able to express their knowledge in a free manner. Drawing on the bricks, a versatile surface, with chalk allows for a sensory rich activity. By having these sensory experiences that are full, students tend to learn at a more rapid pace. When a student uses chalk and connects to whichever surface we are using, it helps to develop their tactile registration as well as their fine motor skills.
We look forward to using this creative and fun method of learning more often throughout the year.
“The aim of art is not to represent the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” – Aristotle
Year 1 Teacher
Erin Hierse
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Greetings from BIS Interact Club!
As the 2021 academic year drew to a close, the Interact Club celebrated one of the highlights of the year, which was the hand out of over 50 gift boxes at Sam’s Creche Christmas party. It was indeed an immense privilege to witness the joy in the children’s faces when they received their gifts.
So thank you for your amazing contribution. This would not have been possible without your continuous generosity.
To add, this past Saturday a few Interact volunteers paired up with Friends of Blaauwberg Conservation and they did a beach clean up in Melkbosstrand. It was a fun opportunity to contribute to the environment on a beautiful summer’s day by the sea with friends.
On a final note, our board members cannot wait to share their exciting ideas for the year ahead. Amongst those ideas, we have recently launched a plastic collection drive for the whole school. The funds raised will go to selected disadvantaged schools in Langa, Mitchells Plain and Retreat to assist them with setting up recycling collection facilities. Further details of the collection drive will be emailed via Engage very shortly.
Elena Berger
BIS Interact Club
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Amazing Presentations!
The process of learning a language not only involves reviewing grammar and vocabulary; it includes trying to understand and acknowledge the culture and traditions of that country in a comprehensive way.
The more you know about these factors the deeper your linguistic immersion will be.
In the case of the Spanish language, it is even more important and relevant due to the diversity within the Spanish speaking countries – 21 countries in total spanning 4 continents (Europe, Africa, North- and South America).
For this reason, the Spanish students at BIS have been learning about the different Spanish speaking countries around the world: Puerto Rico, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Year 5 and 6 were asked to choose their favorite one, and to do a simple immersion in a variety of topics in the country of their choice.
Some demographic and geographic aspects were discussed during the oral presentations: the capital, total population, identifying the color of the flag and naming the continent that it’s located.
Other, more cultural, aspects were also presented like the typical food and music or the most popular sports.
Finally, they were asked to select two important or relevant people from that country and their profession: the king or the president, a famous actress or actor, a successful singer or a sports figure.
Sharing this information with the whole class enriched the experience and I can’t feel prouder of the outstanding posters and incredible PowerPoint presentation and videos that they were able to put together.
Javier Vidal
Spanish Teacher
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Practical Place Value and Relatable Rounding Off…
For the past two weeks, the Year 5s have been learning more about Place Value in Mathematics.
We’ve covered the following content thus far:
- Place value up to hundred thousands.
- Partitioning numbers.
- Writing number in words and figures.
- Rounding off to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.
Students got the opportunity this week to apply their knowledge and skills that they’ve learned with some practical, hands-on activities. They were placed in pairs and had to play a rounding off game using a place value dice.
These were the rules:
- Each players rolls the four dice (units, tens, hundreds and thousands).
- They had to then add all the numbers together to their answer.
- Round off their answer to the nearest 1000.
- The player with the highest number scores 1 point.
- The first player to score 10 points wins the game!
“Play is our brain’s favourite way of learning.” – Diane Ackerman
Take a look at some of the photos that were taken while the students were busy playing this extremely fun game.
Who says Mathematics can be fun and games?!
Ria du Plessis
Year 5 Teacher/Leader
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We are family!
We are learning all about me and my family in Pre-Reception. Talking about our families at school gives the students the opportunity to talk about what is most important to them. This topic also helps them realise that family, the people we live with, is something we all have in common, regardless of how our families look! Some families have siblings, some have none, some families have parents, and some have none.
The students enjoyed learning rhymes and songs and reading about families. They brought photos of themselves to school and we made a “wall of me” as we are also like a family in class. We loved marble painting and made beautiful art. The students also presented their first show and tell by telling us all about their family.
Martie van Dyk
Pre-Reception Teacher
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Making friends in Budapest
There is so much discussion about ‘all around the world’, interschool connections and online communication right now. Not only is it a fun way for children to explore the world around them, but they can also observe the learning of the other children they are in contact with.
This allows students the opportunity to become a part of the lives of people who live on the other side of the world. Unlike just showing a map of the world in the classroom or exciting pictures from countries we’re learning about, this vivid personal connection both inspires their learning and, in its own way, makes it more meaningful to them.
This week, our Year 2 students got to interact with children from our Budapest school. A country that most of them had never even heard of before.
It was so exciting for our students to see the other students, from our sister school, wearing the same uniform that they wear in a completely different environment.
The wonderful contrast of it being winter over there at the moment and summer here made for a very fun art idea. Our Year 2’s had to make and design their very own popsicles while the other children created their own snowmen and penguins. Students had an opportunity to come up one at a time and introduce themselves, while they very proudly showed off their art pieces.
This has been such an incredibly interesting and exciting experience. Mr. Swart also popped in for a visit to say hi and interact with the students.
A wonderful way to learn and a very unique way to explore the world around them. We can’t wait to meet up with our new friends again!
Siobhan Hendry
Year 2 Teacher
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