Sound & Vibrations
Experi-Buddies came to visit Year 1, to teach us about sound and vibrations, which we are learning about in our Science this term.
The students had a lot of fun experimenting in class, making sounds using balloons, marbles, water in glasses and spoons hanging on string.
Sound is an integral part of a child’s development. In fact, the Parenting Research Centre says, “Sound is critically important to the way children learn about their world.”
The Inting was such a great tool to help our students grasp the concepts even more comprehensively. Perhaps ask your child if they can explain sound and vibrations to you, their first-hand knowledge might just surprise you.
Charlotte Cronje
Year 1 Teacher
Year 2 Loves Brain Breaks!
Students are easily distracted, but regular, short breaks can help them focus, increase their productivity, and reduce their stress.
Students, particularly young ones, often struggle with staying focused for long periods of time. In a 2016 study, psychologist Karrie Godwin and a team of researchers measured how attentive elementary students were during class, and discovered that they spent over a quarter of the time distracted, unable to focus on the teacher or the current task. Shorter lessons, however, kept students’ attention high: Teachers found it more effective to give several 10-minute lessons instead of fewer 30-minute ones.
I have found this to be an extremely worthwhile exercise. Even if it’s just to get them to stand up and stretch, or have a quick run-around the playground, or even a lively dance to some music.
Our class has a few favourites. I can recommend to parents to have a look at a website called ‘Go Noodle’. There are some really good ideas, even to do at home.
Kim Coetzer
Year 2 Teacher
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The World Of Work And Having A Job
This term, the Year 1 challenge in Global Perspectives is ‘Working and having a job’. The students have had following discussions about work:
- What is work?
- What does it mean if someone has a job?
- What jobs do people do in our town/area?
- What different ways are there to sort jobs?
Last week, the students prepared interview questions for people who work in our school. They had to decide, as a group, the questions they wanted to ask. They then did mock interviews with their classmates pretending to be the people they are going to interview.
This week was the ‘real deal’ and armed with iPads the students interviewed, Mr Swart, Uncle Clive, Mrs Diana and Ms Zimbi.
Here are some of the questions they came up with:
- Do you like your job?
- What do you do?
- Do you work alone?
- What don’t you like about your job?
- What is your favourite part of your job?
- Do you have any issues?
We will end the term with a dress-up day, ‘What I want to be when I grow up!’
Ann Cordner
Year 1 Teacher and Key Stage 1 Coordinator