Under The Sea
In Reception year we have been learning about all the wonderful animals living under the sea. This week, our little ones had the opportunity to come tell their friends all about their favourite sea animal. Show and Tell is an integral part of the Foundation Stage curriculum, not only does it give the students the opportunity to share some of their personal experiences and general knowledge, but it also teaches them valuable skills such as speaking with confidence and listening to their peers.
We had lots of fun learning all about the scary sharks, playful dolphins and silly crabs.
Here is what some of my students had to say about sea creatures:
“I like dolphins because they do those big splashes” – Clara Chassungo
“A dolphins has two tummies and they don’t even chew their food” – Leah Karstel
“I drew the jelly fish ’cause it’s Mrs Meyer’s favourite” – Ozioma Jangayiso (Thank
you Ozzie for such a beautiful under the sea picture!)
“The shark’s skin feels like sandpaper” – Alessio Gomes
Monique Meyer
Reception Year Teacher and Foundation Stage Coordinator
Fun Day
As the end of term has arrived, it was with great excitement that the little ones came to school dressed in Civvies ready for their Fun day.
The teachers planned various activities, mostly making a big mess, because making a mess is always the most fun. The little ones painted the most beautiful pictures, dancing, playing outside and generally having lots of adventures.
We would like to thank our parents for everything they do to support their children’s learning journey. We cannot do this without them.
Wishing everyone a fantastic holiday!
Monique Meyer
Foundation Stage Coordinator
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High Frequency Words
Last week we had a High Frequency Word Hunt. The students had to go and find flashcards of words on the playground according to a list in pairs. They thoroughly enjoyed this activity and excitedly showed the teachers all the words they could find from their lists.
Learning to read is a complex process, which involves many skills. Two of these skills is phonological knowledge and the other is memorising High Frequency Words. Phonological knowledge helps students to decode or sound out words. That is why it is more important to know the phonetic sound of letters rather than the alphabet name, so that words can be spelt out phonetically, like the word c-a-t. Knowledge of High Frequency words is important for those words that cannot be sounded out phonetically, such as the word ‘you’ or ‘the’. These words commonly occur in sentences, hence the term High Frequency Words. That is also why students have greater confidence and fluency when they have been spending time memorising High Frequency Words as part of their reading homework at home.
It’s important that parents try to make learning High Frequency Words fun. Here are some helpful ideas in the links below:
https://www.curiousworld.com/blog/sight-word-games
https://www.weareteachers.com/sight-word-activities/
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/25-low-prep-sight-word-activities/
Bronwen Nuthall
Reception Year Teacher
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The Importance Of Outside Play
One of the main ways children learn and develop their gross motor skills is through playtime, on the playground, during outside time. As they play, their gross motor skills improve even without them knowing they are actually working on these abilities.
How playground equipment helps develop these skills:
- Climbing a ladder up to a slide or steps helps children learn to start balancing and shifting their weight. Going down a slide, children experiment with different body positions while working on balance and control of their bodies.
- While they are on swings they are in motion which helps them work on balance and coordination. When kids learn to pump up their feet to propel themselves on the swings, they work on sequencing and coordinating their body parts and movements to control the swing.
- The jungle gym strengthens arms, legs, their core and even their fingers. It provides an excellent way to work on balance, coordination and sequencing of which hand or foot moves next.
- The monkey bars strengthen hands and upper body strength as well as developing coordination and sequencing.
While there are many physical benefits to outside play, it provides a huge opportunity for social development in children as well. They also develop stronger reasoning and observation skills, giving them the opportunity to explore the world from a different perspective.
There are endless benefits to playing outside!
Cindy Nunan
Nursery and Pre-Reception Teacher
Hooked On Books in Foundation Stage
On Friday, 20th of August, we were elated to welcome the team from Hooked on Books to Blouberg International School. The annual event is a highlight in the school and it was with great excitement that the students lined up to go watch the performance in the Junior Hall.
Hooked on Books is a touring Educational Theatre Company that shares their love of books and stories with the students. Each year they choose a selection of stories and dramatise excerpts from the books. The actors are amazing and encourage audience participation, which of course the students love. They end each story on a cliff-hanger to encourage the students to go read the books for themselves.
It was a lovely day and we look forward to Hooked on Books visiting again next year.
Monique Meyer
Reception Year Teacher
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Wild Animals
We are learning more about wild animals in Foundation Stage. Picture books with animal characters are firm favourites with the students and they simply love to observe animals on the whiteboard shows. We even made our own wild animals in Art.
According to an article in ONE GREEN PLANET, animals can teach us 10 important things:
- Compassion: Compassion is based on being able to understand the feelings of others/another.
- Patience: There is no rushing an animal to do anything they aren’t ready to do.
- How to live in the now: People waste so much time obsessed with following ‘what will happen next’ that we completely forget to enjoy the now.
- We’re all connected: Ecosystems only thrive when there is balance.
- Humans aren’t as different as we thought: If there’s ever been a time to re-evaluate our relationship with animals, it’s now.
- Respect your elders: Moving forward and advancing towards innovation is a wonderful thing, but we should also learn to respect the wisdom of those who came before us.
- Responsibility: Growing up with a pet has been shown to instill a deeper understanding in children.
- Listen carefully: Animals sit and listen before they react to situations, something we could surely all stand to do.
- Live lightly: Animals learn to live within their means.
- We must stick together: Being able to set aside differences and work together for the mutual benefit of our species.
Martie van Dyk
Pre-Reception Teacher
The Benefits Of Fairy Tales
Fairy Tales are essential stories for childhood. These stories are more than just happily ever after, they portray real moral lessons through characters shown in the stories.
Frequent exposure to Fairy Tales will benefit your child creatively, intelligently and emotionally:
Creative development:
- Imagination – Fairy Tales are examples of storytelling at its best and it is the most effective way to teach a story to all students.
- Diversity – You might find stories which are thoughtful, romantic and even action orientated.
- General Connection – Fairy Tales can bridge the generational gap between students and their grandparents by providing common stories for them to relate to.
Cognitive Expansion:
- Critical Thinking – The language of Fairy Tales is uncomplicated, it’s often easier for students to understand.
- Vocabulary – Students vocabulary grows with every story.
Emotional Development:
- Problem solving – Fairy Tales are often filled with non-examples for students to follow, but it is seeing these characters make poor choices that our students learn of better ways to handle problems.
We learned so much during the last two weeks. We also dressed up as fairy tale characters and pirates. Then we participated in a Treasure Hunt.
Martie van Dyk
Pre-Reception Teacher
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Learning About Frogs In Reception Year
We have been learning about frogs in Reception Year. The students were excited to find that frogs are amphibians and that they live on the land as well as in water. The students loved listening to a song that explains all about the frog life cycle.
See the link below:
https://youtu.be/wGIc7KitJCA
Did you know… an interesting fact about frogs is that although they breathe using their lungs, they can also take in some oxygen through their skin when swimming for longer periods. They are also able to smell better under water than on land.
The students were fascinated to see how a frog can catch its prey using its sticky tongue. We listened to the story of the Wide Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner and made a picture of a wide mouthed frog catching a bug on its tongue for art.
Bronwen Nuthall
Reception Year Teacher
In Pre-Reception This Week, We Are Learning About…
This week Pre-Reception are learning about Frogs! The students are very excited to learn interesting facts about frogs and their life cycle.
Some interesting facts they are learning:
- They are amphibians.
- They typically lay their eggs in the water and a group of eggs is a frogspawn.
- The eggs hatch into tadpoles.
- A group of frogs is called an army.
- Tadpoles have no lungs, they have gills. They grow lungs before they mature into a frog.
The students really enjoyed painting and making their own frogs in their creative activities. They learnt a new rhyme, Five Green Speckled Frogs and had such fun singing together.
In Literacy, the sound of the week is ‘d’. The students eagerly practiced writing the letter in rice with their finger. They excitedly found objects in the class that start with ‘d’. I was very impressed with what they found. A duck, dinosaur, door, a drawing, doll etc. They loved learning the action and song for the letter ‘d’.
In Numeracy this week, they are practicing to recognize numbers 1 – 5 and put them in the correct order.
It has been a very busy learning week; we have also been doing messy sensory activities to strengthen their fine motor muscles. All in all the students have had lots of fun learning through play!
Cindy Nunan
Pre-Reception Teacher
Learning More About Colour
- Mixing colours – We used our hands to mix different colours. (blue + yellow to make green and yellow + red to make orange and blue + red to make purple)
- Colour sorting – Students had to sort colourful beads and blocks into piles of colour.
- Books – We read different stories with lots of colour in them.
- Rainbow Collage – We made a beautiful rainbow collage by sticking different coloured shapes on the rainbow template.
We enjoyed completing all of the activities in class. Wishing all our families a colourful weekend!
Martie van Dyk
Pre-Reception Teacher
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