Coding!
It is safe to say that coding is one of the most constructive hobbies for your child to adopt, especially since it can help them develop persistence, communication, creativity, and higher-order thinking.
Yes, learning to code also sets your child up for potentially lucrative career opportunities, but it also offers children so much more than that. A modern parent cannot go wrong by encouraging their child to program.
At BIS, we have coding and robotics lessons every day during the week – Monday to Friday. The students enjoy their coding lessons and it is rewarding to see them grasp the concepts and solve problems by themselves. Here are reasons why coding is so important for children:
1. Coding Boosts Problem-Solving Skills
Coding is, without a doubt, one of the most straightforward ways for children to boost their problem-solving skills.
In a programming context, coders are constantly challenged and asked to problem-solve. The practice all but requires them to break issues down into more manageable sub-problems, then progress through an iterative process of identifying, prioritising, and implementing solutions. Thus, children start honing their problem-solving skills as soon as they take on their first coding challenge.
Research indicates that even if your child doesn’t want to go into coding as an adult, establishing a practice of coding early in life will nevertheless help them build highly-transferable cognitive skills. Is it any wonder why children should code?
2. Coding Improves Computational Thinking
Computational thinking is a branch of knowledge that involves expressing problems in a way that a computer would. Students who learn this model of thinking are encouraged to break down complex problems into smaller issues, thereby revealing underlying process patterns.
As researchers for an earlier study wrote on the matter, “We believe that children as young as ten can directly benefit from opportunities to engage in computational thinking […] Children can begin by solving puzzles on paper, continue on game boards, and ultimately complete their solutions on computers. Through this process, students can be guided through increasingly complex algorithmic thinking activities that are built from their tacit knowledge and excitement about game play.”
2. Coding Encourages Persistence
Computer science is one of the few professional disciplines where it’s entirely acceptable to be near-constantly failing. Not only is failure immediately recognisable — i.e. a program “breaks,” and doesn’t work as intended — but success literally cannot be achieved until all errors are handled. Even the most straightforward programs require a coder to understand a set of problems and solve them; otherwise, the code won’t run as intended.
However, with all this frustration and failure comes a real, lifelong character benefit: persistence.
When children begin programming, they come to learn that failure is transient, and doesn’t have to be frustrating or a progress-stopper. Even small successes can provide the encouragement kids need to push through issues in their programming. Over time, this perseverance can bolster a child’s grit — and serve as one of the most important indicators of their future educational and career success.
Coding can help your child develop a growth mindset: a philosophy wherein one’s ability to learn can be improved upon, adjusted as needed, and stand firm against demoralizing failures. What better mentality could a child adopt early in life?
3. Coding Improves Computational Thinking
Computational thinking is a branch of knowledge that involves expressing problems in a way that a computer would. Students who learn this model of thinking are encouraged to break down complex problems into smaller issues, thereby revealing underlying process patterns.
As researchers for an earlier study wrote on the matter, “We believe that children as young as ten can directly benefit from opportunities to engage in computational thinking […] Children can begin by solving puzzles on paper, continue on game boards, and ultimately complete their solutions on computers. Through this process, students can be guided through increasingly complex algorithmic thinking activities that are built from their tacit knowledge and excitement about game play.”
4. Coding Teaches Creativity
Creativity, creativity, creativity; it’s something every early educator and parent is wholly concerned with, and yet it’s not a quality prized by most working adults.
Creativity tends to decrease as we age. The adage is true — adults tend to be less creative than children. By the time we reach our sunset years, we have effectively “unlearned” one of the most important skills in life.
“Creative people have rapid and effective responses that help them to achieve their life goals and allow them to enjoy the journey… It is both a skill set and a unique and individual personality structure that’s developed throughout childhood and fine-tuned in adolescence,” Notre Dame researcher Doireann O’Connor once noted.
So, how do we preserve a child’s creative skills as they age?
Experts suggest that kids should learn to code. As a practice, coding positions developers as “creators” or “world-builders” within a programming environment — by definition, the discipline requires creative thinking and an experimental mindset.
With programming, kids are constantly prompted to experiment. Once they understand basic functionalities, they can continually ask themselves, What if I tried this? Would that work?
5. Coding is a Career-Building Skill
The importance of programming cannot be understated in our economy, which is now overwhelmingly driven by technology.
The biggest hurdle is just mastering that first programming language — but once they do, they will be well-positioned to learn different languages, frameworks, and technologies later on in life.
Sonia Terblache
ICT, Coding & Robotics Teacher
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Showtime
Last week KS2 put on the Disney Jnr play, Aladdin. We spent a total of 80640 minutes, which is equivalent to 1344 hours or better yet 56 days rehearsing, preparing and setting up for this spectacular event.
A lot of hard work, long hours and dedication was put into making our KS2 concert a success. Today when I look back I do not think of the challenges or the long hours, the stress or the worry in the details. I remember the fun moments we all had during our shared time. I remember the laughs, jokes and even the mishaps that made the show even more memorable.
The cast was phenomenal. They are certainly stars in the making. I admire their dedication and tenacity. Without them we would not have had this amazing play. I have seen them grow in confidence and independence. Many of them began very shyly and quietly however by the time we ended those very same actors displayed admirable traits of fortitude, bravery and confidence. It is a true reminder to us all how remarkable our children are.
As Augusto Boal said, “We must all do theatre, to find out who we are, and to discover who we could become.”
It was a tiring 4 day event and even though there was a lot of relief in its success, the evening of Day 4 left us with an empty space as we all shared the same sentiment, “What will we do with our time now?”
Comments from the cast…
“It has been a dream come true to play the part of Genie”
“I will miss the time with everyone”
“It was so much fun, thank you for giving us the opportunity.”
The KS2 concert has shown us that not only is academics important in a student’s life, but the cultural aspect is needed to nurture a well-balanced, diverse student.
Until the next show, let us share the written words of Shakespeare when he said, “All the world’s a stage.”
Nadia Mahomed
Year 4 Teacher
Watch our KS2 students sing at assembly to celebrate a successful concert:
Social Media: What Is The Link To Children’s Mental Health
These days most children regularly make use of communication devices whether it be a cellphone, computer, tablet or iPad. The amount of time children are spending online with these devices is increasing at a rapid rate. That brings the question, what is the impact of this increased use of social media on our children’s emotional and mental well-being?
Currently we are experiencing a mental health crisis amongst our youth on a global scale. There have been sharp increases in the rates of depression, anxiety, self‐harm, loneliness and even suicide amongst our children worldwide. This has of course led to much research as to what the connection is between our children’s mental health and their exposure to and use of social media.
Many have said that the rise of social media use in young people coincides with the rise in mental health concerns. One of the most highly discussed and debated topics amongst parents today is screen time. How much is too much and what impact will it have on my child’s development? Researchers are sounding the alarm that screen time and social media use amongst our children and teenagers is something we should very much look at curbing, if we are wanting to make a positive difference in our youth’s mental health and emotional well- being in the future.
Our social media natives – Generation Z – don’t know much about a time before social media and easily accessible technology. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), children between the ages of 5 to 17 years old should only have a maximum daily screen time of 2 hours. I am sure that on reflection, the majority of us can agree that our children and teenagers are spending far more time than this on social media daily. The time our children spend on their screens and social media is stealing time away from healthy activities that promote physical, social and emotional development like engaging in extra murals at school, hiking, exercise, and joining social groups.
Social media has become young people’s primary way of connecting with one another and for most within this generation, being online is described as a positive experience. So what is the big fuss then? Let’s explore some enlightening but frightening statistics, according to WHO. 1 out of 3 internet users is below the age of 18 years old. 3 out of 4 children spend less than an hour playing and exploring outside – that is less than a prisoner! 4 out of 5 tweens are on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat by the age of 12 (the legal age required for most of these social media platforms is 13). 7 out of 10 children have accidentally come across pornographic images online. This means that even when our children aren’t actively seeking out dangerous or risky content, they continue to be exposed to and flooded with imagery and content that is not age appropriate. Imagine the psychological impact this is having on our children daily. The immersion into the virtual world can delay children and teens’ emotional and social development. Increased feelings of isolation and loneliness can develop with excessive device and social media use. This is because when talking online begins to dominate our social interactions, we engage less in the real world which exacerbates a feeling a loneliness.
Social media platforms are designed in such a way to hold the users attention for as long as possible. If we as adults are able to fall into this trap of mindless scrolling, our children and teens stand little to no chance with a still- developing prefrontal cortex in the brain. The notion of addiction to devices and social media is the biggest downside. The ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ for example, activate the reward system in the brain. It is instant gratification at our fingertips. The desire for validation and the fear of rejection is very much enforced by social media. “How many likes did I receive on that post?”, “What nasty comments have they left for me this time?”, “How can I look more like her/him?”. These are some common thoughts amongst users of social media. The consistent social comparison to others and their lives can have a detrimental impact on children’s self-esteem, leading to feelings of low self-worth and value.
Cyberbullying is one of the biggest risks when it comes to children’s engagement on social media. Children and teens insecurities are easily exacerbated by the use of social media, according to Unicef. Bullies have 24 hour access to their victims, with a tap of the finger. Those who experience digital violence online are more likely to engage in alcohol and substance use, missing school more regularly and achieving poorer academics. In extreme cases, we know of cyberbullying leading to suicide.
Social media use and technology in general offers amazing benefits for society and our children but we cannot forget the risks and danger it brings us too. Screen time and social media is stealing from us on a daily basis – it can take away our peace, our sleep, our connections and in Gen Z’s case, it can steal away our childhood. Some argue that “the genie is already out of the bottle” in relation to screen time, but there is still time to act.
What can parents do to help?
- Talk to your children about what they do online in a non-judgemental way. Trying to understand the “why” behind the excessive device or social media use is important before trying to curb or limit social media use.
- Limit screen time according to the age of your child. Even coming up with your own family device rule plan has shown to work and brings family together.
- Learn more about the technology your children are using. Have your children teach you and help you understand what they are doing online. This allows us to assess their personal risks being online and help support appropriately when needed. Screen time shouldn’t always be alone time. Co- view and co- engage as it encourages social interactions and bonding.
- Talk to your child regularly about the responsibilities we have as online users. Just as in the real world there are boundaries and rules to abide by, this is also the case online. Warn them about the importance of privacy and the dangers of predators online.
- Teach your children to be critical thinkers online. We can’t believe everything we see online as there will always be misinformation.
- Research parent controls that work for you and your family. Both Apple and Android have safety and parent controls features available. Even further, there are amazing parental control applications such as FYI play it safe, that help monitor and assess your child’s risk online, giving you ample opportunity to intervene and prevent harm to your child.
- Lastly but importantly, be a good digital role model. If your children witness you making hurtful comments on a social networking site or over using your device during family time, they will be less inclined to listen to your judgement around safe and responsible social media and device use. Model good behaviour so that they know what healthy and responsible digital behaviour looks like.
This long weekend, I encourage us all to pop the devices down and to truly connect. Pull out the dusty board games and the treasured family dominoes and enjoy some device free time with your family and children.
Kayla Smith
School Counsellors
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Skills Programme – Online Etiquette
The Year 6’s have been focusing on Online Etiquette during their skills programme and how to conduct themselves in a respectful manner online. Online communication can be challenging at times for children. Not being able to read one’s body language or listen to their tone of voice can make it difficult to understand the meaning of a message.
During our skills lesson, we started by watching students act out a scenario. There could be no sounds or movement, just a still image. We then discussed what we thought was happening and what each person was feeling. The students started to notice that it was difficult to read the scenario without there being any context, sounds or movements.
We went on to watch a video that involved a message being misunderstood and discussed the meaning behind the video, how the students would have dealt with the scenario and what would have been the best way to deal with the issue. The students also spoke about “Why are people sometimes less respectful online?” and they were also able to explain the importance of always turning to a trusted adult when they are in a position they do not understand, makes them uncomfortable or nervous.
Finally, the students worked in groups to create rules for when they are online. With minimal guidance from the teachers, they all got into groups and began making their list of rules.
The Year 6’s have impressed us with their online rules as well as showing maturity and respect when creating them.
Brittney Hakime
Year 6 Teacher
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From The Spanish Classroom
Storytelling And Role-Play
“Students learn best when they are actively engaged in the learning experience.”
Storytelling and role-play lessons are some of the methods that I have been using during the years at Blouberg International. The students can increase their understanding of a topic by interacting and sharing with others, growing and stimulating new ideas.
Storytelling is a very powerful medium in the classroom; but the stories must be entertaining, exciting and stimulating, taking your students from everyday life into fantasy worlds or great adventures.
“Gain the students attention by making the stories fun.”
When you are telling or writing the stories, be sure to make them fun or interesting for your students. You can create crazy scenarios or characters. For example, famous people booking a hotel room with insane requests or ordering super weird food.
First, you need to gain the students attention. Try to use different voices for the characters or animals and vary in the volume and tone of your voice.
“Role-play can help to develop confidence to speak in different social situations.”
When you introduce a story, be sure to explain its purpose or learning objective so they know which life skills they are developing order food and drinks at the restaurant, book a hotel room, organize a holiday tryp or buy clothes at the shops.
Encourage your students to interact with their classmates at the end of the story, for example asking the class some of the main details of the story: price per night, room number or if there is a swimming pool or internet connection at the hotel.
“Build specific skills that they can use in real life.”
It is very important to introduce key vocabulary and expressions that they can use in real life situations: At the restaurant: “I would like to drink”, “I would prefer to eat”, “the bill please” raising the level of difficulty depending on the year group: using conditional, future or past tense…
You may need to give them structure, a similar story or script to base the exercise on, relevant content and language to work within, then the students can tell their own stories, playing with ideas, exploring the meaning, and making creative writing of their original ideas.
Resume of the advantages of the role-play lessons:
- Explores real-life situations to develop understandings of other people’s feelings and actions.
- Promotes development of decision-making skills: making reservations for a hotel or booking a flight.
- Actively engages students in learning and enables all students to contribute.
- Promotes a higher level of thinking.
Latest recommendations:
Once students have created their own stories, they need to practise their lines with their group. You can allow each group to use objects (plastic food, cutlery or credit cards) or to dress up to bring the story to life in the classroom.
They can also set up simple scenes with a few signs and create their own names in Spanish, such as Restaurant El Toro Loco or Hotel El Palacio Real.
Be careful not to let the learning purpose of drama be lost in the goal of the performance and make sure everyone participates and contributes the same.
You can also ask your students to send the script on a word document, so you can project it on the board to make it easier for the rest of the class to follow the story.
Javier Vidal
Spanish Teacher
Solids, Liquids And Gases
What is a solid, liquid and gas? This was the question posed to our Year 3’s in our first Science lesson in Term 3. But… instead of telling the students, they set about discovering it for themselves. In groups, students were supplied with a plastic bottle of water, a plastic bottle of ice and a plastic bottle of air. Together a discussion was held on which material is a solid, liquid and gas and why.
Roll on lesson 3! Gases are invisible! Now this lesson took our Year 3’s by surprise! In pairs, students were given a plastic bottle filled with vinegar and a balloon filled with bicarbonate of soda. Instructions were given to place the balloon at an angle on the plastic bottles and then to lift the balloon and observe what happened. But first students had to make a prediction. With zero faith in their teacher, most students predicated an explosion! On the count of 3, students then lifted their balloons and voila… no explosion!
Faces of students caught completely by surprise… priceless!!
Then it was time to learn about the velocity of different liquids. In groups of four, students were supplied with 4 plastic bottles containing different liquids – shampoo, water, oil and syrup. The task was to turn the bottles upside down and observe what happened to the liquid in each bottle. Groups then took turns explaining the velocity of each liquid.
The skills-based Science lessons this term have been interactive, hands-on, collaborative and most importantly – fun! Students are not only learning new concepts but are also learning to work with one another by investigating, making predictions and talking about their observations.
Thank you for always being such enthusiastic young scientists, Year 3!
Mandy Goch
Year 3 Teacher
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Moments And Memories
“Life is a beautiful collage of priceless moments and memories, which when pieced all together creates a unique treasured masterpiece” – Melanie M. Koulouris
To start the new term, the Year 5’s were tasked with reflecting on not only the wonderful moments and memories they made during the holidays, but also on why they treasured them as a part of their life’s masterpiece. They were also asked to share these memories and stories with each other in groups and with the class.
Here are just some of the special memories our students shared:
The best moment and memory was probably cuddling with my dogs, because I’m obsessed with dogs! – Zoe Floor
My best moment is when I saw all the pretty trees in Canada and the hotels looked amazing; in Hermanus I went to the beach and saw dolphins and sharks. I love having fun and spending time with my family. – Bohlale Malatji
My happiest moment was a sleepover I had with my best friends in Shanghai. We had it in a hotel, especially for us! – Emily Yu
I went ‘glamping’ with my Mom; Step-Dad and my sister. I loved it because I went with my family and we were not allowed to bring our phones! – Sian-Lia Jenkinson
The best moment I had during the holidays was seeing my Mom. This moment was very special because I haven’t seen her in a very long time. – Unknown
It is, however, important to not only reflect on the past, but also to also look to and dream about the future. So for the second task, the Year 5’s were required to write down what they were most excited about experiencing this term. Here are some of their answers:
I am excited about the Aladdin play and doing work and getting higher marks in each of my subjects. – Khanya Luthango
I am excited for this term, because I won’t be wearing a mask! – Indiphile Jentile.
Making more friends, being happy and improving my sign language. – Zoe Floor.
I am excited about soccer this term and the new students. I also want to improve my marks. – Etana Mueke.
The Year 5’s are looking forward to a wonderful Term 3!
Jennifer Rose
Year 5 Teacher
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From The German Club
Willkommen! Welcome to the new German Club!
The German Club was launched at the beginning of the year and has become a highlight of my week when 20 very enthusiastic German Club members meet on a Friday afternoon in my classroom for an hour. These members are students from Year 5, 6 and High School.
We cover various topics and themes as well as test and taste many different treats and snacks from Germany.
This term we explored the questions ‘Where in the World is Germany?’ and ‘Where in Europe is Germany?’
The students were divided into groups and rotated to different stations consisting of maps of the world, including Germany and a puzzle of Europe’s countries that they had to complete. They also had a questionnaire that needed to be answered as a group for each station. In this way, they were able to discover for themselves where Germany’s location is in relation to hemispheres, continents, oceans and then which countries, seas, rivers and lakes border Germany.
During Book Week in the German classroom, all the students were introduced to the fairy tales and stories by the brothers, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. We watched and listened to the animated story of the ‘Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten’ (The Bremen Town Musicians) and learnt a song.
Read the previous article here: https://blouberg.stjohnsdevon.desarrolloadhoc.com/2022/05/20/the-brothers-grimm/
In the German Club, we further explored this story and a highlight was watching a 60 minute movie with real live characters all in German with no English subtitles. The 4 animals; the donkey, dog, cat and rooster in the story could talk to the special humans, as they should of course in fairy tales.
In preparation before we watched the movie, we worked on the vocabulary from the movie by working in groups and matching the English and German words.
Parts of the movie were filmed in the German city of Bremen, which brought the story to life. The students really enjoyed the movie and we will definitely watch more in the future.
The German club also worked on a short play of the story and they presented it to the Year 1-6 students in the KS1 and KS2 assemblies this week. The students especially loved singing along to the song with much enthusiasm.
We look forward to the next term with the German Club.
Frau Kerstin Pani
Primary School German Teacher
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Sensory Day
Even though it was messy, and oh the clean-up was a delight, the toddlers thoroughly enjoyed every minute of exploring the colourful spaghetti, the mushy sago and the sticky rice. They were able to hop out of the ‘clean class’ box and just enjoy making a mess.
Sensory play is an important part of childhood and there are really no limits to what you can use in your sensory activities. However, nature and food can often be your best friend when it comes to sensory play.
To help you keep your youngster busy during the holidays, here are a few great sensory play ideas for home:
- For keeping their hands busy:
- Soapy Jars: Fill a plastic peanut butter jar halfway with water, a pinch of dish soap and food colouring. Seal it tightly, and let your toddler roll it/shake it around outside.
- To explore their sense of smell (ages 4-6):
- Smell it and guess: Blend up six different fruits/vegetables in small quantities and pour them into separate dishes. Allow your little one to taste and guess.
- For co-ordination and organisation:
- Alphabet scoop and transfer: You will need alphabet magnets or water-safe letters, a storage container, a wooden spoon, two dish buckets and water. Pour enough water into your container to allow the letters to float and allow your child to scoop each letter out individually. You can practice various beginner literacy activities with them!
- To assist with emotions, and to keep them calm:
- Place beach sand or regular sand into a big container and hide small toys in the sand. Make sure the toys are all of the same themes. Once they have been able to scoop out each toy, engage with them to create a fantasyland on the sand. It’s like a zen garden for kids.
Jo-Anne Dickason
Nursery Teacher
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Figurative Language: Putting Words To Work
I walked towards the door, my shoes squeaking on the tiles like nervous mice. The door at the end of the corridor gaped open, the wind whispering secrets between the hinges. I reached out and gripped the door handle, the metal a chunk of ice on this wintry morning. I checked that I had my book, and slipped into the English classroom, ready for my descriptive language lesson…
This term in English, the Year 6 students have been learning about figurative language, imagery in writing and the plot elements in a narrative plot structure (rising action, climax and falling action).
Their focus has been to include figurative and sensory language when writing, to help their writing pieces to become more descriptive. They used tools like similes, metaphors and personification (figurative language) to help paint a picture in the reader’s mind. They didn’t just tell stories, they created worlds. By using imagery (sensory details) in their writing, they transported their readers far and wide, taking them on adventures where they could see, hear, taste, smell or touch whatever the characters were experiencing.
For their final writing task, the students needed to apply what they had learnt, writing a story chapter that included the rising action, climax and falling action of their story, as well as using figurative and sensory language to help their readers visualise their setting and action. Of course, stories don’t just write themselves, and sometimes starting a plot can be tricky. To give them a jump-start on choosing their setting, students were given visual prompts of various possible settings and sensory details that matched them. They also made use of a bank of resources for metaphors, similes, personification, synonyms and adjectives, which they could use to describe the feelings and actions of their characters.
The Year 6s really stepped up to the challenge, showing that they could work independently, use their resources effectively, and give meaningful feedback on their peers’ work. They created impressive writing pieces, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading!
-“Wet, heavy drops splattered all over, like paint messily across a canvas, as their fire was quickly dying.”- Nuraan Price
-“He could feel his tears welling up again. They blended with the rain, bucketing down.”- Siyana Manawar
-“He stared forward examining the crude, rusty train tracks that seemed to go on for kilometres before disappearing into the thick ominous fog. He pinched himself on his forearm, hoping that this was all a dream, but nothing.”- Sadie E’ Silva
-“Jannet woke up to a crack as loud as thunder and shot up as fast as an elastic band”. – Aimée Davies
Katherine Nel
Year 6 Teacher and KS2 Coordinator
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