skills Tag

In English this week in Year 1. we have been working on our creative writing skills as we dramatised stories of our adventures in Space. Turning our desks upside down in class, we pretended they were our ‘spaceships.’ The students worked in groups and had a lot of fun acting and narrating out their space adventure stories. We then used the ipads to video their stories before writing about them. The class has a lot of fun working together and creating their own space adventures!

Clara Chassungo wrote: “I am going to space, I’m taking my brother, Geraldo and am also taking my mum and dad. We are going to look at all the different planets and we are landing on the moon! We will land at 3 o’ clock in the morning and we see aliens and footprints. We will jump in the sky…”

Buhle Sibiya writes: “ I am going to space so I can see the 8 planets in the galaxy and I am taking Ozzie, she is my friend. We landed on the moon and we saw aliens and we are going to land…”

Charlotte Cronje
Year 1 Teacher

Emotions play such an important role in our lives. It helps us to think and behave in certain ways. They help us to build relationships, avoid or resolve conflicts better. Emotions help us make decisions for the future and helps us cope with what we are dealing with during the day.

We start feeling emotions from when we are little, and as we grow and mature, we learn how to identify them far better and hopefully become more skilled in how to express them appropriately. With practise we get better at understanding what we are feeling and why.

Just for a moment, think about what you did today versus what you did yesterday. Did different emotions on different days, allow you to behave in different ways? Are you more tolerant today than you were yesterday? Have you smiled more today than yesterday? Have you made some rash decisions based on how you were feeling? Have you made the best decisions you could have made so far this year?

Emotions can last for a second or for an hour. They change constantly throughout our day. Emotions are part of a person’s character. Without them we would be robots.

We read emotions from facial expressions, body language, hand gestures, tone of voice and even eyes. Notice the feel of a handshake, a hug or a touch. These are many cues that help us to pick up on someone’s emotional wellbeing.

Many adults today find it difficult to identify what it is they are really feeling, let alone be able to express their emotions appropriately. Am I angry or just irritated? Am I happy or just proud? There are so many emotions that are closely linked and can be misunderstood. There are so many different emotions that sometimes it can be impossible to recognise them all. It can also be very confusing and extremely challenging.

Being able to accept what you are feeling allows you to become more self-aware and self-compassionate. I know this can sound all airy-fairy, but being able to have a good emotional intelligence, to me, is far better that having a good IQ. This will help you in all aspects of life, in the workplace and in relationships that you build along the way.

Using a feelings wheel helps us to open up our feeling’s vocabulary and learn to understand the extent of them a lot better. Once you have used the feelings wheel for some time, you won’t need to go back and look up what the feeling is, you will identify it straightaway.

There are many students today that need assistance with feelings and emotions, and need to learn some healthy strategies to overcome or face them head-on.

I have a number of feelings wheels and charts around my class to help my students with their emotions. I have a dedicated calm space for my students to retreat to whenever they feel overwhelmed or need a place to ‘check in’ with themselves.

You can create a calm space in your own home for your children, or even for yourself. When children see that you use the space, it allows them to realise that we, as adults, also have emotions and sometimes need to refocus and recentre.

This calm space is different to a time-out space for consequences. It is a place of safety. Children are not to be sent there by a parent, rather it must be a child’s choice to go there. You can suggest it, but it should not be enforced. This space does not have a time limit.

Decide as a family, where this calm space will be. Decorate it together if that’s something that they might like. You can even give the space a name.

Leave them alone in their space to reflect, to let out some anger or other emotions. Try not hover around them or speak to them. Allow them this time to be on their own.

You can include some calming tools in your calm space to help them with self-regulation. Some good ideas are therapy putty or a stress ball to squeeze, a liquid timer or a glitter jar to look at, books to read about emotions, calming cards or positive thinking cards, a teddy bear, or some simple calming toys, such as a Rubik’s cube, that keep their minds busy. Some nice, calming smells can help too. I use lavender in my class, and my students love rubbing it onto their temples. This relaxes them completely. Believe me, I have used it several times!

Embrace your emotions, and talk about them with your family, your friends, your colleagues. The more we accept that we have them and that they are a normal part of our lives, the more skilled we will become, and your EQ will be what people talk about instead of your IQ.

Wendy Menton
Year 3 Teacher

Our weekly programme that is derived from the Cambridge curriculum helps us perform different exercises and play games that are skill based and always motivate teamwork rather than focusing on individual skills only.

We learn about our bodies and how we can use them to the best of our abilities within the sports fields.

The curriculum is based on the sporting codes we provide at BIS, thus, it is important for students to participate and enjoy the different skill sets taught throughout the year as per the curriculum requirements.

As coaches we want our students to participate in different activities and expose them to different types of sports within our lessons, hence we provide the support that is needed to achieve this goal.

We cannot achieve all of this without the help of our lovely parents, so we ask that our lunch boxes are filled with health conscious nutritious food on a daily basis.

Promoting good eating habits is vital to a child’s development physically and mentally, It is said that eating healthier 80% of the time and doing 20% exercise compliment each other.

What Experts Say

“The 80/20 rule approaches healthy eating with a message of moderation-80 percent healthy choices and 20 percent flexibility for less healthy option. Nutrition professionals back this approach, as it is feasible for all, allows for variety of foods, and avoids deprivation.” – Chrissy Carrol,RD,MPH

Let’s try and pack a healthy lunch box.

We are most certainly improving and setting the tone at our PE lessons every week and I (Coach Mpho), am getting the greatest joy seeing the improvement and the strides that our students are making, getting the idea of how to move the body over a game of dodgeball, soccer, handball and more.

Also knowing the amount of power needed to make a short or long pass, throwing skills, learning new games and most of all having fun with your peers and improving your game.

Week 6 – Handball skills, teamwork, accuracy and movement.
Class – 5HK

ATL skills observed – Listening and communication skills, self-awareness and sense of urgency – teamwork

Planning

The students warm up by taking a jog around the 5 aside court ,do shuttles that incorporate push ups, sits, lunges, jumping jacks/body weighted squats to get the blood flowing and the heart rate going.

They then go into stretches from neck to toes, whilst illustrating and explaining to them which parts of the muscles they are stretching and the importance thereof.

In this case, a class is split into 2 teams that verse each other etc. (red vs orange team)

Instructions are as follows:

1. No one is allowed to keep the ball for more than 3 seconds creating a sense of urgency in their play.
2. Teams have to pass to everyone in their team to have a legitimate goal awarded, which creates a team effort where everybody participates, teams are not allowed to run with the ball which forces them to work together – teamwork.
3. Teams are allowed to pass the ball by either bouncing or no bounce, two-handed passes for more accurate passes.

Objective
The objective of the lesson is to establish and develop good communication skills, passing accuracy and most importantly following the rules of the game and applying all the skills taught throughout the curriculum.

Assessing
Can a student apply themselves through the activity that is focused and based on team building?
Can they pass, throw and catch the ball?
Can they be creative in terms of movement and creating space on the field?
Are they calling for the ball, communicating to their teammates?
Do they understand the rules of the game abide by them?

The students attitude, enthusiasm and the will to do better is as important as his performance.

In Closing

As the winter season slowly drags on to its end, we welcome Spring and the sunshine. I am grateful for the support that has been shown by our BIS family, parents, teachers, ground staff and all who make our school united and warm throughout the soccer and netball season by rooting for our students.

I also wish congratulate all our junior and senior Tennis teams that represented BIS in Sun City last week as well as all our soccer and netball boys and girls who participated with much courage and enthusiasm in all their matches this season.

Well done to you all, we are all very proud to be part of the winning mindset.

Mpho Mahlangu
PE Teacher