Exploring Seed Dispersal
This term, the Year 5’s have been learning about the different ways seeds are dispersed. We looked at seed dispersal by animals, humans, wind and water. Seeds must be dispersed so they have enough space, water and light to grow into a new plant.
Fun Facts about Seeds:
- The largest seed in the world is the double coconut. It can measure up to 50cm (1.6ft) around the middle! Some coconuts have floated 2,000km over the sea before they find dry land!
- Seeds provide the world’s daily food. Your breakfast cereal and toast, your pasta or pizza lunch and your rice dish for tea all started life as seeds from different grasses.
- Some orchid seed-pods hold 3 million seeds.
- Kapok is soft, fluffy stuff that comes from a seed-case. Years ago it was used to fill life jackets, because it is light, strong and waterproof. Nowadays, modern plastics have replaced it.
- Some seeds found in frozen soil in Canada were grown and produced flowers – the seeds were thought to be more than 10,000 years old!
- There are some very dangerous seeds, such as those that come from deadly nightshade; two berries could kill you. Even more dangerous are the seeds from the Castor-oil plant.
- Most oak trees don’t grow acorns until they are at least 50 years old. If you have planted an acorn, how old will you be before you can plant its acorns?
My class (Year 5NM) recently decided to create our very own papery wing shaped seeds to test out how the wind would carry it. We designed different shapes of wings that we attached to a bean seed. We made sure to use paper, making the wings light and feathery, easy to be moved by the wind.
The results of this experiment were great! Students went outside and put their wing shaped seeds to the test. They were exhilarated to get hands on experience with seed dispersal.
Seeds are so interesting and we will certainly never think of them as just seeds ever again.
Nadia Mahomed
Year 5 Teacher
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Masters of Measurement
For the past two weeks, the Year 4s have been learning more about Measurement. This included Length (mm, cm, m and km), Mass (g and kg), Capacity (ml and L) and Volume.
We’ve covered the following content:
- Choosing and using metric units
- Their abbreviations
- Estimating
- Measuring
- Recording
- Reading scales and intervals
“It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.” – Ann Landers
Students got the opportunity this week to apply their knowledge and skills that they’ve learned with some practical, hands-on activities. They had to make use of various measuring equipment such as an/a:
- Analogue kitchen scale
- Digital kitchen scale
- Digital bathroom scale
- Measuring tape
- Industrial measuring tape
- Kettle
- Measuring cups and spoons
Take a look at some of the wonderful, fun photos taken of them in action and practically applying what they have learned.
Ria du Plessis
Year 4 Teacher and Coordinator
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Team Building Tournament
Year 4 students enjoyed a lovely morning of team building to end the term. Coach Fabein from FP Sports and his team of professional coaches organised some fun activities for the classes to complete in a Round Robin competition. The students had a great time and Mrs du Plessis’ class won the challenge overall.
We would like to thank our wonderful team of coaches for the care and support that they show our students every day. We look forward to a well-deserved holiday and to come back refreshed and ready in Term 4.
Yvette Fourie
Year 4 Teacher
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Picasso, Pianos and Portraits!
The Year 4’s have been focusing on an interesting technique in Art and Design for the past few weeks, namely Cubism.
A few facts about Cubism:
- Cubism is a style of Art invented in 1907.
- It was a very different way of painting to anything that had been done before.
- In Cubism, an artist tried to show different views of the same object or person all together in one painting. When you look at a Cubist painting, you might see the front, side and back of the same object.
- Cubist artists tried to break an object or person up into different parts. This often made the painting look like it was made up of geometric shapes like cubes.
Pablo Picasso was one of the first artists to explore Cubism. He wanted to paint things that he felt, remembered and saw all in one painting. Some of his most famous creations are the guitar sculptures made of cardboard and sheet metal, and the painting The Weeping Woman. We used these two art works as inspiration to create our masterpieces.
Have a look at our beautiful paintings of Picasso’s guitar and portraits using pastels and the Cubism technique.
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” – Pablo Picasso
Ria du Plessis
Year 4 Coordinator
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Being In The Moment To Build Inspired Students
Becoming overwhelmed is easy as we navigate constant change. Becoming inspired and excited by the very same, allows us other opportunities. This term, the year 4’s have been online and/or in class. Every day they enter the classroom, full of expectations and open to the joy of the moment.
It is delightful to see that their education and excellence is determined by enthusiasm and encouragement. This is because of a team effort between teachers, parents and our students.
Google Meets in a hybrid class, encourage moments of magic- as we have to create moments that resonate, whether we are together or not. Most are spontaneous as we aspire to give everyone an equal chance to take part and see…
e.g. suddenly my laptop becomes a webcam for science experiments:
Our hall display reminds us of Mrs Keyser – she wanted to remind us that together we can make something beautiful, and a pinch of fun makes it great.
Who knew that our Google Hangout chats this holiday, would help us in English…
And that a lesson on French knitting at the end of last term, would become an obsession.
Together is so much better.
Mrs Carey Schoots
Year 4 Teacher
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Skeletons in Year 4
The Year 4’s have been learning about Skeletons in Science. We have covered what skeletons are made of, why we need a skeleton, how muscles help us move and many other interesting facts.
Did you know that there are 206 bones in the human body?!
The students were always enthusiastic and willing to take part in the lessons and came to class full of questions. They took part in the “bend a bone” experiment which involved the leaving a chicken bone in vinegar for a few days. It was very exciting to see what happened to the bone at the end of the experiment, however we all were delighted to get rid of that “wonderful” vinegar smell in their classrooms!
The Year 4’s also built their own skeleton puppets out of recycled materials. So much effort was put into this, they really impressed their teachers. The students’ innovative abilities really shone through here and it was so pleasant to see how well they worked as a class, always offering to help each other!
If you would like to find out more about skeletons, please speak to our wonderful Year 4’s!
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein
Miss Brittney Hakime
Year 4 Teacher
Key Stage 2: NATURAL DISASTERS
The Year 4’s have been learning about Natural Disasters. We have learnt about Tsunamis, Floods, Tornado’s, Earthquakes and Volcanic eruptions. We even had a look at our current local natural disaster happening in Durban and all the damage that the floods have caused. We have made collages of Tornado’s in art and presented orals on our choice of Natural disaster, explaining how the disaster occurs, where they occur and how to keep safe when a disaster strikes. This has been such an interesting topic especially since we can relate it to current affairs around the world.
Bridget Neal
Year 4 Teacher
Sharing experiences across continents – Year 4 2019
The Year 4 students were recently introduced to a class in Pakistan, who was studying water scarcity. They sent us a You tube link showing how certain villages in Pakistan only received fresh water every 2 weeks! Pakistan is set to have NO available drinking water by 2025.
Our class is very excited to share how we as a school and community in Cape Town have put measures in place to avoid our “Day Zero” in 2018. Much preparation, filming and editing occurred and 4 short videos were made. At the same time, the class in Pakistan was doing cultural presentations. They are going to send the presentations to us, assisting our students in learning about them. We also hope to share a Skype conference with them to share what we have learned together.
As an international School we have a responsibility to teach our students how to build diplomatic relationships worldwide. Our students are our future leaders and by empowering them to work together, the future is very bright indeed.
Mrs Carey Schoots
Year 4 Teacher