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Tuesday 19 March 2013

THRASS outing to Botanical Gardens


                                 

We decided to use our THRASS knowledge in a fun practical way by going to the Botanical Gardens and doing a treasure hunt. Although it was rather hot, it was a most successful outing, thanks to the mums who offered to help as facilitators.
Each mum was assigned a group. They set off, armed with a pencil and a packet of goodies to complete 10 activities based on the THRASS chart.








Studying the map, and counting the
number of gardens there are.
They started by studying the map... they had to use bread to feed the ducks, use their nose to match the herbs they had in their packets with those in the herb garden, 

Caleb uses his nose to find the herbs
find the names of three trees

In Fern Dell, mums had to take a photo of their group with a fern. Thanks to Calebs mum who supplied this photo.

One of the most popular activities was the Orchid house, where they had to throw a coin into the water and make a wish as well as measure how many steps from the one side to the other.

Rhea making  a wish!

Nikhil and Senthen being boys! Who can resist
such a big tree a tree to climb in!



Feeding bread to the ducks.


A heron also wanted in on the action!



so did a turtle!


The last activity after a long hot morning, was to find the teacher with a tray, for a treat!
Mrs Sweet with the treats!

 Thereafter, both children and parents could relax under the trees and enjoy their picnic. 



Free time in the park

Ebrahim takes time out for some meditation!!

Mrs Dowlath and her group at the ferns

Thanks mums for helping us make this such a worthwhile experience. If any of you have more photos, I would love to include them, so please send them onto me.

Saturday 16 March 2013

Authors and illustrators abound!

The big wide-mouthed frog story was such a hit with the grade 2's that we decided to write our own versions of the story.


Sonia designing the cover page
I arranged the class into groups. Each group decided on the animals that they wanted to include in the story and who would write each part.

 We had discussed the style of writing and how to go about writing each part. So it was with much excitement that my class sat down to write their chapter.
Caleb wrote the last part of the story where the frog meets a lion.
 Ebrahim wrote about the frog meeting a dinosaur!
Alka decided on a rhino for the frog to meet.


The frog met a cheetah in Angelo's part of the story.

The frog meets a rabbit and a horse in Rhea and Neeshals version.
Mikhaeel wrote the beginning of the story
and designed the cover for his group.
Once it was written, each child was responsible to illustrate their page. When everyone was finished we compiled our books. What a fantastic effort each child made! We are looking forward to reading our stories to the grade 1's next week.


Some completed pages. Zeenath chose a swan as the
animal  that the frog met. He met a zebra in Ohuhle's
story and a lizard in Jaden's. Jessica designed the cover.
 The authors and their completed books!



Wednesday 13 March 2013

Stars of the week

I am proud of Zeenath and Keshav, they really deserve their awards this week. They are both reading with loads of expression!  Well done and keep it up!

Sunday 10 March 2013

Pigeon Valley "Frog Outing"

As our theme on books is coming to and end, we planned a fun outing to Pigeon Valley to correspond with our last book, 'The Wide Mouthed frog."

Gill and I told the parents about the outing and gave them a brief of providing a "frog lunch". Wow some parents really outdid themselves! Thank you so much!


Aarivs mom supplied us a 'fly and spider' cake. Mikhaeels mom sent him to school with a frog face and his frog lunch all packaged in a frog packet.

What was inside the packet - all clearly labeled!
Caleb had bugs and things crawling all around
his froggy lunch.
There were all sorts of bugs and things in things packed in lunch boxes. As you can see by the pictures, a fantastic effort all round.


Froggy cupcakes,complete with a
delicious juicy worm, as well as froggy
sandwiches brought by Alka.
Keshav and his moth sandwich - perfect frog food and Rhea
with all sorts of froggy goodies.

Baby frogs for Senthen to eat.
Aruna had some more frogs eggs
Jaden and his frog cake!

Okuhle and her frogs eggs 

Anyone for frogalicious pizza?
 says Aariv.

After the excitement of looking at each our frog lunches, we showed the grade 2's a Life Cycle of a frog PowerPoint presentation. Then our combined classes were divided into groups. Each group had to choose a name for themselves. By now the children could hardly contain themselves. So, armed with lunch and containers to catch tadpoles we set off on the bus to Pigeon Valley.

 First we had our picnic lunch then each group was sent off to a different station for an activity. We rotated after 5 minutes until every group had completed each one. Mrs Sweet, read a froggy story, Shelly was at the pond where she pointed out the tadpoles and other aspects of the mini- ecosystem. Mrs Rayner did some "frog sports" like leap frog and hopping. Aarivs mom played eye-spy and I took groups on a nature walk. We had great fun, even though it was a hot and sticky day.
Mrs Dowlath with one of the groups.

bug hunting on the nature walk

pond activities with Shelly.

Story time with Mrs Sweet.