Back home to South Africa

After an exciting round the world trip, it is time to head home ready for a well deserved rest! Megan and I welcomed our classes and stamped their passports for the last time. We thought that it would be wonderful to get the creative juices going... So we grouped our classes and played them Shosholoza. We set each group the task of working out a 'routine' to the song. After 10 minutes we gathered them back together again so that each group could perform their dance. We were so impressed with what they came up with. I have posted a video clip of the best one from my class.

Akhil our shopkeeper

Akhil was our shopkeeper this Friday. He did an amazing job and didn't need any help from me when it came to giving change. Well done Akhil

Fathers Day Fun

Fathers day was loads of fun. To start the dads came to our classrooms to build a wooden car, which we then went down onto the field to race. It was a lovely winters day with an amazing turn out from the dads.

Fun in Japan

We have almost finished our round the world tour. Our second to last stop is Japan - The Land of the Rising Sun.

There is is just so much interesting information to learn about Japan. Our classes really enjoyed learning how to greet each other and would say 'Konichiwa" to any visitor that came into the classroom. We learnt that the tea ceremony in Japan is very special. Green tea is commonly drunk, so we allowed our children to taste some...not everybody liked the taste!

in the crouched position, making direct eye
contact. Here the arms are open and hands
facing upwards showing that they are
unarmed.

The children were fascinated with Sumo Wrestlers - we learnt lots of interesting facts about them - they particularly liked acting out the greeting ceremony that takes place before each fight. 

On Thursday our classes had the opportunity to eat with chopsticks. I must say I was amazed at how well they managed! 

Everybody could not wait for today when we were supposed to see the sunrise! Sadly, the weather gods were not on our side! We woke up to cloudy skies! Never the less everyone was at the beach bright and early

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We had two very special guests who met us. The first was Mrs Van Elden, who did some yoga with us to start the day. 

                 

                 

After our yoga session, we treated everyone to hot chocolate and muffins.

                 

                 

                     

Finally our last special guest - Mrs Rayner came along to investigate the Japanese's favourite food...fish. Bailey was very relieved that we were not going to make our own sushi - she really didn't want to eat raw fish!  

Mrs Rayner got the children to feel the fish - pick off some scales, look at the fins and open up its mouth. Then came the yucky bit...cutting it open and looking inside! They got to look at the stomach contents, the backbone, the gills and finally the little white ball in the middle of the fish's eye! Some children were not afraid to get stuck in whilst others preferred to be observers! Fortunately we had some parents who were willing to lend a helping hand with the rather smelly task!

                 

                        

                        

                

                

                

                

                           

                   

                        

                

                        

                    

                    

                        

Because it was so cloudy we could not do our final activity. So instead the children got to have free time which they really enjoyed. 

Sanqitas dad helped the children
build a sand dragon.

Final treat - pizza before heading back to school.
Thanks again to Sanqita's mom and dad.

All too soon it was time to go back to school. Apart from not seeing the sun rise, we really had a wonderful morning on the beach. Special thanks to Mrs Rayner and Mrs van Elden and an even bigger thanks to all our wonderful parents for their on going support.