Mrs Van Elden pays us a visit.

Fortunately we have a seasoned traveler on our staff, Mrs van Elden, and she was willing to come and tell us all about her fantastic trip to Thailand.

Thai boxing is well
known.

It was so interesting to hear all about the time she spent there. She brought some pamphlets to show us as well as some pictures. Utara had also recently been on holiday with her family and she had shown us lots of pictures as well. 

After the devastating tsunami of 2004
there are warning signs all over the islands.

This little baby elephant could not
resist giving her a hug!

She told us that elephants are sacred
animals in Thailand and that you see them
everywhere. She enjoyed her ride on one.

When Mrs van Elden visited the Big Buddha,
it was still being built. Tourists were able to
buy a tile and write a message on the back.
She and her family left their special
messages on the Buddha as well.

She loved the Thai food except for the
salty dried fish!

James Bond finger, where the first
 James Bond movie was shot. It looks like
they were the only ones there.
But Mrs van Elden said that her husband had to
stretch over people to get this shot!

The beautiful crystal clear water
that they went diving in.

Thanks for telling us so much about your holiday Mrs van Elden. We all want to go there now!

Our new destination...Phuket!

What a busy week we have had! Travelling is a tiring undertaking, hence the reason for me catching up my blog after 'spending' a week on the beautiful island of Phuket!

The grade 2's could not wait to find out where we were going when they arrived on Monday morning. They kept on nagging until we let them in on the secret!

Once again they lined up to have their passports stamped, but this time we were going by boat! 


They walked the gangplank and once everyone had sorted themselves out, we all met at the nearest muster station for their compulsory life jacket drill.

We eventually landed on our island of Phuket, where for the next two weeks, we will be exploring topics related to the sea. Ending off our final week by reading Jill Eggeltons book Super Squid. 

Excitement levels rose when we disembarked to go on our first activity...a visit to the a dive shop at the beachfront to learn necessary information for our stay. 

We met Jason who told us all about diving and what divers do in the ocean.

He explained how the jacket inflates and deflates.

 Some children has the opportunity to try on the masks and feel what it felt like breathe in oxygen.

Caleb and Aruna demonstrate the buddy system.

Rhea got to put on the the whole outfit. She as a bit nervous about breathing though!

  

On conference in Australia!

Throughout this week we have been at a 'conference' in Australia. The children have really played along beautifully. Each morning they tell me how their night in the hotel was and what afternoon activities they have been to! There have been some hilarious moments!

As our conference is nearing the end we went on one last sight seeing tour of Australia. We flew into Ayers Rock, learnt a little about Aborigines, saw some kangaroos, a possum or two and fed some Koalas! (all virtually of course on a Prezi!)


We had an unexpected visitor from the small mining town of Coober Pedy in south Australia. A real Australian Shelia (Mrs Regaud!) She arrived with her special hat, koala bag and a flag! None of the children could guess that the corks on her hat were to chase away the flies!

an underground bedroom

She told us about her adventures in Australia and specifically about Coober Pedy where Opals are mined. She showed us pictures of this amazing place where the people live underground because it is just too hot to live on the surface.

Of course she met Crocodile Dundee....

 
and a Bruce....



The children thought it was so funny when Shelia told us that she could not decide who she loved more! After debating the issue Alka shouted out "kiss the one and marry the other!"...Priceless. I wonder where she has heard that before!

Shelia brought some Australian biltong, called Jerky for us to taste. She told us that it was from a Kangaroo (it was actually chicken!).She asked if there was anyone brave enough to have a taste. We had a number of volunteers, but Jessica was not sure and said "I don't eat anything kangaroo". Needless to say Gill and I could not keep a straight face!

Thank you Shelia for taking time out of your busy schedule to come and speak to us it was really interesting.

After lunch the conference broke away into groups sessions, where we played a battleships type game. Each child plotted their Australian icons on the map. In pairs they tried to bomb each icon to see who was the winner. They had great fun!

Next week sees us jet off to another location..I wonder where that will be?

Australia bound!

Monday arrived and it was time to leave for Australia! Although some children were convinced that we were really going there, they soon came to terms with idea that it would be a virtual trip!

Gill and I had their passports ready when they came to school. We had them fill in all their details and line up in the 'departure area' ready for boarding!

Now it was time to go through 'customs' and have their passports stamped.

From there, boarding passes were handed in and all children had to take their seats in the 'cabin'. 

 

  Prior to 'take off', the 'cabin stewards' informed all passengers of safety precautions.

After an uneventful flight we took a quick tour of Sydney where we 'visited' places like the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the very famous Opera House!

We were fortunate to meet up with one of the 'locals' who showed us a didgeridoo, a boomerang and some Australian dollars.

Ebrahim got into the spirit of things by
bringing Australian curios for us to see.

Whilst we were on our bus tour, we 'saw' some emus on the road. Which then lead us into the start of our book "Another Mother".

Grateful thanks to YouTube!

Most of the children really enjoyed this introduction and played along beautifully!

World Map

Last Friday I divided my class into groups. Each group represented a continent. Using the map of the world we arranged the groups accordingly. Hopefully they never forget the names and location of these!

Each group was given their piece of the world map. First they painted the sea.

Next they filled in the continents by rolling up crepe paper into balls which they stuck down.

Last of all we assembled the map and each child helped to decorate the boarder. It really looks stunning.

Regions of the World - our new Theme

After a very short holiday we are now back with a short fourth term ahead of us.

We are again taking a book based approach to learning. We have chosen books that are based in different countries and regions of the world. The books are again written by Jill Eggleton and are always a hit with our children.

We began the term by learning about the continents of the world and the different regions.

We visited New Zealand briefly this week as it is the home of Jill Eggleton and we watched a YouTube clip of her reading one of our favourite books 'The Baboons Nest.'

We ended the week off by watching another clip of 'The Haka', which was particularly relevant as the All Blacks were playing the Springboks over the weekend. (and we wont discuss the end result!)

This week we will be travelling to Australia - we have  passports ready for the children when they arrive at school tomorrow, so that we can board the plane and jet off to our new destination. Here we will learn about Emus through Gill Eggleton's book 'Another Mother'.

We may have a few disappointed children when they arrive at school as many were really convinced that we would really be flying to Australia and they left school so excited!

Pirate conversations

We were so inspired by Senthens oral, that Gill and I thought that it would be wonderful to get our classes to write their own pirate conversations. 

The children chose a partner, each pair wrote their conversation, practiced it and presented it to the class. I was so delighted by the results. Take a look!

I will upload the others shortly, some children were absent....watch this space!