Tuesday 9 December 2014

Making My Own Christmas Cards

I'm a big believer in making things yourself.  
Here are my Christmas cards for 2014 
from a photo I took of my Christmas decorations. 

Christmas Party

We had our end of year Christmas party at school today, where we swapped homemade Christmas gifts with each other.

Some of the gifts were so carefully thought out it made my heart glad.

Above is our mini Christmas tree with gifts the students gave me - what a lucky teacher!
 

Thursday 4 December 2014

Carols by Candlelight

Our class was given the job of putting together and illustrating the Carols by candlelight booklet.
The pictures are beautiful!

Monday 1 December 2014

Sharing is caring

I gave my old laptop to my teacher friend in Grade R for her home corner.  She sent me this photo.  Apparently the girl is sending a Skype message. :)

Afrikaans Week

Can you tell that the idea of speaking only Afrikaans this week doesn't thrill my girls? 

These photos were taken at morning line-up, just after they had found out the theme for the week.

Haha...oh dear

Friday 28 November 2014

Exam time


I told the class that they could bring a small snack to nibble on during their exam....

Our school Christmas tree is up!

Decorated my a few of the Montessori 9-12 students

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Christmas time is coming

The Grade 4s helped to put up the school Christmas tree in the foyer. They also laid out the Santa's Shoe boxes for the under privileged childrenn: http://santashoebox.co.za/
Tomorrow we decorate it!

Friday 21 November 2014

Santa Shoebox Project

Don't forget to pack your shoe box ready for Carols by Candlelight Night on 5th December.

 

Thursday 20 November 2014

We are growing our own vegetables

At our school some of of the classes are frowning vegetables. So far the most successful plants are the lettuces.

Friday 14 November 2014

Picasso's Blue phase

This painting was created by Tomas. How amazing is it!?

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Rememberance Day

Today at school we made our own poppy badges to remember though who have fought in wars to keep us safe. 
Here are Jawad and Khaya showing off their smart handmade badges
 
 Here is Zoe showing us she made her badge. Red , green and black paper, glue and black glitter and a safety pin to attach the badge to our clothes.

 

 
These are my grandparents, Hugh and Thelma Reyburn. Both  were involved in WW2 in South Africa and my gran went to Ciaro. 


What is Remembrance Day?
Remembrance Day, or Poppy Day, is held in Commonwealth countries to remember members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty, as well as all those who have been involved with and affected by war and conflict. Originally declared a special day in 1919 by King George V to remember the soldiers killed in the First World War, now we remember soldiers from all wars who have given their lives.
As the First World War was formally declared over "at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, we traditionally hold two minutes of silence throughout the Commonwealth on 11th November every year. In addition, the second Sunday of each November is known as Remembrance Sunday, and church services remember our fallen soldiers while the Queen, members of the Royal Family, politicians and old soldiers lay poppy wreaths at the Cenotaph in London (near the Houses of Parliament).
Leading up to Remembrance Day and Remembrance Sunday we buy small paper "poppies" to show that we are remembering the sacrifices of those who died, and also to raise money to support serving and ex-Service personnel and their families. People who have lost a loved one in service put small wooden crosses near war memorials around the country, and local branches of the Royal British Legion lay wreaths.

Why Poppies?
A Canadian doctor, John McCrae, wrote a poem in 1915 about the devastation he saw in the Flanders area of Belgium and in northern France during the First World War. The land lay destroyed by terrible battles, and many men were buried there. But despite the devastation of battle, the wild poppies survived. Dr McCrae's poem was published in Punch magazine, and the poppy became the symbol of remembrance.

Thursday 6 November 2014

Working Motors - Science in Action

While the Grade 6s are at Physical Education, the four children left behind created working motors and night lights using our child friendly electrical circuits. 


Prize Giving tonight



Tonight is our school's Prize Giving Evening.
Not quite Tri-Wizard Cup level, but still exciting! :)


Monday 3 November 2014

General Knowledge Club

At our school we have a General Knowledge (GK) Club. Many of the Montessori children attend. It is run by myself, Miss Tyler-Smith.

This year we entered the inter schools Quiz and made it to the 2nd of three rounds. 
We hope to achieve better next year. 

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween in our class on Friday.Our teacher has collected a lot of decorations over the years. We decorated the class and did Halloween crafts and filled in a workbook our teacher made us.

Instead of trick-or-treating for sweets, we swapped compliments written on little papers shaped like pumpkins and haunted houses and put them in our specially decorated brown paper bags.
Instructions for lunch were to only bring orange and black foods and drinks.

 

Monday 27 October 2014

My trip to Armenia by Imran (Grade 4)


In Armenia there were some great sites. Here is where I went in total:

  • Dinners (3 traditional feasts hosted by my new aunt’s family who are from Armenia)
  • A Water Park
  • Republic Square
  • A 5 star apartment
  • My uncle’s wedding
  • A 9D show at the cinema
  • An ancient church from the 7th century
  • A monastery from the 1st century
  • The Blue Mosque
  • The Opera House cars
  • The Cascades
  •  KFC
  •  McDonalds - at Dubai Airport

In Armenia we went to several dinners and at every dinner there was VODKA (not for children of course). The first dinner was at a restaurant called, Tavern Yerevan…. Yerevan is the capital of Armenia.At one such an occasion this man, Benno, did this party trick with homemade vodka where he lit his arms after pouring vodka on it. DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS!!!



There were children my age – below there is a picture of myself and Robert, a 10 year old Armenian boy. It just shows you, no matter where you go 10 year old boys are all the same. Into soccer, Nike and PSPs J


At the Water park, we were lucky to get in because it was the last day that the park would be open. This is because in Armenia in September, the summer is just ending. Here is my brother and I catching some sun.



The Armenian currency is the dram and for each R1 of South African money, you would get 40dram. We flew to Armenia via Dubai airport and there the currency is Dirham, although they also allow you to pay with US dollars. Here is a picture of some money that came out of my mom’s wallet at the end of our trip… Rands, Dollars, Dirham and Dram:
Near to where we stayed, was The Opera House and outside the Opera House was a huge open space with vendors renting out mini cars and bikes that kids could drive.  My brother and I went several times.



When we went to Republic Square, there were loads of water fountains like this one. Republic Square is the middle of the city.

We went to a 9D show and we could smell the smells in the movie and felt water on us when water was sprayed in the movie. Shortly afterward we had ice-cream.

The day after the wedding I climbed a mountain called mount Aragat,it is 3000 ft higher than Table mountain. I took 10 breaks every 1 hr and the hike was 5 hrs,at the top I was so tired I slepped on the rocks.

We went to an ancient monastery and there were caves carved into the mountains where if you shouted it would echo.

We also went to the Blue Mosque, when we went inside and had to take off our shoes. Yusuf acted SUPER CRAZY!!! I tried to calm him down…..but unfortunately  it didn’t work, so we had to leave.

The wedding was SUPER COOOOOL!!! There was a dancing old lady who nobody knew.If I rated the cake 1-10,it would be a………..6 wa wa waa.The floor was slippery so I did the Moon Walk!!!






On the way back, at Dubai airport, we went to a McDonalds with an item on their menu that I had never tasted before… McWings… They tasted SUPER GOOD!!!  I also saw this beautiful Ferrari at the airport