Quarter 2 Newsletter June 2019

A CULTURAL ADVENTURE… Our Preparatory enrichment classes were abuzz with excitement this quarter as learners honed their creative skills and integrated technology into their artwork, presentations and performances. The Junior Art Room was alive with sounds and shapes as the Grade Ones took to the sky, drawing stencilled clouds, flying helicopters and aeroplanes coloured with watercolours, while being captivated by the possibilities of colour mixing. The Grade Two learners took a closer look at the magnificent brushstrokes in Vincent van Gogh’s famous paintings namely, ‘Sunflowers’ and ‘Starry Night’. They were tasked with ‘painting’ a digital version of his artworks on the Sketches application, creating their own beautifully textured masterpieces. The integration of Art and Robotics always results in very interesting experiments and this quarter the Grade Three’s created cuckoo clocks in Art and brought them to life in Robotics. The first component of the project was to design a cuckoo bird in Tinkercad, a browser-based 3D design and modelling tool. While the learners continued to construct and paint the body of their clocks, they were able to see, with much delight and wonder, how their birds were being printed by the 3D printer in the Art Room. The project was brought to completion in Robotics, where the inner workings of the clocks were built, adding gears that the learners programmed in the WeDo application. The final result was a cuckoo clock, complete with a chirping and moving cuckoo bird. In Drama, the Grade Ones studied the story Zukletros and the Lekker Braai - an Autumn quarter tale, which linked to the Christopher Robin Pre-Primary May Play Farmyard theme. The story is about a little boy, Ronnie, who made a hideous-looking scarecrow to frighten the crows so that they could have enough corn for the harvest-end ‘lekker braai’. The learners made their own scarecrows using various materials of their choice. They were thrilled to present their creative scarecrows in detail to the class. Many had interesting names and features to their scarecrows. All of them were unique and would certainly scare any crow! The Senior Preparatory Culture Department once again collaborated in a Project Based Learning activity combining the genres of music, art and drama. Using the driving question: ‘How can we animate clay sculptures?’, the learners created sculptures from clay in their Art lessons. The Grade Four learners experimented with Picasso-inspired masks, the Grade Fives explored an outer space theme and the Grade Sixes chose any animal; prehistoric, extinct or living. They used their Drama lessons to write dialogues for the figurines and masks, and monologues for the animals. These voice overs were recorded, using Motion Portrait for the masks, Voice Memos for the figurines and Stop Motion for the animals. The learners used the DoInk Green Screen application and created innovative backgrounds and settings for their final video. In Music lessons, learners created a soundtrack, using GarageBand, and they edited the entire project by combining all the elements in iMovie or Apple Clips. In doing this project, we gave the learners the space to be as creative as they could possibly dream, allowing them to shine in areas which they never thought possible and creating future editors and animators. Many of our musicians participated in the Cape Town Music Eisteddfod and Trinity Examinations and produced excellent results. We are particularly proud of Naeha Naidu who was awarded the Klinkhamer-Blumenthal Medal for Most Diplomas in the ten years and under category. Our dancers are working hard at perfecting their Ballet, Modern and Tap syllabus in preparation for their examinations and Medal Tests. The members of our senior Drama Society groups are preparing poems for the Cape Town Eisteddfod which takes place in August. They are also honing their improvisation and characterisation skills. We firmly believe that, Life is a great big canvas and we will throw all the paint we can on it. A SPORTING ADVENTURE… The Autumn Quarter consisted of nine weeks packed with numerous sporting activities as the Preparatory Sports Programme featured 80 Soccer matches, 6 Rugby Fixtures, 6 Netball fixtures, 6 Hockey fixtures, 4 Cross Country events and 4 Chess matches. Our sports teams were also entered into numerous Saturday sports festivals and tournaments which always create the platform for our learners to be exposed to competition of a higher level and allow them to grow and learn a great deal. Our soccer section keeps growing as we are now fielding an A, B and C team in every age group. The U/9 – U/12 soccer teams joined the 5-a-side soccer league that is hosted by Hellenic Soccer Academy. The teams enjoyed the more competitive nature of this league, which has helped the teams refine their skills. The format also encourages the whole team to get involved in the matches which is key to development. In general, the growth of Parklands Preparatory Sport has been tremendous with an experienced group of sports coaches guiding our children and a numerous amount of sporting opportunities on offer. Our sports teams displayed outstanding sportsmanship and etiquette standards throughout the quarter. We are proud of the way our learners appear at fixtures as well as conduct themselves on the field and work together as teammates. Our coaching team places great value on offering productive training sessions where our learners are exposed to all aspects of the particular code. Our U/12 Netball girls travelled to Knysna from 24 - 28 April to experience a fun-filled and action packed Netball tour in the breathtaking surroundings of Knysna. Our U/12 team visited Oak Hill Preparatory as well as Riverwood Primary for friendly matches before they engaged in the Netball festival hosted by Sport at Backward Point. The Netball Festival welcomed 40 well respected netball teams from all over the country. Our girls were not only kept busy with matches, but also enjoyed visiting Monkeyland, Knysna Elephant Park as well as a boat cruise on the Knysna Estuary. The Netball tour provided a productive pre- season experience which prepared our girls adequately for their local league matches and festivals as well as allowed the opportunity to build great team spirit. We would like to congratulate these girls on their appearance standards throughout the event while they represented their school proudly. We thank Mrs Malan and Mr Watson who accompanied the girls on tour. Our U/11 & U/12 Soccer teams travelled to Camp Discovery for the second consecutive year. Camp Discovery is situated within Dinokeng Game Reserve North of Pretoria. The Camp Discovery soccer festival is known as the biggest Primary Schools soccer festival in the country, hosting 65 teams and 955 players. One of the highlights of this tour has been watching our U/11 team grow in confidence, ability and understanding of match situations. All these aspects seemed to come together and produced moments that will be cherished in their memories. The U/12 team performed exceptionally well while also displaying great teamwork qualities as well as outstanding sportsmanship on and off the field. Being an unknown entity at this festival, the teams have shown their opponents that they will not stand down easily. The tour group enjoyed numerous team building activities during their stay. The time at Camp Discovery produced proud moments and unforgettable learning experiences. We would like to highlight the outstanding performances and commitment displayed by the Parklands teams and learners who were involved in Saturday sports festivals and activities: Grade 4 – 6 Chess team at the CBC St John’s Chess Tournament; U/12 A Netball at the Panorama Primary Netball Festival; U/9 Hockey at the Table View Primary Hockey Festival; U/8 & U/9 A Netball at the Monte Vista Mini Netball Festival; U/9 A Rugby at the Curro Durbanville rugby festival; U/12 B Netball team at the Kenridge Primary Netball Festival; U/11 Hockey at the Bridge House Hockey Festival and the U10/11 Rugby team at the Table View Primary Rugby festival. Our U/9 Rugby players also enjoyed the opportunity to showcase their skills at the opening of the Secondary Campus rugby field. They competed very well against Somerset College and Kenridge Primary who joined in on the rugby festivities. We look forward to another fun-filled and eventful Winter Quarter as our Parklands teams will take the field and represent their school proudly. Our U11/12 Invitational hockey team will also be travelling to the Garden Route on the first Preparatory hockey tour in Sept 2019. We look forward to this exciting new sports outing!