Quarter 2 Newsletter 2020

5 The journey continued with learners showcasing a favourite room in their homes, which was presented in Afrikaans. Through this experience learners were able to enrich their vocabulary and practise the pronunciation of new words. We are so proud of our young learners for creating such beautiful and innovative presentations. This challenging time has taught our learners that any journey is possible when using their imaginations. Learners have adapted well to the current changes and are excited about next quarter’s learning adventures. “Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.” – Oprah Winfrey A GRADE FOUR LEARNING ADVENTURE… We have been blown away with the growth that our Grade Four learners have shown over the second quarter. They have impressed us with their ability to adapt to online learning and to be able to make the best of unprecedented circumstances. Theme days were a favourite amongst the Grade Fours. We dressed up using recycled items and dressed down for a comfy day of learning in our pajamas. We loved seeing their creative outfits during our Morning Connect sessions. Our Morning Connect sessions were an amazing way to connect with the Grade Fours with fun discussions such as “would you rather?”, quick drawing challenges and brain exercises. We began our learning journey with a water themed Minute to Win it Challenge where the teachers completed activities that they challenged the learners to compete in. This launched our project: How do I become a water warrior? The Grade Fours produced beautiful and informative posters, Keynotes and infographics informing us about how to stop water pollution and how to conserve water. Our Grade Fours were encouraged to reach out to a friend during their Afrikaans Dialoog Taak. Learners paired up and had to write a dialogue together. They recorded individual videos of themselves saying their lines and used iMovie to merge their videos together to look as if they were having a conversation together. A lot of fun was had and learners came up with clever themes for their dialogues such as Die danspartytjie! With the assistance of Mrs Oxley-Simpson our Grade Fours were able to experience a day in the life of a weatherman or weatherwoman. They created their own weather chart and had to report on the weather for the day. The teachers were incredibly proud of their wonderful weather reports and of so many learners who went above and beyond to produce orals of an excellent standard. We loved every minute of online learning and the different opportunities and challenges that it brought about, but we are incredibly grateful to have returned to school. From beautifully created Mathematics videos, interactive live Google Meet lessons to celebrating Mandela Day together, we continue to adapt and grow stronger together. A GRADE FIVE LEARNING ADVENTURE… Change can be scary. It doesn't matter if you're going through a small change or a big one. Doing something totally different than you're used to is terrifying. But do you know what is scarier? Allowing fear to stop you from growing, evolving and progressing. The past weeks of online learning has been an incredible experience, and I am proud to say that the Grade Five teachers and learners have really stepped up to the plate and given it their absolute best. The Grade Fives learnt many new skills during their online schooling in Social Sciences. Not only did they complete their very own History: First Farmers Virtual Museum, they demonstrated an enormous amount of creativity and skill in creating their own lodge! Carefully thought out environmental impact assessments and beautiful lodges were showcased. These Social Sciences projects definitely brought out newly discovered strengths of the learners, which greatly impressed their teachers. In the final process of the iLodge project the learners had to present their lodge to their fellow classmates. This gave the learners the opportunity to present as if they were on a conference call being connected to many individuals across our city. Presentation and communication skills were key to effectively describe and promote their lodge. Amongst other content activities, live lesson participation and being advertising agents, English skills have branched out into a more tangible element than just a subject. We have had an exciting online experience in Mathematics, completing times tables on ThatQuiz every day and having some enjoyable live lessons learning new strategies to help us with division and problem solving with the patterns pages from our Number Sense books. Our learners delivered many wonderful tasks and were excited to show us how they have developed their IT skills. The teachers were left speechless whilst watching the learners’ incredible Afrikaans videos. Well done, boys and girls! The Grade Five teachers had fun creating special morning connect videos, but the one thing that they loved the most was to connect with their class on Google Meet. Fear did not stop the Grade Fives from growing, evolving and progressing. Today, we are more intelligent, braver and stronger than ever before! A GRADE SIX LEARNING ADVENTURE… Schools are typically places of routine and predictability. Well, not so in the last few months! The second quarter began in lockdown, throwing us all into the fairly unchartered territory of online learning. Fortunately, as a school we have always fostered a culture of innovation and creative thinking which has allowed us to adapt quickly to the fast-changing scenery. We are Grade 5 World book day - Google Meet