We're Going on a Bear Hunt

As we get closer to the end of Term 2 this week, we have been enjoying reading 'We're Going on  Bear Hunt'. The story is about a family who want to find a bear. They go through a river, a forest and a snowstorm before they find the bear. We have read it over and over again and we love it every time.

On Wednesday we went on our own bear hunt. We made binoculars out of toilet rolls, masking tape and string. We coloured in our binoculars and then we were ready to go. It was a beautiful day for a bear hunt!

We hope you enjoy looking at us on our bear hunt. We did manage to find one. You may think it doesn't look like a bear but with our binoculars on and a bit of imagination it looked like a big grizzly bear! We were very scared!

Checking the binoculars work and making sure there is no bear outside the classroom.

Going through the long wavy, grass - swishy swashy, swishy swashy.

Going through the deep, dark forest - stumble, trip, stumble, trip

Through the dry crunchy dirt - crinch, crunch, crinch, crunch.

Checking to see if there is a bear in sight - 'We're not scared!'

Salim spotting the bear and telling us all about it - two furry ears, two googly eyes and a wet nose, sure looked like a bear to us!

 Running away from the BEAR!!! We had to run all the way back through the dirt, through the forest and through the grass.

Making sure we all get back into the classroom very quicky.

Closing the door so the bear can't get in.

Getting into bed - We're not going on a bear hunt again!

 We all made it back safe and sound. It was a bit scary but we wanted to go on another bear hunt straight away. Maybe next time we will try to find a lion!

Food Groups

In Science and Health we have been learning about the different food groups.

We learnt that there are 5 food groups. They are Grains, Fruit and Vegetables, Milk Products, Meat/Egg/Nuts, and the Fats/Oils/Sugars group.

We get different things that our body needs from the groups. Meat gives us protein which makes our bodies strong, milk gives us calcium which makes our teeth strong, grains give us carbohydrates which gives us energy and helps us run around. Fruit and Vegetables give us all kinds of vitamins and minerals which keeps us from getting sick.

We made food pyramids to help us understand how to have a healthy diet.

Salama's Food Pyramid

While making our food pyramid we learnt where the food we eat goes. We learnt that rice is a grain and cheese is made from milk. We learnt that lollies and chocolate belong in the fats and sugars group and that we shouldn't eat them too much.

We had a food project. We had to use our food pyramid and work in a group to create a healthy day of eating. We had to plan breakfast, lunch and dinner. After we finished our menu, we had to make our meals out of paper.

Preparing their meals.

 After we made our meals we had to score other groups meals and decide if they were healthy or not. We checked if they had enough food from each of the five groups and we made sure they didn't have too much of any of the groups especially the fats, oils and sugars group. Once we had checked this we decided if their meals were healthy.

Questions:
This week we are asking you one question (but you might need to do a bit of research to answer it). Do you think that Group 1's three meals make for a healthy day of eating?

Breakfast: A glass of milk, a pancake, a banana, an orange and a piece of bread.

Lunch: An egg, a glass of orange juice, spinach, tomato, ugali (a meal made from maize flour), and a piece of chocolate.

Dinner: rice, kidney beans, meat, nuts and a glass of milk.

Out and About in Bagamoyo Town

As part of our theme "Me and my World" we have been learning about our town. We learnt about the different shops in our town and why we need these places. We used cardboard and paper to make our own version of Bagamoyo, our town. We call it 'Mini Bagamoyo'.

Busy preparing walls, floors and items to sell.

Doris with her clothes shop.

Relaxing at the beach.

Main street of Mini Bagamoyo

Each morning, we get to play with Mini Bagamoyo. We like driving our cars along the beach (which we can't do in real life!). We made a hospital, a school, and a petrol station as well as clothes, fruit and material shops.

As part of our theme, on Friday we had an excursion into town. We all took the van and then we split up into two groups. We had to collect data about the shops in Bagamoyo. We put a tick on our page every time we saw a certain type of shop.

A tyre shop

One of the main streets in Bagamoyo.

A salon

A restaurant

We saw 9 photocopy and stationery shops, 4 salons, 2 phone shops and 3 general stores. When we got into the main part of town we went to the new market. We walked through the market and looked at all the fruit and vegetables for sale. Then, we bought oranges and bananas.

Then, it was time for the beach! When we got to the beach, we had chapati and peanut butter and mango juice. It was delicious! We played football and built ponds to catch fish in the sand.

After our morning tea we had lessons on the beach. As part of Geography, Teacher Leonard taught us about the sand soil on the beach and we discussed why people don't farm really close to the beach.

Geography with Teacher Leonard.

The tide was out very far.

Then for history we looked around us and talked about what we could see. Then we turned our minds back to a few thousand years ago and imagined what would be different and what would be the same. We thought about what would be there and what wouldn't. Lawrence thought there wouldn't be any ships but maybe small wooden boats. Regina thought that the hotels would not be there and Cornelius said there would be a very big forest where all the houses and hotels are. We all thought the ocean would be the same but maybe there would be more fish. Back at school, we all drew what we imagined in our minds.

Husna, Standard 3, imagined that there would be small houses and a big forest next to the ocean.

Lisa, Standard 1, though that people didn't live in houses a few thousand years ago. She thought maybe they just lived under sticks and leaves. She also imagined a big forest with lots of trees.

 We all enjoyed our trip to Bagamoyo town and we can't wait until our next excursion. We all learnt some new words and we got to know our town a little better.

Questions:
1. What is the name of our town?
2. Which fruit and vegetables can you see in the market?
3. Why do you think there may have been more fish in the ocean in the past?
4. Go on a tour of your town or street. What do you notice? Which shops do you see? Do you have a lot of photocopy/stationery shops?
5. Look out your classroom window, or stand outside and look around. How would the view have been different in the past?

The Ups and Downs of Gardening

Earlier this year, we made flower pots. We had some left over big plastic drink bottles. We cut them in half and then punched holes in the bottom. We painted the flower pots in bright colours. Some people worked in pairs and some people work by themselves.

The finished flower pots.

Next, we chose the flowers we wanted to plant. There were sunflowers, nigella, marigolds and many more to choose from. Then we filled our pots with manure to help make the soil better.

After collecting the manure we went for a short walk to find the best soil on the farm. It is very sandy on the farm so we had to try hard to find the right soil. We used sticks to mix the soil with the manure.

Back in the classroom, we planted our seeds. In Science, we learnt that plants need sun, water and air. We made sure we gave them these three things every day.

We kept a record of how our plants grew. After one day some people had 2 shoots, others didn't have any. We recorded the growth of our flowers for one week. Some people had 10 shoots after a week but Miriam still didn't have any. Unfortunately during the holidays our flowers didn't get enough sunlight and they had some water damage and they did not survive.

So, some of us decided to replant some seeds. Asha, whose father is a farmer and has been helping in the parents' garden, brought in some seeds for us to plant. These seeds have grown really well and we are enjoying watching the plants get bigger and grow more leaves each day.

We are hoping to replant some flowers and other plants soon. We learnt that gardening is not as easy as we thought. It can be hard to grow flowers! We will keep trying though.

Questions:
1. What do plants need?
2. What is manure?
3. Have you grown flowers or another plant before? Was it easy or difficult?
4. Plant some seeds of your own. We would love to hear about how they grow.