New website and blog

To all our readers, we have a new website with lots of information about our amazing school. Please visit the website and check out the new blog.

From now on we will only be posting on the blog on the website. We hope you continue to read and comment.

School Concert

In the last week of school we put on a school play. We also celebrated student successes by presenting awards to the top achieving students.

Our play was called 'Finding Home'. It was about some kangaroos, birds, sheep and lions who had become lost and had to help each other find their homes.

Some of the standard 2 and 3 students dressed as kangaroos and lions.

Off on the adventure to find home

First the kangaroos found their home in Australia.The prep students, with some help from Doris and Salama J in standard 1, did a dance to an Australian song called 'Wawirri'. They welcomed the kangaroos home.

Next all the animals flew on the birds backs to China where they found the birds' home. The standard 1 students made bird costumes and did a dance with ribbons.

Then the sheep found their way home and the whole school sang a song called 'Juicy, Juicy Green Grass'. It was fun making the sheep noises.

Finally the lions found their home in Tanzania and the standard 2 and 3 students showed off their Taekwondo skills.

After all the animals had found home, our narrators Salama R and Regina finished the play. Then everyone sang a song together called 'Dansi na Kuimba'. The song was in English and Swahili. There were three parts to the song. The standard 2 and 3 boys sang one part, the standard 2 and 3 girls sang another part and the prep and standard 1 students sang the third part. It was a difficult song to learn but we did not make a mistake on the day!

We were very proud of our concert and the parents enjoyed it too. It was great to show our parents the songs, dances and lines we had been working on for most of the year.

We can't wait for next years show!

Questions:
1. What were the animals in our play?
2. What country do you think the sheep could have come from? Why?
3. If you could choose, which animal would you choose to be out of a kangaroo, a bird, a sheep or a lion? Why?
4. Have you ever been in a school play or seen a school play? Write a paragraph about it and post it below for us to read.

Kunde (That's Cowpeas in English!)

We have tried to grow lots of different vegetables at school. One day Asha and Maimuna brought some kunde (cowpeas) to school. We planted them and they grew really quickly.

The prep students planting the kunde

You can eat the leaves of cowpeas (they taste best when they are small) and you can eat the actual cowpeas.

 We harvested some of the leaves and some of us took them home to cook. Some students cooked them with coconut milk and onion and others cooked the leaves with tomato and carrot. There are lots of different ways to cook kunde leaves.

 The kids at the Baobab Children's Home which shares the farm with the school cooked the kunde leaves with onion, carrot, tomato and some soy sauce.

When the cowpeas are dried out and brown you can plant them and grow more.

The prep (kinder) students used the cowpeas as counters in maths and when we were reading a book about a garden. We learnt the difference between a bean and a pea.

Questions:
1. What are some other types of beans and peas?
2. What colour do the cowpeas need to be before planting them?
3. What parts of the cowpea plant can you eat?
4. What are cowpeas called in Swahili?
5. Draw a picture of a garden. Label all the plants you have drawn.

Money, Money, Money

It is important to learn about money so that we can buy and sell things and learn to save and budget. In Maths, we have been learning about money.

In Tanzania the currency is shillings. The coin with the lowest value is a 1 shilling coin. None of the students have seen one before. 1 shilling is not much money. 1 small lolly costs 20 shillings so for 1 shilling you can't buy many things any more. You can get gold coins and silver coins in Tanzania. There are also notes.

Isaya with some Tanzanian notes and coins.

It was interesting to learn that in other countries there are different coins and notes. Sabrina found some pictures in a book to share with the class. The pictures show the coins of Ghana.

Clara found some coins at home from Kenya and the United States of America. She brought them to school to show us all. The American note was not very colourful.

In Maths, we made lollies and then set up shops. We sold our lollies to other students in the class. We had to use Maths to pay and give change. It was fun to buy and sell the lollies that we made.

Questions:
1. What is the money called in your country?
2. What is the value of your smallest note or coin?
3. Why do we need money? What did people do before money?
4. Learn about currency conversion with your teacher. Figure out how much 5,000 shillings is in your country's money.

Our Sponsors

This week we would like to write about our sponsors. Our sponsors pay our school fees. Without sponsors we would not be able to come to STA and learn every day.

STA sponsors come from lots of different places including the USA, The Netherlands, Australia and England. We write letters to them two times during the year. We like writing to our sponsors so they can learn more about us.

Regina is sponsored by a couple in Australia. She started at STA in January but did not get a sponsor until this month. She was so excited to finally have a sponsor and keeps asking the names of her sponsors so she can say them over and over again and tell everyone about her new friend in Australia.

Our sponsors are all different kinds of people. Some students have just one person sponsoring them, others have a family. George and Asha have whole schools sponsoring them.

Our sponsors can even write to us. Recently, Miriam and Salim received letters from their sponsors. They read about what their sponsors like, what they do and how they live. Sabra even got to meet her sponsors when they visited earlier in the year. She gave her letter to her sponsor in person and got to say thank you!

Miriam and Sabra reading the letter from Miriam's sponsor Maddie.

When we receive letters from our sponsors we share them with out classmates so that everyone can learn something new. It is really great to know that someone who we have never met cares so much about us and our education.

Questions:
1. Why do we need sponsors to pay school fees?
2. Why do we like getting letters from our sponsors?
3. Imagine you are an STA student, write a letter to your sponsor.

Solar Power

In Science, we have been learning about the sun. Not only does the sun help the plants in our garden grow but it can give us power! In Tanzania, not many people have electricity in their house. In fact, in Tanzania, only one in every ten people have electricity in their house. So, many people use fires for cooking and candles and kerosene lamps for light at night time.

 On the farm, where our school is, there are solar panels. These solar panels take in the sun's rays and makes electricity from them which we can then use to charge and power things.

 There are 16 solar panels which give enough electricity to charge computers, and light the children's home that is on the farm and a whole other house. It would even be enough power to run a fridge, if we had one! We charge the computer and the ipad that we use at school thanks to the solar panels.

Solar power is a great power source because there is so much sun where we live in Tanzania. We leant about solar powered lamps. If you have a solar powered lamp then you don't have to buy batteries all the time, so it is a bit cheaper. The sun gives us its rays for free!

Questions:
1. How many solar panels do we have at the farm?
2. What are the different types of power?
3. How does electricity make people's lives easier?
4. If you didn't have power, how would your life change?

Cucumber Craziness

At STA, we have been working hard to grow vegetables in our Shapes Garden. Nearly 3 months ago we planted cucumbers and kunde (cowpeas). We also planted some other vegetables like carrots, onions and spinach but we haven't had much luck growing them yet.

We have gardening jobs to do every morning. Some of us water and others weed. Plants need water every day to help them grow.

Miriam collecting water.

We prepared the cucumber garden bed by collecting good soil and  pouring it in. We also mixed in some manure. Our cucumber plants started off as small shoots and then grew into vines. It was so exciting watching the cucumbers grow from tiny little buds to big cucumbers ready for eating.

We have grown 5 cucumbers so far and there are still more getting big enough to pick every day.

It took a lot of work and it took a while but it was great to grow our own food rather than just buying it from the market. We ate one of the cucumbers and then gave the rest to Baba Davi, our cook and he used them to made a salad.

Questions:
1.How many cucumbers did we grow?
2. Do you have a school garden? What do you grow in it?
3. Are cucumbers good for you? Research and report to your class.
4. Which job do you think you would prefer: watering or weeding? Why?