GRADE 3, 4, 5 EXCURSION TO VILA BOTANI.
Recount
We were very, very tired when we were on the bus. It took us about 1 hour to arrive at Vila Botani!!
Pak Jay showed us where to put our bags. He showed us some cool trees and told us some cities in Java were named after trees. “Citeureup” city is named after the “teureup” tree. Pak Asep showed us plants that can be used for medical reasons. We then went to the beautiful organic garden. Avi and Jordi had the super duper chilli challenge. Avi had a good time eating that chilli. Jordi wasn’t so well but made a fantastic recovery. We then saw some balloon plants and cool carrots! They pop like a balloon! We finally went to the smell cool compost place. When we got there we fed the goats. The girls name was “Snowy” and the cool boys name was “Bacca.” For snack we ate singkong and drank “teh jahe”.
We played a cool game called Mexican hide out and I was “it.” After that we went to the waterfall which took us 1 hour to get to walking. When we got there our eyes were amazed. Nearly everyone took a dip.
The waterfall was epic. We had a long walk back up to the top. Robin found a real snake skin. We met the bus half way along the track, got on and went back to school.
Persuasive writing
You should go to Vila Botani because there are a lot of fun things to do. You will find many natural things like waterfalls, snake skins, medical plants and DOGS! The ride to Villa Botani is bumpy and fun. There are really interesting facts about how plants can be used as medicine. You boil the leaves or roots and drink the juice or rub the leaf on your skin. It can be used if you have a headache, bruising, bleeding, broken bones, tooth ache, insomnia, fever, high blood pressure and even heart problems.
There is a waterfall there. It is cool and freezing and there is a risk you have to take because there are lots of stones but it is worth it for a Naturalist Learner. Also there are loads of animals there like eagles, monkeys, mountain tigers and loads of other animals. You can have a really good experience with nature. The last thing is that you can have a local snack like singkong or drink ginger tea.
We showed a lot of appreciation and curiosity when Pak Asep guided us around the garden where plants were used for traditional medicine. Students researched about these plants back at school and presented them in a table. We were very impressed when Pak Asep (who is 45) said he had never visited the hospital.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4VAJoButfuWbWRzNjROYVNtSE0/view?usp=sharing
Sky scrapers design and technology
We had a challenge to build our own sky scraper and balance a tennis ball at the top. We first viewed many sky scraper designs from around the world. did you know the tallest building is in Dubai and is nearly 1 km tall?
Sky scrapers Maths challenge
Working in groups we needed to construct 4 sky scrapers a total height of 2 meters. No matter how hard we tried the 4th sky scraper seemed to always collapse. This activity taught us the PYP attitudes of commitment and tolerance.
Can you blow out the candles?
The older you get the more candles you have on your cake. Do you always try to blow out the candles all at once? The students have drawn and painted images of a class mate trying to blow out candles that just will not go out but they show commitment to keep trying.
Thoughts about readers
As next week will be book week we had some reflections in relation to reading. Here are some of the students responses to four questions:
How do you learn to read?
*Use books and try to sound out the word and listen if they have heard anyone say the word before.
*First learn to speak and have an adult help you with small books.
*For me (no idea how). I just picked a book and read.
What do good readers do?
*Read books and try to understand the story and write some things that is or are new for them.
*They will be good at having good vocabulary, grammar and spelling.
*Think about what level the book is and if it is too easy they choose harder books but not too hard!
What do pre-readers do?
*Look at the pictures and try to know what the words say.
*Find picture books and look at the pictures.
*They try to read the words and look at the pictures to help. they focus more at the pictures than words.
What challenges do illiterate people have?
*They won't understand any written words in the whole wide world.
*They can't go to Uni because there you have to edit things.
*They will find it difficult to get a job that pays good money.
Assembly
We were the host for Friday's assembly. It was our responsibility to educate the community about the PYP learner profiles and attitudes for each act. We played the role as presenters, actors, action dancers and singers. It was a busy schedule. There was time after assembly to reflect on our performance by giving 2 stars and a wish. These are some reflections below:
Stars*I like the part where we all worked as a team. This attitude is called cooperation.
*I really love the assembly and hope it happens again.
*I liked in the choir everyone did it right.
*We made the play funny and people laughed.
*I liked my group was cool and sensible and nice to the whole group.
*I liked how one student tried so hard to sound like a goat.
Wishes*I didn't have to do someone's speaking part for them.
*Everyone had the confidence to speak.
*My back was not turned to the audience.
*I wish everyone participated in the drama because it is not fair on the other students.
