Batu Tapak Camp - Cidahu - Sukabumi

Grade 3 to 5 went on camping to Batu Tapak in Sukabumi.  We stayed over night for 3 days.
The view from the camp site looks very nice.
You could do many activities organized by Batu Tapak staff like flying fox, sky walking, waterfall hiking and some games.
The shower was nice and there is hot water. At night we had a camp fire and we ate marshmallows. They also give nice food, drinks and snacks. (Avi)

On the second day we wanted to go hiking to the waterfall.
Mr. Scott told us to tidy up our tents before we leave the camp site.
The girls were the first to have a tidy tent.
Before we go to the waterfall, we had breakfast at the cafeteria.(Nathan)

Games

 

We had really fun games to play and we played on the camping area where we could climb rocks. They were huge ones. We climbed up and sat on them.

We had a game called skipping rope. The boys had trouble jumping because they didn't know the precision distance/time to jump.

We also played bulldozer. We used a long plastic mat to move like a bulldozer then we had to pick up yellow and lime plastic balls.

The more you get, the more points you earn. That's how you win. (Dyllan)

Go to the Waterfall

 
At Batu Tapak we went and visited the amazing waterfall. We saw a water beetle as well as a man extracting sap from a tree. The girls, Gaby, YeJin, Alaka and Tama weren't scared of sky walking but they were scared of a bee. They kept saying ''sour, sour,sour!'' until the bee flew away and bothered me instead. The waterfall was an amazing sight to behold. Now I will hand over to to my friend. ******* out! (Nathan)
 

So basically we hiked to the waterfall and we saw our tents and we ate our snacks. (Alaka)

Students had lots of fun. They did many games. The boys were digging a home of lion ants on the ground ant and they got one. Some of them didn't know what a lion ant was.  It walks backward. They put it on their hands, then they put it back again to their homes.
On the photo Tama was staying still because there were bees around her. If you keep moving the bees will sting you, if you stay still the bees will go away.
Students made a traditional kite. They got one each and they can take it home. Woow so many experiences they got from Batu Tapak.

 

The games we played were Finding Virus, Sky Walk, headstands.

 

Rice field.

 

Free time. 

We had finding virus game. We closed our eyes with the blindfold and we had to find the virus. The virus was a plastic bag full of water. You have to find it and squash it untill it pops.

Videos of the games:

 

 

25th September 2015

GRADE 3, 4 and 5 BLOGS

Through the eye of a microscope
We had some microscopes in the classroom to take a closer look at what we could find at school in our natural environment. We even got to view the shed skin of a snake a student found on an excursion. Some students found some interesting creatures at home to look at such as cockroaches and spiders.

Swimming lessons
For the past term students have been visiting the VIP swimming pool twice a week. Students skill and fitness level have shown marked improvements. They have been learning how to manage their movement in the water to be efficient and effective and breathe with good rhythm. Such strokes the students have been performing include; breaststroke, freestyle, butterfly, backstroke and elementary backstroke. Students have also demonstrated a range of diving techniques. There are swimming medley relays and occasionally running in the water races. Today one group swam a total of 50 laps over the duration of the lesson. The width of the pool is approximately 20 meters so the students swam 1 km!

Sports Day preparation
Tips to get a good start
Students worked in partners to do some research about how to do a physical activity effectively. They were considering writing step by step instructions. This is called procedure writing.
 Here are some of their presentations below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4VAJoButfuWSzM1MC00MThvNjA/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4VAJoButfuWU1V1OGptdUYyVjg/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4VAJoButfuWOGRETnNVbVV0TDA/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4VAJoButfuWbTNmdjkyMVplVGs/view?usp=sharing

5 minute runs
Students have been jogging for 5 minutes each morning. They have been learning how to pace themselves so they can complete the 5 minutes without stopping or walking.

Using concrete materials in maths
Students identified using concrete materials is a way that can assist them with their math understanding and makes the tasks more enjoyable. It is a good idea to let students explore with the materials before using them with a specific maths task. 

Book week

During book week we shared had opportunities to read aloud and listen to our peers. We brought our favourite book from home, read some parts and gave a book report. We had a parent come and read a book in German about a famous explorer. We then went away to do further investigations about Charles Darwin. It was interesting to know such facts as: 

- The city of Darwin was named after him.

- As a child he would collect creepy crawlies and put inside match boxes.

- At university he started a club where people would gather to taste "exotic meats."

- He married his first cousin.

- He had 10 children.

We also focused on some different authors. One particular favourite was John Burningham. We used persuasive language to entice an audience to read his books. We have been considering how it is important to reference other peoples work that we find from the internet. Here is an example below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4VAJoButfuWcndaT0poMThkUGM/view?usp=sharing

The Hargraves, a kind but scrawny family, want their new baby to grow up big and strong. But the tiny tyke will hardly eat a thing. One day, Mrs. Hargraves finds an avocado in the fruit bowl, and the infant gobbles it up. But then, the strangest things begin to happen as the baby develops superhuman strength. Just the book for picky eaters. https://books.google.co.id/books?id=tSo8YAAACAAJ&dq=avocado+baby&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAGoVChMIhsaKgqPpxwIVDyOOCh1RHQ4p

We also presented assembly during this week and demonstrated how to play musical chairs and when the music stopped it was our chance to possibly read aloud while our class mates gathered around to listen.

 

 

Personal projects

Twice a week students have been involved in teaching and learning different play ground games. They worked in small groups to practice the game and then took on the role as teacher to invite the rest of the class to participate. Students also had an opportunity to choose their own equipment and be creative to make their own games. Please see the videos below as the examples.

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.

Plants used for medicine
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.