The Prep 1's had a crash course about space, learing new vocabulary and discovering how astronauts live in space, once they blast off. The children had a look at our solar system and all the planets, rocks and stars that orbit our sun. They learned that some planets have no moons while some have 53 moons. It was an informative three days made fun by creating our own astronauts and rockets.
Parents are encouraged to ask their children questions about the planets, space rocks and how an astronaut lives in the International Space Station. We hope the children enjoyed English Immersion Week as much as their teachers did.
For Prep 2, the theme of the week has been 'the ocean'. To kickstart the week, the children learned that Disney's Nemo was 'missing' and went on a fun-filled scavenger hunt and were successful in 'Finding Nemo'. The children spent time learning about various sea creatures and pondering important questions about what we can do to protect and preserve marine life. Children created a display where they could share their message with the rest of the school, as BMH classmates and teachers were invited to the Prep 2 classrooms.
In addition to this, children were given a STEAM Challenge to create a 'fishing boat' using recycled materials. After designing and building their fishing boats, children tested them in the water. Some children faced success and some failure, but all were able to learn in a fun and thought-provoking manner.
Prep 3 focused on the theme ‘healthy eating’. To hook the children's excitment for English Immersion Week each class had a food tasting session. One by one children came forward, were blindfolded, and picked out one item of food. Children had to describe what they could feel, smell and finally taste. There was a mix of healthy and tasty treats.
After watching the movie Ratatouille children were asked to become inspired chefs. In small groups they planned their own healthy recipes listing the ingredients, equipment and wrote the method with step-by-step instructions using imperative verbs. Children then created an eye-catching recipe poster.
On the last day, each class visited the learning kitchen and made one healthy dish following a recipe. It was a success and everything tasted delicous!
At the end of the week, children shared their recipe posters as well as self-portraits they drew in the style of Arcimboldo; with heads made of different fruits and vegetables, in an exhibition to showcase and celebrate their learning.
Prep 4 enjoyed learning about our beautiful Mission Hills area with two exciting trips to Hard Rock Hotel and Joy Pony, accompanied by helpful staff and parents. Children got to explore and experience these tourist attractions first-hand and bring their new-found knowledge back to the classroom.
We then began a project researching and designing a brand new tourist attraction for the area. Children worked amazingly well in small groups, creating a business plan, researching costs and producing a model drawing of their design. Some groups even managed to build a small-scale replica of their tourist attraction. We culminated the week with a presentation ceremony and prizes for best design, best teamwork and best behaviour, and celebrated our achievements and participation.
Prep 5 explored the theme of kindness, bullying and accepting each others' differences.
Many of our activities were based around the book Wonder by R J Palacio, which is about a class of fifth grade children and how they coped with having a new class member who looked very different.
Prep 6 enjoyed learning all about 'quest narratives'. Children were taught about the nine most common shot types used by professional filmmakers and storyboard artists. They were able to see how a sample storyboard could be transformed, shot-by-shot, into an actual short film.
Children were then put into groups to plan, storyboard, direct and act in their own original productions. Some children used advanced filmmaking techniques such as green screens or Scratch animations to enhance their film during the editing process, which was undertaken on iMovie. To celebrate their collective achievements, Prep 6 had a viewing party on Friday to allow children to share their work with one another.
Senior 7 enjoyed 3 different learning activities during English Immersion Week. In career planning, children explored different careers, interests, goal setting, and multiple intelligences. They reflected on themselves and started to plan their future paths in the world of jobs.
In mental health class we followed and discussed the movie Dear Evan Hanson, where we looked into issues of mental health in teenagers and finding support for those who need it. The true highlight of the week was the self defense class that the children took part in. Each child learned a variety of different tactics to get away from a bad situation. From the dissorienting 'double push' to disarming an attacker with a knife, this class was a new PE favourite.
The learning theme for S8 for English Immersion Week was 'Learning Independence'. We started the programme by working in the kitchen, and baking four types of western favourites, muffins, ham and cheese bread, lemon cake and cinnamon swirls. All of these were made from scratch by the children, and then enjoyed afterwards.
We moved on to learning investigation skills and carrying out some physics experiments, which the children had to figure out for themselves.
While doing this we watched a film about being confident in yourself, and doing what is right. Finally we did some research on the investment market, and how to study stocks and shares and invest for the future, but the general consensus was that the market is so crazy at the minute, we had better wait before we lose our money!
