South African Cricket

Dear Mommies and Daddies,

Today we headed for a new continent in Flowers Class on our first ever visit to South Africa. We enjoyed having Nemo with us again today and we learnt a lot and had lots of fun playing a game many of us had never played before; Cricket!

 

We were so lucky to have one of our room moms Chevorne come to visit us and tell us all about what makes South Africa so special. There are 11 different languages spoken in South Africa and Chevorne taught us how to say “Good Morning” using 3 different ones. “Where is South Africa on the map”? We easily identified ‘Africa’ and then Chevorne showed us how South Africa is right at the bottom of the African continent. We saw on the map of South Africa has 9 provinces, a bit like the Japanese prefectures. We saw all the pretty colors on the South African flag and heard how it is often called the Rainbow Nation due to there being lots of different kinds of people living there.

 

We soon recognized some of the animals that live in South Africa including the African elephant and lions. We then saw lots of beautiful pictures of flowers, beaches, a big bird too which wakes people up in the morning. We asked a few questions and found out that South Africans enjoy something called a ‘Brie”’ which means a Barbecue, and that they dig a lot of gold and diamonds from the ground there.

 

It looks an amazing place with sharks, penguins too. South Africans like many sports but their favorites are soccer, rugby and cricket. We were so lucky that Chevorne brought along a play cricket set for us to enjoy playing with in the classroom. We put out 3 tall sticks called stumps and on top of those we balanced 2 ‘bails’. We took turns bowling and using the cricket bat we tried to hit the ball. We were very excited when we got to the park to continue playing cricket and went to the green netted area. This time we had a bowler, a batsman and a wicket keeper who catches the ball if it goes behind the batter. We all took turns as the wicket keeper, batter and bowler and really enjoyed ourselves. Thank you Chevorne for a wonderful introduction to South African animals, food, sights and sports! On the main table in the morning we had two popular activities, finger stamping and the corkboard/hammer/wooden shapes picture making.

 

The stamp pads we used today were red, yellow, green, silver and gold. We could use our fingers or some shaped stamps on the table to make our own imaginative pictures. After returning from the park we played freeze using the Wiggles song ‘Hot Potato’ which we love to dance to. We had four wonderful winners today. Nimo then very kindly showed us his violin skills and together we sang along to the ‘A,B,C’ song and ‘Mary had a little Lamb’. It was a wonderful sound and we wanted to have a turn ourselves but we unfortunately didn’t have enough time today. Next time!

 

Have a great afternoon,

Love,

Darren, Pooja, Nimo and all the international travelers in Flowers Class.