Easter Holidays

You’ve probably just come back to school after a two-week break for Easter. We had an Easter holiday here too, but we only had 4 days off school over the Easter weekend. The children were glad of the chance to relax after a long term. Two of them will tell you what they got up to during their holidays – did you do anything similar?

Lebohang is in class 4. This is his Easter diary: “Thursday and Friday I played soccer. On Saturday and Sunday I went to the Tšenola church. After I came back from church I played with toy cars and in the night I read books.

“On Tuesday I washed my school uniform and went running to exercise. On Wednesday I came back to school.”

Mary’s holiday was a little bit different. She is in class 5. “I went to the mall with my aunt who bought me some Easter eggs. When I got home we ate them with my family. We had a lot of fun. My sister cooked and we had supper. I washed the dishes and put them in the cupboard. I watched TV, then my aunt helped me to do spelling. I got them all right. Then I went to play with my friends. 

“On Friday my younger brother came over (he doesn’t live with us). We played and went to Scooters for pizza. After we took him home, I polished my shoes, washed my socks, watched TV, then my friend came. We played with dolls, then were tired so we went to sleep. 

“I went to Polosoang Church in Maseru West on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. After church on Sunday, I looked after my aunt because she was sick, then went to my room and read. I had a nice holiday.”

Party Time!

On Saturday many of Hoohlo Primary children came into school. Luckily for them this was not for extra lessons, but for a big party.

 

Once they were at the school grounds, the children could choose from a variety of fun things to do, including games and competitions. The bouncy castle was the big favourite of the day.

Lots of children wanted their faces painted too. Butterflies and the South African flag were big favourites, as was this character. Do you recognise him?

Cultural Day

Last Friday we had Cultural Day. All the schools from sports day competed against each other in dance, drama, art and poetry. It was a lot like the first round of the Urdd Eisteddfod, and here the winners go through to a regional competition, then a national one too.

There were four different dance competitions, though our school entered just one, the mokhibo. This is a dance done by girls to music composed and sung by their classmates. You can see the costumes they wear in the pictures. The other dances were the litolobonya (also performed by girls) ndlamo and mohobelo (performed by boys).

We also entered the drama and art competitions with our children doing really well. We won a competition too! Joalane recited her poem ‘Soccer World Cup on African Soil’ accompanied by two of her classmates on vuvuzelas. She impressed the judges so much that she goes through to the regional competition in August. Everyone at school is very pleased for her.

Sports Day

Yesterday, Hoohlo Primary school had sports day. But this was not like a sports day in the UK just for the school. Children from 14 primary schools around Maseru competed against each other in athletics. The winners go through to a bigger competition next week. Most of the events were running races and almost every child ran barefoot.

We needed a place big enough for everyone to fit in, so we went to the national stadium. Some of the children from school who were not competing came along to cheer on their classmates.

All our students did very well and were given big cheers in assembly this morning. Some of them won their events, so they get to compete again next Friday. Fingers crossed for them!

Standard 5’s School Trip

This Thursday, Standard 5 children had a day out at the Lesotho Durham link to learn about pondlife and food chains.

To learn about food chains and ecosystems the children played a game. They each had a card with a picture of a plant, animal or insect on it and all died off one by one, to show how they all depend on each other for survival. One of the children in the class, Relebohile Molise, wanted to tell you about it:

“We were playing the game about animals which eat other animals, insects which eat other insects and plants which get food from the sun.” 

“Then we caught the animals which live in the water and put them in containers with water. We drew the animal we had caught and answered questions about it.

 “We learnt a lot about insects. I enjoyed it and would like to go back to the river.”