The end of the year has arrived already! It has been a wonderful year full of learning, fun and friendship. The children in Kindergarten have grown so much and are so ready for their new challenge in the next school year. It has been a pleasure teaching these children. They have made me laugh and have made me so proud. I shall miss them all dearly but wish them all the very best in their new class, wherever that may be. It has been an usual way to end the year, but we still managed to find ways to have fun and capture our memories together while being safe! Please enjoy these last week of school pictures and activities. Moons and Rocket Ships Creating our own planets
0 Comments
What's Happening Next Week
11th: Last day of school! We have had a wonderful week back to school. While the children had many new routines and agreements to follow, they have been resilient and quick learners to adapt to the 'new normal'! It's hard to believe that we are just coming 'back to school' and preparing for the end of year! We haven't let any of this stop us though, this week was full of fun activities! We played at our desks, painted beaches, made paper mache, built buildings out of blocks and so much more! Playing at our desks Painting Beaches Paper Mache
Approaches to Learning What are "Approaches to Learning (ATL)?" ATLs are a set of skills we use when we are learning. These skills, once learned, can be used when learning in any subject, be it Math or Science or Music! They come in five sets: Research Skills, Thinking Skills, Communication Skills, Self-Management Skills and Social Skills.
Over the past unit, and throughout the past week, the children have been developing their ATL skills while working on their Unit of Inquiry projects. Today the children brought home a booklet called "The Engineering Design Process" which documents all the steps they took to make their products. It outlines the skills they developed. However, the children can tell you all about the steps they took and what they learned! Have them walk you through the book. This experience has been overwhelmingly beneficial to the children, not only did they develop their ATL skills, but they have been engaged, enthusiastic and motivated to not only make things, but share their knowledge and work together! Try following The Engineering Design Process to create something at home, it is a fun way to develop skills used in many different areas of life.
Simple Machines in the Past, Present and Future This week we explored how simple machines were used in the past, how they are used now and we predicted how they might be used in the future. Wheels and Axle Today we created cars with wheels and axle. We understood the difference between the cars we had made previously out of recycled materials which didn't roll, just slide; and the importance of an axle. Axles allow the wheels to roll and move! We used skills developed through design, Science and Unit of Inquiry lessons to create these cars. 3D Shapes As in introduction to 3D shapes, we made a shape museum. The children found 3D shapes in all sorts of materials and toys within the classroom, and put them on display in our 3D shape museum. We also made 3D shapes using shape nets out of paper. Once the children finished making a 3D shape, they made a creation and explained what they made, and what shapes they used to make it. Please enjoy the videos below of the children talking about their 3D shape creations!
World Maths Day We had a very enjoyable time during World Maths Day on Wednesday! We made shape puzzles for children in all grades to enjoy. We had a puzzle walk, where we looked at math puzzles and riddles children from other classes had made as well. We were so clever as we could answer math questions on nearly every board! In the morning, we even made our very own Math game, involving counting mats and secret tunnels! After making shape puzzles, the children then used the shape blocks to make a whole city out of shapes. The Kindergarten children's creativity is endless! Math Day Costumes Projects During this Unit of Inquiry, the children have demonstrated their boundless creativity in making complex and simple machines out of the classroom materials. Our Central Idea is: people use simple machines to make life easier.
As this idea has a strong Science connection and the children have displayed much interest in building and creating, I have given them a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) challenge to display and consolidate their knowledge about simple machines. The children have spent time following a design process (imagining, planning, creating, testing and improving) to make two products that have a simple machine. So far, during project time, the children have developed ATL skills such as thinking skills, research skills, self management skills and communication skills. They have been planning, problem solving and working with wonderful results. All children have shown engagement and interest during project time. Please note this is just a "preview" of some of the work they've done on their project. Stay tuned for your child's Learning Story about their project, to have a better understanding of what your child has experienced and the learning opportunities they have gained from this experience.
Literacy Week!Book Character Hide and Seek We started off this week by playing hide and seek with book characters. They each left notes in their respective books, giving clues and hints for where the Kindergarteners had to find them. We followed the notes and found different characters all around the school! Library Scavenger Hunt On Wednesday, we split into three teams and competed to find all the books on our list. Ms Siew Chin, the librarian, taught us how to use the search engine for our Library database to find books quicker. We all won in the end, and got a prize each! Reading Buddy PJ Party We enjoyed dressing in our pajamas and reading books in both forts built by the Grade Twos, and listening to stories on comfy cushions in the Kindergarten classroom. Book Character Parade We ended the week by doing a combined Grade 1 and Kindergarten book character parade. The children enjoyed their chance to walk down a red carpet!
Simple Machines: The Screw We started this week by learning about a special type of simple machine, an inclined plane wrapped around something! It was a screw. All of us recognised screws as a tool, we were surprised to see that bottle caps, light bulbs and jar lids also had screws! Screws are very good at holding things together. We used our fine motor skills to use a screwdriver to twist a screw into wood. Simple Machines: The Pulley We also learned about the pulley, the last simple machine from our Simple Machines book. Pulley's are very useful at lifting heavy things, and the more pulleys, the easier it gets! Ms Bustamante gave us a problem to solve, she wants us to move animals in 3 different ways using simple machines. As the first way, we all made a pulley out of recycled materials. Is it a simple or complex machine? There was still some confusion about what simple machines really are. We can name the 6 simple machines, and identify how they're useful. But in our heads, machines are robots and cars! We learned that machines like robots and cars are actually complex machines. They have many different parts to make them work, and often run on electricity or fuel. We found simple and complex machines from around the classroom and sorted them into their respective groups.
Simple Machines: The Wedge As an addition to learning about the inclined plane, we next looked at its close relative, the wedge. We found that wedges are very useful for separating things. Whether it is a wedge separating the door from the floor or the wedge on the tip of a pencil separating the paper when you poke it. We also experimented with paper airplanes by making two of them, one with a wedge at the front and the other flat nosed. We found that the wedge nosed airplane flew better because it separated the air! Simple Machine: The Lever We found out that this simple machine makes our lives easier by lifting heavy objects. We spotted that one type of lever looks like a seesaw! We also found that the closer the load was to the fulcrum (the middle part) the easier it was to lift. 2D Shapes We also made a video called "What Does the Shape Say" using the ChatterPix app on the iPad. Watch what each shape says below!
Our First Simple Machine: Wheel and Axle We started the week by addressing a big misconception - we thought simple machines were very complicated! It turns out machines like phones and cars are actually complex machines. We learned about the simple machine wheel and axle first. We learned how wheels make our life easier, and how it helps the pushing and pulling of heavy objects. We tried this by transporting a heavy plant pot by first dragging by itself, and then pushing and pulling when it had wheels. Next we wondered "why are wheels round?" We made our own cars with different shaped wheels to see which cars were best for rolling. We identified and cut out wheels in the shape of: circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, triangles, pentagons, hexagons, octagons, and trapezoids. Our Second Simple Machine: Inclined Plane After learning about wheels, we learned about inclined planes (these are like ramps, slopes, and wedges). We realised that even though wheels were good for pushing, there were sometimes wheels needed a second simple machine to help them. For example, how can you push a wheelchair upstairs? We experimented how an inclined plane made it easier to push things up and down, by testing it with a wheelchair. Then, being the inquirers we are, we wanted to push somebody in the wheelchair! Ms Su volunteered, and we realised that pushing her up the slope was far easier than trying to push her up a step. As we are very knowledgable and problem-solvers, we came up with different solutions to solve the problem. Eventually we found the perfect one! A small inclined plane (ramp) with just the right height to get up the step. When we all worked together, Ms Su made it into the classroom! Finally, we ended our week combining our knowledge of wheels and axles, and inclined planes together by creating cars out of different materials in the classroom. Science: Our Senses In Science we explored the sense of smell this week. Ms Bustamante and Ms Hima challenged us to guess 8 different smells without peeping inside. We all guessed 'coffee' correct!
Let's wash our hands! With all the recent developments happening lately, we had a little hand washing experiment. I covered the children's hands with oil and "germs" (black sand powder). First we printed our hands on paper to see all the germs present when we don't wash our hands. Next, we washed our hands with just water and printed our hands again. Wouldn't you know it, a lot of the germs still remained! Even after we washed our hands with soap, there were still some germs between our fingers and around our thumbs. It took some of us several tries, but with proper hand washing we got all those germs off, phew! Now all of us are expert hand washers, well done Kindergarten! How The World Works This week we started our new Unit of Inquiry: How The World Works The central idea is 'people use simple machines to make life easier.' As an introduction to the unit, Ms Bustamante wanted to find out what we already knew about simple machines. Some of us were very knowledgable about machines, and she challenged us further by working together to make a machine. |
AuthorWe are a class of 4-6 year olds at an international school in Singapore! We learn by playing, inquiring and having fun. Our teacher is Ms Bustamante, and this is our learning journey! Archives
June 2020
Categories |