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!
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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! |
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
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