Unit of Inquiry - Visible Thinking This week we reflected on our trip to visit the school nurse. We mapped out the system she follows when a child has a small injury. The students and I worked together to define a system as: a series of things that work together. After creating and mapping out the system, we used visible thinking questions to better understand it through the key concepts of causation - why is it the way it is? and function - how does it work? The children thought about each step the nurse took by answering questions such as "why..." "suppose that..." "what would be different if..." Thinking about each step through these questions allowed the children to reflect on why each step is necessary and how they work. You can view our reflections below. Math - Mapping Continuing from our left and right lesson last week, we delved further into directions and following them on a map. First the children had to give each other directions using words like "forwards, backwards, left and right" through a map/maze. The children started to think about how moving left and turning left are different concepts. The next day the children were surprised with a treasure map! This time they had to follow 2-3 step directions to find treasure! These were instructions like "Turn left and take 3 steps forward." Literacy - Stiles and Reading Routines During literacy this week we learned two new routines, Stiles and Reading Routines. They really enjoyed Stiles, which is a great way to practice their literacy skills in an independent way.
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Unit of Inquiry - Tools & Systems This week in our unit of inquiry we inquired into which tools the members of our community uses, including ourselves! We also explored how the tools can help us in our systems. Example: When we arrive to school, we get our temperature checked. This is a system the school has in place to keep us safe and healthy! We have to use the tool thermometer to check our temperatures! Following this, we prepared some questions and went to visit the school nurse. We asked about her tools and the systems she follows. After this we created our own first aid tool kit craft. Next week we'll explore the systems the nurse follows in more detail. Literacy - Word Work Sorting This week we practiced our new literacy routine "Word Work - Sorting". We each used special word sorts to practice sorting and exploring words, phonics and word families! This routine helps us gain independence, practice our phonics skills and also gives us agency as we can choose the ways we make the words after sorting. Math - Number lines & Left and Right This week we continued to explore and develop our understanding of using number lines and how we can use it as a tool in math. But first we made a human number line outside! Each child had a sticky note with a number on their back. They couldn't see their own number, but their friends could. We developed our communication skills and social skills by discussing who had which number and working together to stand in the correct order. It was great fun! We also played a game called "Fancy Footwork" to develop our understanding of left and right direction. In this exciting movement game, we placed right and left footprints on the carpet in different orders and the children had to follow the steps using the correct foot to move along. This was a big hit! The children not only enjoyed the challenge, but developed their gross motor skills and coordination by following along.
Unit of Inquiry - School Community This week we went to interview and visit Ms Berna in the school counsellor's office. We went in two small groups and she happily shared with us what school counsellors have in their office spaces to help them work, what they do and how they can help! After our visit we took action to create a poster sharing what we learned about school counsellors. After creating our poster the children suggested gifting it to the counsellors! Two children volunteered to present the gift. Ms Berna was so moved! It really showed the children what an impact their actions can have on others. Literacy This week in literacy we chose good fit books (not too hard, not too easy, and interesting!), sorted letters and learned how to sequence. Sequencing is a very important skill that will help us in organising our personal narrative writing when we write about "first, next and last". To practice sequencing we made yummy looking ice cream out of craft materials. Next we wrote about the steps we took, cut them up and sequenced them by putting them back in order. We had so much fun! Ice Cream Sequencing Sorting Letters Math This week in math we explored number lines and ten frames. We worked together to create a number line to 20, and then made our own outside!
Unit of Inquiry - Who is in our school community? After looking at pictures of who is in our school community, this week we started to develop our research skills by asking questions and finding out more about what each member does. On our school community picture page, we didn't know what Ms Berna, our school counsellor, did for our school. So we listened to learn more by reading a story about counsellors and watched a puppet show! After watching our puppet show, we created an anchor chart showing what school counsellors do at schools. Finally, we co-constructed some questions which we will ask Ms Berna in an interview next week. Literacy During literacy this week we learned about the 3 ways to read a book, and practiced one, two or even three ways of reading our class books! This will be very useful for when we're taking home readers next week. During writing, we also wrote about magical Friendship Potion. Ms B asked us, what makes a good friend? We creatively made a recipe for a good friend: 3 cups of honesty 10 spoonfuls of niceness 5 dashes of caring 2 spoons of playing 1 sprinkle of kindness and a pinch of listening 3 ways of reading Show and Tell Friendship Potion Snapshots Math This week during math we learned two new math routines that we strive to practice daily now. These are math riddles and the counting jar! Inside the counting jar we using our eyes to made predictions and guess how many we think there are. Then we count and find out how many there actually were! We practiced this independently as well!
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AuthorWe are a class of 4, 5 and 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
May 2021
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