The children have shown me this week that they’re feeling very settled in their classroom. Their individual personalities are really shining through with some children choosing to spend their free choice time predominantly in the role play area, writing area or playing with dough. Through this free choice, the children get the opportunity to undertake their own investigations, problem solve and also apply what we have been learning altogether. Below is a collection of photos of the children using and applying what we have been learning about altogether, in their own play. This week we have also started exploring more similarities and differences through our Unit of Inquiry on Who We Are. The K1s had their very first session with their buddy class, Grade 2.2 to help this! The G2s interviewed the K1s and asked them ‘'about me’ questions, such as, where are you from, your age, favourite colour, etc. When the G2s left, the K1s discussed the different perspectives they had. They noticed that while they all have the same age, they were from different places and had different favourite things. The children noticed other similarities and differences on how they look. Such as, they all have heads, brains, hair, tummies, eyes, knees, etc. However they also noticed that there are differences like the colour of your skin, eye colour, hair colour, what your clothing looks like and what your shoes look like. The K1s already knew they all had different favourite colours from earlier in the week! For our messy play this week, the children made their own goop and then dyed it their favourite colour. Afterwards they mixed all the colours together, and noticed that it changed to a peach colour! Finally, the K1s took their learning outdoors this week with a say and spray activity! They leapt at the opportunity to show me everything they’ve been learning as they said it, wrote it, and finally used fine motor skills to spray their writing away. I was amazed at what they wanted to show me, whether it be letters, numbers or drawings. It really highlights the importance of every interaction that we have with the children and our important jobs as role models.
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Unit Of Inquiry This week the children had the opportunity to extend from last week’s self portraits and create self-representations using different media. They used charcoal to explore making different marks and using different techniques to vary the shapes they were making. Messy Play The children had a chance to explore their five senses by exploring Agar Agar jelly! They tasted it, smelled it, listened to it, described it and touched it! They developed fine-motor skills by cutting the jelly and smashing it. Literacy This week we introduced a new routine - Star Names. A different child’s name will be selected every two weeks and the children will explore the letters in that name. They will look at what the letters sound like, look like, and their name. Divit was our first Star Name and the children had fun with different activities to develop their fine-motor skills and letter formation. They also have the opportunity to develop their questioning skills by interviewing Divit to find out all about him. Mathematics We explored data handling this week, and started out by sorting objects. The children were excited to start by sorting what they know best; themselves! We looked at different ways to sort themselves, by uniform type, hair colour, shoe colour, glasses or not. They then applied those skills by sorting out various loose parts. It was amazing to see the children using their thinking skills when trying to figure out how I was sorting the items when I first presented the problem. The children have had a super second week at school! They have mastered their morning routine of unpacking their bag, signing their name and then going to play. We have seen some super caring friends in class. They have been caring by playing nicely, giving and sharing stickers, and helping each other tidy up. Unit Of Inquiry This week, we introduced the first Unit of Inquiry in K1 - Who We Are. When I asked the children what they thought we might find out about during this unit, they came up with the following list -
We began by exploring the Key Concept of Form by identifying what we looked like. The children used their observation skills by looking in the mirror and seeing the different shapes and colours of their faces. Throughout the week, the children have had many opportunities to apply their knowledge of what they look like. Literacy We also spent time this week exploring our names and the letters that are in our names. We talked about what makes our names special and read a number of stories about names and the alphabet. The activities also helped children to work on their fine-motor skills and spatial awareness as they cut, stuck and collected the resources they needed. Mathematics
We spent time this week measuring our heights and counting to 10! We read the book We All Went On Safari by Laurie Krebs. Our K1 students got ready for a number safari of their own as they ventured out into the playground to explore numbers in our environment. The K1’s showed their knowledge by collecting many items, then grouping and counting them. Wow, our first week of school just flew by! It has been just wonderful welcoming the children to their new school and helping them settle into their class. Already I have seen the children organise themselves, taking responsibility for their things and becoming more confident to join in with the different learning experiences. I have really enjoyed spending time getting to know the children in K1 this week. It has been great learning about their likes and dislikes, discovering their personalities and listening to their stories. Take a look at some of the things we have been up to this week. The Kissing Hand We read ‘The Kissing Hand’ by Audrey Penn, a story about a young racoon’s first day of school. Mummy racoon kissed his hand and told him that if he ever missed her when he was at school, he could put his hand onto his cheek to feel his mother’s love. The children made their own kissing hands and wrote about their feelings on the first day of school. Our Class Agreement
We also talked about how to make sure we have a happy and safe class and came up with a set of agreements that we said we could keep. |
AuthorWe are a class of 4 and 5 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 2019
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