We had a very exciting week as we went on our field trip to Playeum. The children showed much enthusiasm to explore light and darkness in the Playeum. We were focusing on the Key Concept of Change and as the children predicted, there were lots of opportunities to see light change colour. It was a real hands on experience where the children worked on their fine and gross motor skills, observation skills and showed that they were risk-takers. Back at school we reflected on the trip and one of the main connections the children made from the Playeum and school was that they both had projectors where you could make shadows. We also explored colours further by experimenting with coloured vinegar and baking soda. The children were quick to comment on the Key Concept of Change again as they noted how the colours fizzed and bubbled when they were dropped onto the baking soda. We also explored counting forwards and backwards from 10 by hopping on our own number lines! Our puppet showsThis week we recorded our own puppet shows. The K1s wrote the stories and made the puppets themselves, following the story structure from How to Catch a Star. Click the links below to watch your child’s own puppet show. Please note the videos may be a bit quiet, and it may be better to watch them using headphones.
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Over the last few weeks, the children have taken a greater interest in reading. We have enjoyed books with lots of repetition, rhyme and picture cues, which has enabled the children to read them independently. We have also been exploring the story How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers. We broke this down and started to understand the story on multiple levels. Together as a class we created a story map, and we learned the story by using actions as words. This helps us to understand how to use certain words in our sentences, words such as: suddenly, finally, next, so, but. Reading and writing through actions will not only help us develop a love for reading, but for writing as well! Ask us at home what each action means! We also created a story together as a class following the same story structure as How to Catch a Star. Keep your eye out next week, as the next step for the children is for them to write their own stories and create a shadow puppet show! K1 is so lucky to have such caring children. On Tuesday, World Kindness Day, we discussed what kindness was. The K1s were able to come up with so many ideas on how to be kind! They even brainstormed ways to be kind to the Earth that they heard from home, class, friends and assemblies. Finally, the children made a pledge. They pledged to be kind on everyday, in every way, from people to animals, to the Earth and our belongings.
This week the children experimented with milk and food colouring. They used ‘magic wands (toothpicks dipped in dish soap) to experiment with colours. The children were able to observe the colours changing and moving, and used their communication skills to describe the changes.
Sun and MoonAs part of our Unit of Inquiry, the children inquired into the sun as a light source. They worked together to generate a couple questions about the sun and moon, and made predictions of what they thought the answer would be.
Sensory BottlesThe K1s created "Sunshine" and "Nighttime" sensory bottles to explore the colours and things they think about when hearing those words. Sensory bottles have a large range of benefits. The K1s enjoyed shaking the bottles then patiently watching all the glitter fall. I always find that they are a great way to calm down and take a mindful moment. We created some essential agreements about the bottles, such as: we're only allowed to shake the bottles, gently roll the bottles and to be gentle with the bottles.
Our inquiries this week led us to investigate into different sources of light. While the K1s were quick to spot light sources such as torches & fairy lights, there was a lot of debate on whether shiny objects such as gems or mirrors were light sources or not. This led us to inquire into what gives us light, and what reflects light? In order to check if something was a light source or just reflected light, they stuck objects into a dark box and peeked in to see if the box lit up or not. If it lit up, the object was a light source. If the box stayed dark, it only reflected light. But then we wondered, how do we catch light? Therefore the K1s created reflective boxes and tried to catch light outside! Conversations on catching light: "It's too high... we can put our box up!" "Let's look for the sunny bits" "Oh no! The light will pop out" We further explored reflections and how reflections can change. We did different experiments to see how our reflections in the mirrors changed. We poured water on the mirrors, painted the reflections and covered the mirrors with transparent coloured papers. The K1's were also excited to notice all the reflections outside as well!
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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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