Friday 5 June

Through our Arts Festival we learned how Native Americans believe rainbows were formed. Last week, with another of this culture's beliefs in mind, I asked the children for their ideas about dreams...

"Dreams are things that are when you sleep and it makes you think what is pretend or real."

"When you sleep you can have good dreams or bad dreams."

"When you have a dream...sometimes they can sound scary."

"You think about the dreams in your brain and sometimes you think about the bad dreams and sometimes you think about good dreams."

"The dreams are actually invisible because you cannot see them."

So, what about dream catchers?...

"When you had a bad dream just use that dream catcher and then you have a good dream."

"If you want a good dream then you must have the dream catcher and then you will catch the bad dream."

"When you sleep and you have a dreamcatcher, the bad dreams cannot go through."

We shared Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. We then completed a class survey which  showed us that most people think that Max's adventure is a dream but that many people think it is real.

Your child is very familiar with this story and can tell you all about it. So...what do you think?

Friday May 22

What a performance!

I was so proud of all of the children tonight. It was wonderful to see the commitment, confidence and enjoyment on display during our Arts Festival performance.

Thank you to all of our families for supporting your child in learning speaking parts and song lyrics and for coming along to watch. We hope you enjoyed the show!

Friday 15 May

Living Things

MZa has been very engaged in learning about living things. Many children have enjoyed classifying living and non-living things and sharing their ideas about in which category things belong.

"Snakes are living because they move."

"Flowers are living because they grow and drink."

"Trees have babies...they are seeds."

"Fire is living...it moves."

Our class have been exploring life cycles and some children were very excited (others initially sceptical) to discover that snakes come from eggs and so do crocodiles!

During Discovery Time last week, some MZa children sowed seeds in cotton wool and remembered to put them in the sun and check if they needed water.

"I think it will grow into a flower!"

"Is it alive?...Yes! look!"

Modelling clay collages

Landmarks

Some children are continuing to think about landmarks of the world. In recent weeks, they have constructed their own versions of the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and the Eiffel Tower.

Yesterday, one of our classmates shared his knowledge of the pyramids in Egypt and suggested we make some! Here are the results...

Rainbows

Collaborative collage

Arts Festival

Our Arts Festival  "One World - many stories" will be performed on Friday May 22 at 5.30pm. As many of you will no doubt be aware, our stories are about rainbows and different cultures' beliefs about how they came into existence. The children have been working very hard and are excited about performing for their families!

Our class will be going home to rest at 12 noon on the day. Please ensure that someone is at the classroom at this time to collect your child. The children will need to meet back in our classroom at 5pm in order to prepare for their performance. We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Term 3 Week 1

What a wonderful start to their final term in K1 our class have made!

The children were very excited and happy to see their friends again and have had a great week. 

MZa are really good at illustrating, through their behaviour choices, their Commitment to Care, one of the important qualities of the UWCSEA Profile.

I help other people.

I listen to other people.

I care about my friends' feelings.

I am kind to people no matter who they are or where they come from.

I help to look after my environment.

I help to look after the toys.

I share the toys.

I take turns.

metaproject The World

Our trip to Gardens by the Bay on Thursday 16th was a huge success! We were lucky to have a wonderful guide, Joan, who taught the children about 'Plant Superstars' and clarified their thinking about the classification of living and non-living things during our tours of the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest.

The children were particularly excited by Tulipmania and enjoyed sharing their knowledge of fairytales during the tour. Many children could identify the Singaporean landmarks that we could see from the Skyway.

Term 2 Week 11

metaproject

Mza's recent exploration of the solar system has led to an introduction to our galaxy; The Milky Way.
Some children noticed that both of these were represented in our classroom as a spiral shape.

 

We decided to capitalise on this and turn our solar system table-top in to a galaxy! Much discussion ensued about the best way to do this...with a decision made on paint, followed by careful consideration of the colours which should be used.

The above activities inspired some children to share their knowledge of other spiral shapes in nature. Snakes, shells and snails were mentioned (so far!)

Making a spiral, 3 colour pattern.  

MZa's exploration of rainbows continuous...as does it's offshoot - our inquiry into water. During Discovery Time last week, I froze some Antarctic animal figures for the children to excavate with a variety of tools. After they had shared their knowledge of these animals and perused a non-fiction book on the subject, the children got to work!

"I think if we put water it will melt."
"Oooh! So cold!"

Term 2 Week 9

metaproject

MZa's engagement with rainbows continues. We revisited what the children know about rainbows...

"The clouds lift up the rainbows."

"Some rainbows have lots of gases."

"Different lights of colour and it comes when it's sunny and raining."

Our class also have some wonderings about rainbows. We want to know...

"Why are there so many colours and sparkles?"

"Why are rainbows shaped in a curve?"

"Why are they so high?"

"Why do rainbows have so many colours?"

Our class watched a short video about the science behind rainbows and learned that light is white, but when it hits a prism (raindrops and bubbles act as prisms), it breaks into 7 colours...the colours of the rainbow!

We were so lucky that yesterday one of our parents Jenny, helped by Maria, explored making bubbles with the children. The class were all able to create their own huge bubbles and were really excited to see the colours of the rainbow in them!

Our inquiry into rainbows has also branched off into an inquiry into water. We have been making rain and exploring the different states of water.

Making rain!

Mixing boiling water to make hot chocolate. Some of the water changed from liquid to gas!

Mother Language Day

Thank you to our parents who shared a story in their mother tongue. The class were very engaged by the stories and enjoyed listening to the beautiful languages of Tamil, French and Bulgarian.

Term 2 Week 6    

metaproject...

Many MZa children continue their fascination with space. We have added stars to our solar system table and children have been busy designing and creating vehicles to travel to the stars and planets. But what are stars, actually...?

"They are the moon's President."

"You cannot go to stars...they have fire inside."

"Stars are really like planets and they move around the moon."

"They give bright light at night."

"The sun is a big star."

The question remains..."Are giants real or imaginary?" We have challenged our thinking by watching a short animation of the legend of Finn McCool, followed by an excerpt of a documentary about the geological feature The Giant's Causeway in Ireland. Children have re-created the story in play, incorporating shape recognition and an introduction to tessellation!

Our trip to Chinatown...

We had a wonderful trip to Chinatown on Thursday 5 February. The children did a great job of locating items important to Chinese New Year and practising their Chinese vocabulary to purchase decorations for our classroom and their homes.
Thank you so much to all our parents who helped the children on this day - this trip would not have been possible without you!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!