The last two weeks of Term 1  ( already?!)

Metaproject

Some children have been choosing over the last fortnight to make art pieces about volcanoes. This is exciting as it means that they are processing their understandings, then later expressing them in a way which feels comfortable and natural. We have seen modelling clay volcanoes with red paper spilling out to represent lava, drawings accompanied by verbal explanations describing how volcanoes work, as well as paintings and a K1 papier-mache collaboration.

Our class also really enjoyed making 'volcano sandwiches' by cutting bread slices into quarters, pinching the edges together to make a pyramid shape and then squeezing over honey to represent lava. During this activity there was much discussion about how a crater was needed at the volcano's top and how best to make one. Cutting the crusts into small pieces to place around the volcano's base  led to some children sharing their understanding of lava forming rocks as it cools. It was great to see the children's enjoyment of this activity, which not only consolidated their knowledge of volcanoes, but incorporated mathematical concepts and fine motor skill practise.

We have also continued our exploration of what surrounds Earth, and have been inquiring into the solar system, with children sharing their prior knowledge to create a back-drop to planets...

End of term celebrations

The children have early this week been making placemats and party hats and yesterday had a fantastic time using them during the festivities. They enjoyed a performance of Purple Paw Prints, not to mention a visit from a "special guest!" Thank you for providing party food for our class to share - they had a wonderful morning.

Thank you also from Ms Aspa and myself for the lovely gifts. We will really enjoy going shopping during the break!

Wishing you all a happy holiday period... we hope your family has a restful, enjoyable break together. See you in 2015!

K1 meta-project

It has all been about volcanoes in MZa over the last fortnight! Many children are fascinated by volcanoes and have been making them from clay. After drying and painting, they made them  erupt by filling the craters with bicarb, vinegar and red food colouring. There was a lot of pleasure to be had in seeing the children's awareness of how volcanoes work take a hands-on perspective!

I showed the children a short video after which I asked them if they had any questions about volcanoes. The responses below will provide many directions in which to expand our inquiry in coming weeks…

"How did the earth get Lava?"
"I don't know why volcanoes make fire."
"Why does lava come from volcano?"
"Why do volcano blast go straight up?"
"How do people go near volcanoes?"

In addition, many children continue to have firm ideas about how planet Earth was formed...
                                                           

It's wonderful to see the children so engaged, making connections and becoming so knowledgeable about the world through our meta-project!

K1 Service

Thank you for sending in the shopping money for our children to purchase items to fill the Project Get Ready For School bags which the class have been busy decorating. They are now full and ready to be presented to the recipients. We made the first presentations on Thursday afternoon...to two local school friends who have spent a couple of days with us over the last fortnight. Our new friends were very excited to receive the bags!

UN Celebrations

We have had an exciting time during the last week, with our UN Day and Food Festival. The children loved completing the craft activities and filling their 'passports' with their parents, then went on to sing beautifully on stage. I was very proud of them...as, I know, were you! Everyone looked fabulous in their national costumes...

Thank you to those parents who were able to help during today's Food Festival. We enjoyed having you with us to enjoy the delicious fun!

Our meta-project... The World.

Many children continue to be fascinated by the Moon…what it looks like, the way it moves in space, and what it means when it moves around the earth.

"The moon is green and also blue."

"It's white all the time." 

"The moon has to be yellow at nighttime."

A couple of weeks ago I posed to the class the question "What is inside the earth?" The responses were very interesting!….

       "Aliens."

"That black hole."

"The earth inside is like a rainbow."

Last week, many children were fascinated by a new model globe of the earth which arrived in our classroom. The globe featured a removable cross-section which showed Earth's interior.
It was suggested that we walk around on Earth's crust, and that the mantle provides the lava which comes from volcanoes.
The children were invited to participate in craft activities to illustrate their understandings.

"This is Bulgaria, this is Singapore. I need Australia."

Storytelling

On Friday 7 November, we were fortunate to take part in a storytelling session with Cassandra Wye. The children were able to perform the actions and sounds of animals, which was a great interactive experience for them. The message in the story was about the importance of sharing - a big part of life in K1! The story was Australian, which makes a fitting introduction to our upcoming exploration of stories from different countries, as part of our UN celebrations.

If you have a picture book featuring a story, folktale or fairytale from your family's home country which you would be happy to lend to us so that I can share it with the children next week, please do send it in via your child's blue folder.

Playeum's The Big Draw...It's our world. 

Yesterday we had a wonderful visit to The Big Draw. There were a variety of activities on offer which linked beautifully to our meta-project, offering opportunities to make meaning about the world in a hands-on, exploratory way. Many children were really engaged in creating clay trees to add to the rain forest, adding to the papier-mache city scape, discovering some plants and weeds of Singapore, and using leaves to create images on paper.
Other children were fascinated by the picture wheel, the shadow wall, and really enjoyed drawing on the building's floors and walls!

Our class are becoming very excited about UN Day next Friday, and are looking forward to sharing activities in the classroom, and then performing for their families.

See you there!

Term 1 Week 11

It was really nice to welcome the children back for the second half of Term 1, and to hear about their holiday adventures.
Below are some memories of our end-of-half term celebration trip to West Coast Park on 10 October.
Thank you so much to our parents who came along. You all did a fantastic job in supporting the children, and it was much appreciated.

                                
                       
                                              

Our meta-project The World

Endangered Animals

Over the first couple of days of this week some children independently came to me to tell me things that they know about endangered animals. This is exciting, as I can see that the children are beginning to really think deeply about this issue; developing understandings of why some animals are endangered and the element of human responsibility in this. 

I showed our class some short videos featuring four endangered animals in their natural habitats;             African elephant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1e0lSoCUb8, 

blue whale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pjI2XkmoL0, 

tiger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXmqwRj0o4E and 

panda bear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mtILTIDwHQ 

They enjoyed watching the panda family playing together, the tiger caring for her cub, the elephants drinking and spraying with their trunks, and the blue whale moving majestically through the ocean.

    "Elephant horns go in pianos.'

    " Oh good...there's lots of bamboo there!"

    " Wow! Look at the tail...look!"

    "So cute baby!"

In coming weeks, I will be providing the children with opportunities to explore why these animals are important to our world, and possible consequences of their extinction. We will also begin to investigate action that is being taken, and could be taken, to try to rectify this situation.

The class are very interested in all animals - endangered and otherwise. Some children have engaged with provocations featuring  2 & 3D maps of the earth and selected animals, and were interested to see where on the maps the animals lived.

What is around the Earth?

Many children have been engaging in activities designed to represent their understandings of what is around the Earth. Ms Aspa made some moon sand (sand, cornflour and water), which was used with stones, modelling tools and circular trays to depict the shape and surface of the moon.

Some children extended their play by incorporating alien figures, enacting them landing on the moon. This prompted a discussion about whether aliens are real or not!

"Even there's some aliens in the moon."

"At the moon there's moonwalks."

"At the moon astronauts come on and they've got a dune buggy to go on it."

"If there was a typhoon in Philipines the moon would be orange on top and on the sides and yellow at the bottom."

"Aliens come out of little holes, you know."

Some children chose to paint a sun. They were encouraged to use a sweeping, circular motion to apply the paint; practicing fine motor control.

" When the sun shines the plants grow."

"When the sun and the rain goes together it makes a rainbow."

"Sunflowers grow in the night and in the sun."

"It's hot."

Before the half term break I asked all the children to verbalise and draw What I'm thinking about the world. Many responses were related to aspects of the above, with many also focusing on countries and families. To expand on this, and to prepare for our upcoming UN Day on 21 November, I would like to ask parents to send in a printed family photo which we can display in our classroom, and which the children can share with their friends and teachers. Please send the photo in via your child's blue folder. Many thanks :)

Today, we had a cast of characters in our class for dress-up day! Happy Halloween to those who celebrate.

The World - our Meta Project

Endangered Animals

Following on from many children's interest and engagement in endangered animals, we have shared more books and viewed some short videos on the subject. These have generated discussions about the actions that people could take, following on from the earlier suggestion of a child...

                                           "People should stop and do something."

Thoughts and ideas shared by the children were…

"If the hunters cut the trees down that means they'll fall and make fire and only the animals will die."

"People  kill tigers for their skins, and to make aircon for their houses."

"Pandas are endangered because people cut down the bamboo."

"We can take out all the rubbish."

"We can help the tiger by making more trees."

"Ask the hunters to stop killing the animals."

As you can see, the children's thinking is deepening as our inquiry develops further!

Last week, the class had worked collaboratively to represent the earth in 2D on a large black circle. Endangered animals were drawn and cut out by many children, and attached to this Earth. Some children were interested in finding the countries of the animals on the world map displayed in our classroom.

I shared with the children the picture book Big Bear Little Bear by David Bedford which details the family life of polar bears in their habitat. I posed the question "What might happen if the ice melts?"
A week earlier we had learned through non-fiction books that the sun is shining hotter as the earth is warming, so it was great to see the extension of children's thinking in their answers...

"The bears might drown."

"No...polar bears can swim."

"How would they get fish?"

I then set up a provocation with a slab of ice, a sun and polar bear figurines for the children to explore. Over the day we observed the ice melting, which also opened the chance for a discussion about different states of water. 

Clouds

Our inquiry into clouds has extended into an exploration of the water cycle, with children making rain using pippettes and sponges. Observations of the melting ice of the polar bear's habitat has led into discussions of the properties and states of water. The properties of water were explored in our outside area.

What is around the Earth?

The class have explored Google Earth on the iPads, and were very excited to find their school, Singapore, and in some cases their home country. I posed the question "What is around the Earth?" in response to a child's comment that it was black everywhere. Many children were interested in what surrounds the earth, with suggestions such as the sun, the moon, planets, rainbows, and shooting stars.
I look forward to continuing this inquiry with the children in coming weeks!

UWC Day

On Wednesday 3rd October, we spent a lovely day connecting with a Grade 12 class who shared presentations about their home countries with our class. The children really enjoyed learning from the older students, sharing commonalities, and seeing other UWC's plotted on a world map.

This is our last class blog before the October half-term break. I hope your child has a restful and enjoyable holiday.

The World - our K1 Meta-Project...

Our class has been sharing what we know about animals of the world. I have so enjoyed hearing the children's prior knowledge, and the confidence and enthusiasm with which they are volunteering information!

The children have also been thinking about what they would like to know about animals, and brainstorming how they might find out. We have had wonderful sessions with non-fiction books, discovering how we can use them to find answers to our questions, some of which are below...

"Why do sheep and cows and goats make milk?"
"Why do butterflies have antenna?"

"What do kangaroos eat?"

"Why do wolves have light eyes?"

"How do dolphins jump?"

It was also great to see some of our class answering their friend's questions - simultaneously sharing and increasing understandings.
In further exploration, some children have enjoyed creating animal habitats with animal figures, blocks and natural materials, classifying and patterning animal pictures, and investigating life-cycles.

Some children have been wondering about what is around and next to planet Earth. Water, space, rainbows and clouds were suggested, with particular discussion about what clouds are and what purpose they serve.

"Clouds come from fire.'
"Clouds are from China."
"Clouds make the thundery rain."

The children all contributed their thoughts to a survey about clouds, and some engaged in a provocation in the Art Centre, resulting in cloud printing using cotton balls, shaving cream and paint.

Many children have shown interest in the maps and globes displayed in the classroom. Blocks and transport vehicles have been used by some children to represent their thinking about, and experiences of, Singapore. Other children are showing how they see the Earth through making marks and drawing pictures on circular shapes.

During our Discovery Times, the Music room has been open to the children. They have had the opportunity to explore dark and light, and correspondingly night and day, by experimenting with different materials on the overhead projector.

This week we shared a non-fiction big book What is an endangered animal? The children were very engaged by the information and illustrations regarding animals of the world at risk, and had thoughtful comments to share. One child's comment below may very well indicate a direction which our children could show an interest in following...

"People should stop and do something."

Do check in to this blog's next post in a fortnight's time to see where the children's inquiring minds will lead them!