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!

Term 2 Week 4

The last two weeks have been a hive of activity in MZa! The children's interest in the world of the imagination is continuing, alongside a long-standing fascination with what surrounds Earth; namely space and rainbows!

A giant question...

The children and I have been exploring the existence or otherwise of giants. Are they real or imaginary? Last week we all completed a survey, and analysed the data ,which showed that the majority of us believed giants to be imaginary. Over the next few days we read some books such as Jack and the Beanstalk and Gulliver's Travels, and viewed a short video about the world's tallest man.

A few days later, a revisit of the survey showed that us that, in many cases, our thinking had changed. So now, many children think that giants are real, some insist they are imaginary, and a few are as yet still pondering. It has been so exciting to listen to the children articulate how their thinking is changing as they process new information...

"Giants are imaginary because we've never seen a beanstalk before."

"Giants are real because they can walk by themselves. Giants are the same as persons, so it's real."

"In the book they were bad and eat people, but I'm not scared...only in stories."

"China is a real country, so giants are real."

The video we watched also led to some measurement fun. We wanted to know what 2.46m (the height of the world's tallest man) looked like, so we used a metre ruler to mark this length on the carpet. Some children then used a combination of unifix cubes, the metre ruler and their own feet to count how many units long. This then sparked the idea to measure each other!

Space...

Many of the children have been designing and building vehicles which could travel in space. A lot of thought has gone into the pieces of equipment used and what purpose each one will serve.

Over the rainbow? Not yet...

Many children remain enthralled by rainbows. What are rainbows? According to MZa...

"A rainbow is colours."
"A rainbow has treasure on the end of the side."
"The rain stop, the rainbow come."

Some children have enjoyed discovering how to make their own rainbows with mirrors and have been noticing rainbow colours in bubbles.

 
"Just look down, you can see a rainbow!"

Welcome to Term 2.

Happy New Year! It was lovely to welcome the children back and we are looking forward to a busy and exciting new term.

Many children have maintained their interest in our metaproject and shared information about the world from their holidays, such as countries that they visited and what they saw and did. I showed photos of my trip to the Glasshouse Mountains in Australia, and asked the children to share any thoughts...

"It looks like a volcano."

"But no lava is there."

"It is extinct...that means the lava is gone."

The sea has been of interest to the children lately. We have been using our prior knowledge as well as non-fiction books and the internet to share information and begin our inquiry. Some children have made a sea collage and created creatures to add.

I posed to the children the following question...

"Why does Earth have seas?"
"If not...all the people couldn't have water and they will die."
"The fish need water."
"The sea's got treasure in it and there's water and sharks and whales."
"Even the sea has fishes; like an aquarium."

Something that I have noticed in my observations of, and chats with, the class is their interest in the realm of fantasy and magic within the world. The imagination is a powerful meaning-making tool for young children who may not yet have the experience or language to construct and convey understandings in a "rational" way. Fostering the ability to "think outside the box" is invaluable to children's (and adults!) problem solving. Recently we have seen drawings about Lord of The Rings, songs from and discussions about  Frozen, scenarios created with fairies and wizards and play based around the idea of zombies!  They children have enjoyed sharing their knowledge of imaginary characters in the world.

One of our classmates lost his first tooth a couple of weeks ago, and I overheard the following conversation...

"When your teeth fall out and then you put it under your pillow and then the Tooth Fairy will come."

"But you know...when your tooth fall out you throw it in the window and when you sleep you can see it's in the outside place."

"The Tooth Fairy is special. Some fairies are different and some are the same. They are very special and they can come anywhere."

"They don't come if you are awake."

"Yes, yes...and fairies can make magic with her magic wand."

Our Student Led Conferences on Tuesday 13th were a great success! The children did a fantastic job of  sharing with their parents how they learn in K1. I was very proud of the independence and confidence shown by MZa children.

During the K1 Arts Exhibition, many children in our class contributed to the making of this wonderful sea / ocean.