For the past 6 weeks Grade 1.1 have been exploring poetry. We've read and written many different types of poems. We used English and our mother tongue too. The types of poems we explored were alliteration, acrostic, diamonte, cinquain, free verse, rhyming and shape. After drafting and conferencing with Mrs Hayward we published our poems into a booklet. Then we practiced performing some of them with a partner. We chose our best two to prepare for the parent poetry cafe. To help us practice we read our chosen poems to our grade 4 reading buddies. We also did some work on book creator online to create an ebook version of some of our poems. These will be shared at the student led conference coming up in April. On Thursday, 15th March the parents came to watch our final performances and then we shared the other poems in our books with them. Enjoy the videos and photos of our poetry performances below.
0 Comments
A few weeks ago a Grade 9 drama class came to interview us to find out what we know about the lifecycle of a butterfly. Then they prepared a drama for us all about the lifecycle of a butterfly. On Monday they came to Changi Hall to perform their drama for us. The costumes and props were bright and colourful and we learned lots of new facts about caterpillars and butterflies. Our favourite parts were the dance and touching the paper flowers.
Grade 2 found a caterpillar in the playground and gave it to us as they knew we were inquiring about life cycles. We gave it fresh leaves, some soil and a stick. So far it has made a chrysalis and we are waiting to see if it will turn into a butterfly or a moth.
A few days later Gracie found another caterpillar in the garden. She brought it up and we gave it some leaves too. It remains a caterpillar at the moment and every day we check to see if it has made its chrysalis.
Over the two week March break we left the chrysalis with Mr Aik our security guard. When we collected the container today we found a small moth inside. Unfortunately it was dead. We think it didn't have enough food or water to survive. We buried it in the garden.
For part of our inquiry into 3D shapes this week we played a 'guess the shape' game. There were two 3D shapes in 3 different boxes. We weren't allowed to look, just feel. We had to count the edges, faces and vertices as we felt each shape to help us figure out what each one was. We wrote down our guesses and after everyone had a turn to guess the shapes in each box were revealed. We've also been exploring how how many edges and vertices shapes have by building them with toothpicks and balls of play dough.
We used water colour pencils to draw and paint pictures of plants and flowers. We had to observed the details closely. Our finished pieces will be on display for the parents to see at our poetry cafe coming up soon.
For our latest round of show and tell we have had a maths focus. Sosuke showed a handy gadget which helps calculate the times tables. He showed us how to work it and explained he sometimes uses it when he goes to Kumon maths class. Gracie showed us a Maths book she sometimes uses at home and found a page about 3D shapes which we are exploring at the moment. Lots of us wanted to try the idea of colouring a picture using different 3D shapes. Next, Holly showed us magnetic tiles. She demonstrated how to make various 3D shapes and then allowed everyone to have a go at making their own. Then we used everyones shapes together to create a big class structure. Fedor showed us two books he uses on the weekend to practice his maths work. Everyone enjoyed looking at these, especially the pages about telling the time with analogue clocks. Daniel showed us a Maths activities book he has at home. He showed us some of the pages he has completed and passed it around for everyone to take a look. Shoichi brought in his ipad to show how the time works and then explained a game he plays where he needs to use the timer. He also showed us a clock which he uses to practice telling the time. Shoichi's third item was a measuring tape. He explained his mum uses it at home to measure furniture like bookshelves. We had a go at using it to see how long it would stretch. Sara was inspired by Shoichi's show and tell and brought in a measuring tape too. She said she uses it at home to measure how tall she is. Erica showed everyone her calculator and how it can be used to add big numbers. Someone was interested in how many digits could be entered in to the calculator and what the biggest number it show would be. We worked these questions out together by trying some different things with the calculator. Saki shared a fish pictures she'd made using only square, triangle and circular stickers. She explained different sizes of the shapes were needed to make the picture. Hugh's show and tell was all about monopoly. He explained the rules of the game and how the money works. He said it's important to plan how much money you have and when to spend it so that if no one lands on your property you can still have enough money to stay in the game. Athan shared a game that his dad helped him make and they play at home sometimes. A group us tried playing it too. Julian showed some pictures of different games which he likes to play. All of them need Maths to help with counting.
This week we had two visitors to our class. The first was Sara's little sister Emma. Emma is two years old. We asked Emma's mum questions about what she was like when she was a baby and how she has changed in the past two years. We watched what Emma did, played with her and sang a song with her. We made comparisons between ourselves as seven and eight year olds and a four year old. Then Hugh's mum came in to tell us about life cycles. We learned about the sizes of a baby as it grows inside the mother before it is born. Then we compared the length of time it takes different animals to grown into adults. We had two babies visit on the one day. First baby Teddy who is a friend of Hugh's family and then Holly's little brother Louis. It was fun watching them, listening to them and finding out about all their changes since being born. We were able to compare too as baby Louis was older than baby Teddy. Thank you to everyone who visited our class. |
Grade 1.1Follow our learning journey throughout the year. Archives
June 2018
|