This week was our first week of our second unit of inquiry - Sharing The Planet. Our central idea is: Working together strengthens communities. Our lines of inquiry are working together cooperatively, roles within groups and conflict resolutions. We were split into teams and had to work to build a bridge from one desk to another. Each group had different resources (lego, wooden blocks, paper and lolly sticks) and we had a time limit to complete the task. After the task we reflected on how we had worked together as a team and how we could improve our team work. Then we repeated the task with different resource trying to put our improvements in team work to good use. The next day we looked at photos and videos of our task and discussed different roles each person had with in the group.
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In grade 1.1 we celebrated World Peace Day. We made a class dove using all of our finger prints to paint inside a dove template. Some children made their own origami dove and others made a peace day piece of artwork. These pieces of art were uploaded to Twitter with #RootsandShoots. They may feature on Dr. Jane Goodall's facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/janegoodall/ The children also played Peace Day soccer in PE.
We learn Maths through an inquiry approach and do mini investigations each day. Sometimes we work on our own and at other times we work with a partner. We have been adding and subtracting, solving word problems and most recently counting and writing numbers to 100 and beyond. Our data handling focus has been tally charts and pictographs which we have linked to our unit of inquiry. Please enjoy the gallery of pictures below which show us busily working on many different maths investigations over the past few weeks.
Dear Parents,
International Day is on the 6th of October and it is quickly approaching! We are excited to share our cultures and celebrate together on that day. We would love to have as much parent involvement as possible and besides sharing the day with your children, here are some ways you can participate: Country Display: We will be making the Elementary School hallway's display boards available to parents to decorate. Each board will be assigned a country and you are welcome to come by and decorate during the week of 2nd October - 5th October. If you are interested, please let Ms. Jasinska know by email which country you are representing so she can try to connect you together [email protected] Food: One of the highlights of International Day is the food! Please feel free to share your national dish with us that day. You can bring it in the morning for it to be kept in a safe place while you participate in the fun. Later, each country will have a table where you can place your food and we can celebrate the wonderful cuisines of the world together. We are all looking forward to International Day, and hope you can join us for a morning of fun! -- Michelle Jasinska Grade 5 Teacher and Global Citizenship Coordinator ISS International School Elementary School Campus 25 Paterson Road, Singapore 238510 T: (+65) 6235 5844 F: (+65) 6732 5701 www.iss.edu.sg
Grade 1.1 have been treated to some special parent visitors in the class over the last two weeks. We had Erica's mum 'Miss Jackie' who shared lots of Japanese games with us. The first one was Karouta - a matching pictures and words card game. Erica had helped make an English version for us to play. The children were enthusiastic and competitive whilst playing this game! She taught us Cup and Ball and a few of the children had a go too. If you get the ball in the cup, you get one point. You then do it again and again to see how many points you can get in a row. If the person misses, they then have to start over with zero points. Then we learned about origami paper folding and made a fish. The last game was called Junken Hoi. This is similar to Rock, Paper, Scissors. The children enjoyed playing in Japanese and English.
Holly's mum 'Miss Sophie' came and talked to us about Ireland. We learned about some special foods which all had one thing in common - potatoes! We practiced saying some Irish phrases and learned about popular tourist attractions. Then we listened to a traditional story about the Giant's Causeway and two Giants who were supposed to fight each other. You can listen to the story here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q37SCd6mQv8
Juliens' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Esmail, explained the Belgian celebration of St Nicholas which takes place on the 6th of December. St Nicholas was an important Bishop who took care of the poor and looked after children. Children leave out their shoes on the evening of December 5th for St Nicholas to fill them with sweets and fruit if they have been good. It is also a tradition to bake Speculoos - spiced biscuits. Mr. and Mrs. Esmail worked with groups of children to make these in the class. Our classroom smelled of lovely cinnamon while they were baking. During this time we worked on Venn Diagrams comparing the similarities and differences between St. Nicholas and Christmas celebrations. Of course the highlight of the day was eating the delicious biscuits. If you'd like to try making some speculoos tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/the-real-belgian-speculoos/here is the recipe for you.
Hugh's Mum, Luci, explained the English tradition of having a cream tea. The cream tea originated in the south of England in Devon and Cornwall. People will have a cream tea to celebrate special occasions such as someone's birthday or anniversary. Traditional foods at a cream tea are sandwiches and scones with cream and jam. In Devon the cream is put on first, then the jam. In Cornwall it is the other way around, jam first and then cream. Luci helped us make cucumber sandwiches and scones with raspberry jam and clotted cream. Here are some other recipes for delicious foods to enjoy at a cream tea.
Similar to Antoine, Sara also celebrates the festival of Halloween. She brought us a paper lantern which she hangs up to decorate her house. Sara also read a book which was about different costumes people dress up in when they go 'trick or treating'. She answered lots of questions about the lantern and the children were really interested in pumpkin carving. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUVNHh2hkGUThis video has some good ideas for carving pumpkins (with adult supervision of course!)
Julien showed us about the traditional way he celebrates at a football game. He supports Belgium which is why he wears a Belgian flag and a hat with the same colours. He showed us how he would shake his head from side to side in celebration if someone from his team scored a goal.
In Japan people often visit a shrine on New Year's Day. Sosuke showed us a photo of Chiba shrine which is very near to his grandmothers place in Japan. Sosuke explained that at the shrine people put money near a bell, shake the bell and then make wishes for health and happiness in the year ahead. We were curious about the lanterns and lions pictured as well as the reason for not being allowed right inside the shrine. The video below shows what people do when visiting a shrine in Japan.
Daniel brought some Chinese tea. He said he drinks it every day. We looked at it, felt the texture of it and smelled it. Daniel gave instructions about how to make the tea with water. Later we tasted it. Someone questioned a child drinking tea as they thought it was a drink only for adults. www.livestrong.com/article/309235-about-the-benefits-of-green-tea-for-children/This describes some of the health benefits of green tea for children and also warns of the small amount of caffeine which green tea contains.
This is Holly's Christmas stocking. Her grandmother made it especially for her and it also reminds her of her grandfather when she uses it each year. Holly gets presents from Santa in her stocking on Christmas Eve, ready for her to open on Christmas morning. Christmas is a Christian festival which celebrates the birth of Jesus. This is Erica's fortune stick from Japan called an Omikuji. She showed us how it works to bring good and bad luck. First you shake it upside down, then one of two sticks will come out, either a stick with good luck or bad luck symbols. We inquired further into the the use of fortune sticks www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/omikujihere. Continuing in our learning about Japanese culture and festivals, Shoichi presented information about Children's Day. Boys celebrate on the 5th day of the 5th month, girls the 3rd day of the 3rd month. He showed us an origami Samuri Warrior Helmet, the special rice cake and the Koinoburi (a pole with carp shaped flags) which symbolises strength and success; according to a Chinese legend, a carp swam upstream to become a dragon. There were lots of questions about the sizes and colours of the carp. Erica explained the colours to us; green for grass, blue for water and red to symbolise people growing up. Sosuke said the 3 sizes represented the father, mother and child in the family. More information can be found web-japan.org/kidsweb/explore/calendar/may/children.htmlhere. Hugh shared information about how he celebrates Christmas the same as Holly. He showed photos of Christmas tress and decorations. Holly asked about the meaning of Christmas trees and what they represent. We discussed suggestions and then inquired into the history of Christmas trees. We found www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6J0FJY0PQgthis video useful. Hugh also told the class the Christmas story and showed a picture of the wisemen visiting baby Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem. Antoine celebrates Halloween and he brought his iron man costume in to show us what he dresses up in for 'trick or treating'. He explained this means you go and visit houses and people give you candy. Some discussions took place about the meaning of Halloween and why it is celebrated so we inquired further about this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=91EstdKw4CEThis video helps to explain the tradition of celebrating halloween. Seeun dressed up in her Hanbok just as she would for special Korean celebrations such as New Years Day, Weddings and peoples 60th birthday parties. You can find out more information about the Hanbok wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Hanbokhere. Chinese New Year is celebrated by giving children red packets with money inside. Gracie explained they are red because the colour red represents energy, happiness and good luck. It is polite to receive the red packet with two hands and it should not be opened in front of the person who gave it. Lots more information about red packets can be found www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/theme/PwKiICEFJXMOJghere. |
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June 2018
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