Term 2 Week 5

House Keeping

Friday 19th February is Mother Tongue Day. Our class mums' will be sending out a sign up sheet for you to sign up to read a book in your mother tongue to a small group of children and possibly teach a rhyme or song to them too. This will be from 1:05 - 1:30pm. 

Thinkers in K1 ReJ

I went into this week thinking we'd be talking more about solids, liquids and gases. Some children shared experiments conducted at home,  while some children made liquid books. Rafe even shared a doodlecast about how he could connect solids, liquids and gases to his body. Thank you to Rafe's family for the share. However despite all that, the children took the week in a completely different direction!

During Discovery time on Tuesday Takuma found a magnifying glass and wanted to find "small things" to look at. Mrs Marschall spent the entire Discovery Time finding ants and spiders with Takuma. Like the true scientists our children are Takuma made an observational drawing with labels describing what he had found. By the end of Discovery Time Takuma said he wanted to find out more!
On Wednesday Soumee was nice enough to deliver a book to Takuma from the David Watson library about spiders, which had started to spark interest in more children.
During Discovery Time on Thursday a small group of children excitedly went on a bug search around the Pod. Lily very proudly explained that she had found an ant and a snail. She too wanted to find out more, so off we went to the library.

Reading her observation.

Observing the snails outside.

Getting the books she wanted from the librarian.

Looking through non-fiction books she collected from the library. 

Lily shared her observations and research with her peers during our Discovery Time reflection meeting. This got many children excited about all things creepy crawly (to my discomfort!). The children decided they wanted to search for more spiders. A few children had some questions they wanted answered, such as, "What do spiders eat?" and "How do spiders make their webs?".

The group of children interested equipped themselves with clipboards, torches and microscopes. As a group, they decided they needed to get non-fiction books from the library and then they wanted to explore the garden to see what they could find.

These children wrote their observations, used their scientific tools and shared their knowledge with each other with such enthusiasm. 

Liam "I think spiders can have about 6 eyes...(after looking at some books)...I thought it has 6 eyes but I can see here it has 8 eyes." (lovely example of reflective thinking)

Alex "If a spider makes a web and you put your hand on you'll be trapped because webs are sticky."

Leone "Spiders can sometimes be black."

They then returned to class to share their knowledge with the children who remained behind. 

In our travels we bumped into a K2 class. The teacher in the class mentioned that her children had just finished making some 'all about' books and some had written about spiders. We invited the K2s to our class to share their books with us. Another big hit! Hopefully, our children are inspired to share their knowledge using their Hundred Languages throughout the rest of the year. 

Money, Money, Money

After making hongbao's for Chinese New Year another potential inquiry was started. The children decided they needed to add something into their hongbao's. They were shown different types of money from Singapore. They shared their observations with their peers. 

Leone "There's Changi airport on top next to the number."

Finn " There's a little hole that you can see through and plastic you can see through, so it must be plastic right?"

Mia "Phuket's money has flowers on the back."

Lily "There's a Merlion on it."

Lizzie "There's faces."

Zara "I can see a number on it."

On your travels notice the difference in currency where ever you might find yourself. 

Happy Chinese New Year!

The children looked great today in their festive outfits. A big thank you to Loulou, Yuri, Xiaodan and Malabika for your activities and help today! I have been told many people are traveling over this break. Please have safe and happy travels.

Thank you Amy for being our Mystery Reader this week!