Final video and Goodbye!

Thank you EVERYONE for a fantastic year. I was very sad to say goodbye to the children today! Have a great break, see some of you in August!

Irish Dancing...

Arts Festival

Thank you for coming to our Arts Festival! Enjoy the photographs that were taken during the dress rehearsal.

Learning from Grade 1 Experts

This morning the K1AWh children visited G1KUp again to find out what they had learnt about endangered animals in the past few weeks. We learnt lots of new facts and about different animals from around the world. We also learnt some things about why they were endangered. Here is a video to show you the visit. 

Look forward to seeing everyone at the Arts Festival next week!

Gardens by the Bay

Gardens by the Bay

We had a fantastic trip to Gardens by the Bay last week! The children learnt a lot about some plants, especially cactuses, tulips and pitcher plants. They were excited to discover that the pitcher plant is actually carnivorous like some of the animals we have been learning about. 

Below is a slide show so you can see what we got up to there...

Metaproject

The class is still very interested in animals! We talked about it last week as a group and the children decided they wanted to learn more about endangered animals and what they could do to help. They also talked about different habitats and how many animals are losing their homes. We haven't talked about this too much during the course of the project so I assume some of these discussions have taken place at home. Over the next few weeks we will focus on this area, although some of our time will be taken up planning and rehearsing our Arts Festival!

Animal Experts

Over the past few weeks the children in K1AWh have been learning all about an animal of their choice. They have worked collaboratively to do this with the ultimate goal of being 'teachers' who could share their knowledge with others. I have been amazed at the interest and excitement that has been generated in the class in regards to this. Children have been bringing in books from home, excitedly sharing facts and gathering information. We have compared extinct and living animals...which has lead to discussion about endangered animals. Something I hope to follow up on next term if the children are still intersted in this area.

The class brainstormed ways they could share what they have learnt. Here were some of their ideas:

  
Here are the ways they chose to share what they had learnt:

Ethan's Doodlecast about Dinosaurs

Arricah, Armaan, Evie, Zara, Xanthe and Jack's videos about the animal they learnt about.

Sharing what we have learnt with G1's. The children that chose to make books have these in their blue folders today.

Finally a HUGE thank you to everyone for the amazing video you put together for Sue and I. We were very touched! Sherry asked that I share it on the blog as some of you haven't seen the whole thing. Here it is...

Visitors!

We have been so lucky in the past two weeks to have many visitors in our classroom to teach us about all sorts of different things. I've put together a little video to say thank you and share some of the activities that have been going on over the past couple of weeks. 

Here are some of the children's thoughts about the learning that we have been doing with our visitors...


It's nice to have new people in our class because you get to play with them. Myra

Its good too hear different languages from other people. Ava

We like to hear new things about people's countries. Diya

We learnt about different foods. It was fun and I liked tasting the new foods. Zara

I liked when Xander and Naia's family came in. I liked the sticky rice and the fruits. It was yummy. I liked the coconut milk. Nadine

I like people reading stories because I like learning things from stories. Armaan

I like people coming in. Its really fun to meet new people. Tallis

Miss Whitehead's sister came in and we learnt about New Zealand from her. Sam

Happy Chinese New Year, Inquiry Learning and 'World' books

Chinese New Year

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

K1 has had a busy couple of weeks celebrating the upcoming Chinese New Year in a variety of ways. We had a trip to bustling Chinatown which gave us a chance to practise our Chinese, we have had Jane and Shu Na in to help with some lantern making, today everyone is dressed in special Chinese New Year colours and we have visited a fair at school with our G5 buddies and seen a lion dance! A HUGE thank you to all the parents, Chinese teachers and of course our Grade 5 buddies that have helped us learn so much about, and celebrate this festival.

Please enjoy the following slideshow which gives you a snapshot of all the exciting things we have been up to (please read on for further information about the millipede/garden shots!).

Inquiry learning - our millipede 

As a sideline today, during morning tea we found a millipede in our eating area. The children were hugely excited so we took turns having a look and then brought it into our class. I searched on Google for some 'child friendly' information about millipedes and we also investigated the differences between millipedes and centipedes - one of the main being that the children should never touch a centipede as they can be poisonous. 

We discovered that the kind of places millipedes like to live are dark and damp, and that they eat rotting leaves. We then brainstormed where in the school we could release our millipede that would be safe and the children suggested one of our garden areas. We went over to one as a class and hunted for the perfect spot in the corner where our millipede would be safe, then released it. 

I wanted to share this with you as it is such a great example of 'inquiry based' learning where children are totally captivated and motivated. I could never have planned for this event to occur and the fantastic thing about working in K1 is that we were able to make room in our day to explore and discover something all the children were deeply interested in. This kind of learning can be done at home, on holiday, at school...any time your child finds something that they are really interested in and want to find out about! If you want some more ideas about how to do this let me know and I can share them with you. Although as parents, you may already be inquiry learning experts : )

If your children say "I wonder....." over the next few days please help them find out some information about whatever it is they are wondering about!

Holiday Books

The kids wanted to bring their books home again this holiday to record anything they learn about 'The World'! They are in their blue folders. If you are able to take them away on holidays with you that would be fantastic. If you are staying in Singapore I'm sure there will be plenty of exciting activities for them to draw about or record in some way as well. 

Thanks, have a great week!

Discovery Time and the Learner Profile

Here in K1AWh we have been having an AMAZING time learning all about animals from around the world! 

If your children have told you they are becoming 'experts' on a certain animal...that's because they are! They have all chosen different animals to focus on and are working in groups. They will be sharing their learning with you in some form over the up coming weeks. 

I also wanted to mention that we have been working on different skills and qualities from the UWCSEA Learner Profile. So far we have talked about having a 'Commitment to Care', being great 'Self Managers' and we are currently looking at 'Collaboration'. Detailed below are the qualities we hope UWC graduates will develop over time. If you hear these terms being used at home you will now know where they come from! Feel free to let me know if your child does a great job of any of these things at home and we will talk about them during school time as a class.

Here is a short video to give you an idea of what happened in our Discovery Time this week. During these sessions the children can move between classrooms, through the POD area and outside. Over the course of the year they have built the independence to confidently make choices about where they want to go and who they want to 'discover' with. They love making friends from other classes and often enthusiastically run back into our class to show us what they have created or learnt in the different areas. 

Student Led Confrences and Metaproject Update

We have had a busy week this week with plenty going on! Student led conferences were a huge success, we have a new direction with our metaproject and there is some information below about your child's reading program.

Student Led Conferences

From the children who wanted to share their thoughts on this day...

"I liked the colours of the Playdough on the conference day" Armaan

"I got to show my Mummy in the Home Corner" Myra

"My best thing was playing with the iPads and doing art work with my Mum and Dad" Sam

"I liked it because my Mum was here and we were playing in the home corner. We ate together and played with babies" Tallis

"I liked the art work where we made a rocket ship" Xander

"I liked when my Mum came" Aasha

"My Mum and Dad and I were sitting in the writing centre" Diya

"I liked when me and my Mum and my Dad went to the canteen and had some food." Zara

"I liked when I made my rocket ship". Rupert

Below is a video showing the progress and final result of our Art Installation!

Metaproject

After a fantastic brainstorming session where we discussed possibilities for our future metaproject direction we have decided to start learning about animals from around the world. This seems to be an area of interest for all the children and they are already absorbing new facts and information about animals from all over the world. 

If you had talked to me about sharing parts of your culture with the class don't worry, we will still be looking at these kind of things and can't wait to have you in to share with us. Please keep an eye out for an email about parent help which I will get to you in the next few days.

Reading program

You may have noticed that your child brought home a book with words from our class library this week. This will happen every Wednesday and be sent home with the wordless book. Please feel free to keep these until the following Tuesday. 

Over the next few weeks your child will start to bring home levelled readers or alphabet books. I will be in touch with more information about this closer to the time. 

Have a fantastic weekend!

Welcome back

I hope you all had a fantastic break! The children are well rested and seem happy to be back at school. We have spent the week getting used to routines again and sharing our travels around Singapore, and the rest of the world. Thank you for the effort that was put into the scrap books that the children brought home before the break. It has been a fantastic way for them to share the new sights, sounds and tastes of the places they visited. If you didn't get round to working with the children on their books please don't worry! Keep them safe and maybe they could be used on the next trip you take with your family.

I also wanted to post some photos that were taken this morning, during a visit from our Grade 5 buddy class. 5MWh has been coming down to work with us every Friday morning for a few weeks. When they visit they pair up with a child from K1AWh and spend about 15 minutes doing an activity. These range from reading together to talking about 'The World' - both classes really enjoy the sessions. Mike Wheeler and I plan to continue this for the rest of the year and use the time for the two classes to build their relationship and work on the UWCSEA Learner Profile skills and qualities.

I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday for the Student Led Conferences, have a great weekend!

Sharing our holiday scrap books and the things we learnt...

Reading with our buddy class...