Term 2 Week 15
Dear parents,
English
We continued to improve our story comprehension with "The Frog Chef". In groups, we chose our favourite parts of the book and rehearsed and performed a scene. It was a lot of fun to use our acting skills in English class! We explored the use of commas in introductory phrases. We found words that end in "tion" and discussed the meaning. We picked the four most important parts of books and practiced sequencing by writing and drawing the story using the style of "first, then, next, finally".
Maths
This week, we explored 3D shapes. We reviewed what we knew already by matching the name to the shape and describing it. We built different models of the shapes using paper, play-doh, and a magnet/stick set to help us to visualise the sides/faces, corners, edges, and curved surfaces. We compared the shapes to 2D shapes. We found 3D shapes at home. We cut through the shapes to see what they looked like on the inside, which we learned is called the cross section of a shape, and we enjoyed practicing to sketch the various shapes too.
Unit of Inquiry
We continued our inquiry into "how we organise ourselves" and focused on our first line of inquiry, "goods and services". We went on a walk around the neighbourhood to see what goods and services are in the area.
We discovered some new vocabulary like "producer, consumer, supply, demand". Inspired by the fun we had acting in English class, the students requested to act out a time when they were a producer or consumer. We created four mini plays-a bookstore, a restaurant, a toy shop, and a dice shop. Again, we had a LOT of fun with this! After the performances, a student commented "doing that helped me to understand our unit so much more!" This was an awesome example of how the students can often lead the inquiry to places I didn't plan, and their learning becomes so much more meaningful for them.
This led us to a discussion and brainstorm session about what money is, why we need money, where we and our parents get money, and how we don't have an unlimited supply of it. We made a t-chart of our needs and wants, and noticed that we should try to save some money instead of always spending it on things we don't need. We watched a cartoon called The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies and enjoyed discussing with a partner our observations about the show. We then wrote a letter to The Berenstain Bears, advising them that they should spend their money on what they need, rather than on what they want.
Human Rights Day
As Monday was Human Rights Day around the world, we spent time during Morning Meeting this week discussing what human rights are. We watched a video from UNICEF and decided that everyone should have equal human rights-regardless of how old they are, where they come from, what they look like, what language they speak, if they are a boy or a girl, what religion they believe in, what clothes they wear, or if they have hair or not (?!). We made people holding hands paper chains, and decorated them differently to represent different types of people. We then created our own lists of what we think our human rights are.
Reward Jar
We finally filled up our class jar with jewels! While we still use the clip chart to try and get individual merits, I started this jar this term to promote a sense of class community. They have been getting jewels from teachers for times when they worked well as a whole class. This has been for a great many number of reasons, ranging from keeping a clean classroom, to remaining focused during lessons, to displaying attributes of the PYP Learner Profile (caring, communicator, principled, risk-taker, open-minded, reflective, knowledgeable, balanced, thinker, inquirer). When we started this we were very aware of doing well a class to get jewels. Nowadays, we are naturally working together without even thinking about the reason why! We celebrated our success with a popcorn and movie party today! It was a great feeling to earn a reward over such a long period of time! We did it!
Please note
As next week is the last week of the term, we will not be learning spellings.
Have a great weekend,
Ms. Stacy.
English
We continued to improve our story comprehension with "The Frog Chef". In groups, we chose our favourite parts of the book and rehearsed and performed a scene. It was a lot of fun to use our acting skills in English class! We explored the use of commas in introductory phrases. We found words that end in "tion" and discussed the meaning. We picked the four most important parts of books and practiced sequencing by writing and drawing the story using the style of "first, then, next, finally".
Maths
This week, we explored 3D shapes. We reviewed what we knew already by matching the name to the shape and describing it. We built different models of the shapes using paper, play-doh, and a magnet/stick set to help us to visualise the sides/faces, corners, edges, and curved surfaces. We compared the shapes to 2D shapes. We found 3D shapes at home. We cut through the shapes to see what they looked like on the inside, which we learned is called the cross section of a shape, and we enjoyed practicing to sketch the various shapes too.
Unit of Inquiry
We continued our inquiry into "how we organise ourselves" and focused on our first line of inquiry, "goods and services". We went on a walk around the neighbourhood to see what goods and services are in the area.
We discovered some new vocabulary like "producer, consumer, supply, demand". Inspired by the fun we had acting in English class, the students requested to act out a time when they were a producer or consumer. We created four mini plays-a bookstore, a restaurant, a toy shop, and a dice shop. Again, we had a LOT of fun with this! After the performances, a student commented "doing that helped me to understand our unit so much more!" This was an awesome example of how the students can often lead the inquiry to places I didn't plan, and their learning becomes so much more meaningful for them.
This led us to a discussion and brainstorm session about what money is, why we need money, where we and our parents get money, and how we don't have an unlimited supply of it. We made a t-chart of our needs and wants, and noticed that we should try to save some money instead of always spending it on things we don't need. We watched a cartoon called The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies and enjoyed discussing with a partner our observations about the show. We then wrote a letter to The Berenstain Bears, advising them that they should spend their money on what they need, rather than on what they want.
Human Rights Day
As Monday was Human Rights Day around the world, we spent time during Morning Meeting this week discussing what human rights are. We watched a video from UNICEF and decided that everyone should have equal human rights-regardless of how old they are, where they come from, what they look like, what language they speak, if they are a boy or a girl, what religion they believe in, what clothes they wear, or if they have hair or not (?!). We made people holding hands paper chains, and decorated them differently to represent different types of people. We then created our own lists of what we think our human rights are.
Reward Jar
We finally filled up our class jar with jewels! While we still use the clip chart to try and get individual merits, I started this jar this term to promote a sense of class community. They have been getting jewels from teachers for times when they worked well as a whole class. This has been for a great many number of reasons, ranging from keeping a clean classroom, to remaining focused during lessons, to displaying attributes of the PYP Learner Profile (caring, communicator, principled, risk-taker, open-minded, reflective, knowledgeable, balanced, thinker, inquirer). When we started this we were very aware of doing well a class to get jewels. Nowadays, we are naturally working together without even thinking about the reason why! We celebrated our success with a popcorn and movie party today! It was a great feeling to earn a reward over such a long period of time! We did it!
Please note
As next week is the last week of the term, we will not be learning spellings.
Have a great weekend,
Ms. Stacy.
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