I can't believe we have reached the end of Grade 2 already! I feel as though this year has flown by. It has been busy and fun and I am so proud of the children and the progress they have all made! Even though it was the last week, we have still been busy. Below are a selection of photos from this week, including the swimming gala, celebration afternoon and last assembly. Finally, we ended the year with some reflection about the year and our hopes and aspirations for the future. We are sad to say goodbye to Griff, Chika, Caleb and Shuyi but wish them the best of luck in their new schools. For the other children who are staying, I hope you have a lovely restful holiday and I look forward to seeing you around school next year!
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This week the children had the opportunity to bring all of their learning about habitats together. They completed their presentations and practised their presentation skills. They came up with a list of what presentations should look like, sound like and feel like. They then gave each other feedback based on the criteria. Take a look at some of the children in action. They also wrote their own verses for the Habitat song, originally written by Bill Oliver. They applied their knowledge of their habitats to write verses which followed the same style and rhythm as the original Habitat song. Take a look at the children performing in assembly on Friday. The children went on their last field trip to Kent Ridge National Park this week. They were able to explore the rainforest and pond habitats and apply their knowledge about what lives there and how they are connected to their habitat.
What a lot of rain we've had this week! But this didn't stop us from having fun with our learning! We spent time exploring the difference between a fact and an opinion and worked as a team to sort statements into the right group. The children then used their knowledge of what makes a fact and what makes an opinion to write their own about their habitat. Exploring examples of different persuasive texts also helped the children to identify the form of opinion writing by looking for special words, phrases and their organisation. The children also spent time this week organising the information that they had collected about their habitat and deciding on how to present it. Children have chosen to present their knowledge about their selected habitat on a poster, picture or slide show. Come to our class assembly next week to see some examples of their work. In addition, the children have been extending their knowledge of fractions to include finding fractions of quantities. I was very impressed with how they applied their knowledge of multiplication and division to help them solve the problems.
This week we have been practising our cooperating skills through many of the activities that have taken place. During our work on our Unit of Inquiry, we explored food chains and food webs, trying to make connections to the animals in the habitat that they have been researching. The children looked at many pictures of animals and plants and had to work together to make food chains of animals from different habitats. Once they were happy with the placement of the pictures, the children presented their ideas to the class. In Math, we used our knowledge of division to explore fractions. The children identified different shapes split into different parts and then coloured the appropriate fraction. They played a game of fraction bingo to practise using fraction vocabulary and to identify the appropriate fraction shown in pictorial and numeric form. The children even got together in their own time and cooperated to make a whole class pattern with their feet and legs, and used multiplication and division to describe what they could see.
We've had another busy week of learning this week. The children have been working hard with the new Unit of Inquiry and finding out the types of habitats that exist. They explored books in the library, identifying the ones that they thought would be useful.. Children applied their research skills of finding key words and using glossaries, contents and index pages to find a good fit for them to acquire information. We also explored poetry more deeply this week. The children looked at the word choice, punctuation and organisation of poems and came up with their own guidelines for writing their own poems. We read the poem 'Has Anyone Seen My Dragon' by Roger Stevens and then wrote our own versions, thinking about using adjectives and rhyming words. The children then wrote another poem, thinking about different organisation of the rhyming words. Take a look at the children investigating the word choice of the poets and listen to some of the poems below. This week we began our final Unit of Inquiry in Grade 2; Sharing the Planet. We will be looking at how animals and their habitats are connected. We began by exploring the words of our Central Idea and writing an explanation of what we already knew about them. Animals were identified as living things. The children then sorted their ideas about what is living and what is not, into a table. This generated a big list of things that they were unsure about, including;
Living things can
Ms Musiowsky also spoke to us about the Earth Charter and the importance of taking care of the Earth. We will continue to think about our actions on the Earth as we move through this unit. In Math, we moved into division and understanding it as sharing. The children also recognised that they could use their knowledge of multiplication to help solve division problems. We carried out a number of hands-on activities, investigating different ways that they can share a number equally. Take a look at some of this week's learning in Math. Finally, we went to visit the Grade 5 Exhibition this week. The children were inspired by the presentations made by the Grade 5 children and made connections to our new unit. It also gave them some tips for their future presentations. The Grade 5's did a great job and should be very proud of themselves!
This week, the children brought their learning about Where We Are in Place and Time to a close by thinking about what they might leave behind. They enjoyed thinking about what archaeologists would infer about them. This Unit of Inquiry has been very interesting and the children have had great fun finding out about artefacts and in particular, the gruesome story of Pompeii. Take a look at some of the ideas the children had about what they would leave behind. This week, the children also enjoyed investigating multiplication a little bit further. They noticed patterns that would help them to predict the number that would come next, and practised different strategies for solving multiplication strategies. Have a look at the children sharing their investigations of different times tables with the class. We also enjoyed our Student Led Conferences this week. The children were very proud to share their learning with you. Thank you for coming along, it was great to see you all here.
Wow! What a week we've had! I have been so impressed with the enthusiasm and curiosity that the children have shown towards their learning this week. They have been so interested to find out about different civilisations from exploring the role of archaeologists and have begun to look more closely at Pompeii as a case study. They also had the opportunity to Skype with a teacher who has been involved with archaeological digs. She shared her experience of finding artefacts and learning about life 4000 years ago. The children have been asking deep, thoughtful questions about different artefacts and the past and already, they are developing a strong understanding of how we learn about civilisations from what was left behind. This week we also began to look at multiplication and division. Their initial ideas about the two operations were good and they used different objects and pictures to explain their understanding. Below you can see a picture of the children sorting cubes into 'lots of' 3, to represent counting in threes. Finally, we ended the week with our very own Ninja Warrior competition. Throughout the week in PE lessons, the children have been competing for a place in the finals. Today the fastest from each House ran the course once more to try to win the competition for their team. Griff and Chika represented their Houses and both did a great job! Well done!
This week we really got stuck into our new Unit of Inquiry. We began our week with a scavenger hunt at the Asian Civilisation Museum. The children had to show independence to locate different objects and information and then record answers on their papers. They had a great time looking at old artefacts and made connections to when we looked at the Silk Road during our unit on How We Organise Ourselves. When we returned to school, we talked about why we might have gone there and how looking at old things can help us to find out about what life was like in the past. Later this week, we thought about the people who may have found the artefacts and explored the job of an archeologist. The children were excited to think about what tools and skills an archeologist might need. We then thought about using maps as a way to find things. The children explored different kinds of maps and then used directional language, such as North, South, East and West, to give instructions. They then designed a map with a route for a Beebot to take. It was interesting watching the children solve problems and adjust their thinking throughout the process. Take a look at some of the pictures of the process itself. Today we also said goodbye to Yui who will be returning to Japan. We will miss her very much and wish her a happy, exciting new adventure ahead!
This week the children enjoyed sharing their Google Slides presentations that they had written during our unit on How We Organise Ourselves. They spent time reviewing their work to check that it made sense, was true and so that they could correct any mistakes. The children then had time to practise their presentation, thinking about different skills, such as using a clear, loud voice, facing the audience and not reading from the slides. Finally they presented their slides to their friends and received feedback about what their friends thought was good and what they could improve on. Take a look at some of the process below. You can see your child's presentation on their portfolio page on this site. Later this week, we introduced our new Unit of Inquiry - Where We Are In Place and Time. The children were very excited and started to predict what they thought we would learn about. They could tell it was something to do with history because of the words 'left behind' in the Central Idea. We began the unit by looking at something from the past (a cassette). The children explored it and had to explain what they thought it was. It was very interesting to hear the ideas that the children had, including that it was a string maker or used to hold streamers. Many of the children knew it had something to do with music and made connections to where they have seen something similar in their lives. For example, Shuyi told us that her grandmother had told her about cassettes before and Natania told us that she had seen them used in a car.
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AuthorGrade 2.1 are a class of 7 and 8 year old students who attend ISS International School in Singapore. We learn together and play together and enjoy sharing our discoveries with you. Click to set custom HTML
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