We have had a busy few weeks exploring different kinds of exchange systems and how it helps people. The children made their own exchange system for the swap shop. They brought in things they didn't want or need any more, then worked in groups to write some guidelines so that we could have a system that works. Once the children had shared their guidelines, we chose some to use as a class and then the children exchanged their different items. We also had an exciting trip to the Maritime Museum. This gave children the opportunity to inquire into exchange in the past. They explored the Silk Road and got to see and touch different artefacts from the past. This led to some interesting conversations when we got back to school. One of the big misconceptions that we managed to put right was that the Silk Road isn't actually a road made from silk! In Math, the children also got to practise exchanging money for items and to get change. They chose items from a shop and then added them altogether. They then had to work out the change that they had from different amounts of money. The children also got to experience using Google Sheets as a way to record and calculate their totals. Finally, the children have created some beautiful photo frames to exchange for money at the fun fair on Sunday. They had fun choosing different fabric and creating a collage effect when covering the frames. We hope that you will get to see these on Sunday when you come to the fun fair!
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We had an exciting Literacy week this week with an author visit, book character parade and stories in other languages. The children were inspired by the author to write their own stories, and liked the idea of using things and people in their own lives to help with ideas for their stories. During our Unit of Inquiry, we began to explore different kinds of exchange. We started with money and looked at currencies from around the world. The children were enthusiastic to find the different countries and match them to the currencies. They also explored some books and identified different kinds of exchange in these books. On Friday, we sadly said goodbye to Johnny. He will be moving to America and we wish him and his family the best of luck with their new adventure.
It was a shorter week this week due to celebrating Chinese New Year. We welcomed the lion to school on Friday and enjoyed its exciting performance. The children also took some action. They had been inspired by one of the activities on our field trip - painting on the windows. They felt that it would make our classroom look bright and friendly and might inspire others to write stories or do some art. We worked with Mr Gallagher to share ideas, plan out and produce our final designs for what they would like to paint onto the windows. We will share these with Ms Skrtic next week and hope that we get approval to share our designs with the world!
This week, the children spent time pulling together all of their knowledge and skills that they have been developing over the last few months in our Unit of Inquiry, How We Express Ourselves. They began to see connections between the artist that they have researched and the art that they produced. The children created their own and recreated art by their favourite artists. They spent time thinking about spatial awareness when organising how they were going to display their work. The children gave each other feedback throughout the process, sharing what they liked, and how their friends could improve their work further. Finally, the week culminated in the art gallery, where the children presented their research, creations and inspirations for their parents, friends and teachers. It was a super gallery and the children were very proud to share their work. We've had a great week thinking about story writing and about how to create exciting and interesting stories. We have used our knowledge of story structure to write the story of Journey, in our own words. Our visit to Playeum this week also provided students with the opportunity to allow their imaginations to run wild and to use different resources to enhance their story ideas.
There were so many incredible activities and learning opportunities on our field trip that today's blog consists of a huge selection of photos from the day. Take a look and see if you can guess the stories and ideas that the children were developing. After a big holiday, the children were excited and enthusiastic to be back at school. They enjoyed sharing their stories of their adventures over the holiday and practised asking each other questions to find out more information. During Daily 5, we read the book, Journey by Aaron Becker. The children used their inference skills to work out what was happening and how the characters felt, and their prediction skills to guess what happened next. We have been thinking about the structure of stories when we create our own and used a story mountain to organise Journey into its different parts. We will use these next week to write the story, thinking about adding detail to engage the reader. Take a look at some of the story mountains below - In Math this week we have been exploring growing and shrinking patterns. It was great to see the children's thinking change over the week as they moved from simple repeating patterns to more complex patterns involving more than one criteria. The children explored each others' patterns and had to identify what the rule of the patterns were. We have been thinking about how these patterns from pictures, symbols and objects are connected to numbers and will apply this knowledge further next week. Take a look at some of the patterns that were created this week. In our Unit of Inquiry, the children selected an artist who they will research and create artwork in their style. They will work on their researching and presentation skills in preparation for an Art Gallery on the 27th January 2017 where they will be sharing their learning with you. We would love for you to join us on Friday 27th January at 8.10am. The children have drawn their own invitation to invite you to join us on that day.
We've reached the end of our first semester together in Grade 2.1! It's been a great semester with lots of learning, smiles and happiness. The children have worked so hard and I'm sure are very much looking forward to the holiday ahead. To sum up the end of the semester, the children shared the following reflections - Yui - I have enjoyed learning about measuring in Math. Huisang - I really liked making pictures in Art. Chika - I liked going on the field trip and I have learned many things. Johnny - I think Grade 2 has been really nice, I've learned a lot and made new friends. Griff - I enjoyed learning about matter and how to measure. Shuyi - I enjoyed Grade 2 because there are lots of different activiites. My favourite activity is Daily 5 because there are lots of choices to choose. Ruthu - I liked the field trip to the Botanic Gardens because it was filled with nature and you could see lots of sights. I also liked Daily 5 because there are lots of choices and the choice I love is Work on Writing because you could write stories and share your ideas. I like Grade 2 because it was nice to learn new things. Zoe - I liked learning about measurement and I enjoyed learning about volume. Minzhe - It was good to learn about relationships and I liked doing Street Magic for my ECA. Take a look at the slideshow to see some of the activities we have done over the last two busy weeks of this term. We also have to sadly say goodbye to Zoe who will be returning to the Netherlands. We wish her and her family all the best and hope that they will keep in touch.
Have a wonderful holiday and I look forward to working with you all again in January. This week we began our new Unit of Inquiry about How We Express Ourselves. Our Central Idea is 'Images Express Meaning' and we talked about what images are. We came up with a big list, including signs and symbols. We identified some common signs and then went on a sign hunt around school. We talked about the different colours and shapes used in signs and what they mean. The children then created their own signs using Google Drawing. Can you work out what information the signs are giving us? We also thought about images in the books we read. We read the book, Bluebird, which is a picture book with no words. We talked about using our inference skills to work out what is happening in the story. The children then worked to create a class book of Bluebird, by writing the words to tell the story. We worked on the writing process, by writing a rough draft and then making edits and revisions before creating our published book. Take a look at some different stages of our writing process. In Math this week, we explored 3D shapes and their properties. The children explored how many vertices, faces and edeges the different shapes had and had to sort them accordingly. They used clay and sticks to build the different shapes, which helped them to count and identify the different properties.
We have had a busy week exploring different shapes and thinking about new vocabulary, such as polygon, quadrilateral, parallel lines, right angles and symmetry. The children sorted shapes based on their properties and presented information about different shapes to each other. They also explored tangrams and how to turn, flip or rotate seven 2D shapes to make different shapes and pictures. The children had great fun trying to solve the puzzles and had to use commitment and problem solving skills to find the solutions! We drew our Unit of Inquiry on How the World Works to an end by revisiting our initial thinking and questions. Through exploration of the Key Concepts 'Form', 'Causation' and 'Connection', the children identified how their thinking had changed, stayed the same or had grown. They worked together to write up their knowledge and then present it to the class. I was very impressed with their level of knowledge and the amount of progress the children had made, and most importantly, with their ability to reflect on their learning so accurately. Finally, our week ended with Pyjama Day on Friday to raise awareness, funds and food for the Food Bank. The children had great fun wearing their pyjamas to school. Thank you to Grace's mum for the photos!
It was great to see so many of you at the 3 Way Conferences this week. I know the children were proud to share their learning with you. Please check the portfolio section of this blog regularly to see updates of the children's work they have completed using technology. In Math this week, we began to explore shape. We started with a thinking routine called 'Hexagonal Thinking' which required the children to make connections between different shape vocabulary. They worked in groups to share their ideas and then presented their thinking with the class. We will revisit this activity at the end of the unit to see if their thinking has changed. We also explored shape and space, thinking about how we can flip, rotate, slide and connect different shapes. Bringing our Unit of Inquiry on matter to a close this week, we investigated the water cycle and how this connects to changing states of matter. We carried out an experiment to see what would happen to hot water if it was covered with plastic. The children used scientific vocabulary to explain their observations, explaining that they could 'see condensation which was caused by the gas cooling and changing back into a liquid'.
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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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