This week the children had the opportunity to appreciate various forms of artistic expression.
In class, we have been reading the Newberry Medal winning novel, Flora & Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo. On Wednesday, we saw how the Players Theatre had interpreted this book. The children immediately recognised set pieces and props that connected to what we had read and were fascinated by how the stage crew were able to move and transform the set. They also enjoyed seeing the characters come to life although a few were able to spot some missing details (a mole!) when they compared them to the illustrations. We have also had some independent action back in class, fact-checking to see what was left out or changed in the production. All the responses and comments really showed how well the children have been visualising the events in the story and developing inferential skills to help create rounded characters in their mind. Later this week, we visited the ISS Festival of Arts where we were able to see many of the fantastic art-works created by Elementary students. Many insightful comments were overheard including: "these connect to habitats- this is a desert", "art allows you to express yourself" and "this must have been a lot of work to set up!" Ms. Hima was also really touched by the reaction when the class walked in and saw the exhibition for the first time. We continued our independent inquiries and experiments with poetry. This week we worked in pairs to write rhyming couplets. Many of them used animals and habitats as inspiration and one fantastic example from Koshiro and Haruto was: "If the sun gets too bright, Then the coral will be white." They incorporated rhyme, cause and effect sentences and the imbalance within the ocean's coral reef habitats that occurs due to temperature change!
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The children have begun researching and collecting information about their chosen animal or habitat. During this independent stage of inquiry, they will find out about a particular animal, the habitat it lives within, food webs that it is connected to and finally, any consequences of imbalance within that habitat.
The children have been particularly interested in the ways that temperature change can affect habitats and animals. They have been fascinated to learn more about coral reefs and have made connections to endangered animals such as polar bears and gila monsters. We hope to extend this to coming up with action we can take to help reduce these problems. We were lucky to be invited to attend a talk by a representative from ACRES which a Grade 3 class had organised. ACRES is a Singapore charity which aims to Rescue Animals, Rehabilitate Animals, Educate the public (on responsible action relating to animals) and Target Wild-life Crime. Should you see any animals in distress or have any information about illegal animal products or trade, you can contact them on 9783 7782. They advise trying to wait for them to arrive and assist before attempting to intervene or rescue any animals. We are also beginning to think of creative ways to share what we learn. So far, we have groups planning to use the Green Screen to create plays, groups making board-games, origami food webs, slide-shows and stop-motion animation. Finally we have been working together to create a 3-D artwork that represents four distinct habitats; Ocean, Desert, Rainforest and the Arctic as well as creating a Poetry Anthology of our class poems, similes and metaphors related to Animals and their habitats. This week we learnt to make a fraction story. Mine was a comic about a pizza. We thought about predators and prey and different habitats. I looked at the Artic and found out that temperature is very important and it has to be the right temperature for the animals who live there.
By Liam This week the children have continued exploring poetry. We built on their knowledge of the parts of speech and created cinquains and diamante poems which have a distinct pattern of lines and nouns, adjectives or verbs. They used their expanding vocabulary related to habitats or animals as inspiration. Here are a few of the poems the children wrote: Volcano Ashy, hot Blowing, erupting, smoking Lava pouring, destroying everything Mountain By Axel Sea Scary, Salty Swimming, sailing, fishing Dark waves, cold, blue Ocean By Seeun Tiger Strong, white Eating, killing, biting Fierce, strong, scary, shy Running, jumping, scaring Sharp, dangerous Animal By Oscar Mushroom Poisonous, edible Growing, creeping, dying I hate eating them Fungus By Shu In Maths, we were creative in our thinking about fractions. First we divided one whole page into equal fractions by folding it. These ranged from thirds to one-hundred and eighths! Some students then decorated their pages which we later used to interpret and find fractions of a group using counting. We will extend this thinking into finding fractions of groups by using division strategies. Later in the week, the children worked together and drew simple comics or pictures or wrote stories which involved fractions and showed their conceptual understanding. In UOI, we began inquiring into how animals are connected in food chains and webs. The children developed more understanding of the elements in a food chain, including Producers and Consumers, Prey and Predators and the key importance of the Sun.
They researched to create their own food webs. This will be extended to embed these food webs within their relevant habitats so that the children begin to see how what animals eat is connected to where they live and what else lives there. We began to create an interactive map outside our classroom showing where various producers and consumers might be found. This will be added to over time. They also worked in small groups to think of what can affect particular habitats. They then shared their ideas with the rest of the class. Pollution, hunting, removing plants or animals for zoos or pets, a change in the amount of water or temperature, using the habitat space to build on or the over-population of one animal were all suggested. Such a broad range of really complex and sophisticated causes of imbalance show the children are really aware of the world around them and some key issues we face. This week we visited Kent Ridge Park where the students developed their scientific observational skills. We were very lucky to have Mrs. Vaughan, who knows the park well, and Ms. Hima, a real nature-lover with a science background, accompany us on the trip. They shared lots of their knowledge with the children. We saw several different habitats a pond and lake (freshwater), logs and soil (understory of rainforest) and trees and branches (canopy of rainforest). The children noticed that the quieter they were the more animals they saw. Some of the creatures we spotted included: a snake, dragonflies, fish, a monitor lizard, birds, squirrels, many different ants, worms, beetles and spiders. We also saw a variety of plants, flowers and funghi living within the habitats. We also visited the MS Science Lab this week and observed the Grade 6 class conducting a soil investigation. We made notes on the equipment and materials they used as well as their procedure so that we can try and carry out our own experiment back in class next week. In Literacy, we used our experiences and imaginations to create word lists for different habitats with the help of images and sounds. We then sorted these words and used them to create our own similes and senses poems. Finally, we had some risk-takers from Grade 2. They wrote their own scripts and led the assembly this week. They even emailed and arranged a guest (Ms. Berna) to hand out the certificates.
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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. Archives
June 2018
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