This week, Grade 2 visited Kent Ridge Park to conduct some local research. Beforehand, the students hypothesised what animals and habitats they might see and why they thought this. For example: I think I will see frogs and birds because I know that they live in rainforests. While there we identified habitats such as a pond, lake and rainforest. The children made observations and recorded any animals that they saw. We reflected later on our data, working to interpret and go deeper with our thinking. Here are some comments: Sara- "We saw fewer bigger animals. I think the animals might have been hidden because of the rain." Ray- "I did not see many big animals maybe because there are fewer big animals that live there." Maria- "There were fewer birds because of the rain." Isabelle- "The construction noise scared the birds and bigger animals." Hugh- "There were no monkeys or snakes because they were scared of the noise." Yun Ho- "I think that there are more bugs in a rainforest. What I found is just bugs, bugs, bus and BUGS!" Fedor- "There are more small animals than big because they don't need so much food or space." Yuuki- "I saw ants. I will estimate 1,000,000 of them." Hyuga- "We saw lots of insects. I think this is because there was lots of food for them." Charlie- "I saw lots of ants because there is lots of food." Shoichi- "There were lots of insects because there was lots of food." Later in the week, Hugh's family brought in their pet cat, Bella. The children loved meeting her and tried hard to make our classroom a suitable habitat for her in the hope that she would decide to stay for the rest of the week. They made sure she had FOOD, WATER, SPACE/SHELTER (turning off the lights in case she preferred darker places) and TOYS. We found out that Bella was a rescue cat and that Hugh's family were interviewed before they could take Bella to make sure that they were responsible enough to take care of her properly. The children thought of what questions they would ask- Do you have a big enough space?, Do have a dog or other pets?, Are you rough?, Have looked after a cat before? We also learnt that owners should take pets to have vaccinations or to the vet to keep them healthy. Afterwards, they extended their thinking to identify our responsibilities towards pets versus wild animals. Here are the ideas the children had. Pets We should:
Wild animals We should:
In our writing, the children are experimenting with sharing their knowledge of animals and habitats through poetry. We revisited some of the styles of poetry from earlier in Grade 2. These will be shared on the blog next week. In Maths, we applied our understanding of fractions to solve problems. We also asked the question "Are halves always the same?". The children explored this question through cutting and folding various shapes. They used scissors and rulers which helped their fine-motor and accuracy skills as well as "to be mindful" (Yuuki). When they shared their creations, we concluded that the size of a half (or quarter, eighth, sixteenth etc) depends on the size of the whole. We all agreed that half of $100 is more than half of $10. UN Sustainable Development Goal #15 Life on Land and #14Life below water: The children continue to make connections between the habitats and animals on Earth and recognise that we can impact these.
Student Voice: Student Action: Maria, Charlie and Yuuki will introduce their Earth Book in next week's Assembly and are taking steps to organise a fund-raising event for the WWF.
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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 2019
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