2022 - 2023 Where We Are In Place and Time and Sharing the Planet

 Term 2 was jam-packed with so much. We went on two field trips. One where we went to the science museum which had a lot of exhibits that showed us technology throughout the years. We got to see televisions from the 1950's, as well as other tech from different time periods. But we were also able to see futuristic exhibits including space. 

For our next trip, we went to Nifrel aqua zoo. This was a fun excursion because the weather was so nice and we were able to have a wonderful picnic.

Definitely had a lot of fun this term. Looking forward to the next!

- James Barbosa

2022 - 2023 How the world works

 I really enjoy science experiments and so does the students of Kinder. This unit was about learning about Materials, what they are and why we use them. Right off the bat I asked them "What are materials, and can you give me examples of some materials? Immediately had hands shoot up to the sky and students yelling out "paper!" "wood!" "plastic!" it was a good start to the unit. 

Students sorted what they knew was made of specific materials. For the most part they were able to sort them accurately (I may have put some tricky pictures in there)

A cool experiment we did was an egg drop challenge. Students were given materials in order to wrap an egg to prevent it from being damaged from being dropped. Students were given a cup to put the egg in and choose among things like cardboard, cotton, paper, rubber bands, tissue in order to protect it. 

To wrap the unit up students spent over a week making a diorama of a house out of a shoebox. One thing you got to expect during a large project like that with a class full of Kindergarteners is...It's going to get real messy! 

Thank you for reading! Our next unit coming back from the summer break will be "Where we are in place and time" Students will discover a lot about humankinds history.

- Mr. James

 

2022 - 2023 Kinder - Who We Are

Hey there,

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. My name is Mr. James and I am the Kinder homeroom teacher for the 2022 - 2023 school year. Alongside me are co-teachers, Ms. Wendy and Ms. Nao.

It's been such a fun start to the school year and I was so happy to be teaching this group again for the 2nd year. I taught this energetic bunch in Pre-K and I enjoyed every minute of it. Our first Unit in our Unit of Inquiry was "Who We Are" and my goal was to teach the students about their strengths and weaknesses, how everyone has strengths and weaknesses, our awareness towards others as well as understanding the similarities of people all around the world, rather than looking at the differences. 

I found it to be a lot of fun teaching this to them. Kids grow up thinking they have to be good at everything, and they tend to feel resentful when they see peers doing something better than them. It's important to show them that it's okay to not be good at everything. The goal was for them to show excitement in their peers strengths, but also compassion in understanding their peers weaknesses and help them when needed. And in the end I think we got the message across!

This year was the first year where we also had sports day in term 1. In prior years our Sport's day always took place in the fall, but this year we had it at the end of May! The students of Pre-K worked so hard in practicing their running, and especially their Para balloon performance. All that practice paid off! They performed it perfectly!

Well That's it for now, our current unit is "How the World Works" and we are focusing on learning about materials! Stay tuned next month for another update!

- Mr. James

Finishing Unit 3- Where we are in place and time

This week is the final week of our third unit of inquiry: Understanding the past helps us understand the present.

The children have learnt about how the past can be yesterday, 10 years ago, 100 years ago or 5000 years ago. We compared pictures of clothing from different countries from around the world. Children noticed that many countries now wear western style clothing like t-shirts and shorts because they are more comfortable to do physical activities in. 

Children looked at how transport has changed from walking, using animals such as horses, the first bicycles and boats. They learnt that trains used to be powered by coal and steam and were much slower than the bullet trains. 

Then we looked at some ancient buildings like the Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal of India, Machu Picchu in Peru the Colosseum and different pyramids. The children couldn’t believe the Egyptian Pyramids are about 3-5000 years old!  

For the summative assessment, the students could choose to make an old thing such as a bow and arrow, an axe, a sword or a castle. They enjoyed making something and learnt how to use cardboard and chopsticks to make things stronger. 

Apologies to the students whose photos I don't have. One of you was absent and the other got picked up early so I ran out of time to take your photo.

In math, we linked learning about time with learning to read time by the hour and half an hour. The children have become quite confident reading time to the hour. Many are also very good at reading half past times as well. 

In phonics, some students are still needing extra practise on phase 3 (pre K level) and phase 4 (start of Kinder) phonics. Other students are confident with phase 5 and doing very well. I can see that a lot of students' reading level on RAZ is getting better although some children need to practise more to move about level C or D.

Kinder Summer School 2nd week

 Hello everyone,

On our second week of summer school we had a lot of fun in the classroom playing lots of games and also learning about the sea, sand, and water. We started every morning with a fun circle time where we discussed about various things but also played several games. 

Activity and Craft time

Kinder class was very active speaking English almost the entire day. Even more surprising was that they didn't do it only during playtime but also during craft time and activity time. 

Water Play

Because it is really hot outside and we need to take care of a big class we decided to break into two groups and have water play in the 11th floor. Kinder class had a lot of fun and they even got Mr. Hector super wet! We were so cold after coming back to the classroom. 

Inside playtime

Doing academic work is important for their development but also having enough time to express their creativity and explore what kind of games they enjoy through play time. Play time is such an important part of their lives since it is one of the few times where they can fully express themselves and learn from others and who they are. 

Some pictures of our time together!

Thank you so much for wonderful experience it was a blast getting to know them!

Mr. Hector

Unit 1 of inquiry has come to an end

 

Our first unit of inquiry has come to an end and now we are starting a unit about science, especially about materials. 

In the first unit, “Who We Are: Self awareness helps us understand ourselves and others”, we learnt about what makes a person unique. For example, is everyone’s family the same or are they different? How do members of our family make us special? Do you have an older sister or brother who as taught you many things? Or a grandparent or aunt or uncle who taught you how to cook, fish or ride a bike? Hiroka said he likes to go fishing with his grandpa. 

Miyu loves to play with Daito and he has taught her many things. 

Students also drew pictures of their house and neighbourhood and talked about if they know who their neighbours are or the local shopkeeper they see everyday. Anna A said her dad is always friendly to the shopkeeper at the convenience store. 

Do we all have the same interests or not? We looked at what we can do to be a good friend to others and what we can do if we are feeling sad or frustrated with someone. E.g. Euanne said she likes to have quiet time in her room to calm down. Others said they will read a book or draw or watch TV. 

If you’re angry with someone at school, we talked about walking away until you feel calm, doing Rock, Scissors, Paper to decide who will use the toy, or ask a teacher to help solve your problem.

Then we looked at the kinder class compared to the wider world. Do all children eat rice, fish and vegetables for lunch, or are other countries different? Do all schools look like Abroad or are they different? We looked at pictures of students in classrooms learning outside in Australia, Brazil and other countries. Some had no shoes or t shirts on because it’s so hot!

Kinder students also compared how they look compared to their friends. Do all children in Japan and black hair and dark brown eyes? We realised that even in Japan, children have lighter hair or darker hair, lighter skin or darker skin, or if you are like me and Hanna, different hair and eye colours too. 

Finally we looked at what things we all have in common. So we took a vote on who prefers dogs or cats? Most people liked cats which was interesting! Everyone liked pizza in our class and most children like Demon Slayer and Jujitsu Kaisen!

In art, Ms Bel tried to do activities related to the unit so the children drew a portrait of their own face. They also drew a map of the Horie neighbourhood and designed their own neighbourhood. 

In English, we have been revising a lot of phase 3 sounds from last year and practising letter formation. I started to introduce 5 new sight words a week for them to learn, as well as practising the pre primer and primer words from last year. Many students are still struggling to remember these sounds - /igh/ (long I sound such as night, light), /th/ sound, /oi /and /ai/ sounds.

I will hopefully test all the students for a second time on RAZ to see if they can level up before the parent- teacher conferences. 

In math, we have been practising counting to 100 and counting back from 30 - 0. We have revised skip counting by 2s and 5s and introduced skip counting my 10s. After practising addition for quite a while, we have also started learning subtraction. In the last week I introduced place value, for example, the number 24 is made of 2 tens and 4 ones/units. We have been using number rods to practise making numbers up to 100.