In support of Earth Day, 22nd April 2021, the children expressed their ideas and feelings in a range of ways. Earth Day Window Signs: Using words and images, they created simple messages to show their support. Poetry: The children applied our recent learning about rhyme, alliteration, sensory description and personification to write their own original poems. We experimented with Rebus Poetry, which uses images instead of words as well as Shape Poetry. They have also begun to take independent action to share poems that they find by other poets. Many children have both read and recited poems for the class to enjoy. Earth Day i-movies: Very quickly, the students picked up the basic skills needed to create their own i-movie trailer. They took the photographs, edited, chose the template, added captions and text. No doubt they will continue to explore this form of communication independently. Visual Arts: The children took inspiration from Andy Goldsworthy's land art. The children also shared lots of suggestions ideas for simple ways that we could all take action which we displayed outside our class.
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Once again we took advantage of the rich cultural diversity within our school community as Ms. Rehu shared aspects of her Maori heritage and culture. This included the famous Haka dance as well as the symbolism of body art, which all fascinated the children who were engaged and very curious. The students then performed the Haka together and created their own personal Koru drawings using the traditional colours of black, red and white. Later, they wrote more about what these images represented. We discussed Visions Boards as a form of expression that can often help focus our thoughts and create intentions for the future. Ms. Patty and Ms. Berna joined us in class to support the children as they browsed magazines and selected images and text that resonated with them.
This form of expression can be purely visual, making it a very accessible way to communicate, while the addition of important words and phrases can add extra layers of meaning. The children shared their Vision Boards to each other, explaining what particular images or text represented. The students all enjoyed the process and later we reflected on how doing this regularly (yearly, every months etc..) might support our own Good Health and Wellbeing (Sustainable Development Goal #3). We tuned back into our How we express ourselves unit, by revisiting the key words in our Central Idea, with the students explaining creative expression as sharing our imagination, original thoughts and new thinking with others. Forms of Expression and the impact of technology The children were aware of many of the main forms of creative expression (drawing, painting, story-telling, dance, music etc) and spent some time independently researching some of these in more detail. As a class we then focused our discussions on drama, puppetry and photography- what it is like, how do we use this form of expression, how it is different from other ways people express themselves and how technology has impacted it. The students experimented with composing and editing photos which we used to create short i-movies. These are centred around the theme of Earth Day and will be shared next week. They also had lots of fun in a drama workshop led by Mr. Lebon from the High School, exploring how to read body language, improvise and work collaboratively. Expression in different cultures As the students prepare their puppet show in Performing Arts, we dug deeper into this art-form back in class. Ms. Hima joined us to share her Indonesian Wayang Kulit shadow puppets and the children have enjoyed experimenting and telling stories with these during the week. This led to more research into other styles of puppetry around the world and some independent action by some students to make their own puppets and share some from home. The children added to their range of presentation skills during this unit, as we learnt how to create websites to share information.
Each student chose either an endangered animal or specific habitat to focus on. They were asked to make a persuasive website that would encourage people to take action and help. This included research and applying our knowledge of persuasive language. The children are becoming more adept at giving feedback. We did this at various stages, including a rotation where specific feedback was written by the visitors. Comments included requests for more detail or facts, suggestions to change the font colour to make it easier to read and appreciation of images and text working together to enhance understanding. The websites are a work in progress and can viewed via the children's google drives should you want to give them more feedback. In support of our S.T.E.A.M. Week, the students enjoyed a range of thought-provoking activities including:
1. Exploring the mathematical concept of Pi (World Pi Day was on the 14th March- 3.14). 2. Creating a collaborative diorama of a chosen habitat. 3. A Zoom call with Prashant Ashoka, a Singaporean writer/photographer living in Mexico who designed his incredible sustainable house nestled on the slopes of an extinct volcano despite having no architectural experience. The children were very interested in his design and asked lots of great questions about the shape, materials and practicalities of living in the house. https://www.dwell.com/article/casa-eterea-prashant-ashoka-0edff86f https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem During our Sharing the Planet unit, we used the books The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry and Cactus Hotel by Brenda Z. Guiberson and the above video as prompts for our discussions about the concept of interdependence. The children sketched and noted down their ideas and later worked in groups to draw out the key words and meanings of this concept to create a summary sentence. As we moved into our new theme, How we express ourselves, the children were asked to use this thinking and represent interdependence using photography as the form of expression. They chose to work in groups or individually and later edited the photos and added captions.
We tuned in to the concept of adaptation with a quick hunt in the playground. The children had 60 seconds to find as many coloured squares as possible. Later, we gathered data on whether they collected more red or green squares and why this might have been.
We then applied this to the natural world and imagined the squares were beetles. What might happen over time if one colour was eaten more than another? They might begin to hide, they might change colour, they might learn to fly were all excellent suggestions. To better understand what adaptation is and why it happens, we began to find out more and did some research. One of our sources was Heather, a scientist based in Japan, who specialises in marine adaptations. The children were fully engaged and active listeners during our call and she shared lots of fascinating information about this extreme environment and the how the creatures living there have adapted to survive. Heather also answered many, many questions from the children, including: Does an anglerfish attract predators as well as prey with its light? Which habitat is most affected by climate change? How do tails help deep sea fish survive? Are there herbivores in the deep sea? Why does the snailfish eat anything? Why don't fish close their eyes? How do they see in such dark water? Later, the children sketch-noted what they had learnt from the call and began researching their own questions and areas of interest. We brought our findings together and applied this to sort various adaptations into two groups: Behavioural and Physical. The children also discussed the general causes or reasons for adaptation and we identified these as key causes of adaptation- to help survive climate, temperature or weather, to help find food or hunt, protection from predators and to help reproduce. Since there are many birds and nests around our campus, we also spent some time reading about different nests and how birds have adapted the designs and locations of these. We then had fun building our own. As the children build a richer, deeper understanding of our central idea (Living things depend on their environments to survive), we will connect our learning about food webs, habitats and adaptations. We have been fully engaged in our current Unit of Inquiry which explores how "Living things depend on their environments to survive".
The children have been able to apply their knowledge to free sort and then classify different living things into the various animal groups, using the characteristics and features. They presented this learning in collaborative slideshows and through loose parts play. They have developed their scientific vocabulary and have embraced using this terminology in their discussions and writing. As part of our inquiry into the concept of connection and interdependence, the children have used hexagonal thinking and concept maps to help them identify how living things are connected to, and dependent on each other. We have begun to connect this to food chains and food webs using flow-charts. In our Literacy, we began to tune into persuasive writing by choosing and describing "the best" or "most important" animal in the world. We will continue to unpack what persuasive writing looks like and then they will apply this to create their own persuasive websites. In Maths, we also made connections to how we can represent fractions visually. The diagrams show the division of, firstly all living things on Earth, and then all the animal groups. The children really developed their interpretative skills and made great hypotheses about what group of living thing each section or colour represented and gave reasons why they thought this. We were surprised at the balance of wild animals to livestock as well as the small proportion that animals make up from the entire population of living things. During Literacy Week, the children enjoyed many different events and activities, including Poetry Readings, a Story-teller visit, our Door Decoration competition, D.E.A.R. (drop everything and read), Favourite Book votes and the Book Character Day. The children showed great independence and enthusiasm as they created our Harry Potter themed door and outdoor Potions Classroom, which won second prize. Grade Three also worked with Ms. Shiela to present a visual black-light performance. The children did a fantastic job of practising and supporting each other to get this performance ready. |
Welcome to Grade 3We have had a great few days settling into our new campus and classroom. The children have shown great enthusiasm and enjoyed seeing old friends and getting to know new classmates.
We toured our new learning spaces and began to share information about ourselves in various ways. The students also discussed how we could create a positive learning environment which would help all of us develop our Learner Profiles. We used these ideas to write our Class Agreement. In Literacy, we have established routines for our Daily 5 programme, which will develop student independence and agency. In Maths, we tuned back into using number by discussing Place Value and how we can identify and describe numbers using Base Ten and the Place Value columns. The students showed great creativity in building with their sets of equipment and estimating the "value" or number of units their creation used. Some pieces included: :Stairway to Heaven, a lunch-box, a boat in the sea, a climbing wall, a bank vault, a tower and animals. TUNING IN TO OUR NEW UNIT"OUR BELIEFS AND VALUES SHAPE WHO WE ARE" AND STARTING SWIMMING LESSONS!This week the children started the swimming element of their PE curriculum, in small groups with lots of space in the pool!
We also continued to tune into our new unit of inquiry by unpacking some of the language. The children inquired into the meaning of "beliefs" and "values", using online dictionaries and sorting true and false statements. We began to explore the concepts of fact and opinion and how they relate to beliefs. Ms. Ranj spoke to us about why she was wearing her sari and explained how wearing these clothes helped her express and honour her religion on special days such as Onam . We used google jamboards to express our personal values and what is important and special to us. This allowed the children to learn and practise some new technological skills as well as reflect on what they wanted to add. Ms. Berna also spent time with us this week, to explore how we can influence others with our words and actions. This will lead into our line of inquiry "Influences shape our beliefs". We realised how important it is to think before we speak as our positive and negative language affects and influences other people. Ms. Berna led the children in some role-play and we practised being a positive influence on our friends and classmates. |