As we came to the end of our Who we Are Unit of Inquiry, students reflected on what they had learnt and how they could use or share this learning with others.
Many of the children identified areas they wanted to explore outside the classroom. For example, finding out more about their personal family history or home cultures, visiting certain places in Singapore or trying some local dishes. In class, we came up with possible actions we could take. 1. Una, Ashritha, Shuri and Anjali created Growth Mindset quotes to share with the Primary Village classes. They hope that this will influence the other students to have a positive approach to learning, showing perseverance and optimism. 2. Charlotte and Lucia created a presentation about Norwegian and Filippino cultures. They hope this will inspire people to learn more about or even visit these countries. 3. Alisa and Brown collected data on our nationalities, creating a poster with suggested questions we could ask each other. For example: Can you recommend any delicious dishes from your home country? 4. Zoe create a Kahoot about animals from around the world with the aim of developing everyone's interest in and connection with the wider world. 5. Aurellia created a poster comparing Singapore and Indonesia. 6. Takumi, Shuri, Vivaan and Tyler collaborated on a presentation about Third Culture Kids. 7. Anjali, Una, Ashritha interviewed some of their classmates to find out more about their perspectives about living in Singapore and whether they felt like a Third Culture Kid. 8. Haruto helped to create a display outside the Grade Three classroom showcasing our ISS Kimono, personal culture kimonos with information and questions. We invited Ms. Edwards (herself a Third Culture Kid) to come and see our fantastic learning. She was able to give her perspective and feedback on the children's independent action.
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This week, students chose a piece of writing to share with a partner. We used the Ladder of Feedback to guide us and improve the quality of feedback we can give others.
Some really helpful and positive conversations were overheard: "I really like your story and how you used punctuation to make it exciting." "I wonder if you could make it easier for someone to read by using paragraphs?" The children received some valuable feedback which will now help them improve their writing in our next sessions. Our Mandarin department organised some lovely events to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival, including lantern making, a (socially-distanced) parade and dance performances. As part of our ongoing Who we are unit of inquiry we have been exploring the concept of culture. What elements make up a person's culture? How does culture influence you? What are Third Culture Children? Over the past days, the students have used this culture wheel graphic, to research and reflect on their home culture as well as that of their host culture of Singapore. Part of our learning was inspired by The Kimono Project. For the recent Tokyo Olympics, The Kimono Project created kimonos for each participating country. Using this cultural icon of Japan, they incorporated elements of each country's culture, resulting in beautiful art-works. We had fun in class, "reading the picture" and "using our prior knowledge" to guess which country various kimonos represented. You can see more at kimono.piow.jp/kimonolist.html Grade Three, with the support of Ms. Hima in Visual Arts, then created their own interpretations, as well as a kimono representing the culture of ISS, which they shared in assembly on Friday. You can watch the assembly presentation below. As part of the ISS 40th celebrations, we had a 1980's theme for Free Dress and have been finding out a bit more about the fashion and music of the decade.
Lucia: Their fashion was so colourful! Aurellia: I'm so excited and I loved the 80's music. Haruto: I learnt that the girls' fashion was so over the top and the dancing was funny. Anjali: I used to think that the 80's were cool but know I that not everything was cool, especially the hair! Ashritha: I used to think the 80's were cool but when I saw they hairstyles and clothes, I changed my mind. I'm lucky I didn't live in the 80's! Tyler: The 80's did not have the same things we have now. Brown: I didn't like the music. Alisa: I like the colours. Zoe: People from the 80's used beat-boxes instead of i-phones. That would be harder to carry around! Takumi: The 80's were so different from today, like the TVs were so small! Una: Their style was crazily colourful! Vivaan: Phones and computers were so big and boxy! Shuri: The clothes in the 80's were funny and silly. Charlotte: They look strange. I wouldn't want live then. This week, we began building some of the routines that will help us become better readers and writers.
We practised Read to Self, thinking about how we can choose a good-fit book and build our reading stamina. Listen to Reading, using online resources such as getepic and storylineonline allowed us to hear how stories are read with expression and fluency. It also helps the auditory and visual learners in class. In our Work on Writing, we used our newly decorated Writer's Notebooks to begin creating Ideas lists for when we are stuck. We also started a Class Writing Ideas basket. Developing Ideas and Voice in our writing will be our focus during the next few weeks. As our Unit of Inquiry will explore how "Our experiences shape who we are", we began by unpacking this Central Idea and sharing some important personal experiences. This thinking will support our Personal Narrative writing. |
Welcome to Grade 3
We have had a great first week settling back into school routines and meeting new teachers and students. We thought a lot about what helps us learn and the Learner Profiles that we want to develop more this year. Here is what we came up with for our Class Agreement- what we all agree that we want to do this year.
Here are some final thoughts from the students this week.
Zoe: I'm happy to see my friends again. Shuri: It was fun to come back to school and see my friends. Alisa: It was fun and I feel good. Tyler: I feel good about Grade 3 and learnt more about the Learner Profiles this week. Lucia: My favourite thing this week was when I got to design and decorate my desk organiser. Una: It was nice to meet our new Performing Arts teacher and I'm excited to be in Grade 3 this year! Ashritha: It was nice to meet our new librarian and be back in Block 5. Vivaan: I enjoyed designing our desk storage and I used origami ninja stars on mine. Haruto: I'm excited to be able to play in Lion's Den again. Aurellia: I'm so excited to start the weekend but I enjoyed Art, reading and playtime this week. Takumi: I liked playing in the Lion's Den and the new cover is good. Brown: It was fun and very good! Anjali: It was a great week and I had a lot of fun. AUTHORABOUT THE AUTHORS Archives
April 2022
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