Week 3

It is hard to believe that we are already at the end of Week 3?!? Time flies and all that. It has been a really great week. The children are becoming familiar with life in 1BeM and, more importantly, new friendships are starting to blossom.

This week, we started to think about how people meet their needs and wants depending on their location. We unpacked the idea of needs (air, food, water, shelter, clothes) and wants, the differences between the two and how communities help people meet their needs. We started by thinking about the difference between our own needs and wants and created t-charts to represent our thinking...they made for quite revealing viewing! Towards the end of the week, we watched a video showing "A Day in the Life" of one of the children from the Kuma School in Cambodia (the Grade One Global Concern). This inspired a great deal of discussion and a whole load of questions. The children were then invited to create a needs and wants t-chart from the point of view of someone living in the Kuma community...and the two charts were compared and contrasted!

We decided that what a person needs to survive is, more or less, the same regardless of the community they live in but we are fast realising that a person’s wants vary enormously between different communities. 

We are also greatly enjoying sharing our “Mystery Bags” with each other. It is wonderful to discover more about our interests, our achievements and our families...and to think about the similarities and differences between us. Please do send these in next week if you have not already done so.

Next week, we will begin to investigate the people who help out in different communities, such as firefighters, police officers, doctors, vets and so on. We will also concentrate on our school community and the many people who help us meet our specific needs at UWCSEA East. 

This week, the children started bringing home daily readers from a combination of “just right” and interest books. Today, you will (hopefully) have noticed that the children also brought home a Poetry Folder. Every week, each class will select a poem or song and take it home in their folder to share and enjoy with you. Please send this folder back to school each Monday. 

In our Reading Workshop unit, we have been thinking about what makes a book “just right” for us. We have talked about always reading for meaning and the importance of reading with fluency and expression. When selecting books, we have explored different ways to ascertain whether or not a book is “just right,” including taking a “picture walk,” using the front cover, the blurb or summary as a guide as well as utilising “the Five Finger Trick.”

In Writing Workshop, the children have really impressed us with their enthusiasm to write...long may it continue! At the moment, we are creating “small moment” stories, based on true events from our owl lives. We are trying to remember the importance of thinking of an idea and planning it across the pages before we start, using "touch and turn" as a strategy to support this. At this stage, we are spending time focusing on the important role pictures can play in our writing and are exploring different sketching strategies to help us tell our stories.

Alongside “Collect 20 Together,” the children have started exploring several games that explore the many different ways to count a given number of objects, such as “Start With, Get To.” In 1BeM we encourage the children to articulate their thinking at all times but, throughout the year, they will also be asked to arrange and record this process on paper, something that is often not as straightforward as it sounds. In time, we want the children to select the most efficient strategy for counting and to be able to represent this in a clear and coherent way.

Lastly, it was great to have the opportunity to sit down with you all this week and get to know you and, of course, your children, a little better. We hope you found the discussion beneficial and are looking forward to the year ahead. Once again, if you have any concerns, questions or need clarification on a particular issue, please do not hesitate to get in touch. 

Reminders

*Thursday 10th September-PA Welcome Evening- 5.00-7.00pm- Main Plaza

*Friday 11th September-Public Holiday-SCHOOL CLOSED

Have a great weekend