Week 11

This week, we introduced our second Unit of Study of the year, “My Body,” and 1BeM are all over it already! We have children bringing in books, puzzles, x-rays and so on. It is fantastic when the children make these links between their experiences outside of school and the learning in and around the classroom as it makes the whole process so much more meaningful and long lasting. Keep it up!

At this stage of the unit, we are exploring our existing understanding and thinking about what we want to research during this unit. The children have been completing a number of pre-assessment activities to ascertain what they already understand about the internal and external parts of the body as well as what it means to be healthy. They have also been adding their questions to the "Learning Wall." Next week, we will begin to focus our research as we investigate the skeletal system, the names, locations and functions of various bones and how we can keep them healthy.

The children have enjoyed their first experience of Word Study this week. They have been examining, manipulating and categorising words with great enthusiasm, thinking about sounds, patterns and meaning. Ultimately, the aim is for the children to transfer this knowledge and understanding to their own writing during Writing Workshop but, of course, this is a long and gradual process. Word Study is something they will continue with all the way up to Grade Five.

We have introduced “Poetry” in both Reading and Writing Workshop this week. The children have been drowning in poems of all descriptions. We have looked at countless poetry books, listened to audio recording of poems being read aloud, watched video clips of the wonderful Michael Rosen performing his poems and, even, had our own mini poetry “slam” as the teachers rotated around the classrooms sharing their favourite poems. This exposure to poetry will, hopefully, give the children the opportunity to experience what it is that makes poems and poetry such a unique and powerful genre.

Towards the end of the week, we started creating their own poems using much of what we had seen or heard elsewhere. It is very early days but already there is a real buzz in the class during Writing Workshop and the children are looking forward to writing many, many poems over the coming weeks. In time, we will introduce specific strategies that poets use and we will also look at different types of poems that the children might then choose to explore themselves.

This week, we have continued to explore “Measurement and Data.” We have moved on from non-standard units to standard units and the centimetre. We have been using rulers to measure different parts of our bodies, including hand spans, arm lengths and the circumference of our heads! We have spent a lot of time focusing on the importance of measuring accurately when using rulers and how it is important to start measuring from “0” and not from the end of the ruler.

We have been lucky enough to have a couple of haze free days this week and we used this opportunity to take our learning outside, exploring measuring techniques in some very interesting places. The children were faced with a couple of open-ended problems to solve, namely "What is longer: the bridge or all of 1BeM lying down, top to tail?" and "How may centimetres long would a line of all the 1BeM shoes be?" In both cases, the children talked through the problem in small groups, devising strategies before heading outside to test their theories.

We have enjoyed (??) a number of Mystery Guests this week. On Thursday, we had a (very convincing) witch visit us to share "Room on the Broom." After a few moments of uncertainty, we were relieved to discover the witch was actually Joyce (Priscilla's mum) and was nice enough to give us all a cupcake...which we do not think was poisoned! Then, this afternoon, we had a group of parents come to the class to talk about Halloween and share some arts and crafts activities with us all. 

Ava and Scarlett did a wonderful job sharing nautical stories from their respective holidays. Ava handled some weird and wonderful sea creatures and Scarlett caught an absolute whopper! It is always great to see the children standing up and sharing in front of the whole class.

“Fresh Fruit Friday” will begin next Friday. Each Friday, the children are encouraged to bring a piece of fruit: apple, orange, pear, or dragonfruit- basically, any type of fruit that is not soft. The fruit will be collected by the Fresh Fruit Friday Service Group and then delivered to organisations in Singapore to support migrant workers. This is a simple action that your child can take part in each week. Please help your child remember to bring a piece of fruit each and every Friday.

Reminders and Requests

*Fresh Fruit Friday-Friday 6th November (and every Friday thereafter!)

*Forest Adventure-Friday 6th November-1BeM, 1IVa and 1PTh

*Professional Development Day-Monday 9th November-School closed for students

*Public Holiday for Deepavali-Tuesday 10th November-School closed

*1BeM Workshare-Thursday 12th November

Have a great weekend