This week was a very special week in 1BeM. On Monday, the Pod was transformed into a kind of hypermarket, selling everything from soap and toothpaste, to socks and essence of chicken! Each item was given a specific price (a number of tokens) and we took our turns moving through the shop “purchasing” the different items with the correct number of tokens and ticking them off our shopping lists. When we had everything on the lists, we completed our shoebox with a Chinese New Year red packet and double checked everything was neatly packed. Thank you to all the mums who did such a good job as shopkeepers. Back in the classroom, we created our very own CNY wrapping paper and carefully wrapped our surprises before placing them on a display table in the pod for all to see.
The rain on Wednesday afternoon did not dampen our spirits as we all grabbed a box each and boarded the buses to Happy Lodge. When we arrived, we were greeted with a loud cheer and a spontaneous round of applause! After carefully stacking our boxes to one side, the Happy Lodge residents were treated to a special Chinese New Year inspired performance from the whole grade, incorporating some familiar and not so familiar songs and dances. The residents LOVED every minute of it and were extremely vocal and animated throughout. They were particularly delighted by the children introducing each segment of the performance in both English and Chinese...every time a child started to speak in Chinese they were met with a room full of cheering and clapping! Thank you to Nicole (Apple's mum) for helping with the translation.
At the end of our four “numbers,” the children went out into the crowd to wish the residents a happy new year. Although, as with the Arts Festival, the performance was certainly special, what made the whole experience that much more meaningful was the process involved in the run up to Wednesday. The Shoebox Project is true testament to the power of collective action and has been the perfect introduction to our “Service Starts With Me” unit across the grade. Well done, everyone.
Away from the shoeboxes, we have also been unpacking the idea of Service. We have been thinking about the following Essential Questions:
What does Service mean to you?
Why is Service important?
How can we help other people?
Over the course of the unit (and beyond), we will focus on Kuma Cambodia (the G1 Global Concern), with the aim of developing a specific project or initiative. On Thursday, we got together with 1LJe to brainstorm ideas about both how we might be of Service to the Kuma community and, more importanly, how we might find out what Kuma actually need or want at this time. So, we are busy mixing our blue-sky ideas with what is genuinely needed. It is all very exciting.
Today, we were very privileged to be able to watch our very brave buddy, Lana, shave her head for the wonderful "Hair for Hope" charity. Thank you to those of you who contributed to her donation. I am not sure 1BeM are convinced it was a good idea (the girls, particularly, looked horrified!) but they all agree it is a very selfless thing to do. We are proud of you, Lana!
This week, we have really enjoyed exploring MyOn on the iPads. This is a wonderful resource to support both our “Non-Fiction” unit in Reading Workshop and our “Informational Writing” unit in Writing Workshop. The children have brought home their unique Username home so that they can continue to benefit from this resource at home. We have been exploring the app with the Library team to see how to search for particular areas of interest and create different book lists. Please let us know if you have any related questions or queries.
We hosted some of our friends from K1 on Tuesday to share how we are "experts" in certain areas. We created investigations for them to explore and guide them throughout the process. It was wonderful to see 1BeM supporting the younger learners and doing such a great job.
We were also lucky enough to be invited to the Grade Two “Wax Museum” this week. It was wonderful to see all the students in character, sharing their stories and research with such confidence. It was also an interesting insight into life “over the bridge” and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
In Mathematics, we have been exploring missing addends, exploring strategies to work out a missing number in an equation from the other numbers that are there...and having a lot of fun at the same time! We are also beginning to emphasise the relationship between addition and subtraction, encouraging the children to consider this connection and not think of the two as completely unrelated operations.
It was wonderful to have a try at so many languages on Mother Language Day. We had a fantastic time moving between the stalls and learning the colours of the rainbow in so many different languages. Everyone came back to the classrooms with their own favourite and everyone was covered in stickers! A big thank you to all the parents who put so much effort and time into making it so special.
Reminders and Requests
*Theatre Trip-Wednesday 2nd March-8.30am-12.00pm
*The Arts Festival video has been uploaded to the school’s Vimeo channel and is available to view by following this link: https://vimeo.com/156209992
Have a great weekend
No comments:
Post a Comment