Children's City

We had a great day  today exploring and experimenting with light and sound at children's city. We discovered more about how shadows are made, how our ear looks - we even got the chance to listen to our own soundwaves.

After a picnic and play in the park, we headed back to school with a bus full of tierd children and teachers!

Celebrations & Festivals

 

Thursday was a jam packed day of celebrations and festivals.

• We all wore pink to show our support for breast cancer awareness
• We participated in a flash mob dance to say goodbye to our wonderful secretary Ms Michelle. If you missed it check out the you tube link: http://www.youtube.com/user/gwadubai
• We visited the fall festival and saw the different festivals that will happen around the world this month. Halloween, Chinese Moon Festival, Diwali, Bonfire night and Remembrance Day.                            

 

and

• We celebrated a classmates birthday

A very busy end to a busy week!

Planetarium

We had our first visit of the year to the planetarium today. I thought we had taken the wrong class upstairs at one point because they were so quiet.

We had many questions for Mr Gregory.

• Why do the stars move?
• How does the moon give us light?
• How does the sun give us light?
• What are stars?

Mr Gregory showed us many amazing pictures of the sky. We learnt that the sun is a ball of fire and that all stars are suns and that all suns are stars.

Did you know that the moon doesn’t give us light, it is the sun shining on the moon. We also learnt that there are no aliens on the moon because we have already explored it!

        

How does light and sound travel?

This week we were investigating how light and sound travels. We discovered that light travels in a straight line, where as sound is a vibration/wave.
We had lots of fun experimenting with torches and tuning forks. We even an made our own discovery that you can feel your own sound vibrations if you hold your hand to your windpipe.
                                    
After discovering that light only travels in a straight line we asked if it is possible to make that line change direction? After exploring with different materials we discovered that it is possible to bounce light of smooth shiny materials - mirrors and cd’s work the best. We had a lot of fun up in the peace garden trying to get the sunlight to bounce.

3D Shapes

We have been getting to know our 3d shapes by manipulating them, identifying them in our environment, sorting them, building with them, and even eating them!

As a class we have practised building pyramids, cubes, cones, spheres, cuboids and cylinders. We have been making them out of blocks, playdough crackers, and tooth picks and marshmallows. The toothpicks and marshmallows was the preferred material and many of them were able to build far more than just a cube or a triangular prism. We spent a lot of time talking about and describing the different shapes – what they look like, are they wide, tall, round, pointed and counting the faces.

The Reading bug

Reading with your child

Based on the book: The Reading Bug . . . And how you can help your child to catch it

Author: Paul Jennings    Publisher: Viking Penguin, 2003

Parents are the best reading teachers in the world. Parental involvement is key to a child learning to read, to use language - and to their whole early years education. In his book Paul Jennings gives simple strategies to show how parents can use books to enrich their children's lives - it's not just about learning to read, it's about learning to love reading.

Some guidelines for reading at home:

• Make reading an enjoyable experience. Encourage success!
• Allow your child to use the visual clues in the story.
• Encourage making connections to their personal lives and listen actively to the connections that are made.
• The best way to grow as a reader is to allow readers to read, read, read.
• The best way to grow as a writer is to write, write, write.

READING IS THINKING!

“If children aren’t reading for meaning they aren’t reading at all. 
Reading is NOT pronouncing words.”  ~ Paul Jennings

Strategies:

• Glance through the book first and explain any difficult words.

Then, while reading, if your child comes to a word he or she doesn’t know, try these strategies:

• Ignore the mistake. (if the meaning is not lost, i.e.: crab vs. crustacean)
• Tell the word as soon as the child hesitates (to eliminate frustration).
• Suggest the child look at the picture for a clue (to set them up for success!).
• Suggest the child skip the word and read on for more information.

When your child reads and you notice a mistake, remember to ask them:

• Does it look right?
• Does it sound right?
• Does it make sense?

After reading, you can use one of these to help start a discussion.  You do not need to talk about all of these things for everything your child reads!  Choose one or two different questions each time.

Summarize - A brief retelling of the story

• Explain to me what you just read.
• What was the story about and what was your favourite part?
• Tell me something you learned from what you just read.

Sequence- Recall the order in which things happened

• What happened first, next, and last in the story?
• Tell me four important parts in the story in the order that they happened.
• Retell the story in your own words.

Make Connections - Does what I read remind me of anything?

• Does this story remind you of another story you have read or heard?
• Did any events in this story remind you of something you have done or might do?
• Has anything that happened in the story happened to someone you know?

Predict - What do you think will happen in the story?

• What do you think will happen next?
• What do you think the character will choose to do?
• How do you think the story will end?
• Predict what the characters will do in another story about them.

“Any strategy that leads to suffering is the
wrong strategy.” ~ Paul Jennings

iPads

This week saw us introducing the iPads into the classroom, although many of the children already knew how to use them
Some of our essential agreements when using the iPads are:

• always carry them with two hands
• no food or drink near them
• no fighting or grabbing
• When you have finished put them back somewhere safe

At the moment we are integrating them into our language sessions but eventually we will be using them during math and unit of inquiry

Below are some of the great apps that we have been using this week – hopefully I’ve linked them to itunes so you can download them easily
      

	abc spelling This app focuses on the skill of learning to spell words with three phonetic sounds with short vowel words
	Bob Books Reading Magic follows the same method and principles as the Bob Books series that we use in our classrooms. Make the connection between letters and sounds. Sound out simple words. Spell the words they’ve read.
	ABC tracer Animates and shows how to write the letters with strokes in the right order on the traditional red-blue guidelines. Provides fun feedback of right and wrong strokes. Has a lot of reinforcing fun activities
	Intro to letters Learn to trace, read, write and record letter sounds

   
If you have any great apps that you would like to share please let me know.

Why do we need light?

• “so we don’t bump into things”
• “so we can read a book”
• “so we can wake up”
• “to play games”

The children decided that light was very important so… we took the light away. On Thursday we covered all the windows and switched of the lights turning our room into a black box. The children thought this was very exciting but soon got frustrated when they couldn’t read their favourite book, draw a picture or even go to  the bathroom!
We gave out a limited number of torches and asked them to complete their activities. They needed to work as a team to find the right colour pencil or read a book. The children were so quiet and focused and enjoyed working with the torches so much, we kept it going for a little bit longer
.

Weebly

You might have heard your child mention a website that they have been using with Mr Potts in ICT or a game that they played in the outdoor dicovery.

 

Mr Potts has set up the Elementary School with our own Weebly - You will find links to educational sites that the children use during school, as well as some games that are just for fun.

 

It's a great place to put the kids on when you just need a 5min break :)

 

http://gwapyp.weebly.com/

Our Friendship Rug

 

Our Friendship rug is finished!!

What does it take to transform a pile of old T-shirts into spectacular works of woven art? Just a spare hula hoop, lots of hard work and a classroom full of eager kindergartners.

I cut all the donated t-shirts (thank you parents, teachers but especially Mr Potts!) into 1 inch strips. As a class we then sorted our t shirts by colour.  We then started  looping the tees around the hula hoop. Each one is connected to the one prior by pulling the loop through. When we got close to the edge of the hula hoop, we cut the white & green loops and tied them in knots.

                  
                                          

It was a great project that the kids thoroughly enjoyed. It will definitely help us to remember that when we work together, we can create something special

I got the idea from here if you ever wanted to make your own: