This week we worked on creating some essential agreements for our class. As this is the first time the children have done something of this nature it needed some guidance and preparation. We spent one day looking at a variety of stock pictures of children engaged in different types of behaviours. For example, in one picture two children were seen fighting over a toy and in another, two children were pictured sharing toys. We asked the children to look at each picture and decide if they thought it represented a good choice, or a 'not good' choice. They then sorted the pictures into two corresponding groups. They enjoyed signaling with a thumbs up or thumbs down if they felt each choice was a good one or not. After sorting we talked about how we want our class to be one in which everybody feels happy and safe. We asked the children whether, given this aim for our class, we wanted to be the kind of group with the behaviours seen in the 'not good choice' set of pictures, or if we wanted to opt for behaviours as seen in the 'good choices' set. Naturally, everyone decided they would prefer that we make good choices. The next day we reminded the children of the way they had sorted the pictures, before asking them to come up with some suggestions for agreements we could follow in school. Following a discussion, we came up with five agreements. We made posters using photos of children modelling each essential agreement. These posters are now on display in our room. The five agreements can be seen below (captions are displayed at the bottom of each). It would be very helpful if you could take some time to discuss our agreements with your son or daughter in your home language. Saving TreesSaturday, 21st September, is designated as United Nations' International Day of Peace. Next Friday at TIS we will be finding ways to both celebrate and carefully consider this important day. This year's theme is 'Climate Action for Peace' and, with the aim of creating an achievable goal, we decided to focus our attention on reducing the amount of paper-towel usage in our building. We wanted to begin the conversation in advance of the actual day, and with this in mind the teachers chose to hold an assembly for the PS1 and PS2 classes focusing on the theme of reducing our use of paper towels. We first looked at a picture of the earth from space. Some of the children were able to identify it as 'the world' and knew enough to be able to say that 'people live there'. When I wondered aloud what the green parts might be, several children explained that it was 'grass, trees and plants'. As a visual provocation we had asked Ms Hulkar to save the paper towels used for drying hands in our building for two days. We tipped the paper out onto the floor, so that everyone was able to see the huge number we had used. There were gasps from several of the children when they saw the big pile. The provocation appeared to be working! We asked if anyone had any idea where paper towels come from. One or two students were able to explain that paper comes from trees. We showed the children a short animated video which demonstrated how trees are cut down and taken to a factory, where they are chopped into tiny pieces before water is added along with bleach and resulting in paper pulp. The children saw how the water is then squeezed out of the pulp by rollers, and the paper is dried and cut into pieces. In the final slide below, the children can be seen looking at a photograph of a recent delivery of paper towels to school. Some of the children were keen to explain to the others that we need trees to breathe (we didn't go into the details of this!) and that we, as well as other animals, eat the fruit that grows from some trees, and also that many animals use trees as their home. In other words, trees are important to us, and we need to try to reduce the need to cut them down. I then demonstrated how to use only one paper towel to dry hands, instead of two or three with this simple technique (seen here in a Ted Talk).
The children had a great time helping to count as I shook my hands twelve times. We tried it several times over just to be sure we had the hang of it, and tried to remember the routine with this slogan; Shake, Fold, Dry! After assembly, the children had the opportunity to each practice the new routine as they washed their hands before snack. We will continue to work on practicing until it becomes second nature to us all. It would be fantastic if you could not only talk about this at home, but also put it into practice when you find yourselves using paper towels when you are out and about. It is also, fortuitously, an excellent way for the children to practice counting in order from one to twelve for an authentic purpose! See the children in action below!
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We are fortunate at TIS to have a beautiful campus, filled with grass, plants and trees. Best of all we have lots of space for the children to be able to move about in and explore. We feel that time spent outside is extremely important in helping children develop. While outdoors, not only do they have the chance to interact with nature (sticks, leaves, chestnuts and stones are treasures for a young child, as many of us remember from our own childhoods) and breathe fresh air, but they also have the opportunity to develop many skills. In the photos below you will see children strengthening muscles and developing motor skills as they dig, swing, ride tricycles, run and carry large objects. They also develop social skills as they take turns, both in conversation and in using resources. Imaginations are stretched and vocabulary is developed as a scooter becomes a bus or car, and a pile of sand becomes a cake or soup. At both the sand pit and the water table, children develop a sense of capacity, as they fill and empty containers. As Autumn approaches, we look forward to exploring our campus a little more, and will take 'trips' to collect chestnuts, acorns and beautiful leaves. When Winter arrives, we might be lucky enough to get to play in the snow, making snowmen and snow 'angels'. Then in Spring, we get to watch in awe as the leaves begin once again to grow on trees, and blossoms appear. Soon enough, it is Summer again, and the children enjoy being barefoot in the sand, and playing with water again. As we all, children and adults alike, settle in to the school year, we need to create our own class community. This means of course getting to know each other, finding out about everybody's likes and dislikes, as well as learning about the things we are confident about, and the things we might need more help with. It also means becoming familiar with, and confident in, our environment; the special space that is our classroom. Without its class members, the space is simply a room with furniture and resources, but once we add the children, it starts to become a community. It is vital for the children to feel a sense of ownership and of pride in their classroom, and with this in mind, one of the first things we aim to do is have them create artwork for our space. We want to ensure that each child has the opportunity to create something themselves, but that these pieces can then be put together to create something that represents the whole group, much in the same way that when all the individual class members come together, we become a community. As you will see, the results speak for themselves. We have found that the children are so proud and excited to come into the classroom, and see that their space is slowly being transformed by their creations. The artworks help the children develop a genuine sense of ownership and of belonging. One piece of art the children worked on was a hanging mobile, created simply by hanging a branch from the ceiling, and then adding items to it. First the children used pipettes to drop paint onto cotton wool pads. This required the use of fine-motor skills to operate the pipettes; squeezing to collect paint, and then squeezing again to release it onto the pads. Of course it also involved much discussion over colours. Each child painted several cotton pads.... The painted cotton wool pads were then threaded with a needle by the teacher, and hung from the branch which was already suspended from the ceiling. Later in the week the children were invited to add to the piece by threading a combination of beautiful beads and real chestnuts onto string. These were then added to the branch. Below is the beautiful resulting mobile. We also worked on creating a 3D birthday calendar. This took some time and effort! The children were excited to see twelve blown up balloons, and were surprised to hear that they were going to cover them with a mixture of paper and glue (paper mâché). This first part was sticky but fun work, with a sensory element to it. Spreading the gluey paper out over the balloons felt funny! NB It was such sticky work, that it proved impossible to get photographs of each child at work, but you can see examples of the process below. The paper and glue-covered balloons were left to dry for a few days. Then an exciting thing happened. During our group time, I showed the children how we could now pop the balloons with a pair of scissors. They expected a big bang, but in fact the sound in this case was just a quiet hissing as the air escaped and the balloon deflated inside the now-hardened paper casing. It was exciting to see that the paper remained in the shape of the balloon, even after the balloon was entirely removed from the inside. The children touched the paper balloons and noticed that they had hardened. Now we had the perfect balloon shapes, but they were rather boring colour-wise, so the next job was for the children to paint them. Each chose the colour they wanted, and the balloons began to be transformed... The finished balloons were hung from the ceiling and labeled with the months of the year. The children's pictures will be added to the correct month so that we can keep track, month by month, of whose birthday is coming up. These are not the only artworks that were made. Two others can be seen below. Both were again the result of combining the individual work of each child to create a collective piece. In this way the children are beginning to claim the space as their own. We look forward to hanging up the family photographs shortly. Please do come in when you pick up or drop off your child, so that you can admire your child's classroom with him or her.
Welcome to the PS1H and Owlet blog! Each week I will write about some of the learning that has been taking place in class. Learning at this stage in a child's life is all-encompassing, and it would be impossible to share all that the children discovered, explored or learned in one blog each week, but I hope to at least give you a peak into what is taking place; a small 'snapshot'. The first two weeks have been a time for the children to make connections to each other and to the new environment; to explore, discover and investigate. In doing so they... ...used a variety of construction toys to design and build (see below). They took care of the baby dolls, ensuring that they were fed and rested, reminding us to speak quietly around the sleeping babies (see below). They loved using playdough to sculpt and create; squashing, squeezing, rolling, pinching and cutting. As they played, they worked on strengthening finger muscles and developing fine motor skills (see below). They participated in sensory play (see below). They ate snack and lunches together, sometimes trying new foods (see below). They painted and explored colour (see below). And they played outside, using climbing equipment, hoops, slides, swings, balls, water and of course, the sand (see below)! Shirin and I very much look forward to a wonderful year of inquiry and play-based learning with PS1H and Owlets, and are excited to meet the remaining members of our class over the next few months.
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