Prep | Kindergarten News
Unit of Inquiry: Who we are
In our Unit of Inquiry on Who We Are, we became globally aware of the rights of children all around the world. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is an important agreement by countries who have promised to protect children’s rights. We observed and listened to a UNICEF video explaining child rights to children aged 3 to 6. As a class, we used a visible thinking routine, ‘See, Think, Wonder’. This routine encouraged us to share our observations, thinking and wonderings. We plan to use our wonderings as a springboard for our inquiry.
Rubrics were uploaded to Seesaw last week. Please support your son by helping him with his next steps. Does he pack his own bag at home? Does he have a morning routine to follow? Does he communicate his needs to you appropriately?
Unit of Inquiry: How we express ourselves
As a provocation to launch our Unit of Inquiry on How We Express Ourselves, our learners were surprised by a strange delivery of boxes. Mystery boxes labelled ‘Stories for Kindergarten’. The students’ perceptions around the form of a story was explored. Students were encouraged to share their own unique perspectives throughout this experience. What is a story? (Photo 1& 2)
IT’S SHOWTIME! Collaborating with the class unit on “How We Express Ourselves”, in STEAM Kindergarten are developing their dramatic skills to put on their very own puppet show. So far, the boys have conducted research through watching other puppet show performances to determine “what is a puppet show?” and “what is needed for a puppet show?”. In the STEAM Lab the boys have been busy designing and creating puppets ready for the big performance in Week 9.
Mathematics
Our learners have been working hard on their personal learning goals for Whole Number, which include “writing numbers correctly,” “counting backwards from 10,” “counting forwards to 30” and “identifying the number before and after a given number.” This week, we start our new topic on Position. You can support your son’s learning at home by playing games (e.g. Simon Says, treasure hunt) using the following language: in, on, under, up, down, left, right, between, next to, below.
English: Talk for Writing
Talk for writing gives our boys opportunities to communicate their thoughts, listen to their peers’ ideas and reflect on shared stories. Using the Think, Pair, Share, Thinking routine we have been observing images to tell a short story.
Mandarin
We have started the transdisciplinary unit How We Express Ourselves by expressing feelings with Chinese words and facial expressions. Boys have been learning and practising major feelings words including happy/kai xin, sad/shang xin, angry/sheng qi, surprised/jing ya, scared/hai pa, shy/hai xiu. Small groups have been adopted in Kindergarten Mandarin lessons which allow valuable teaching-student interaction to use Chinese vocabulary and short phrases/sentences in word games, reading, tracing/mini-whiteboard writing etc. Student agency and independence can also be encouraged in cultural learning groups and the activity examples are drawing, maze, art and craft etc.
Visual Arts
This term in Visual Arts the boys have been working on the transdisciplinary unit How We Express Ourselves. We have focused on the different ways’ artists express themselves, specifically looking at the form of Abstract art. Boys have been introduced to the abstract paintings of Ralph Balson, Grace Crowley, Wassily Kandinsky and this week, Jackson Pollock. We have experimented with line, shape and colour creating abstract collages, drawings and paintings. Last week the boys used watercolour paint and painted to the sound of musical instruments and ‘Peter and the Wolf’ by Sergei Prokofiev. The week, the boys worked collaboratively, exploring abstract mark making through movement and the dripping and pouring techniques of Pollock.
Christian Studies
The miracles of Jesus provide us an amazing opportunity to learn how Jesus’ power is in his words. The boys have been exploring some of the miracles such as Jesus healing the paralyzed man, walking on water or feeding the 5000. It was a great opportunity for the boys to “eat” the story. Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring the most amazing miracles surrounding the events of Easter. The boys will be using their communication skills at the end of term and sharing their favourite story and what it means to them personally. We have also been conducting Chapel outside on the new basketball court where we have begun our journey looking at covenants / agreements between God and us. We will be examining how important it is for us to understand the relationship between covenants and God’s amazing plan of salvation.
