Week 21 Update and Pictures January 29 to Feb 2

Collaborating on making all 4 terminals of the Changi Airport

Working on stories to add to our classroom library. We are Authors!

"I am a Chinese New Year Snake!" (made out of recycled materials)

"These animals are all in Africa. The families stick together to protect." 

"Superman is coming to save all of the animals in all of the countries! He is going to make sure they are okay!"

Creative snake making

A preview of the amazing representations of Chinese New Year...a book in the making.

"A dragon dance for good luck. All the people have to work together."

"You can make curls like my hair in the clay. I need to show everyone this new way to do art!"

"This is an Ipad. All the apps are here, especially if you want to learn your sounds!"

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There are some new events added this week-be sure to take a look below.

Our animal project has taken many different turns, from how the environment affects the animals, where different animals live in the world, animal babies and families, camouflage protecting animals, shadows that animals make…much documentation in progress right now!

The children have been inspired by the celebration of Chinese New Year, and have busily been decorating. They want to make a book for our library with their drawings and thoughts so they are working hard on that. Also, we have figured out which students are snakes and which are dragons and they have been using the Maker Space to create these animals for our hallway.  Be sure to look though the pictures to see a few of the other explorations in action…

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*We are really low on fruit, granola bars and crackers. (We have VERY hungry children first thing in the morning!) Please feel free to send in some things for the class.

*Tuesday, February 13^th: Empty Bowls- A wonderful and amazing collaboration with high school art students for a good cause. See letter I sent with the Friday e-mail.

*Wednesday, February 14^th:  Valentine’s Day- We are going to keep this low key. We are not having a party, but if parents would like to send in some festive snacks with your children to share, that would be great! No need to do Valentine’s cards (unless this is something your family does anyway) as it is a lot for these young learners! We will be doing some fun things with them as a group. The children are welcome to wear pink, red, white!

*Thursday, February 15^th: School Chinese New Year Celebration- Students can wear Chinese New Year clothes or colors. We will see a lion dance in the morning and attend an ES show.

*February 16^th to 19^th: No School-Chinese New Year Holiday

*February 20^th: No School for Students-Teacher Inservice Day

*March 22^nd and 23^rd: STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES- The ELC will be participating in student led conferences this year (your child will lead you through some learning and you will have a conference with me.) You will get all of the details and how to sign up soon, but please do save the date for these days. If not done on one of these days, there will only be a traditional parent-teacher conference, as the student led conferences involve a lot of set up in the classroom. A note: Student-led conferences are an AMAZING thing to be a part of!

Week 21 January 29 to February 2

51 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt

How are puppets transformed with light and shadow?

Light and shadows are magical to children. We had the amazing opportunity to pair this magical learning language with puppets! Mr. David and Ms. Robin demonstrated to the children how different kinds of puppets look against various screens, how they could be used in telling a story, and we even practiced different voices! We then used a variety of materials to make our own puppets! We had dragons, cheetahs, monster babies, princess mermaids, and even a horse bug! The children were given time to explore with their puppets using a variety of different screens and light sources, and discovered how light and shadow transforms the way puppets move. There was much imagination, wonder and problem solving involved as the children figured out how to make their puppets appear larger or smaller, more defined or hazy, and what kind of stories they could tell. Some questions that came out of our session…

How does the size of the puppet change when you are really close to the screen and really far away?

How does light and shadow transform the way puppets move?

How do materials look different when they are in front of or behind the screens or on the projectors?

How can we give our puppets a personality?

What different kinds of materials and light stages can we use to make our puppets look different?

Week 20 Update and Pictures January 22 to 26

Puppets, creating out of natural materials and clay, writing stories, and the beginning of an animal project were just a few things this week had in store! Our children were engaged and enthusiastic! See next blog post for more about the puppets.

“Why don’t we take better care of our earth?”

“Why don’t animals get to decide what happens to them?”

“What do wild animals need to be safe?”

The students’ questions have started a project! There are habitats being made, books being researched, conversations happening and dramatic family animal play. We looked to National Geographic Kids for some clips of animals in the wild and the environment needed for them to be healthy. We also found out there are only 200 white tigers left in the world, which made us sad and more dedicated to this project! More to come!

Arian’s grandfather, Percy Shroff, has written a series of children’s books and he read two of them to us. Percy has left a copy of the series here in the classroom, so please feel free to browse through the books next time you are at school.

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*Thursday, February 15^th: School Chinese New Year Celebration. Students can wear Chinese New Year clothes or colors. We will attend a lion dance in the morning.

*February 16^th to 19^th: No School-Chinese New Year Holiday

*February 20^th: No School for Students-Teacher Inservice Day

Beginnings of a project on animals...

Tea party!

"I'm making cookies to share with the whole class!" -Jeha (using loose parts)

Constructing with plasticine and sticks

Percy Shroff sharing his books with us

Ocean animals...looking into habitat and what living animals need

Week 20 January 22 to 26

169 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt

Week 19 Update and Pictures - Jan 15 to 19

We have everyone here!!!  YAY!  Look at this group of learners!

SLIME!!!

Measuring

Counting/ 1 to 1 correspondance

The joy of learning!

Drawing a story together

"A safe place for animals to live"

It has been such a wonderful first week back! The children have returned with a lot of enthusiasm and new ideas! Not only have they grown taller, but they have a new maturity in the way they are exploring, having conversations and asking questions.

This week we had a visit from Mr. Pearson, our counselor who talked about T.I.M (Tell your feelings, ignore, and move away) as a way to try and solve problems. Of course if T.I.M doesn’t work, students are encouraged to ask a teacher for help.

In Chinese class, students have begun talking about and getting ready for Chinese New Year, a big celebration here in Singapore! Some of the students wanted to make red lanterns for good luck for our classroom. We will celebrate in school right before the holiday with a lion dance and by singing Chinese songs.

A couple of Ipad minis were introduced in our classroom this week as a new learning tool. The students were drawing stories together, as well as documenting some of our learning by taking pictures and movies. These Ipads will only be used when they enhance the learning of our children, and will not be available for use all of the time.

We will have visiting artists working with our class next Tuesday!  The Adzooks puppeteers will be inspiring us with a puppet performance and then we will explore and make our own. It should be a fun day!

Report cards should be available this afternoon on PowerSchool. You should get a letter from communications/ENews on how to access them if you have not done it before.

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*Tuesday, January 23^rd: Adzooks Puppeteers Visiting Artists

*Wednesday, January 24^th: Alternate Dress Day

*Thursday, February 15^th: School Chinese New Year Celebration. Students can wear Chinese New Year clothes or colors. We will attend a lion dance in the morning.

*February 16^th to 19^th: No School-Chinese New Year Holiday

*February 20^th: No School for Students-Teacher Inservice Day

Week 19 January 15 to 19

74 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt