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

Week 18 Update and Pictures December 18 to 21

Happy Holidays!! We wish you and your family joy, happiness and lots of love this holiday season! Safe travels to anyone going away. We look forward to seeing all of our children back on Monday, January 15^th. We will have a new student named Annette joining our class in the new year.

Thank you to everyone who helped organize our Holiday party, especially our wonderful room parents, Hana and Noemi! We loved singing together and hope you enjoy the gifts your child made for you. (Don’t forget that there are cookies in there! J)

This has been a week of wonderful holiday spirit, and the children were excited to make gifts, bake cookies, write cards, and continue to explore together. Your children are an absolute joy to teach! Aidah and I love them so much.

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG on January 15^th.

*December 22^nd to January 14^th: NO SCHOOL-WINTER BREAK

*January 15^th: First Day Back at school-normal start time

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

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

Have a wonderful winter break!  See you back in 2018!

Week 18 December 18 to 21

70 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt

Week 17 Update and Pictures December 11 to 15

We have had a couple of special things happen this week that our students were excited about! Our kiddos are really comfortable with each other, and I was talking with the teachers of one of the other hubs and thought we would try out a visit. We visited Ms. Sam and Ms. Peggy’s hub for a funny story called “Stuck” and then our explorations were in both our hub and theirs. We had a group of high school visitors from Ms. Torpey’s advisory who came to read to our kiddos. We also went up to hear the beautiful holiday music outside the high school cafeteria. The children continue to be in great spirits, and are ready to sing with you on Wednesday morning!

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG

*Wednesday, December 20^th: Class Holiday Party 8:00am-9:10am-The students would love to do some holiday singing with you before our wonderful room parents take over for the rest of the party. (Similar to Halloween.) We thought we could sing from about 8 to 8:10 and then jump into our holiday party.

*Thursday, December 21st: LAST DAY of School before break.

*December 22^nd to January 14^th: NO SCHOOL-WINTER BREAK

*January 15^th: First Day Back at school-normal start time

Week 17 December 11 to 15

70 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt

Week 16 Update and Pictures December 4 to 8

I am proud of our children for rallying—I can tell they are exhausted, but still so incredibly enthusiastic about learning and in amazing and joyful moods! Many of the students have been wanting to sing and make ornaments, as well as design a class tree (right outside our hub right now) and the whole place seems to be covered in sparkles!  There is also a very strong interest in letters and names of people and places, so that was explored in great detail. We also had two middle school students come and talk to us about community,

I am attaching documentation for a “city” project below, as well as one that we put up near our “nature table.” The students went for a nature walk and then explored how light and materials (specifically nature) interact. Some students wanted to document learning, so there are a few of the pictures that are taken by students themselves. We will be doing more of this as the weeks go on, now that our students are getting so responsible and are very capable in taking care of technology.

Please click on the links below to see documentation on our “City” project and the beginning of interactions between light and nature.

Our City: The Places We Know

“Liture” The Way Light Plays with Nature

A couple of things:

1)     Please let me know if you would like to take Mango and Oreo Cookie over the 3 week winter break. J

2)    Also please let me know if you are leaving before Thursday, December 21^st (The last day before the winter break) if you haven’t yet.

3)    Please let me know if you have any songs or books that you would like to share about any of the holidays that are happening around this time. Many of the sing-a-long songs are Christmas songs, but we can include any that you would like for that day!  Just let me know as soon as possible. We want to make sure to celebrate all of the holidays that our part of our class family!

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG

*Wednesday, December 20^th: Class Holiday Party 8:00am-9:10am-The students would love to do some holiday singing with you before our wonderful room parents take over for the rest of the party. (Similar to Halloween.) We thought we could sing from about 8 to 8:10 and then jump into our holiday party.

*December 22^nd to January 14^th: NO SCHOOL-WINTER BREAK

*January 15^th: First Day Back at school-normal start time

Week 16 Dec 4 to 8

80 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt