NTSIS PYP Preschool Newsletter (26th August – 30rd August 2019)
Transdisciplinary Theme: Who we are
There is never a dull moment in the PYP classrooms! Across subjects, students are engaged in activities and learning new knowledge that revolve around the central ideas and inquiring into the transdisciplinary theme, Who we are.
What a busy week…
Nursery:
Central idea:
Getting to know about myself
Lines of inquiry 1: Our body functions
The children identified and learned the names of the parts of their bodies. Through activities such as action songs, hand printing and hand painting, children have gained better awareness of what they could do with their hands. In order to enhance students’ coordination, we had activities such as balancing beanbags on their heads when walking around the classroom, throwing and catching beanbags. It was a lot of fun!
We are going to…
The children will be exploring their facial features; their eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, eyebrows, cheek and hair. The children will develop further understanding of the facial features through in-depth discussion about what their eyes or nose or ears can do.
What a busy week…
Kindergarten 1:
Central idea:
Senses help us experience the world
Lines of inquiry 1: The senses
It has been a full-packed activities week for the children. We studied the parts of our faces, focusing on the functions of the ear. We inquired into sounds and hearing using our ears through 2 experiments; Shakers Tests using different materials: rice/counters/coins and different numbers of coins (1 ,3 ,5 and 7 coins). On top of the inquires, we practised short vowels u o, traced and wrote our name. We also worked on handwriting of the letters C and O. We practised counting 1 – 10 aloud and listening to our pronunciations.
We are going to…
This week, we will continue studying the ear. We will look into student-initiated inquires to investigate whether sloths and koala bears have ears and if the animals have listening skills like human beings!
What a busy week…
Kindergarten 2:
Central idea:
Everyone is different
Lines of inquiry 1: Physical characteristics
Throughout the week we discussed how the more they listen, the more they get to learn and play! We read the book “Get On,” one of the Oxford Learning Tree Level 1 Reading series. We played a listening game with the site words in the book as well as with a video on body parts. We used the body part puppets as social props to make talking about our birthdays and our age more fun. Please see the following videos of those who volunteered to be filmed.
We also made thinking hats and drew pictures to show and tell about the things we know about our body and the things we like to do. In Math classes we practiced counting by 2’s on the abacus. The children demonstrated that they knew how to do single digit addition using the abacus to prove their work. We counted to 60 with a counting dance song.
We are going to…
This week, we will focus on naming and counting body parts, recognizing how they are different. We will memorize a song about opposites and play body part charades using flash cards. In reading, we will continue with the Oxford Learning Tree beginner level 1B series. In writing, we will begin reviewing the proper stroke order for letters A-Z. For both reading and writing we will have stations for different levels. We will also be making charts for eye colour, hair length, hands and toes.
This week, we feature specialist subject: Dance
Nursery
For the past weeks, we have been working on our coordination and balancing skills. The children imitated airplane through body movements and improved balance by walking on a rope. In the following weeks, we will be exploring dance with different parts of our body.
K1
We explored how movements can be changed in different directions and rhythms of one piece of music. We will be combining movements with instructions to enhance children’s motor skills and coordination in the following weeks.
K2
In line with the central idea, we learned to maintain order and change the dance formation through cooperation. In the subsequent weeks, we will explore various dance moves in different music and encourage children to present themselves while building their confidence.
Reminder:
Agenda for Coffee Time with Parents (4th September 2019 @3:30pm)
