NTSIS PYP Preschool Newsletter (21st October– 25th October 2019)
Transdisciplinary Theme: Who we are
This week, preschool starts Unit 2: How we express ourselves, where we will inquire into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic. We will be busy doing pre-assessments as well as getting ready for Halloween J
What a busy week…
Nursery:
Central idea:
Getting to know about myself
Line of inquiry 1: Our body functions
Line of inquiry 2: Our abilities
Line of inquiry 3: Likes and dislikes
It has been an exciting week for the children, as they enjoyed bringing their favourite toys to school. They learned to “Show and Tell” why they bring that specific toys. Most students enjoyed toys that they can maneuver around, such as cars, dolls, battery-operated toys. Students started practicing their pre-writing skills, through tracing dotted lines. This is to help enhance and practice their fine motor skills.
Unit 2: How we express ourselves
Central idea:
Feelings and ideas are expressed through play
Lines of inquiry 1: Communication through play
Lines of inquiry 2: Imaginative use of everyday objects
Lines of inquiry 3: Games and toys
The new inquiry will start with “celebrating Halloween”, whereby students will be making Halloween bags, and decorating the “Candy House” in the classroom. They will also learn how to “scare other children” by play acting as “ghost, cat, Jack-o-lantern, witch, or mummies”. On the day of “Halloween” celebration, children will dress up in costumes, visit the other classes to “treat or trick” for candies, play games, and interacting with students in other PYP classes.
What a busy week…
Kindergarten 1:
Central idea:
Senses help us experience the world
Line of inquiry 1: The senses
Line of inquiry 2: Functions of senses
Line of inquiry 3: Experiencing with senses
We continued our inquiry into smell. We explored three kinds of beverages, namely moringa (green tea) powder, strawberry powder and cocoa powder. First, the children learnt about the name of the beverages, then they took turn to smell and taste the powders. Lastly, we played the ‘smell & matching’ game. In our last session on smell, we had another hands-on activity, that is making ‘no cook smelling playdough’ with coffee powder. First, the children watched a video on how the playdough was made, then they read the recipe to learn the ingredients used and the method of preparation before they came together to make their batch of playdough. The children got to practice their fine motor skills and stimulate their senses while mixing, kneading and stretching the dough.
Unit 2: How we express ourselves
Central idea:
Stories inform and excite us
Line of inquiry 1: Stories are connected to our lives and experiences
Line of inquiry 2: Stories make us feel
Line of inquiry 3: Ways to tell stories
We will be discussing and inquiring how stories inform and excite us. We will explore how stories are connected to our lives and experiences as well as identify the different ways to tell stories.
What a busy week…
Kindergarten 2:
Central idea:
Everyone is different
Line of inquiry 1: Physical characteristics
Line of inquiry 2: Personal characteristics
Line of inquiry 3: Learning through experiences
In the mornings, we got busy with phonics and reading. We practiced distinguishing short and long vowel sounds with writing focus on the vowels to complete short vowel sounding words. We explored how people experience or see the same thing in different ways through the story, “The Ugly Duckling.” We talked about the meaning of “ugly” and concluded that witches could be ugly but normal people could not (because they do mean and horrible things to people).
In Math, we practiced number recognition and counting by 10’s to 100 through songs and games and learned the meaning of tens and ones placement values.
In the afternoons, we looked at a slide show about corn mazes in North America. The children designed and painted their own candy house out of cardboard to go into our classroom corn maze for Halloween!
We made Diyas for Diwali, Indian Festival of Light!
Making candy for our candy house!
Almost finished our Halloween candy house!
Unit 2: How we express ourselves
Central idea:
Poetry expresses our ideas and feelings
Lines of inquiry 1: Poetry in music
Lines of inquiry 2: Rhymes and word choices
Lines of inquiry 3: Ideas and feelings in poetry
This week, we feature specialist subject: Music
The Unit Theme: Christmas Performance
Central idea: Music is the best appropriate way to celebrate Christmas.
Line of inquiry 1: We sing a song to celebrate Christmas.
Line of inquiry 2: We choose suitable voice to express our feeling in our singing.
Line of inquiry 3: We do some movements to enhance music scene.
Tasks:
1. Students learn a song about Christmas.
2. Students and teacher talk about the voice of singing.
3. Students learn the movements of the music.
4. Students experience the celebration scene.
Children had learned a Christmas song and the movements, we talked about the voice of singing. And Children are trying to sing and dance to be practiced.
We are going to …
Practice singing and dancing more and rehearsal on stage.
We celebrated Diwali @assembly (25th October 2019)
