Finding out Where We Are In Place and Time

The Grade 2s have begun their Finding Out stage of Unit 2. They were tasked with interviewing a parent or sibling, to inquire about their interests and had to present it in bubble map form. The students enjoyed playing the interviewer while learning more about what their parents and siblings are interested in.

A lot of our activities this week were centered around our interests:

Autumn break

We spent quite some time sharing about all the exciting and interesting things we got up to during the Autumn break. From family trips to Disneyland Tokyo and Okinawa to precious time spent catching up on sleep.

Different currencies

For Maths, we have started learning more about the Japanese yen. Being an international school, with many nationalities represented, it was the perfect opportunity to explore different currencies. From US dollars, Chinese yuan to South African rands and the European euro. It was delightful to uncover that we have a few students in our class who have impressive coin collections at home and could teach us a few things about some of the coins and notes.

Halloween

We ended off the week with a very popular interest for the Grade 2s... Halloween! The students enjoyed making Halloween decorations for our classroom. 

The students came to school dressed in witty, precious, and very interesting costumes. They enjoyed walking around the school campus and showing off their costumes while trick-or-treating.

The cherry on top of an already awesome day was that we won the coveted Class with the Best Halloween Costumes Award! So well-deserved, even if I say so myself! 

Well done Grade 2s!

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Ms Theona 🌿

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Upcoming events:

Monday, 4 November: Open Day for DSKI parents

Monday, 11 October: St Martins event

Monday, 25 October: Christmas Tree Lighting event

Tuning into Where We Are In Place and Time

 This week we continued with our tuning in stage, for our second unit of the school year, Where We Are In Place and Time. The students shared what they know about some of the more complex terms within our Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry.

"Interests" 

The students interviewed their friends to explore what some of the general favourites are, as these concepts are generally linked to a person's interests. Students had to provide responses for questions such as, their favourite colour, their favourite subject, their favourite food, etc.

This was later followed by them sharing the more specific interests that they have. The students were fascinated to observe what some of the common interests are among the group, and what the not so common interests were amongst the class.

"Discoveries" and "Inventions"

It was evident that the students already had a really good understanding of what the two words mean. The students impressively, were able to contextualize and categorize these concepts by naming things that are examples of the two terms.

When we return from the short break, we will begin the Finding Out stage, and I look forward to see where these wonderful thoughts and ideas, take us next.

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Have a look at some of the other activities we got up this week!

We started learning about karate during PE, with Mr Brabant

We explored some of the tech in the STEM room with Mr Huber

We took a walk to one of our G2 parent's store to visit Miemi, the rabbit!

Lastly, we had a classroom guest this week, Emil, all the way from Germany! The students enthusiastically shared our school community with him and we enjoyed getting to know him.

Have a wonderful Autumn break, everyone! 🍁

Ms Theona 

Needs vs Wants

 The Grade 2s kicked off their second unit for the school year this week; we are inquiring about Where We Are In Place And Time. The central idea being that our needs, interests and curiosity lead us to new discoveries and ideas.

We read the the witty classroom favourites, ''The Pigeon Needs a Bath!'' and ''The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!'' by Mo Willems. 

This was followed by discussions about what are classified as needs and what are considered wants. The students were quick to bring very insightful concepts to the table. They also very quickly discovered that not all needs and wants may be easily categorized and that depending on the person or family, we all have different needs and wants.

The students were given a challenge - pretend you are stranded on an island! Groups were told that they may only take 10 items with them to survive. Once they breathed a sigh of relief at deciding on their items, they were told to narrow it down to only 6 items... and then once more, narrow it down to only 5 items. The groups exercised lovely teamwork skills and thought about the bare basics that we as humans need to survive!

The students deepened their tuning-in even further, by drawing on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, to categorize and rank our basic human needs. 

After just a week of tuning in, students have already demonstrated a valuable understanding of our human needs and wants!

Have a wonderful weekend and see you at our Parent-Teacher conferences next week!

Ms Theona 🍃

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Upcoming events:

Saturday, 5 October: Oktoberfest

Monday, 14 October: School closes at 13:00

14 - 18 October: Parent-Teacher conferences

Thursday, 31 October: Halloween

Technology reflections

This week marks the end of the Grade 2's How We Organize Ourselves unit. We spent six weeks exploring, discussing and debating around the central idea, that technology influences how people work together and connect with each other.

The Grade 2s have displayed a deeper understanding of our lines of inquiry:

- Influence of technology on organizations and communities

- How technology is used and organized

- Our responsibility in virtual and social media environment 

For most of the week, the students sorted through data from the teacher Google form survey and the in-person parent interviews. In groups, the students highlighted the visible patterns from the teachers' responses. Noting the points of interest and the most common and least common responses. The students also listened to/viewed their parent interviews which they conducted last week. They spent time reflecting on their parents' responses and noted points of interest and fascination, as a means of transcribing their data. Here are some of the responses:

"I did not know that my dad does not have any social media profiles/accounts."

"My mom has such a low amount of screen time a day. I thought she spent more time on her phone while I was at school." 

"Mom said that [at her workplace] they receive training on being responsible online users."

"I did not know that my dad uses his mobile phone to keep track of the news." 

We ended off the week by starting to take action and the students designed and created posters about safe and unsafe online practices. These posters will be displayed in the hallways to remind fellow students, teachers, and parents to have safe online practices, which is an important characteristic of being a responsible digital citizen!

Please support and encourage your children to continue to take action and put into practice the insightful advice displayed on these amazing posters!

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We had a great time visiting the SUMA Sea World Aquarium this week! Thank you to the parents who accompanied us!

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Lastly, we look forward to seeing you all at Oktoberfest! Have a look at some of our preparations over the last few weeks.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Your teacher, 

Ms Theona 🌿

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Upcoming events:

Saturday, 5 October: Oktoberfest

Monday, 7 October: No school due to Oktoberfest on Saturday

14 - 18 October: Parent-Teacher conferences

Thursday, 31 October: Halloween