Who We Are

This week, the Grade 2s kicked off their new unit of inquiry, Who We Are. The central idea is that "we build relationships by learning about other people’s thoughts and feelings and communicating our own." 

To get things started the students worked in pairs to view and discuss images, where different types of relationships were portrayed. The students were tasked with sharing their ideas, using the See-Think-Wonder concept. The students shared valuable "I wonder..."  questions and thoughts, to prompt a whole-class discussion about different types of relationships.

 We are excited to delve deeper into Who We Are, in the coming weeks.

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Here are some of the (many) activities that the students enjoyed this week, which demonstrate aspects of Who We Are:

Christmas Tree Lighting and Advent Calendar kick-off

🎶 It's the most wonderful time of the year! 🎶

We kicked off the festive season with the Christmas Tree Lighting, and the students excitedly received our class advent calendar! They have been enjoying the daily games and activities.

We are festive enthusiasts! 

End of the PE karate unit with Mr Brabant

The karate lessons for our PE unit with Mr Brabant have been concluded. Through this beautiful martial art, the students have explored building trust with their bodies, they have explored the limits of their bodies, and they now have a better understanding of the rituals and rules of karate. Thank you, Mr Brabant, for sharing your karate skills with us.

We are martial artists!

Iniesta Academy soccer training

We were fortunate to have the coaches from the Iniesta Academy come and do soccer training with our students. The students had so much fun and enjoyed the opportunity to hone their teamwork and soccer skills.

We are soccer/team players!

Gardening Project

The Grade 2s excitedly took part in the gardening project at school. They were happy to be active participants in beautifying our school campus.

We are gardeners!

Field trip to Kobe Maritime Museum

We ended off the week by going on a field trip to reflect on our Where We Are In Place and Time unit about discoveries and inventions. The students had a ball of a time and were fascinated by the displays, activations and information available, at the museum.

We are inquiring field-trippers!

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Until next time,

Ms Theona 🌿

Inventions and Discoveries

Time has flown by and it is time to wrap up our Where We Are In Place and Time unit. The Grade 2 students have discussed, debated, explored, and excitedly inquired about how "our needs, interests, and curiosity lead us to new discoveries and ideas." 

The students have been innovating in groups, by taking existing inventions and trying to improve them by making simple adjustments. These innovative inventions will be printed using the 3D printer over the next few weeks. The students cannot wait for their drafting and sketches to come alive!

During Art with Mr Lubin, the students used the STEM room saw table to make printing blocks. They used the printing blocks in their art class to make colorful print designs. Mr Lubin says that the students had fun learning basic carpentry skills.

For their IT lesson this week with Mr Huber, the students explored the 3D printing application, Tinkercad. Some of the other grades have designed buildings for the little train set village in the STEM room. The Grade 2 students have been tasked with creating a tunnel for the little village. This is an ongoing project that we will continue to work on. It was an exciting opportunity to play with the train set and the students are very enthusiastic about being part of making the little village come alive!

We ended off the week with an invention challenge, using mostly recyclable materials. While the end results were not really what we expected, the students had fun creating and collaborating!

During this unit the students have honed their research skills; by sifting through data to find the exact information that they were in search of. They have also improved their public speaking skills by presenting their ideas and discussions to their classmates.

As a class, we will spend time reflecting on what we have learned during this unit when we go on our class field trip next week!

Have a lovely weekend everybody!

Ms Theona 🌿

 

 

Using Our Strong Speaker Voices

 This week, the Grade 2s continued to dive into the world of inventions and discoveries by exploring the impacts of inventions. The students expressed that inventions and discoveries could positively or negatively impact the world and society. 

We recruited Dr Binocs to help us understand the invention of paper - an invention that we make use of daily. In groups, the students shared their ideas about what they think are the positive and negative impacts that the invention of paper has had on the world. This activity challenged the students to use their reading and comprehension skills to sift out the necessary information from their online search engine results.  

Practice, practice and more practice for building our research skills!

The students worked hard at using their Google Slides and Canva skills to create a presentation about one of their favourite interests. From soccer to crafting, and dancing to places like Okinawa and Australia; the students relished the opportunity to share their interests with their peers. We all enjoyed learning a thing or two about the variety of interesting hobbies. Well done to these amazing presenters, who did well to use their strong speaker voices!

A reminder that our Central Idea for our unit is, 

"Our needs, interests and curiosity lead us to new discoveries and ideas."

The students got a taste of inventing when they put pencil to paper and presented their own inventions!

As we turn into inventors next week, let's see where these interests and our ideas lead us... 

💡🧠🔎

Have a wonderful weekend everyone,

Ms Theona

🙋

Continuing to Find Out Where We Are In Place and Time

 This week, the Grade 2s continued to delve deeper into our inquiry Where We Are In Place and Time, by exploring on the reasons for inventions.

We kicked things off by discussing the great inventions of the last 100 years; inventions such as the reflective lights on road surfaces called cats' eyes, the inventions of kevlar, the material used in bullet-proof vests and the invention of the first turbojet engine in 1937. 

Of course, the invention of the first video game console proved to be a very popular discussion point!

Students were posed with the following, "Why? Why were these inventions invented?" What were the inventor(s) reasons for inventing these things?"

Some insightful ideas were shared about why they think the inventor created the first video game console. 

We then took it further by hypothesizing why some other inventions were invented. In groups, the students discussed their thoughts about possible reasons and worked well together to present their findings to the rest of the class.

Following this, the students used the devices to research whether their hypothesized reasons were in fact true or not. It proved quite a task to find out what the specific reasons were for the creation of the inventions but the students did a wonderful job at being knowledgable thinkers!

We will continue exploring the reasons for and the impacts of discoveries and inventions next week! 

We are all looking forward to the interests presentations next week as well!

Have a wonderful weekend, and see you all on Monday at the St. Martins school event!

With warm regards,

Ms Theona 🍂