2018年度Milky Wayにようこそ！
まず担任（Mr. Chris）からひと言。
この1年、様々な面で子どもたちは成長していくかと思います。それを保護者の皆さんと一緒に見守ることができ嬉しく思います。
もちろん、保護者の皆さんとコミュニケーションをたくさん取りたいと思っていますので、いつでもお声掛けください。
Who We Areのユニットが始まりとして、フルーツバスケットをしました。”I like drawing. Who likes drawing?”などと、自分の好きな物やことを相手に伝えること、そして他に誰が自分と同じものが好きなのかを楽しくゲームを通じて知ることができました。
また、自分を知る活動の一部として、セルフポートレートを描きました。印刷された自身の顔をよく観察しながら自画像を描いたり、先生からの簡単な質問に答えたり、好きなもの描きそれについての理由を記述したりしました。
教室の壁にはMilky Wayのお友達の情報がぎっしりです！是非、中に入ってご覧ください。
その他にも、お友達にインタビューをして、名前、好きな食べ物、好きな色、兄弟姉妹について知る活動をしました。
そのインタビューのまとめとして、棒グラフとしてデータを集計することもしました。
ライティングでは、アルファベットの小文字を正しい書き順で書くことを練習していますし、もちろん基本的な文章も書いています。
基本的なライティング方法に慣れ、楽しかった出来事や、自分の意見や意思を文字に表し、表現できるようになる日々に向け、みんな一生懸命です！
算数では、Rainbow Factといって、10になる数字の関係性を習得してきています。
1と9。2と8。3と7。のように、子どもたちはすでに、頭で考えるより先に数字のペアを言い当てることができるようになりました！
また、2ずつ、5ずつ、10ずつ、11ずつの数で数字を数える練習もしています。
それでは、良い週末をお過ごしください！
Welcome all Milky Way students and families to the 2018 school-year blog!
I would first like to say to all parents, guardians and extended families that I am glad to have returned to ISN, to have returned to Milky Way and to teaching and getting to know your children. I look forward to seeing all students develop in all aspects of their life and should you ever wish to communicate with me, I cordially invite you to freely do so.
Over the last two weeks all students have been settling into their new environment well; becoming familiar with their new class and classmates, their new teacher, new routine and the new campus. In this vein the class has appropriately begun inquiries in the transdisciplinary theme Who we are, with the central idea being that understanding myself and others helps to build stronger relationships. The first fortnight’s line of inquiry was: How are we different; how are we the same?
The class started the year with a game of ‘fruit basket’ (which was thoroughly enjoyed) to gain an elementary grasp on the fact that some of their classmates like similar things while others do not. Students’ were interested playing to find out who likes, or does not like such eclectic categories as food, animals, sports, colours, to name but a few.
Students have had a photo of themselves taken and printed to aid their illustrating of a self-portrait. They have also filled in a basic questionnaire about themselves. These have been collated and are currently on display in the classroom. Additionally, students were given the opportunity to draw their favourite thing (no prescribed topic) and write an accompanying sentence stating that “I like…because…”. These are likewise displayed.
Today the class spent the afternoon with printed forms (such as they previously completed for themselves) to fill in by interviewing their classmates. Each student interviewed four others (each with a designated time so that all interviews could be completed). These results will be subsequently compared and contrasted and used to introduce the concept of a bar graph to initiate a concept of data handling.
In English, Milky Way has been learning the correct handwriting of the lower-case letters adding a few each day with students hitherto having practiced the letters (in order of learning):
c, a, d, g, q, f, s, e, o, u, y
l, i, t, v, w, x, z
They are also beginning to learn basic punctuation, capitalisation and spacing between words. Concurrently, the class has begun recognition and various pronunciations of phonograms: er, ir, ur, ear, wor, ch, sh, th, ea, ee, oo, ow, ou, ay as well as writing some simple sentences. They have also been taking home readers daily (assistance of family members in this task is sincerely requested and appreciated as students reading abilities are at various levels and individual progress is important).
In mathematics the class has covered ‘rainbow facts’ (recognising by memory all two-integer, addition combinations to make ten) as well as simple addition of two integers whose sum is less than or equal to ten. Some students have been successful in a trial of addition problems whose sum is greater than ten.
Students are also practicing counting in 2s (concurrently recognising odd and even numbers), 5s, 10s and 11s and were today introduced to the concept of multiplication to give a context to this counting (for example: in one group of two things there are two things, in two groups of two things there are four things) and begun rote learning by chanting these timetables up to 12´.
