Milky Wayへの進級から約1ヶ月が経ち、MWクラスの日々の活動や習慣にも慣れてきた子どもたち。
この1ヶ月、Who We Areのユニットのもと『自分とお友達を理解することは、より良い関係を築くのに大切』をセントラルアイディアとして探求してきましたが、このユニットも終わりに近づいてきました。
まぐ、子どもたちは家族写真をもとに家族構成や住んでいる家の様子を話し合いました。お友達の家族のことを聞く中で似ていること、全く異なっていることに気づきました。
一緒に住む家族は何人？一緒に暮らしてはいないけど、離れたところに住む家族(おじいちゃん、おばあちゃん、いとこ)は何人？と情報を集め、統計し、グラフを作成しました。
お家から持ってきたお気に入りのアイテムをshow and tell としてみんなの前で発表することは、みんなの毎日の楽しみでした！好きなもの、いつもお家で遊んでいるおもちゃ、得意なこと、またそうでもないことをシェアすることで、自分自身をより良く知り、お友達のまだまだ知らなかったことを発見するとても良い機会となりました。
前週にクラスメートにインタビューをした活動をさらに広げ、今週はGrade 1のお兄さんお姉さんにインタビューしました！
少し緊張した様子でしたが、Rainforestのお友達とペアになり、たくさんの質問をしてGrade 1のメンバーのことを知ることができました。
またこの結果を各自ポスターに書き表し、ここでも自身と同じこと・似ていること・異なっていることをよく考えながら活動しました。
どうして相手を知ることは大切なのかな？ どうしたら相手のことをより良く知れるかな？ どうしたらあまり知らない人とでも仲良くなれるかな？
MWのみんながこれらの考えと答えに辿り着くまで、あともう少しです！
Englishの時間には1つの文字と2つの文字がどのような音を出すのかにフォーカスしています。また、sight wordsという頻出単語も順調に身につけています。
とてと暑くなった今週は、外で体を動かすこともたくさんできました。
体調には気をつけて、良い週末をお過ごしくださいね！
Milky Way has been coming together nicely as a class; students are now settled in to the routine, environment and their classmates. Students are still investigating the transdisciplinary theme Who we are, with the central idea being that understanding myself and others helps to build stronger relationships. The second and third lines of enquiry have been: Exploring our lives and our friends’ lives and Understanding that our differences and similarities connects us.
Exploring our lives and our friends’ lives
The various components of this line of enquiry comprised elucidating for students the array of contemporary family structures and living arrangements whose illustration was greatly improved by the much appreciated photos proffered by the families of MW students. In this activity students were able to present their families and lives generally to the class such that each student could readily see that some families are the same & some are different & likewise the nature of their lives.
To add a mathematical component to this a table was constructed showing the numbers of people that each student lives with and additionally the members of their extended families who are significantly involved in their lives. From this, some trends were obviated, along with the fact that there are always exceptions to trends. This reinforced the data-handling techniques they encountered while constructing and subsequently interpreting a bar graph showing simple Milky Way students’ likes.
The class also spent time watching appropriate short documentary films about the nature of families and lifestyles around the world.
Understanding that our differences and similarities connects us
To introduce this in the most rudimentary way, each student has been bringing to school some of their favourite personal effects and presenting a short show-and-tell regarding their selections.
Students have also spoken and composed documents (including selected colouring pictures) regarding their hobbies, the things they consider themselves to be good at and also those they consider themselves unable to do or only able to perform poorly. This is being extended to rotational workstations where students will have the chance to teach their nominated skills to other students such that the class can more practically & by experience gain a deeper understanding of the vastness of skillsets even within one class.
As students previously interviewed their classmates, they have this week interviewed the ISN Grade 1 students in a similar scenario. Immediately following this the class discussed what they learned during the experience. Today, the data of these surveys was used by the interviewers to compose a document regarding the similarities and differences their subjects and themselves. In the coming days students will be meeting individually with their teacher to explain the said documents in the anticipation that they will be able to demonstrate a degree of the concepts therein. Students will concurrently be asked to provide possible solutions about relationships and becoming better friends with classmates and students perhaps not well known to them.
In mathematics the students have been studying the doubling of numbers less than or equal to twelve simultaneous receiving an introduction to multiplication via the two-times table as in effect, it can be readily equated with doubling and thereby taught as such.
In English, students are daily studying the pronunciations of various phonograms (single and multiple letter), as well as the recognition of sets of sight-words; a task they enjoy and are doing exceptionally well with.
The above notwithstanding, they have also had ample time to enjoy the activities they choose to pursue such as lego, building blocks, a kitchen set, various jig-saw puzzles, colouring pages, word-searches and mazes.
