Good afternoon,
Despite it being only a four day week, we managed to pack plenty into it and kept busy. In connection with our unit of inquiry focusing on play, this week we considered different areas of our classroom and how children like to use various resources. We shared photographs we had taken of each child at play in school during the past few weeks, and invited them to talk about what they were doing at the time of the picture. Children were happy to see themselves documented in this way and were eager to share that they were, for example, “…playing with LEGO.”, “…reading with [a friend].” or “…making a tower with cups.” in the photos. We printed each photograph out, and wrote down the children’s explanation exactly as they told it. The photographs are displayed in class with speech bubbles containing the children’s words as a visual reminder of the types of play that take place in our learning environment.
Later in the week we linked some maths work to our unit of inquiry as we introduced the children to the concept of tallies. Together we made a group tally to see which toy or resource the children liked best, referring to a selection of photos of various resources in our class. Then, in small groups, each child was given the opportunity to take a tally sheet on a clipboard for themselves and to move around the room asking friends and teachers which toy they preferred, marking responses down using tally marks. You may have seen the completed tallies as they came home in their school bags. (A few photographs of this learning engagement are featured below.)
We also continued to consider our emotions as we read a book called ‘Color Monster’. In this fun story, the Color Monster changes colour depending on how he is feeling. At the start of the story he feels all mixed up -he isn’t sure how he feels. But with the help of a little girl, he is able to separate his emotions. As a visual aid, and a good reference point when discussing or identifying emotions, we followed up the reading and discussion of the book by working in groups to paint our own class Color Monsters, one to represent each emotion in the book; happy (yellow), sad (blue), angry (red), afraid/scared (black), calm (green) and love (pink). These will be displayed in our classroom for all to see and refer to.
Each day we set out invitations to learning on the tables in the classroom. These are as they sound; an invitation to the children to engage in some learning. It is not compulsory for children to take part, but they are encouraged and are often keen to do so. This week one of the invitations we set out was a selection of lollipop sticks in various colours (brand new and therefore clean!) and cards which showed different arrangements (pictures and shapes) that could be made using the sticks. Many of the children were interested in this activity, and spent time and effort working on creating pictures or designs. While engaging they were developing hand-eye coordination, focus, fine motor skills, and their mathematical understanding of shape and space. Below you can see photos of some of the children working on this activity.
Reminder: On swimming day, we kindly ask you to please send everything your child needs for swimming in one bag, rather than two if possible. This makes it much easier to manage when walking to and from the swimming pool. It would be of great help if you could also not only encourage your child to practise dressing and undressing for themselves, but also to supply clothing that is easier for him or her to put on and take off. Many thanks in advance for your support in this.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,
Kristina, Rahma and Buthaina
