A Visit to the New Space

The students have been discussing the move to the new space. We were excited to finally go on a field trip to see the space, currently under construction at the school. The students were amazed to see how the gym is transforming. Mr. Arek talked to us about safety. He showed us the safety signs and explained what they meant. The students wore hard hats. Abby said “We have to protect our heads if bricks fall!” 

  • Abby “Mr. Arek said that we must not be silly.”
  • Reggie “We must not go in there by ourselves.”
  • Kai “Don’t go in there when there is an emergency because it is dangerous.”
  • Ryan “But we have safety helmets.”
  • Kai “Because it is for safety.”
  • Amber “No hat…take it off” [Don’t take the hat off]
  • Abby “Don’t wiggle it.”
  • Ryan “Don’t’ hit on it.”
  • Kai “And don’t play with it wibble wobble.”
  • Vincent “It was really fun but we didn’t have any toys.”

The students noticed that the floor was not blue. Mr. Arek explained that they have not put the flooring in yet.

  • Abby “There is no paint. Because it does not have a colour.”
  • Vincent “And because it is not finished yet. They are going to paint the colour when they are finished.”

  • Reggie “We went to our new classrooms. There were no toys there because they were still working on it. The classroom had no toys in. And also there was a stage there, the stage had no light. There was stuff on the stage they need to move it off.”
  • Abby “Why the stage was too tiny? It does not have have any room for more kids. The stage does not have any paint. They will paint it.”

  • Kai “You wont have fun there, because it is not done.”
  • Abby “The classroom looked like a old classroom because there was too much ugly paint on it.”

The students began to decide what they wanted to take to the new space.

  • Big lego – Vincent
  • Small Lego – Ryan
  • Train track – Franz
  • The drawing table and puzzles – Abby
  • The colouring things – Ruby
  • The blocks – Reggie
  • Play dough – Nicolas
  • Our baskets so we can put what we have made. – Abby
  • The buildings and the blocks. – Tyler
  • The trolley – Mia (With the ‘Writers Workshop’ materials)
  • Sand – Alejandra (colourful sand in tubs)

The students also decided that they needed to take the home corner. They suggested that it could look different.

The students watched the video and reflected on their visit to the new space. They wonder…

  • Ryan “We don’t know where the toilets are yet.”

The Nature Walk

A group of students went on a ‘Bug Hunt’. They took a closer look to see what mini creatures they can find.

  • Amber “I found ants, they are moving the rice.”

 The students went towards the bamboo forest, the field and the playground.

  • Jasmine “Butterfly! It’s white.”
  • Amber (Pointing to the wall) “Caterpillar.”

We noticed that it has many legs. 

  • Jasmine “It’s centipede.”
  • Lawrence “I see snails.”
  • Michelle “There’s more….”
  • Amber “There’s a big one above the wall.”

The students counted to see how many snails were around.

  • Jasmine “So many butterflies.”
  • Amber “Why are there many butterflies?”

We didn’t see many butterflies when we had a hunt a couple of days ago. Now we can see many of them flying around the field. It is interesting. We also wonder why the butterflies all came around the garden.

  • Lawrence “I found bees.”

What little creatures do you see around you?

Our Grade 2 buddies came to help us gather some data on the different minibeasts we have in our garden. They helped us record our information using tally marks.

SLO’s

  • collect information to make sense of the world around us
  • record observations using simple tally marks (1 line/1 object)
  • explain data using simple language such as same and different/more or less/most or least

The NEW Space

We gathered together to talk about our big move to the Gym in the coming school year. The students wondered what the space may look like. We looked at the designs for the space and shared our thoughts.

The students discussed what a stage was for. Some students explained that it was like a theatre, where people go to watch performances. The students noted that the circular stage will allow more people to watch the performance. They observed the reflection of the classrooms on the blue flooring. They thought that it looked like the classes were in the water!

This was exciting. One student explained that it looked like the sink in the movie ‘Harry Potter’! Students were excited about the number of toilets and that many children could wash their hands at the same time. They wondered where the soap dispenser would be…

  • This is a classroom?
  • Where are all the toys?

The students discussed what they would need in the new space.

  • What would we take?
  • What would we pack up?
  • Which toys do we want to have in the space?

We wondered if we can see this new space.

Who should we ask?

Abby explained that we should ask Mr. Arek. We decided to prepare a letter for him. The students dictated the letter…

Mr. Arek,

Please can we look inside the new classrooms? Please can we go this week?

  • Reggie “We need safety helmets.”
  • Alejandra “We won’t put paper on the floor.”
  • Nicolas “We won’t get over and under the tables.”
  • Abby “We won’t be wild over there.”

All the students agreed that they will not ‘not run and jump’ as we need to be safe.

Abby wondered who will move all the boxes to the new space.

Kai wondered if there were going to be any new teachers.

We discussed how some children may stay at NIS and some move to other schools, some move classes and grades. Therefore, some students may have different teachers next year.

We decided to invite the K2 teachers over to play with us.

We look forward to hearing from Mr. Arek…

The Field Trip

Abby “This is a house. All the people went in the water. Because the building was breaking.

This is the house. But the chimney is too smoky. Because they are making a house. They are going on a field trip and they fell in the water. They tripped and they fell.

The field trip is to the restaurant.

They are scared of the thunder. Because the earth is shaking. Because of the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs were marching and they saw it was too high in the Earth and they crashed in the Earth, and the people and the cats were scared.

This is the restaurant. They are dancing in there. Some of the people in the water are dead. The party was starting almost.

The people fell. They were under the water and they didn’t float.

The stones are making a chicken. These things are how they made it.”

 

All About Spiders

We read the book ‘All About Spiders’ on Reading A-Z. We shared what we know, see and wonder about the non-fiction book.

  • Abby “The spider is making a web.”
  • Kai “It’s got silk coming out of its body.”
  • Reggie “It’s got silk coming out of its bottom!”
  • Ryan “It’s not silk. That is like a bridge. He wants to go to another way. He go that way and then spider web.”
  • Ruby “That IS.
  • Cornelis “The web is on the bottom. There is lots of webs in this book. When he sticks it out he goes back and forward. When he gets tired, he sleeps on his web.”

  • Tyler “This spider is scary.”
  • Hannah “Because that leg is like a tiger. The middle one.”
  • Kai “It has a mask, like to scare predators away.”
  • Vincent “The one in the middle has spikes.”
  • Cornelis “Maybe when you touch his spikes you will get ouchy.”
  • Abby “It is very pointy.”
  • Ruby “When you touch its spikes it hurts.”
  • Reggie “The spider in the middle, he is pretending he is a flower. So the flies will just move there.”
  • Vincent “Camouflaged!”
  • Hannah “I found a spider web outside. I touched it with my feet.”

  • Ryan “So beautiful.”
  • Abby “I love the colour.”
  • Hannah “Why is the spider holding the bee?”
  • Ryan “The spider wants to hold the bee. He wants to go to his home.”
  • Reggie “That bee was hidden in a flower, so the spider grabbed it and went to eat it.”
  • Hannah “Why are spider legs like scissors?”
  • Kai “Because, then the silk comes out it will get stuck to the grass and the spider will hang on to it.”

  • Reggie “The silkworm also makes silk!”
  • Cornelis “They stick it on their bodies.”
  • Reggie “The spider’s silk comes from the back and the silkworms silk comes from the mouth.”
  • Hannah “Why spiders have a spider web?”
  • Franz “Because fly bugs fly to the spider web. The spider catches it and then eats it.”
  • Ryan “He touch spider web, it is sticky.”
  • Vincent “If he makes the spider web, that is his home. The fly doesn’t see it. They fly into it and then he eats it.”
  • Hannah “Vincent say it right but I think it is also a way to fly [helps them move from one place to another].”
  • Cornelis “If they don’t see a web and the fly gets it, the spider traps the minibeasts in their web. He spins him up and gets stuck in the web. There he will get dead and he will eat him.”

  • Hannah “Why do spiders look like a monkey?”
  • Kai “That hair is like a gorilla!”
  • Reggie “Some spiders can have up to 20 eyes!”

  • Vincent “In the spider nest.”
  • Reggie “The eggs are the same colour as the mummy.”

SLO’s

  • participate and respond actively to read aloud situations; make predictions, anticipate possible outcomes
  • make connections to their own experience when listening to or reading texts
  • listen and respond to picture books, showing pleasure, and demonstrating their understanding through gestures, expression and/or words
  • observe, discuss and comment on the information being conveyed in illustrations