Candles

The students have been inquiring about ‘fire’ and ‘candles’. We decided to make our own candles. Ms. Hannah took the students through the process. The students gathered in small groups around a table. Ms. Hannah gave the students the wax pellets. The students used their senses to explore the smooth, white wax. The students worked in groups to complete the task.

Group 1: Jooeon, Felix, Charlotte and Jessica 

  • Felix “That’s rice! I think rice. Rice is broken.”
  • Jooeon “No idea.”
  • Charlotte “Rice, smells good.” (in Mandarin)
  • Felix “What is this Ms. Hannah?” (pointing to the cooker)

Ms. Hannah explained that it was a cooker, she uses it to make hotpot. Ms. Hannah put the little white pellets in the pan.

  • Jooeon “What is it?”
  • Felix “Hot water come! It looks like brown.”
  • Jessica “It’s all turned into water. We used some ‘rice’ and a pot. We poured the ‘rice’ into a pot. The ‘rice’ turned into ‘water’. (in Mandarin)

  • Felix “It was smaller. It’s broken.”
  • Charlotte “It’s (rice) disappearing.” (in Mandarin)
  • Felix “It got small, small, smaller inside.”
  • Charlotte “It’s like magic.” (in Mandarin)
  • Felix “It’s away.”
  • Charlotte “How did it disappear? I can feel the hot steam going out of the pan.” (in Mandarin)
  • Felix “Slimy.”
  • Charlotte “It’s changing colour because the teacher can do the magic.” (in Mandarin)

The students wrote their names at the bottom of the candle holder. Then they decided what they wanted to include in their candles.

  • Jessica explained, “I wrote my name on the bottom of the cup. I put a flower and some yellow flower (osmanthus) into the cup before Ms Hannah poured the ‘water’ into the cup.” (in Mandarin)

Ms. Hannah poured the melted wax into the container. The students watched with interest as the little flowers moved around in the container.

The students compared the wax pellets and Ms. Hannah’s candle.

  • Felix “It feels like rice. Both white.”
  • Charlotte “Both white but feels different. One is hard and the other one is spotty.” (in Mandarin)
  • Jessica wondered if they were the same. She shook her head suggesting they were not. She explained “The raw one was the ‘rice’, it turned into ‘water’ after we cooked it. I don’t know how did the water get into the pot. I thought we were making the cupcakes but we were making candles.” (in Mandarin)
  • Charlotte “It is changing colour.” (in Mandarin)
  • Felix “It smells like rice and this smells like candle perfume.”
  • Looking at Charlotte’s candle Felix explains “That’s finished. Because everyone is white.”

The students continued to observe their candles as they changed colour.

The teacher shook the table. The candles moved around in the tray.

  • Charlotte “Mine is not wiggling around because it is solid, not liquid.” (in Mandarin)
  • Jooeon felt the sides of his candle holder “HOT!”
  • Felix “Mine is almost done because it is sticky. We have lots of candles at home. Not real candles…. I don’t know the English word for it.”

The students held their cooling candles.

  • Charlotte “I think mine is getting cooler.” (in Mandarin)
  • Felix “Warm.”
  • Charlotte “Very hot.” (in Mandarin)
  • Felix “Down is warm.”
  • Jessica “It turned hard after the ‘water’ sat in the cup for a long time because it’s not too hot and it’s not rice anymore.” (in Mandarin)

https://twitter.com/NISPreKK1/status/1091149376309751808

 

Group 2: Ruby, Ethan, Michelle, Si Hyun, Jiwoo and Alejandra

Ms. Hannah showed the student the cooker. She talked to the students about safety.

  • Michelle “If you touch it you have to go to hospital. Because it is too hot. If you put a little bit water it will be very hot.” (in Mandarin)

Ms. Hannah showed the students the wax pellets.

  • Ethan “Is that rice?” (in Mandarin)
  • Alejandra “Maybe rice? Because rice is like that.”
  • Ruby “Dried rice.”

 Ms. Hannah put the pellets in the pot.

  • Ethan “There is smoke coming out. Little water. I think its smelly.” (in Mandarin)
  • Jiwoo pointed to a few pellets that had fallen out on to the cooker. He noticed that they had changed from one state to another. “Water get over here.” He said.

 The students continued to look at the changing pellets inside the pot.

  • Ruby “I think it is wet now.”
  • Si Huyn pointed to the liquid and said “Top”. He explained that water was coming from the bottom. “Smoke, smoke, smoke.”
  • Ethan “Becomes rice.” (in Mandarin)
  • Ruby “It becomes different. Because I see it all sticked together.”
  • Michelle “It is like rice. It sticks together.” (in Mandarin)
  • Ethan “Why did it become like this?” (in Mandarin)
  • Ruby and Ethan “Small it’s getting smaller.
  • Ruby “What if we put more in there?”
  • Ethan “It’s disappear.” (in Mandarin)
  • Alejandra “It’s (rice) going to get bigger. The rice disappeared.”
  • Ruby “Smaller.”
  • Alejandra “If we put all in, it will get bigger.”
  • Ruby “It is getting smaller. It gets smaller than that.”
  • Jiwoo “Water inside.”
  • Michelle “What is this?”

Ms. Hannah helped the students pour the hot wax into the containers.

  • Michelle pointed to the flowers and seeds in her candle. “That’s flower?”
  • Jiwoo pointed to the flower buds, “It gets bigger.”
  • Ethan “It gets poisonous.” (in Mandarin)
  • Ruby “It smells like lavender.”

 Next the students wrote their names on the bottom their candle holder. 

  • Ruby “It looks like there is grass.”
  • Ethan “When you put the wick inside it is smelly. (in Mandarin)
  • Alejandra pointed to the two candle holders. One had hot wax and the other had cooled down. “This is not water (hard) and this is water.”

  • Jiwoo said that the one with liquid will become just like the candle that was ‘cold’.
  • Ethan “The candle wouldn’t turn into this. How can we get the stuff (flowers) out of there? We will have to wear gloves.” (in Mandarin)
  • Jiwoo notices that the colour on the bottom of the candle is turning white.
  • Ruby “It is getting silver.”
  • Michelle “The colour is different. It’s becoming a little bit like the candle.” (in Mandarin)
  • Ruby “When the water disappears the grass come up.”
  • Alejandra “It is white. Inside have white. Mine is not cold. Mine is hot because mine has hot water.”
  • Si Hyun explained how Charlotte’s candle was hot and that Ms. Hannah was helping her.

The students observed their cooling candles. They held them in their hands and compared and talked about temperature using the words, hot, cold and warm.  

The students continue to wonder what candles are made of. Our inquiry continues…

Approaches to Learning (ATL’s)

Thinking Skills

Analysing

  • Observe carefully.
  • Synthesize new understandings by seeing relationships and connections.

Forming decisions

  • Revise understandings based on new information and evidence.
  • Draw conclusions and generalizations.

Generating novel ideas

  • Make unexpected or unusual connections between objects and/or ideas.

Considering new perspectives

  • Seek information. 

Research Skills

Data gathering and documenting

  • Use all senses to observe and notice details.

Communication Skills

Listening

  • Listen to information.
  • Listen actively and respectfully to others’ ideas.

Speaking

  • Express oneself using words and sentences.
  • Participate in conversations.

Self-management Skills

  • Follow the directions of others.

The Liquid

The students were discussing what they knew about candles. They used their senses to explore the candles further. 

  • Ruby “It’s like strawberry.” [smell]
  • Alejandra “A flower, because it’s smells like a flower. Later we paint it red.”

Some of the students had suggested that ‘when the fire burns the candles, there is a liquid’. 

We lit a candle, and observed the dripping liquid. 

  • Alejandra “The peel of the red one. Because it has fire.”
  • Ruby “Water drips like that. It’s actually…  blood.”
  • Si Hyun “Here water, here fire, inside.”
  • Ruby “We have to make with clay and dry and after paint. The we put candles and light it.”

We continue to wonder about the dripping liquid…

Chinese New Year Celebrations

The students have been singing and exploring culture through music during their regular Mandarin classes. As the Chinese New Year celebrations commenced, the students gathered on the Early Years stage, to sing their favourite Chinese New Year songs to the parent community.

After the performance, the students and parents gathered to create lanterns and make Baozi. The students worked the dough and created 2 delicate buns. Then they were sent off to the cafeteria to be steamed. The students enjoyed their delicious Baozi! 

Another group of students joined Ms. Cherry to create Chinese lanterns. They used letter shapes, Chinese characters, sequins and other decorative material to create their lanterns. The parents joined in, to help their children create these beautiful pieces of art. 

https://twitter.com/NISPreKK1/status/1088775527039524864

SLO’s

  • know that Chinese New Year as an important Chinese celebration
  • know that Mandarin as the main language of China
  • use their imagination and experiences to inform their art making
  • explore the important traditions and practices of their own family and community
  • know that there are people with more than one cultural identity/nationality
  • know why a particular celebration is important in his/ her life
  • explore how rituals and traditions contribute to own and others’ cultural identity
  • develop their sense of identity and self-worth
  • positive acceptance of diversity
  • open-mindedness
  • participate in performing and creating performing arts pieces both individually and collectively

Dragons

Chinese New Year is a few days away. It is an important time of year in the Chinese calendar. In order to learn more about our host culture, its traditions and festivals, we decided to read the story “Golden Dragon Parade’ by Anastasia Suen.

We also read the story ‘Bringing In the New Year’ by Grace Lin. Next, we watched a video that provides an explanation about the Chinese New Year. As the students talked about the different traditions and stories, they discussed what they know about dragons. They were fascinated with an illustration of a beautiful dragon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u-R-aIq3_E

We decided to create our own dragons. The first step was to sketch the dragon’s face.

Next, the students used water colours to complete their dragon faces.

The next step was to create the dragon’s body. The students folded a strip of card to create the body. They also remembered to use tissue paper to create the tail. 

https://twitter.com/NISPreKK1/status/1088779914612957184

Ms. Tina taught the students how to write Fu ‘“福”’ in Chinese using a calligraphy brush and special writing paper. 

https://twitter.com/NISPreKK1/status/1087941019117805568

One student decided to create her own Fu “福”.

Ms Shemo and Ms. Jao, shared pictures of their doorways which displayed the “天增岁月人增寿,春满乾坤福满门”  “福门吉祥事事兴,宝地生财年年旺”… which means ‘long life and happy family’ and ‘everything goes well and prosperity’.

We wonder how people from different cultures express themselves…

SLO’s

  • know that Chinese New Year as an important Chinese celebration
  • know that Mandarin as the main language of China
  • describe what they notice about an artwork
  • analyse the relationships within an artwork and construct meanings
  • make personal connections to artworks
  • engage with, and enjoy a variety of visual arts experiences
  • select tools, materials and processes for specific purposes
  • use their imagination and experiences to inform their art making
  • create artwork in response to a range of stimuli
  • explore the important traditions and practices of their own family and community
  • know that there are people with more than one cultural identity/nationality
  • know why a particular celebration is important in his/ her life
  • explore how rituals and traditions contribute to own and others’ cultural identity
  • develop their sense of identity and self-worth
  • positive acceptance of diversity
  • open-mindedness 

Shoes

Ms. Angie read a story about shoes to the students. The students took a picture walk to recall the story. They had to guess the different shoes belonged to.

The students put one foot out in front of them. They looked carefully at their shoes.

  • Michelle “I have shiny shoes its bright pink and blue and I have stars on my shoe.” [in Mandarin]
  • Felix “I have red and grey, white and black.”

We wondered why we wore shoes.

  • Charlotte “I have sports shoes and I have red, white and brown on my shoes.” [in Mandarin]
  • Ethan “My daddy and mummy and me all wear different kinds of shoes. Shoes help him run fast, some make him run slowly.” [in Mandarin]
  • Amber “I have a cotton shoes and I can wear these shoes in the snow.” [in Mandarin]
  • Alejandra “My shoes are fluffy. I have another pair of shoes that can help me run very fast. With these shoes I can’t. I have another pair of shoes to do sports. I have some shiny shoes. I have ski shoes.” [in Mandarin]
  • Nicolas “I have a shoe at home and it is shiny at the back and I have one shoes and it has this part (the front) is red and here (the back) a little bit of grey and brown and this whole part (the front) when I step it shines with lights. I have another shoe, a ski shoe. I have boots but with another colour, it is red and it has pointy spikes on here. And when I scratch the floor it comes a line.”

We first counted how many shoes we have. We have 15 shoes!

  • Teacher “How can we sort the shoes out?”
  • Ruby “We could put them all in a circle. Or make a shoe line.”
  • Nicolas looked at the book. He wanted to make a circle with the shoes. He said, “We can sort out the shoes by colours.”
  • Si Hyun said that we should sort the ones that have straps and the ones that don’t.

7 shoes had straps. 7 shoes did not have straps.

  • Alejandra said we can sort out the shoes that have zips and the ones that don’t. Only 1 shoe had a zip.
  • Ruby had an idea. “We can sort them out the boots in 1 line and the shoes in another.” We had 4 boots and 11 shoes.

Felix wrote a label 11 with help from his friends.

How would you sort your own shoes? How are they similar or different? 

We wonder…

SLO’s

  • sort objects
  • begin to explain data using simple language such as same and different / more or less

Candles

The students had a discussion about fire. A few months ago Ms. Angie received a gift bag of tea-light candles. We wondered how candles were made. 

https://twitter.com/NISPreKK1/status/1057924053925691392

We sat down to share our prior knowledge about candles.

  • Ethan “It is white, not rainbow.里面不能放玩具。” 【Can’t put toys inside】
  • Alejandra “It smells like chocolate and Orio. If you put paper on fire it will go away. The paper will be black.”
  • Si Hyun “Fire here. Happy birthday to you”. [in Korean] “When the wick catches fire it bends. It’s turning red because of the fire.”
  • Jiwoo “Fire is here. Water is here.” Explaining that there is a liquid when the fire burns the candles.
  • Lawrence looked closely at the match stick and explained “It’s black too because its fire. Have green, blue, red. (He has green, blue and red match sticks at home) Because my home have fire. Because in night I go Ruby’s party. Because I don’t see.” [Lawrence explained that you need candles to help you see in the dark]
  • Ruby “The water melts fire. On the candle. If you put fire inside the cup, it will cut the cup. It will crack. If you touch the fire, you burn your hands.”
  • Jasmine “Fire. And this we have fire in this one. And water is here and fire is no. 火放上去的时候,里面会变黑,火会把你的手烧掉的。” 【When the fire is put on, it will turn black and the fire will burn your hands.】

  • Nicolas “When you put fire in the candles the glass don’t broke, because the fire can move like this, it just wiggles. Because it is so hot when you put paper on it, the paper will get black. The fire gets up in a hole. The fire goes bigger.”
  • Lawrence “Put fire in, and water in and this cup is broken. Because water and fire is really hot. Water in here, fire in here {pointing to the container} and cup in here. This blocks be black. Because fire and water….water is really, really like fire. Because paper black, the blocks black.” [Lawrence was explaining how paper and blocks both turn black when they burn.
  • Nicolas “Its not water, it’s gas of the fire. And it gets black. When it was the fire, it was white [the wick), now when you light it, it turns black.”
  • Amber “如果把杯子放上去,也会烧掉。Because of the fire.是因为火会把杯子融化掉。 ” 【If you put the cup on it, it will burn out. Because of the fire. Because the fire will melt the cup】

We wonder where our inquiry will take us…

Approaches to Learning (ATL’s)

Thinking Skills

Analysing

• Observe carefully.

• Synthesize new understandings by seeing relationships and connections.

Generating novel ideas

• Use discussion and play to generate new ideas and investigations.

• Make unexpected or unusual connections between objects and/or ideas.

• Practice some “visible thinking” routines (Ritchhart, Church and Morrison 2011).

Considering new perspectives

• Seek information.

Research Skills

Data gathering and documenting (audio recording, drawing, photographing)

• Gather information from a variety of sources (people, places, materials, literature).

• Use all senses to observe and notice details.

Communication Skills

Listening

• Listen to information.

• Listen actively and respectfully to others’ ideas.

• Ask for clarifications.

Speaking

• Express oneself using words and sentences.

• Participate in conversations.

• Negotiate ideas and knowledge with peers and teachers.

Social Skills

Interpersonal relationships

• Listen closely to others.

• Be respectful to others.

Fire

Lawrence drew a picture of fire. He explained that he visited a fire station recently. The students sat down to discuss what they know about fire and fire stations.

  • Alejandra “I go one day in Spanish and my Ayi have a friend. He let me go on the fire truck. It was all red. I’m so scary if there was a fire. If a fire is down and we are up he goes down. [Alejandra explained that the fireman go down the firepole to get into the firetrucks] 大小孩吃东西的时候,会放在火里面放一下。烤东西。如果用火玩,我们就会受伤,那个fire的车就会来救我们。” [When the big kids are eating, they put the food into the fire. If we play with the fire, we may get hurt, and the fire truck will come and save us.]
  • Si Hyun “Fire engine go and fire. Because house in the fire. And fire engine go home and fire.”
  • Lawrence “Fire. In a fire station. Because today my mum say go to fire station.”
  • Amber “Because fire station.”
  • Jiwoo “Fire station.”
  • Nicolas “I was at home and then my mum said do you want to go to……a fire light is like a circle with a light. Daddy and mummy will go to sleep and then the fire will fall down…… we called the fire girl. The fire began to fly……My friends and I rub sticks and rub it, and the fire begins to fly.”
  • Ruby “At my home the fire goes in to my room. Then I woke up and told my mummy. My mummy just put water. The fire truck put so many water. Millions of water!”
  • Jasmin “Everybody is red. Fire truck is red. 在水里看到火,我看到消防车把火灭掉。水能把火灭掉,我不知道为什么。[I see fire in the water, I see fire truck put off the fire. Water can put off the fire, I don’t know why.]
  • Ethan “房子着火了消防车会很快过来,然后救火。用水龙头里的水救火。消防车把一些人运去看医生。” [The fire truck will come very fast if the house is on fire. They use the water to put off the fire. Some fire trucks will send people to hospitals to see doctors.]
  • Felix “The fire station is bigger than the fire truck. And fire is hot and ice-cream is cold. And fire truck put the fire away.”

The students created pictures to share their prior knowledge:

Our inquiry continues…

23 January, 2019

Fire

Continued…

We sat down together to continue our conversation about ‘fire’. 

  • Sarah “里面的味道很香,做蛋糕的时候。” [It smells good inside, when you make cake.]
  • Charlotte “里面的味道是巧克力的,you can 做蛋糕。” [It smells like chocolate inside, you can make cake.]
  • Felix “We can put it something like that [pointing to a table]. Because birthday is everywhere. When a fire we need water and put it away.  When the fire in the water, then the fire go goes so fast away. The water is blue, then come a helicopter and the water come and put the fire away.”

The students revisited their initial thoughts about ‘fire’. They clarified some of the ideas they had discussed before. We continued to document their thoughts on the chart paper.

  • Teacher “What does ‘melt’ mean?”
  • Amber “融化就像冰淇淋融化,热得太久就会融化。巧克力也会融化,它是软的,一下子咬碎了。” [Melt is like ice-cream can melt. If it is hot for a long time it will melt. Chocolate can melt also, it’s soft, if you bite it, it will be broken.]
  • Ruby “When something is gone, ruined or broken.”
  • Teacher “What do you mean by ‘you burn your hands’?”
  • Ruby “When I blow on a candle, the fire goes away in my birthday. When you open the eyes, when the fire is gone, then your fingers will be burned.” [Ruby continues to explain that is you close your eyes and can’t see where you put your hands, then you might burn them. She looked on the internet for a picture that’s explains her thoughts]

https://advancedtissue.com/wp-content/uploads/preventscar.jpg

  • Teacher “Can fire move?”
  • Nicolas “Because under there is water and when water shakes the fire wiggles.”
  • Si Hyun continues to explain his idea about candles on cakes, saying, “When the wick catch fire, it bends, its turning red because of fire and then it bends.”

https://konditorandcook.com/media/catalog/product/cache/d5b2d9f6d4f347c2478383b60f4d6b24/h/a/happy_birthday_1684.jpg

  • Teacher “How does the fire help us see?
  • Nicolas “Fire is like light. Fire shines.”
  • Lawrence “因为我在家用木头做了火,火会到这边,然后慢慢没有了。用木头写1、2、3,会变模糊,一划就会有印子。” [I made fire by using the wood at home, the fire came here, then it was gone. I can write 1、2、3 by using the wood, it will get vague, and if you scribble, it has markers.]
  • Teacher “What do you mean by gas?”
  • Nicolas explains “Under fire, the gas is blue. Gas is like a type of fire.”
  • Si Hyun “Food, gas in my house.” He explains that mummy cooks food in the put.”

Nicolas and Si Hyun look through pictures on the internet to find a picture that explains their thinking.

We continue to wonder and explore our thoughts about fire…

 

How Many?

We looked at a group of shapes on the whiteboard. We wondered how many there were.

The students shared what they noticed.

  • Ruby “2 red, 2 blue and 2 green.”

  • Teacher “How many altogether?”
  • Jasmine Alejandra, Ruby “1,2,3,4,5,6.”

The students counted them one by one and agreed that there were 6 in total.

  • Jasmine “Xuanwu, Taiping, Wutaishan.”

Jasmine was explaining that the shapes were the same three colours as the ‘house colours’ at NIS!

  • Teacher “What if the triangle was number 1?”

The students thought about this.

  • Teacher “How many triangles would we need to cover the blue shape?”
  • Alejandra “2!”

She was asked to prove it. She used Geoshapes to show her answer.

We decided that the blue shapes were number 2’s.

  • Teacher “Then how much will we need to cover the red shape?”
  • Amber “3!”

Again, Amber used Geoshapes to show her answer.

We decided to name our shapes. 

But how many is it altogether?

The students began to share their answers. Some students estimated, some students counted to find out. 

Amber said it was 12.

  • Teacher “How do you know?”

Amber explained that she used her fingers to count. “1 and 1, and 2 and 2, and 3 and 3!”

SLO’s

  • Estimate quantities to 10
  • Adding groups of objects
  • Explore shape and space
  • Listen to others
  • Share ideas
  • Look for similarities and differences
  • Use manipulatives to solve problems

The Napping House

We listened to the story ‘The Napping House by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Dan Wood. In this story, there is a granny, a child, a dog, a cat and a mouse, sleeping on top of each other on a cozy bed. They were all sleeping peacefully until a flea decides to bite the sleeping mouse. The students listened to the story in both English and Mandarin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxPYhscW16o

The next day, the students revisited the story. This time we did a ‘picture walk’, recalling the story in sequence.

Next, we used picture cards to help us retell the story.

The students began to notice a pattern. Jasmine stated that the pattern looked like ‘Steps’.

As the display was posted on the whiteboard, Lawrence said Its 21”. He explained that there were 21 cards altogether.

Ruby noticed that, “The numbers are getting bigger as you go up the stairs!”

Next, a group of students used cubes to create a 3-Dimensional representation of the information we recorded on the poster. We discussed the rule for the pattern to help us identify how the pattern changes. We used the rule 1 more to help us create a growing pattern.

Ruby “You have to make a straight line.”

Nicolas “I have 6!”

The students began to count out the cubes they needed to create their structures.

Here are some examples:

https://twitter.com/NISPreKK1/status/1083568789873029120

https://twitter.com/NISPreKK1/status/1083570547114467328

SLO’s

  • observe, discuss and comment on the information being conveyed in illustrations
  • retell a story using the pictures
  • listen and respond in small or large groups for increasing periods of time
  • join in with poems, rhymes, songs and repeated phrases in shared books
  • listen and respond to picture books, showing pleasure, and demonstrating their understanding through gestures, expression and/or words
  • focus on a speaker and maintain eye contact
  • respond actively to read aloud situations; make predictions, anticipate possible outcomes

The Scientist

What is the Learner doing?

Learners:

  • are actively engaged in various stages of learning, including: thinking about, planning, modifying and creating
  • are actively involved in discussion, questioning and by being self-directed in their creating (as opposed to passive receiving)
  • apply their understanding of concepts through the construction of their projects/play
  • make connections to the real world by taking past experiences into their play worlds
  • face challenges and are given the freedom to independently overcome these or fail through trial and error or experimentation
  • are risk-takers
  • express their theories of the world and these are honoured in the environment

https://twitter.com/NISPreKK1/status/1083215496428699648