Category: complex problem-solving

Making New Paper

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The children were inspired by Isabella’s experiment and wondered if they could make their own paper. Isabella and Adalyn volunteered to use the shredded paper that the children had collected to create new paper.

They began by conducting research, reading books and watching a video to learn how to make paper using used or unwanted paper scraps.

Isabella and Adalyn took notes as they watched the video, using pictures, words, and sentences to create their own ‘how-to’ book. In this information booklet, they provided step-by-step instructions on the process of paper-making.

They were careful to include pictures for each step and detailed instructions that guide the reader through the process of making paper.

Several weeks of research and note-taking were required to create the instructional book. Finally, Isabella and Adalyn were ready to put their research to the test, by following the instructions to make their paper.

They began by soaking the paper scraps in water for a few days.

Then, they turned the paper mixture into paper pulp, following different steps to ensure that the mixture of water and paper pulp was correct.  

Then, they dipped the frame into the water with the paper pulp until they had a thin layer of the mixture on the netting.

Finally, the frames were left to dry in the sun and the new sheets of paper were created by the team.

Isabella and Adalyn presented their learning to the class, sharing the various steps they took to create several pieces of new paper.

The inquiry process provided Isabella and Adalyn with opportunities to explore different tools and methods. The sequence of planning, data gathering, interpreting, and communicating enabled them to develop skills in information literacy. 

The team now wonder what other natural materials they could use to make paper.

The Highest Tower in the World

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Is it a tower?

Over the last few weeks, a group of children have been collaborating to create a tower using Lego bricks. The idea was seeded by Jacob and Evan, yet many other engineers have joined this initiative.

As we watched the children engaging in their structural design, we noticed how the young engineers spoke to each other about their ideas, listened with intent and collaborated with enthusiasm with one goal in mind. 

Each section of the tower was thoughtfully put together, with the bricks being positioned purposefully to make sure there were no unplanned gaps around the perimeter of the structure.

The building moved from the tabletop to the floor as it grew taller. The engineers sort out children to stand next to the structure, attempting to build the structure taller than them.

The engineers moved the structure to a safer space, to ensure that it would not collapse if someone accidentally knocked against it. Curious onlookers stopped by to learn more about the tower.

The Highest Tower in the World

As the weeks pass by, the structural designers continue to work on their structure, creating stories and narratives about this amazing piece of engineering.

  • Adalyn “We need to put the Lego to build the tower.”
  • Isabella “We need to use the tower to measure our height, sometimes.”
  • George “I made the tower with Evan, Ricky, Jacob, Isabella and Adalyn. It takes a long time because this tower is too tall.”
  • Evan “The tower has a swimming pool. The people can play too. The pool is at the bottom, on the side.”
  • Jacob “We have a swimming pool for a motorbike, and on the water motorbike. The people can ride on this and people can live in the tower.”
  • Isabella “On the other side of the swimming pool there is some space you can put Lego so sometimes when we don’t have the Lego pieces we can try to find it inside this.”
  • Adalyn “The people can jump to the pool from the middle.”
  • Isabella “On the side, you need to be careful because there is nothing to protect you.”
  • Riccardo “That one, the jumping one, Jacob tired to jump with his fingers and he jumped on the wall.”
  • Jacob “Because I need to try to see when the people jump do they jump in the pool or out. Because then when real people jump in the pool, then he will jump on the rock and will die. And the jumping pool is on the top.”
  • Evan “We are trying to build but it is too high. We tried to use a chair because it’s too high. Only Adalyn can reach it.”
  • Adalyn “I helped to build the tower. I stand on the chair and then I can reach it.”
  • Isabella “On the top, one time, Evan wanted to put another jumping thing on the top.”

  • Evan “I want to use a small people, middle people and big people all can jump. The small people jump from the small one, the middle people jump from the middle one and the big people jump from the top one.”
  • Isabella “They come because it is a hotel.”
  • Evan “And it is fun. The jumping and the motorbikes make it fun.”
  • Jacob “It is a free hotel.”
  • Isabella “It is in America. People have to fly in an aeroplane.”
  • Evan “Two aeroplanes, or three. Because this hotel has many floors. I think 200 floors.”
  • Isabella “Evan and me and Adalyn had the idea first. We started to build a little one and we think we can build it taller to measure the people’s height. Last time we want to measure Ms. Sophia and taller than Ms. Sophia last time but the Lego but the Lego is not enough.”
  • Jacob “We can borrow some Lego from K2B.”
  • Riccardo “I think I need to take some from PreK-K1B because our box is almost finished.”

We look forward to hearing and reading about the stories that take place in and around the tall tower in the world!

How many watermelons can we purchase for RMB59?

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The children have been engaged in various activities related to ‘The Challenge Project’. Different teams will work on specific aspects of the project to help us stay organised. Following on from our inquiry into money, we were now ready to purchase the watermelon. It was time for us to have a small team walk across to the supermarket to buy the watermelon.

The shopping crew updated the others on their trip to the supermarket.

  • Riccardo “We went out of NIS.”
  • Jacob “We crossed the road. We walk over the walkway. Ms. Hannah helped us. The security guards helped us, he stopped the cars and we can go across the road.”
  • Isabella “We got to Suguo and we need to find the watermelon.”
  • Adalyn “We need to check the money. We had 59 RMB.
  • Suzy “We have to test it to see how heavy the watermelon is. Some of the small watermelons were not as heavy as the big ones.”
  • Isabella “We weighed the watermelons so we decide how many we need.”
  • Riccardo “The Suguo people helped us weigh the watermelon and told us how much money is it.”
  • Jacob “We carried it. If it is too heavy we cannot carry it so we need a small one.”
  • Riccardo “We choose 5 first. “
  • Jacob “We first gave them 57, then we gave them another 59. It was less than 59. 2 left.”
  • Adalyn “The two watermelon we add them and we buy them.”
  • Suzy “We went out of Suguo and we cross the road and we go back to NIS. We were safe.”

The experience at the supermarket helped the children experience the process of choosing and purchasing food items. On their trip, they needed to make many decisions and work together as a team to solve the problems they encountered.

Jacob “We are going to the supermarket to buy the watermelon for making the ice pop challenge. 3 minute challenge our buddy can make the watermelon ice-pop. We use 57 RMB to buy the watermelon and we took the middle one and one small one. We chose not heavy one, we choose the smaller one and smaller so we can carry this, used the basket too heavy. Me and Isabella carry it and go to school. We take a long time.”

Many opportunities for mathematical thinking and learning were explored. These authentic learning experiences are great opportunities for children to explore and learn about concepts through real-life experiences.

Our next step would be to carry out the test to find out how many ice pops we can make from one watermelon.

 

YAY! Making the Ice Pops!

 

  • Dahyun “We made the ice cream with the watermelon.”
  • Ciel “We put it in the freezer because then it will freeze.”
  • Evan “Then we took it out because we need to eat it in 3 minutes because we need to have a challenge.”
  • Isabella “It was really hard to take the ice pops out.”
  • Evan “Then we eat it in 3 minutes.”
  • Junsu “Some people don’t eat it in 3 minutes.”
  • Riccardo “It was really icy.”
  • Suzy “But it was yummy.”
  • Evan “It was so cold!”
  • Sea “We eat watermelon like ice pops. We eat it, it’s like cold. I ate it but my teeth was so cold.”
  • Adalyn “We eat watermelon ice-pops, it feels like cold.”
  • Isabella “It was sweet.”
  • Suzy “The ice pop, maybe it was sweeter a little bit more.”
  • Ciel “When Ms. Shemo took one ice pop out, it broke.”
  • Junsu “And watermelon is in the body.”
  • Dahyun “I eat ice cream then my body is so cold.”
  • Evan “I eat the ice cream my teeth feels off.”
  • Isabella “Riccardo finished the ice pop in 3 minutes. And Archie almost finished it.”
  • Sophia “Sea and Jacob finished next.”

The children explained, “It was a fun challenge because it was icy.”

We wonder what our next challenge would be…

What do we know about money?

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We have been planning a small group excursion to the supermarket in front of the school to buy a watermelon. This was the planned next step of our ‘Ice-pop Challenge Project’.

Jacob had learned that the watermelon would cost RMB 59. As a lead into the trip, we asked the children what they already knew about money.

  • Archie “Buying stuff.”
  • Adalyn “Buying food to eat.”
  • Dahyun “Buying Lego and pants.”
  • Riccardo “Where does money come from?”
  • Archie “Everyone has money, but some Indian people do not because the tornado happened and outside they are littering so much. But Japan has money.”
  • Isabella “The money is made of paper.”
  • Jacob “Buying something, when you want to learn something, then you can use the money to buy it. Like cubes.”
  • George “I have money. A little money. My mum gave me money. I use to buy toys.”
  • Sea “I have so many money because I have Korea money. And I put the money in the box and I have Nanjing money too. I think face on the money is different.”
  • Ciel “I have so many so I put in a piggy bank. It is a pig and there is a hole and we put the money, then it will be safe.”
  • Junsu “I have lots of money and I don’t know how much money I get. My dad didn’t tell me. I got the money from dad.”
  • Dahyun “Chinese money is different to Korean and Japanese money.”
  • Euno “I go to Dahyun’s house on Monday and I see Dahyun’s money is many. But I have little money. My grandma gives me money in Korea.”
  • Jacob “My home has lots of money but my mum and dad don’t tell me because then I will tell everybody and its not good. My money is more than other people. Other people want me to give money to him.”
  • Suzy “How do we make money?”
  • Ciel “We can make it with paper.”
  • Sea “I think you need to make with water and paper. If money is like paper.”
  • Jacob “I don’t know where we get money from but I know what is used to make it.”
  • Ciel “We get it from the bank. My mum gets it. They will change the money. There is a little hole and you put it.”
  • Adalyn “Work. My mum and dad work and can get some money.”
  • Sea “Dad is so long time at home and another day short time. He gets money.”
  • Jacob “My mum need to be at home to do our work. Like looking after me.”
  • We keep money is our home.
  • Archie “Give the money to the shop people.”

We decided to empty a wallet to find out how much money the teacher had. As we laid out the different coins and notes, The children began to talk about what they noticed about the money.We placed Base-10 blocks next to the notes and coins to talk about the value and calculate the total.

The children were curious about the different writing, symbols and images on the notes and coins and how they signified currencies from other countries.

  • Ciel “Money is also made of metal.”
  • Archie “The money is on paper and the colour is rainbow.”
  • Sea “Colour is different.”
  • Ciel “Because 20 is smaller than 10. Because then we know they are not the same.”
  • Euno “My money is five money, five 100 money.”
  • Suzy “Maybe we use the paper to cut around. A long paper, not too big and not too small. Suzy When we go to the supermarket we will draw the number then other people can know how many coins does the paper have. My money and daddy need money to buy food, because when we eat all the food then we can’t buy food.”

Jacob decided to calculate to find out how much money was in the wallet. Then, he set aside RMB 59 to buy the watermelon.

Next, a small group of children will visit the supermarket to buy the watermelon. Their research will help them calculate how many watermelons they will need to purchase to make enough ice pops for themselves and their Grade 5 buddies.

The Trolley Project: Final Steps

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The Trolley Project: Sourcing the Missing Parts

The trolley assembly team had been working on their project for a few weeks. Having lost some parts, they were trying to figure out their next steps. They had decided to reach out to different people in the community to ask for their help. The children checked their lists to see if all the missing parts were recorded on their papers. They found that they still needed to add one more piece of data, the missing back rings on the wheel. Then, they measured the part of the wheel that was going to be connected to the rings.

  • Evan “You should start it from ‘0’ like when we measure the milk.”
  • Jacob “It is 2.5 cm.”

Now that they had a list of all the missing parts, they decided that they were ready to ask members of the community for help and more information. They made a list of the people they were going to visit.

  • Adalyn “We are most familiar with Ms. Jo, so let’s start to ask her first.”
  • Isabella and Adalyn, “We once went to Mr. Arek’s room and we didn’t see these stuff in his room, so maybe he doesn’t have them.”
  • Isabella “We can go ask Mr. Matt next then.”
  • Adalyn “We can ask facility people the after. Finally, if none of those people have the missing parts, we can go ask the people who helped us purchase the trolley to buy a new set.”
  • Jacob “Ms. Jo, we are assembling a two-levels tall trolley, and some of the parts were missing, so we wonder if you can help us find some same ones in your room?”
  • Jo “Sure but what are they?”

Evan showed Ms. Jo his clipboard and pointed at the stuff on it, “We need some screws which is 8 cm long and some nuts.”

  • Isabella “We need some hooks too.”

Ms. Jo led the team to her tool board and checked but she didn’t have any of the parts that we needed.

  • Isabella “It is fine, we can go ask other people.”

When the facility staff member came in the afternoon, the team showed him the parts that got lost and what they were looking for. Unfortunately, he told them that they do have some screws and nuts, but they don’t have the same ones that we need.

Adalyn “We need to go ask Ms. Cherry if she can help us buy another set of the small pieces now.”

The team began to plan their visit to see Ms. Cherry.

  • Sophia “What would we need to say to her?”

  • Evan “The trolley pieces are missing. We need the screws, nuts, black rings and hooks.”
  • Sophia “What other information do we want from Ms. Cherry?”
  • Jacob “We are missing some parts of the trolley, can you ask the people who sell the trolley to sell the little pieces to us?”
  • Adalyn “I think she will say yes because I used to buy things online, some of the small parts were missing and I can ask the shopkeeper to only order those certain parts.” (in Mandarin)
  • Sophia “Any other questions we want to ask if she says yes?
  • Adalyn “Who do we need to ask for the permission when we need to order something?”
  • Jacob “Should we ask Ms. Jacqui if she can give us some money to buy it? Do we need to send a message to Ms. Jacqui and ask her?”

Children wrote down their questions before heading over to see Ms. Cherry.

The children went over to the main building to meet Ms. Cherry. They explained the problem to her, showing her their drawings and documentation to help her understand which pieces were needed to complete the trolley.

When the team returned, they recorded the information that Ms. Cherry shared about the process of ordering things for the class.

  • Evan “We need to fill an E-Form.”
  • Adalyn “We need to fill the money of the things that we need.”
  • Isabella “We need to first ask the permission from Ms. Jacqui. We ask her in the system.”
  • Adalyn “We choose Ms.Cherry in the system so the form can be sent to her.”
  • Isabella “We choose Primary school to find Ms Jacqui.”
  • Adalyn “We need to type the title of the things we need to order.”
  • Isabella “We need to write the number of things in the system.”
  • Adalyn “We need to click save.”
  • Evan “You need to write your name in the system as well.”
  • Jacob “We need to put our classroom in it so when it is arrived people know where to deliver it. We can check the list after we click save. If there’s any mistakes, we need to correct them.”
  • Adalyn “We check the list and send out.”

The team were excited to learn that a box had arrived in the post.

They opened it up to find the missing pieces that they needed to assemble the trolley.

 

Presenting the Trolley

The team presented the trolley to the class.

  • Adalyn “We are making the trolley to put the water bottle and the snack.”
  • Evan “And lunch.”
  • Isabella “When we are pressing the screws they were very hard.”
  • Adalyn “So we used the tool.”
  • Jacob “And the nuts is difficult to tighten up.”

  • Evan “We used the tools because we need to because it’s so hard to tighten them up.”
  • Teacher “Did you sometimes disagree with someone else.”
  • Isabella “We figured it out. We tried it out and then one worked. We listened to each other. We tired the idea of the person who said it the first.”
  • Evan “I think I took some months (to finish the trolley) because the pieces is gone.”
  • Jacob “We need to ask some people and they said no.”
  • Adalyn “And then we buy it.”
  • Isabella “It’s not money to get it. It was free. Because it was just a little.”
  • Teacher “How will we look after the trolley?”
  • Suzy “Maybe we can ask PreK-K1 because they also have a trolley.
  • Isabella “I can also ask PreKK1B.”

 

Reflecting on Learning…

The team took many months to put the trolley together. They had to overcome obstacles and collaborate to achieve their final goal, ‘to assemble the water bottle trolley’. Reflection is an important part of learning, therefore we paused to encourage the team to think about the skills they have learned, the knowledge they have acquired and attitudes they have developed as a result of their learning. They made a list of ideas they wanted to share with their friends.

  • We tried everyone’s ideas to find out what works best.
  • We needed to help each other put the screws and nails because you need strong muscles to fix them.
  • We listened to each other so that we could know everybody’s ideas.
  • We took turns to talk so we can hear those ideas.

  • We had to be mindful, that means we are listening and looking at other people.
  • We had fun.
  • The best part was completing the trolley because we can use it.

The children wanted to ask PreK-K1 how they look after the trolley. Isabella and Suzy volunteered to speak to them. They came back with suggestions on where to place the trolley and how to use it carefully.

Through their inquiry, the team have developed a better understanding of the different ‘systems’ in place at the school to help the community maintain the school facilities and equipment. These authentic experiences have helped the team explore how ‘interconnected’ we are as we collaborate and work to ensure the community within the school has what it needs to support teaching and learning.

By using their ‘senses’ to explore the world around them, the team had opportunities to pursue their ideas based on their curiosities, documenting their thinking through a variety of mediums.

The team had opportunities to explore mathematical concepts about ‘measurement’ and ‘number’.

They developed their literacy skills as they took notes at interviews, documented their thinking, created plans and noted reflections using illustrations, words and sentences. Presenting ideas and updates to the class encouraged the team to see themselves as problem-solvers, risk-takers and communicators.

– Jacob’s statement, “You turn right to tighten the screws and left to untight (loosen the screws).” Shows how the team developed their skills and knowledge about tools (wrenches and Allen keys) for making and design.

The Field Trip Updates

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How many cartons of milk do we need to give everyone a cup of chocolate milk?

After working with a group of mathematicians to calculate how many cups of milk there were in one carton of milk, Adalyn took the initiative to work out how many cartons of milk we needed all together to make chocolate milk for both K2 classes. She illustrated the problem and the process, using pictures, words, numbers and symbols to show her problem-solving strategies. 

Adalyn explained her process to the class, suggesting that 6 cartons of milk would be enough for the 28 children, four teachers, Ms. Hannah and Mr. Patrick. She also suggested that we bring the two remaining cups back for Ms. Dora and Ms. Jacqui.

 

How many seats are there on one school bus?

Ciel counted the number of seats on the school bus…


Ciel “I counted the bus seats because then we can go to the field trip. Then we can know how many children and teachers can go in the bus. We will need 2 buses because if one bus has 28 seats but teachers go too, so there won’t be seats for the teachers so we need one more bus. Then the K2A teachers go in the K2A bus and the K2B teachers to in the K2B bus.”

We updated our trip planner, including more information, checking off tasks that we have completed and adding more steps where appropriate.

When children have AGENCY they:

  • can apply their understanding of concepts through their experiences, projects and play.​
  • are actively involved in discussion, questioning and by being self-directed in their learning.

The Survey

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We referred to our plan for the trip to the Skyways Kitchen to plan our next steps. The children were eager to invite K2B to join us on the trip to the kitchen. The team created a survey to find out how many children and teachers would like to join K2A on the trip.

Suzy “We can ask them, ‘Do you want to come to the Skyways kitchen to make the PTA but the cupcakes?’” The team wrote their question and possible responses. Then, they went off to K2B to speak to their friends.

Dahyun “I am finding the letter and big letter and I write that. Because then I know letters. Because I sound it out and find the letter, and it helped.”  

Euno “I write the question. I used the alphabet chart to find the letters. I see the alphabet chart and I can write the word.

I sound the letter. It was a little bit hard but then I sound and write and see the alphabet chart and write.”

Euno “I asked ‘Do you want to go to the cafeteria for making the PTA cupcake? And they said ‘yes’. I tell him sign your name on the paper on the ‘YES’.”

Dahyun “Because he want to go to Skyways kitchen and make cupcakes so they say it in the paper. Everybody said yes.”

The surveyors presented the data to the rest of the class explaining their process and what they learned as a result of their research.

Suzy “We are going to K2B and ask them and then I write the names. Everyone wants to go!”

While presenting the information, the class noticed that one child did not want to join the field trip. We wanted to make sure that the team had surveyed all the children. Therefore, we decided to check the responses against the K2B class list. As the names were called we realised that two of the children had not responded to the survey.

The researchers went back to collect the data they needed.

The class was pleased with the results both teachers and 13 of the 14 children wanted to join the field trip.

Having collected the information they need, they are ready for their next step, deciding on the date and booking the school buses for the trip.

How much is a Watermelon?

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Jacob was inspired by our challenge project, particularly the part about making ice pops with watermelon juice. He decided to visit a supermarket to learn more about watermelons. On his return, he shared what he had uncovered.

Jacob used the question starters to help him present his learning to the class.

  • Jacob “Me and my mum is going to the supermarket because we want to look the watermelon is how many money. And how big and how small. I go to Hippo to look how heavy and small. I went yesterday. I take a photo because then we know how heavy. It was 59 RMB.”

Jacob’s presentation made us wonder how many watermelons we might need to make the ice pops. We wanted to make sure we had enough for the project, but we also didn’t want to waste any food. 

  • Suzy “Maybe we can first get one watermelon and then we can test it because then if we didn’t know how many too much or too short.”
  • Evan “We need to ask Ms. Jacqui about the money for the watermelon.”
  • Jacob “We need to listen to other people and look.”
  • Suzy “Say it nice and loud because then other people cannot hear.”
  • Sea “I don’t know if Ms. Jacqui gives the money.”
  • Isabella “We need to tell Ms. Jacqui how many money we need.”
  • Dahyun “We can find the market.”
  • Euno “We don’t tell any people then we don’t have money so we cannot buy the watermelon.”

 

Can we have some money?

A group of children volunteered to take the project plan to Ms. Jacqui to ask her about the money they needed for the project. The children explained that they would need 60 RMB to purchase one watermelon to test the ice pops. Ms. Jacqui was excited to hear all about their plans and invited the children to think about the different steps they needed to take to plan a safe field trip across the road.   

They needed permission slips, money to purchase the watermelon and teachers to accompany them on the trip.   

 

Do we have enough ice-pop moulds?

Teacher “What about the moulds for the ice pops do we have enough for everyone?”

Isabella recalled using the ice pop moulds when she was in K1 and decided to reach out to Ms. Hannah to see if she could find them in the Early Years kitchen. Mohammed and Adalyn wanted to help Isabella with the task.

The team looked in all the cupboards to look for the ice pop moulds but couldn’t find them. After a lot of searching, they found two sets of 6 ice pop moulds in the Early Years pantry.  

The children decided that they needed 16 moulds for the children and the teachers in K2A. But they only had 12! They used what they knew about numbers and calculations to help them solve the problem.

They decided that they need to buy 6 more moulds to have enough for everyone in K2A.

Planning the Ice Pop Challenge

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We revisited the 3-Minutes Challenge Project, where the children had suggested creating a range of activities based on an inquiry into ‘time’. They were excited to plan their ice pop challenge and gathered to think about the steps they would need to follow to complete the task and have the challenge.

As the children shared their ideas, we documented the details on large chart paper using illustrations, words and symbols to communicate information.  

The children were excited to make watermelon ice pops. They tapped into previous experiences of planning a field trip, explaining how forms needed to be filled in and permission sought to go ahead with the field trip.

They will have to find out how many ice pops need to be made. This would include calculating how many they need to make in total for the children in K2A and 5A buddies.

The children suggested asking Ms. Dora or Ms. Hannah how much the watermelon may cost. This would help them estimate and make a request for money from the school for the project. Next, a team would need to complete an order form and take it to Ms. Jackie.

  • Riccardo “We need to go and ask Ms. Jackie and say, ‘Please can you give us some money to buy watermelon because we need to make ice pops’.
  • Suzy “You need to just walk across the road to the Hippo Supermarket.”

The children suggested that we ask Mr. Dora and Ms. Hannah if they could help us visit the supermarket.

The children explained the steps we needed to follow such as preparing the watermelon, blending the watermelon to make the juice and finally freezing the molds of juice to make the ice pops.

We wonder how the children will gather and organise the information to help them plan and prepare for the challenge.

The Chocolate Milk Project: Calculating Volume

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The children are deeply engaged in their inquiry, solving problems and organising themselves to help plan the field trip to the Skyways kitchen. One of the suggestions they had was to make chocolate milk at the Skyways kitchen. We decided that this would be a good opportunity for the children to solve a real-life problem using their understanding of number and calculations. 

How many milk cartons do we need to make chocolate milk for all the children and teachers in K2?

We began by estimating how much milk they thought they would need.

  • Evan “I think 2 boxes of milk because we can drink with 2 classes, because one class can drink one milk.”
  • Adalyn “We don’t know how much one box of milk has.”
  • Ciel “I think it has 20 or 25.”
  • Jacob “I think 25 meters. We can measure it. With a ruler.”

Estimating how many cups of milk are in one carton.

The mathematicians drew to share their ideas, the estimates ranged from 10-20 cups in each milk carton.

We noticed that the children were referring to the ‘units’ (millilitres) of measurement when talking about volume. Riccardo had also suggested using a measuring cup with numbers on the side to measure the milk. Their explanations and suggestions communicated their working theory that, ‘we can use a ruler and measuring tools to measure accurately’.  Having noticed this interest in using standard units, we decided to draw their attention to the 1L displayed on the milk carton.

But how much is a litre (1L)?    

As the children are familiar with the use of the Base 10 system to represent numbers and number relationships, we used the blocks to draw a parallel to the ‘volume’ discussing the value of one, ten, one hundred and one thousand.

The mathematicians concluded that the milk carton had 1000ml, or one litre (L) or 2 of the 500ml jugs of milk.

We decided to check if Jacob’s estimate that a cup of milk was of 25ml was correct. We poured out one cup of milk from the carton and used the measuring jug to measure it. We learned that there was 150ml of milk in one cup. We used Base10 blocks to show the number.

How would we know how many cups of milk were in each milk carton?

The mathematicians used words, images and numbers to make their thinking visible. As they documented their ideas, we noticed that they were calculating the quantity in millilitres and cups. Therefore, we continued to use the Base-10 blocks to help them calculate, solve and explain their math problem.

We noticed that each child processed the problem and documented their strategies differently. They shared and listened to each other’s strategies and thinking and helped each other with the calculations.

Together, they learned that a carton of milk had about 6 cups of milk.

The team presented their process and learning to the class.

  • Ciel “We measured what milk is inside.”
  • Evan “We measured about 100 of milk.”
  • Jacob “One box has equals 6 cups of milk. Because we already measured it. One cup has 150 %.”
  • Evan “2 cups have 300 ml.”
  • Adalyn “4 have 600ml because 300+300=600”
  • Evan “6 cups have 900 because we think it.
  • Adalyn “Because 600+300=900ml and 100 left over.”
  • Evan “Yes, because 900+100=1000.”

We look forward to our next steps as we plan our trip to the Skyways kitchen. 

A plan to make Chocolate Milk!

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We decided to revisit our first ideas about the wasted milk. The children recalled Mr. Patrick’s suggestion to make chocolate milk when they visit the kitchen.

  • Adalyn “We can use the milk to make chocolate milk.”
  • Riccardo “But we don’t know how to.”
  • Suzy “I know, Mr. Patrick knows. We can ask him.”
  • Jacob “K2A and K2B are going to drink the chocolate milk.”
  • Riccardo “We need chocolate to make the chocolate milk but we don’t have it. Maybe we can go to the cafe to buy some chocolate.”
  • Jacob “We can buy the chocolate from the cafeteria where we get lunch.”
  • Suzy “We can go to buy the chocolate from the chocolate shop.”
  • Jacob “We can collect milk from K2A, K2B and K1 when we have lunch in the kitchen. We can ask them for the milk that is not used.” 

Teacher “How much milk do we need?”

  • Jacob “We can measure the milk with a ruler.”
  • Riccardo “We can measure it with the ruler plate, the plate with numbers.”

The children’s conversation revealed their understanding that we use tools to measure accurately. They suggested using a measuring cup to find out how much milk we need to collect for both classes to have a cup of chocolate milk.

How many cupcakes do we need to make?

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A team were tasked with calculating how many cupcakes they needed to make for the NIS community that did not receive the birthday cupcakes.

The children went back to the list to see how they could solve the problem. Paper, pens and manipulatives were available as resources.

  • Jacob “We are going to the PTA where they make the cupcake so we will have a trip.”
  • Ciel “If you lose the PTA cupcake, you will tell the teachers and the teachers will help you find it.”
  • Isabella “We are putting the numbers together to figure out how many all together.”

  • Suzy “We are writing the people who didn’t have the PTA cupcakes. We will give them a cupcake.”

  • Evan “We used the counting blocks to see how to count the numbers because it’s too hard for us.”

  • Isabella “We need to have the same number. Maybe we need to agree with each other then we can say the same number.”
  • Suzy “We can talk to each other then we can have the same number.”

Further to the children’s suggestion, we decided to use the virtual Base 10 blocks to discuss and solve the problem together. The children helped colour and count the different addends to find the total.

The cupcake problem helped the children explore the different strategies we can use to solve number problems. Making their thinking visible through their drawings helped them communicate their ideas with each other.

Additionally, the children explored the relationship between their drawings and manipulatives and their function in solving mathematical problems.

The Trolley Project – Measuring Accurately

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The team reviewed the information they had gathered about the missing components to decide their next steps. Isabella volunteered to help with the process.  

They decided that an important first step was to measure the missing parts accurately, to order the correct items. The team used what they knew about measurements and measuring tools to begin their work.     

  • Jacob “You should measure it from the top.”

  • Adalyn “But I think it is better to only measure the stick part.” (She thought she should start with 1cm.)
  • Jacob “The length of the screw is a bit longer than 3 and a half.”

The team sought Ms. Sophia to discuss the function of the hash marks on the ruler, exploring the connection between millimetres and centimetres. They found that each small space was 0.1cm, and the measurement was 3.6 centimetres.

Evan placed marks on the picture and drew an arrow to the number, to show the purchasing officers which part of the screw they were measuring.

He wrote the unit cms beside it, which lets others know what the number means. Everyone decided to follow Evan’s method to avoid any confusion.

Jacob decided that he wanted to measure the diameter of the nut and placed the ruler on the head of the nut to find the measurement.

Evan and Jacob measured the length of the hook, it was 4.5 cms.

Adalyn thought it was necessary to also measure the width of the hook, “It is 0.9 cm wide!”

  • Jacob “We don’t have the black rings to use as a example because they are all missing. But I can draw a picture of them instead.”
  • Adalyn “But it is not the exact thing. It’s just your picture of the thing, and there must be some differences between your drawing and the thing we want. We can take a photo of the wheels to show people, because the rings are for the wheels.”
  • Isabella “And we should measure the wheels as well.”
  • Adalyn “It is 7 cm.”
  • Jacob “No, it is 8 cm.”
  • Adalyn “If you measure it from 0, it is 7 cm, and if you measure it from 1, it is 8 cm.”

After we took a break from the project, Adalyn and Isabella decided to work together to find out how many millimetres there are in 1 cm using a ruler to count all the small lines between the 2 numbers.

  • Isabella “It is too hard for me to count the small lines because they are too small.”
  • Adalyn “We need a magnify glass to help us look more clearly.”

They worked as a team to figure out that there are 9 lines between 2 numbers on the ruler, and if they add the two long lines right under the two numbers, there are 11 lines.

Isabella “So how many millimetres are there in 1 cm? 9 or 11?

Food Waste – Choices and Responsibility

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We have been discussing the concept of waste, thinking critically about the choices we can make to reduce food waste. A photograph of the food waste in K2 during lunchtime led to many discussions about choices and our responsibility to reduce waste.

The children wondered how much food waste we had at lunchtime. We decided to collect the leftovers from the lunch boxes to find out.

How do we know how much food there is in the box?

We decided to read a book about measurement to help the children think about the tools we use to measure ingredients and food.Having seen the images in the book, we decided to weigh the leftover food. Mr. Arek told us there were scales in the cafeteria for this purpose. A team went over to the cafeteria to see if they could weigh the box of leftovers.

They learned that the box was 1111 grams. When we returned to the classroom the children used a scale Mr. Seth had in his classroom to see if it recorded a similar weight. They also tried weighing the box of food using a bathroom scale.

Children were unsure about the number that was recorded on all the different scales. On day one we had 1110g of food waste. We decided to use manipulatives and virtual tools to talk about big numbers.

Reflecting on the waste we had collected, the children decided to make an effort to reduce the waste by:

  • eating more food from their lunch box
  • trying to eat different foods they don’t normally try
  • Remind their friends to eat more and talk less

On the second day, we weighed the leftovers to see if there was a difference. This time the scale recorded the weight of 534 grams.   

Was the food waste more or less than on day one?

We used the base 10 blocks to see what these two numbers looked like. We talked about regrouping the hundreds to make a 1000 when showing the number 1110 grams. We used the words more and less to describe the two lots of manipulatives.

Having seen that the second day’s waste was less than the first, we decided to explore some other ideas to reduce food waste. We discussed the different foods that were offered as options in the children’s school lunch box.

Which of these foods were their favourite which ones did they dislike eating and why?

The children drew and wrote to share all their favourite school lunch options.  

We wonder how we might organise the data that we collect about the school lunch.

  • What does the data tell us about the food the children prefer to eat?
  • How might we use this information to improve some of the choices we have for school lunch?

Solving the Waste Problem

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We have been talking about waste and recycling.

Jacob shared what he had learned about sorting and recycling and Archie shared photographs of food waste at home.

Isabella and Ethan had decided to repurpose the boxes they had at home. Isabella used the boxes to make a home for the cats in her compound to keep them warm during the winter. Ethan used his boxes to store objects.

The children recalled seeing similar waste bins around the school. A small group walked around the campus looking for and documenting the different locations the bins were at.

These conversations helped us think more about what ‘WE’ might want to do about the things we waste at school. 

Paper and Card Waste:

  • Suzy “You can write small letters on the small paper.”
  • Shemo “If we don’t want to use this paper again and don’t want to throw it into the bin, then what can we do?”
  • Archie “Maybe we can make a recycle box for putting this kind of paper in.”
  • Riccardo “We can make new paper with it.”
  • Archie “We can erase it and cut it then you can draw on it. We can make paper from the leaves. People cut the tree and workers make the paper, they can use a machine to put the tree in.”
  • Isabella “Is the tree inside soft or hard?”
  • Archie “It’s hard so you put water to make it soft.”
  • Isabella “You can put the paper in the water so the mark will go, then we can reuse it.”

Snack Fruit and Vegetable Waste:

  • Riccardo “We can give the waste fruit to the worms outside, there are many more worms outside.”

Lunch Food Waste:

  • Jacob “You don’t put the leftover lunch food into the trash, give it to Rosy, Ms. Hannah’s dog!”

(We asked the children to consider other possible solutions to the problem.)

Wastewater:

  • Isabella “After the water go down the sink and drain, maybe some people can collect the water so we can reuse the water again.”

Next Steps:

Our brainstorm highlighted many different ways we can take action to solve some of the issues we found with waste.

  • Riccardo “I have a shop and they can come and buy my toys and I get money.”
  • Archie “When I was in India my mum said I have too many toys and I gave some away.”
  • Euno “I eat all of my rice. When there is too much my mum throw in the bin.”
  • Riccardo “Or you can keep it and then eat it later.”
  • Shemo “What can we do with the fruits and vegetables we remain at school?”

Ms. Shemo “What can we do with the fruits and vegetables we remain at school?

The children decided to take the fruit and vegetable snacks to Ms. Hannah to ask her for some advice.

Over the next few days, the children will work in small groups to explore some of their theories about paper and seek more information about wastewater and composting at school.

Planning a Challenge – Ice creams

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The children have been discussing the concept of ‘time’ while engaging in play and exploration. Often, they refer to time as being ‘long’ or ‘short’.

  • Suzy “It only took me two minutes to draw the love heart, that is a short time.”

The children were interested in creating challenges to explore the concept of ‘time’. They were excited about the three-minute challenges they had brainstormed and voted on. We gathered to discuss the different ideas collected, noting them all down on chart paper to help us create a plan for our next steps. As the children discussed these ideas, we used drawings and words to document their thinking. We had 13 challenges altogether!

How would we decide which one to explore first?

We decided to vote on the different challenges to find the most popular. Making ice creams received the highest votes (6). The children had many different ideas about the ice cream challenge. They suggested purchasing ice creams from the café, and buying ice creams at the supermarket or McDonald’s. Having heard all the ideas, the teachers decided to encourage the children to consider the practical challenges connected with some of these ideas.

  • Where would we get the money for the ice creams?
  • What about the children who have different allergies?
  • What options for flavours are there at McDonald’s

The teachers decided to stretch the children further, to encourage them to consider alternate opportunities for learning.

Does anyone know how to make ice creams?

After some thought the children tapped into their prior knowledge and experiences from previous years. Isabella and Evan recalled making ice pops at school. They explained the process of making watermelon ice pops, preparing the fruit and using moulds and popsicle sticks to make the ice creams.

The children were excited about making their own popsicles. They discussed several ideas, including the flavours they could choose. Considering the many opportunities this project may have for the children to apply their understanding of concepts through their experiences and play, the teachers agreed to support the children in preparing for the challenge if they could come up with a plan for their next steps. They would need to solve some practical obstacles to make their ice creams and carry out the challenge. They would need to decide and plan how to purchase the items, the process they needed to follow to make the ice creams and how they were going to organise the challenge.

We wonder how the children would:

  • plan and follow through to make the ice creams (process)
  • document their thinking and ideas so others can understand and follow their process (representation)
  • consider and plan for the safe use of materials, resources and tools (safety, responsibility)
  • consider how to include their friends and the community in their challenges (inclusion)
  • collaborates with students, parents and other teachers on learning (collaboration)

Creating Safe Spaces for Play and Learning

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The children love to build with blocks and loose parts in several spaces in the classroom. These structures can often spread across spaces and can cause practical problems.

While on a check-in walk in the Early Years, the security department staff highlighted the issue of congested walking spaces. They advised us to maintain a walkway in the block play area.

As these spaces belong to all of us, we shared the problem with the children to generate solutions.

The children shared many different views and solutions to solve the problem. They finally reached an agreement to create a pathway near the block play area that was 80 centimetres wide. They used hazard tape and a measuring tape to mark out the walkway, applying what they knew about tools to measure accurately.

Learners:

  • are actively engaged in various stages of learning, including: thinking about, planning, modifying and creating
  • apply their understanding of concepts through the construction of their projects/play
  • have an active voice and stake in the classroom/community

Can you find the book you need?

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Jacob “Do you know why the new library is called The HUB? Is it because the new library is so much bigger?”

The children wondered why it is called The HUB, and who gave it that name.

At the beginning of the ‘HUB Inquiry Project’, the children shared the things they liked to do in the new space. Many of them shared the different types of books they liked to find and read in the new library, referred to as The HUB.

During the Atelier time, the children were invited to find the books they liked to read in The Hub.

As the children looked around, they were unable to see some of the books they had in mind. Ms. Hannah decided to provoke the children’s thinking by sharing a collection of mushrooms one of the Grades 3 teachers had given her to use as an invitation for observational drawing or painting. Some children decided to find some books about mushrooms.

Isabella “The old library had mushroom books. The new library (The Hub) doesn’t.”

Why?

Isabella “The old library was much smaller and the new one is much bigger. Maybe the books are on the second floor or the third floor.”  

Some of the children said it was easy to find books to read because they read whatever interests them.

Evan explained that finding a book was easy because he could see the cover.

Isabella noticed some shelves have so many books standing up and you see the side of the books and she said that makes it difficult for her to find a book from these shelves.

The side of a book is called the spine. The spine is the edge that usually faces outward on a shelf and often displays the title, author, and publisher’s logo.

After some discussions, she suggested, “Maybe we can put the same kind of books together, and maybe we can put some pictures or words on the shelves so the children know what kind of books are on these shelves when they cannot see the front covers.”

As soon as Riccardo got to the library, he found the place where the dinosaur books were, so he shared this with Ethan who wanted the dinosaur books the most.

We wondered how he found these books so easily and so fast. Was it because he noticed it during our library time before?

In a very short time, Suzy found a princess book. She felt it was easy to find the book because she just walked by this shelf and she happened to see this book.

  • Sea walked around and found a book about a cat. We wondered how she found it so fast.
  • Isabella “Jacob, I found something strange. In the old library, there were some mushroom books, but now why none of them shows up here?”  
  • Isabella “It’s getting harder to find the mushroom book now than before. There was a tray and the books that we need were all in that tray. Now, there are so many shelves and floors which makes it hard for us to know if the books we need are upstairs or not.”
  • Adalyn found a book which had mushrooms on the cover page but she she seemed to decide that it was not the book they were looking for.
  • Isabella “Ms. Winnie, where can we find some books about how to plant mushrooms? How can we find it on the book shelf?”
  • Ms. Winnie “It is a bit far away, so let’s go together and I will show you.”

Ms. Winnie found that some of the mushroom books had been borrowed by children from other grades. However, she finally helped us find one from a tall shelf. The children gathered to talk about locating the books.

We wondered if they thought it was easy or hard to find a book that they wanted.

  • Suzy and Dahyun both found it’s easy to find the books they wanted because they saw the front cover of the book. Evan felt it was hard to find a book when he only saw the spine or the back cover of the book.
  • Ethan believed it was easy to find the dinosaur books because he knew where they were.
  • Isabella explained that it was hard to find her book because it was the only mushroom book left in the library. And some other children felt it was easy to find the books they wanted because when they walked by the bookshelf, they were attracted by some books, so they just checked them out.

Having explored this new space, we wonder how the children may take action to solve some of the problems they noticed during their visit to The Hub.

The Trolley Project – Parts and Instructions

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Over the last few days, the team of assemblers have continued to work on the trolley. They felt it was very challenging to put the parts together. They gathered to discuss the problem before they began their task.

They began by looking carefully at all the different parts of the trolley.

  • Isabella “We have the small parts such as screws and wheels.”
  • Adalyn “We have the nuts.”

  • Jacob “We have the holders for holding the sticks.”
  • Isabella “We have the tools for assembling the trolley.”
  • Evan “We have the words.”
  • Adalyn “那个叫说明书。”（that’s called the instruction) A picture of the trolley.”
  • Jacob “The big parts of the trolley, like the baskets and sticks to connect them.”

Now that we have all the different parts of the trolley and the tools to assemble it, where do we start?Adalyn suggested that they read the instructions carefully. Isabella emphasised the importance of the pictures in the instructions. However, as they tried to assemble it, Evan could see that it was very wobbly. Isabella suggested taking the wheels off. Jacob agreed, explaining that this could come right at the end.

  • Isabella “There are some numbers that show us the steps.”
  • Jacob “Some parts such as the long sticks are too hard for us to insert”
  • Evan “We don’t have enough muscle.”
  • Jacob “We need an adult to help.”
  • Isabella disagreed and said, “We children can work together”.

The team continued their work together, assembling and dismantling parts of the trolley as they tried to complete the task. During the week, a clean-up in the Early Years centre posed a new problem!  

One morning, when the team went back to continue with their project, they found some of the parts were missing. How can we assemble the trolly without the parts?

Yet again, the team sat down together to work out which parts were missing. And how they might solve the problem. Isabella suggested that they look at the paper instructions to figure it out.

The instructions provided information on all the different parts that were required to assemble the trolley. They needed screws, nuts, black rings on the wheels, hooks and the holders. Together the team tried to calculate how many of each they needed in total. The problem invited the children to use their understanding of calculations to find the number of missing parts.

  • The nuts: Adalyn “We need 12 in total and we used 4, so 8 of them are missing.”
  • Hooks: Jacob “We had two before and now we only have one.”
  • The holders for the screws: Evan “There are 6 in total on the instructions, but there are three levels in the instructions, and we only need 2 levels for our trolley so we need two more.”

They continued to work on creating a list of items they needed. Then, the team plan their next steps to solve the problem. 

Jacob suggested asking the facilities department for the missing parts because they have the staff who come and fix items that are broken in the classroom. Isabella suggested reaching out to Mr. Matt as he helped fix the table. Jacob recalled Mr. Arek helping to fix ‘The Nest’ in the playground. Adalyn thought Ms. Jo might be able to help as well as she has lots of different materials for making things.

  • Adalyn “If none of the people that we mentioned above has the parts we need, we can buy another set of the small losing parts we need.”
  • Jacob disagreed, “if we buy only a set of the small parts, the other trolley is going to miss some parts.”
  • Evan disagreed with Jacob, “I think the shop must have some extra small parts.”

Everyone agreed with Evan’s suggestion, and they decided to ask the school purchasing office to help them source the missing parts. To do this they decided they had to:

  • take a photo of the parts they need
  • make a list of the parts that need to be purchased
  • measure the size of the different parts to give accurate information.

They worked together to gather all this information to take to the school’s purchasing officer. We look forward to their next steps as they solve the problem of ordering and purchasing the missing pieces in the trolley.

 

How tall is the Tower?

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The tower in the block play area cannot be missed!!

It has been standing tall for a few weeks, with only its steeple toppling over on a few occasions when children pass by or try to adjust the blocks that support its design. We noticed the children adjusting the columns, replacing and testing out different shapes to see which ones offer better support. Through trial and error, the engineers developed and tested theories about balance, shapes and design.  

They were now more intentional when choosing the shapes for different sections of the tower. For instance, they realised that using broader, flatter shapes horizontally provided more foundational support and that they could make the steeple taller by using cylinders with a greater diameter at the bottom. Throughout the process of experimentation, the engineers discussed and negotiated ideas, looking for ways to work collectively to reach their goal, of building the tallest tower.  

Through inquiry, we explored different ways to measure the height of the building. At first, the children used non-standard units to measure the tower.

Then, a team uncovered the use of standard units and decided to measure the tower using a ‘flexible, long ruler’, a measuring tape.

The children shared estimations of the height of the tower.

Then, we used the measuring tape to measure the tower accurately. The children were excited to learn that the tower was 190 centimetres tall!

During outdoor playtime, a group of children met Mr. Lee and explained that they had built a tower that was taller than him. Mr. Lee decided to check if this was true. As he stood next to the tower he asked, “How tall am I?”  

 

The Water Bottle Trolley (Part 1)

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At the beginning of the year, a trolley for the water bottles was ordered for the class. We were excited to see the box with all the components needed for the trolley. But who will assemble the trolley?

The teachers decided to Present the idea to the children as a provocation. 

The next morning, some of the children noticed the provocation and discussed the idea.

They wondered what the different parts were and how they might be used.

  • Isabella “I know, they are parts of a trolley. We used to assemble a trolley when I was in Ms. Pat’s class last year.”
  • Suzy “Maybe we can help assemble this one.”

They began to take a closer look at the pieces. Noticing this interest, other children gathered to see what was happening.

  • Jacob “我来负责看说明书。” I can be in charge of reading the instructions.”
  • Evan “早知道我带个电钻来了。” I should have brought an electric screwdriver if I knew it before.”
  • Finn “看，这是这个！”(he pointed at the something on the instruction, ‘look, it is this’)
  • Evan “乔治，你装反拉，这个需要把它转过来。”(“George, you did it the opposite way. You should turn it around to the other side.”)

Isabella “Evan and George, do you still remember we assembled one trolley like this last year?”

Isabella “以前Ms.Pat 是不是像这样把推车给推走的？” (Did Ms. Pat hold it like this to push the trolley before, Evan?) Ms. Karen 以前带你们做过这个吗？(Did Ms. Karen do this with you in K1A, Adalyn?)

Evan tapped into his prior knowledge and tried to assemble the trolley.

George realised the significance of the picture of the assembled trolley and pushed it closer to the group. The assemblers began their work.

They continued to work on the trolley for a while, and then Evan realised that they needed to revisit the instructions. “这是说明书，你能看懂字吗Jacob？” （this is the instruction, can you read the Chinese characters, Jacob?)

Through trial and error, they continued to explore the complicated instructions, trying to figure out which parts went together. Some children slipped away to explore other spaces, but Jacob, Evan, Isabella and Adalyn continued to stay interested in assembling the trolley. They continued to persevere, finally deciding that it was important to develop a plan of action.

Jacob “Since the trolley has two parts, we can have two groups working on assembling it. Isabella and I will be in a group, and we are going to be in charge of the bottom layer. Evan and Adalyn, you two can be a team and work on the top layer.”

The group assembling the lower shelf began their work. They decided that when they were finished, the top group would take over. As they were working, they referred to the picture and the instructions when needed.

As we observed the children at work, we noticed how they used their communication skills to express their thoughts and ideas with each other to solve a common problem. They understood the significance of the instructions and their connection to the different components of the trolley. They used what they knew about pictures, Chinese characters, numbers and words to read the instructions and explain their understanding to each other.

Their idea of ‘making a plan’ to help with the process of assembling the trolley, and their decision-making demonstrates their understanding of the process, and teamwork and show their developing understanding that people work together for different purposes.    

Tools for Measurement

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Over the last few days, we have noticed the children showing an interest in exploring the concept of ‘measurement’ through their play and engagement. 

How might we measure accurately?

During choice time, Jacob went over to the tower with a building log and began to measure its height. He said it was 9 or 12 logs high. As we watched him measure, we noticed that the block overlapped as he placed it from point to point making his measurement change.

He was invited to place the logs horizontally across the floor to see the length of 9 logs. While placing the blocks, he was encouraged to think about the reason for choosing logs of similar size.

Isabella, Adalyn and George were curious about a piece of documentation on the wall from the previous year that recorded the children’s height.

  • Isabella “We are measuring Adalyn’s and my height and George’s height. That day I was the same height as George but now I think I am higher than that.”
  • Adalyn “Good sleeping and good eating makes you tall. At home I am 1,2,2 (1 米23 ) tall. Because you wear shoes you are taller so you shoes off. I have this at home and my sister is. 1 米5几 。
  • Isabella “I am 112 tall.”

Isabella and Adalyn were also curious about the sand timers and wondered what they could do in a short time.

We decided to provoke the children’s thinking about ‘measurement’ by presenting the photographs and videos back to them. The children were excited to share their ideas about the measuring tools.

The first reference they made was to the ruler in the classroom. They explained the significance of the ‘numbers’ when measuring. We documented the children’s ideas on chart paper which we will use as a collection of reference points.

Over the next few weeks, we will look for opportunities to test some of the theories the children have about ‘measurement’ and measuring tools. We wonder how they might use different tools to share their observations which in turn helps them understand how tools could be used to measure the attributes of objects and events. 

Big Ideas-

– standard units allow us to have a common language to identify, compare, order and sequence

– we use tools to measure the attributes of objects and events

– estimation allows us to measure with different levels of accuracy.

Taller than a Teacher!

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Over several days, Evan and a team of engineers have been building a structure in the block play area. The team worked hard to find solutions for the steeple as it kept falling over. Through trial and error, they explored different ways to make the structure taller. One afternoon, Evan was excited to learn that the block tower was taller than him. He wondered if it was taller than Adalyn (as she was taller than him). As Adalyn stood next to the tower, Evan could see that it was taller than her. 

Adeline and Evan wondered if the tower was taller than the teachers. First, Ms. Sophia stood next to the tower. She was taller than the tower. Ms. Shemo and Ms. Sophia were both taller than the tower!

 

The engineers went back to work. The tower was now taller than them making it harder for them to place the blocks. George looked around the classroom. He was excited to share his solution, “I know, we can get a chair to stand on then we will be able to reach that high.” (in Mandarin) The team carefully positioned the chairs, so they reach beyond the highest block on the structure allowing them to reposition and test their new ideas.

As they stacked the new blocks, the steeple on the tower collapsed. They persevered, trying many different positions and shapes, but parts of the tower continued to fall. Evan looked around for new shapes that could be used in the structure and noticed a block they had not used before. He had a new idea that he wanted the team to test, “We can add more flat pieces on the joint part and the building can be more stable and will not be that easy to fall.” (in Mandarin)

Isabella “I found more of this kind of green wooden pieces and I’m going to add them at the joint part of the block sticks.” (in Mandarin) 

Evan “We need to top the stick on the middle part of the two underneath. Because it will help the one on the top to stay more stable.” (in Mandarin)

They used all the green blocks that were available on the shelf. But there weren’t enough. As Isabella observed the structure, she realised the significance of the flatter, wider shapes that made the building more stable. The flat shapes held more blocks which in turn allowed them to go higher. She looked around for blocks that had similar characteristics and paused at the wooden cookies. She decided to test her theory.

Even though the building collapsed many times, Evan didn’t give up. He continued stacking the blocks, learning through trial and error that being more intentional about the placement of the blocks resulted in greater success. After many attempts, his tower was done.

He was ready to invite Ms. Shemo to stand next to the building. The team were excited to see that the building was as tall as Ms. Shemo!

As Ms. Shemo looked at the building she invited the children to think about the concept of measurement, “How can we measure the height of the building?”

Ms. Shemo was worried about the building collapsing before the children could have an opportunity to explore tools that help us measure. Therefore, she suggested recording the height of the building on the wall next to the structure. Isabella helped Ms. Shemo find a solution to gauge the approximate height. They used a coloured sticker to mark the position. 

The team continued to work on their tower, testing theories and ideas to make the tower even taller. After several days, they were ready to test the height to see if it was taller than Ms. Shemo.

They called Ms. Shemo to stand next to the building. The children cheered with excitement as it was much taller than her!

Evan quickly remembered what they had done the previous day, and brought a flat, long beam to help Ms. Shemo find the correct level for the new sticker. 

Ms. Shemo invited the children to reflect on the question she had about the measurement of the structure. “How can we measure the height of the building?”

We decided to share a photograph from the previous year which focused on the concept of ‘measurement’ to guide the children’s thinking.

The children quickly tapped into their memories from the previous year, recalling how they had explored height by creating a ruler.

  • Adalyn “He was seeing who is taller.”
  • Isabella “He is using his hand.”
  • Ethan “Edward is stretching his hand to his head.”
  • Suzy “I see some numbers.”
  • Evan “I see some colouring.”
  • Isabella “I see some drawing.”
  • Suzy “The numbers is for knowing who is bigger.”
  • Jacob “Finn is 33 tall.”
  • Evan “I think Edward is 20.”

As Suzy demonstrated how to read the measurement, Isabella reminded her that she needed to place her hand ‘straight’ (not at an angle) and read the number across.

  • Suzy “How can we know that because we can see a number over here.”

As we looked at the photograph of the tower, we invited the children to think about their wondering, “How tall is the tower?”

  • Suzy “I think the building is 56.”
  • Isabella “I think it is 57.”
  • “That ruler on the wall is 66” explained Jacob, recalling the highest number on the ruler they had created the previous year.  
  • Isabella “100 is too many!”

As the children shouted out their estimates, we recorded them on a table.

We look forward to seeing how the children will use their prior knowledge about measurement to find out the height of the new tower.

The World of Shapes

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Story #1

Riccardo was exploring the kinetic sand in the Early Years to create shapes. He said, “I can show you something. I made a ball and I can turn this ball into an oval.”

Riccardo’s explanation shows his developing understanding of the characteristics of shapes.

Story #2

Throughout the day, we often gather on the carpet in a circle to share ideas, discuss wonderings, or explore new concepts. One morning, the children discussed their seating spots, triggering a discussion about the purpose of gatherings and the importance of a shape.

Jacob noticed that the class community didn’t make a ‘circle’ explaining, “This is not a circle, this is like a oval.” We drew a circle on a whiteboard and asked Jacob to explain the difference. He drew on the whiteboard to share his explanation, “A oval are the circle but you pull out the sides a little bit.”

We also used a beaded chain to demonstrate Jacob’s idea. This led to a discussion about the importance of the circular shape when we sit together, as everyone can be seen and everyone feels included.

Story #3

Euno, Dahyun and Sea were creating structures using different coloured cubes.

Euno counted the shapes on one side as she wanted to know how many shapes she had used in her design. How do we use shapes to make shapes?

Sea used her shapes differently, focusing on creating a rainbow pattern. We wonder how many more shapes she used each time her colour grew.   

Story #4

Evan, George and Jacob had created a house for Little Panda using different shapes. They were trying to figure out how many shapes they had used and estimated to solve the problem. Jacob pointed out that he saw ‘a square on each side of the structure!’ We wondered how many shapes they used in total to create the final structure and if we could identify some of these shapes.

We look forward to diving deeper into the ‘world of shapes‘ to learn more about them, to explore how shapes could impact the choices we make.

 

The Rainbow

Noticing the questions and wonderings the children had about Sea’s rainbow, we decided to print the photograph and present it back to the children.

What did they notice?

  • Isabella “I see coloured blocks”
  • Adalyn “It’s like a rainbow.”
  • Suzy “It looks like a rectangle.”
  • Evan “I see so many colours in the picture, six colours.”

We wondered how the children may represent what they see. They worked independently using lines, shapes and colours to represent their observations on paper.

Next, we gathered to look at each other’s pictures and share what we noticed.

  • Isabella “I see some small square blocks.” The children agreed with Isabella’s observations.
  • “It has colours like a rainbow.” Explained Ethan making connections with what he already knows about colours.
  • Adalyn “It has a rectangle!”

How would we draw a rectangle? What would we need to remember?

  • Evan began to explain his thinking, using gestures to show straight lines that are connected. We illustrated his ideas on the chart paper, “two sides are long and two sides are shorter.”

How many square blocks did Sea use to create her rainbow?

  • Isabella thought hard and decided to share an estimate (a good guess) “Maybe 100 blocks because it’s too many blocks we can’t count.”
  • Suzy began to count the colours with the rest of the class joining in to help.

2 red, 1 purple, 5 blue, 9 green, 13 yellow and 17 orange cubes were used.

We wonder how we might work out how many cubes were used in all.  

 

As the young mathematicians went out to explore the classroom spaces, we witnessed more rainbows scattered across the classroom.

Sea seems to have inspired her friends with her rainbow structure!

Creating Bird’s Nests

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Over the last few weeks, the children have been observing the birds in the Early Years garden (nature). They have been concerned about the mother and baby birds after noticing the broken eggshells scattered on the playground equipment (causation, survival). The children have been discussing ways to help the birds in the playground (safety).

They decided to make nests that they could position around the playground for nesting birds (action). They discussed using a variety of materials including wood, plastic, grass and sticks to create the nests (materials). They began drawing their ideas on paper, using marks, words and pictures to share their ideas with others (organising ideas, making plans).

We wonder how the birds might react to the homes the children create through their project work.

Creating the Maze

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The team looked at the games the Grade 4 have made for the Early Years students. Oxford and Jeongyoon decided to make a maze board game together.

Jeongyoon suggested visiting Ms. Jo’s design room to look for some materials. They first cut two pieces of cardboard that were the exact size. Then, they taped them together to make a large base.

The team worked closely together and talked to each other about how they wanted to make the game board look more beautiful, which shows their ability to collaborate on tasks.

Oxford used a pencil to mark and draw the size of the paper they needed to cover the base. Then, the team cut out the paper and pasted it on the cardboard. When they finished, they realised that the edges of the paper didn’t paste well enough, so they decided to put more tape on the edges to improve their base.

As they drew the maze, they thought of creative ways to design the different features and mechanisms of the maze.

After carefully considering the different materials they could use for the build, they decided to use corrugated paper. However, Oxford discovered that the corrugated paper boundary wall was not strong enough and decided to use cardboard to reinforce the wall.

As they continue with their build, we look forward to seeing the creative, innovative and complex engineering required to complete their board game.

It took a long time to glue all the individual walls on the maze. The team decided to invite other children to help them in the process.

  • Oliver “I was thinking this was going to take many days to finish because it’s so big and it had so many lines.”
  • Liz “I think people make the games for long time.”
  • Motong “We used cardboard and paper to stick on the cardboard because the paper was not so strong.”
  • Eunbyul “Me and Eli stick it with the glue. I helped three times. I used paper and cardboard and tape.”
  • Eli “I used hot glue one time and then I stopped and then cut cardboard and I give it to Eunbyul and he glued all. We worked together, because if you don’t work together then it will be slower. When we work together its faster. When we used the glue gun we put gloves on.”
  • Eunbyul “And work gently because no gloves then it is hot it will be burned.”
  • Oxford “We need to make something where people get stuck in the maze. We already drawing a ‘start’ and ‘finish’ sign. Next, we need to make things to stick in the maze.”
  • Jeongyoon “We need to put ‘start flag’ and ‘finish flag’.”
  • Motong “We have to make decorations.”
  • Oliver “Making it look more cooler, details.”
  • Oxford “We can use bottle caps in the game. Red is a horse and the horse can jump over.”
  • Oliver “We need instructions, what you need to do. Maybe one rule is ‘who goes first in the finish line wins the game.”

Through their collaborative project, the children identified a need that led to the generation of a design project. Their interest in creating a game for the community propelled them forward in choosing tools and materials to make a product. They made changes and solved problems through trial and error, negotiating ideas and using feedback to improve their final creation. Several times during the process, the team shared their developments to tell a story and explain how their product contributes towards the well-being of the community. The team retained friends to help them complete the project, teaching others about the safe and purposeful use of tools and materials. The success of their design process was evident in the way they demonstrated how they developed and learned new skills through their play, experimentation and collaborative work.

Creating an Expression of Beauty

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A team of children have been conducting their research to learn more about ‘beauty’. They have been interviewing the school community to listen to different perspectives.

During Student-led Conferences, families were invited to share what they thought was beautiful on a white canvas. We wondered how we might create a piece of art including all the different circular canvases that have been painted with ‘expressions of beauty’.

We invited the children to think of creative ways to exhibit the piece. The children quickly decided that they wanted all five circles to be included in one piece of art.

The children used paper and markers to make their thinking visible.

They used shapes, symbols and words to explain their design to others. While considering the draft designs, it became evident that we needed help to create the structures the children were visualising.

Ideas presented required a strong material that could hold the weight of the different circular canvases.

 

The ‘Beautiful’ Paintings Display Stand

We wondered how to put the circular canvas paintings themed ‘beautiful’ together. We shared the challenge with the class to see if they had any ideas. We knew we wanted the circles to rotate, but how would we mount them together? 

“Put a screw on it in the middle”, suggested Oliver.

Eli was excited to share how his dad does woodworking projects at home, he uses tools and materials to make things. We decided to speak to Eli’s daddy to see if they would take on the project, to help us build the final display stand.

Eli’s Daddy agreed!

Eli and his dad worked to create a prototype.

They began by planning. Then, they used scraps of wood they had at home to make two prototypes.

Eli presented the prototypes and his process to the class. 

We look forward to seeing their final design!

The Shape Test

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A paper cube that Oliver made after the paper experiment led to a discussion about 3-dimensional shapes.

The team wondered about the strength of paper shapes and decided to test their theories.

The team wondered:

  • if some paper shapes were stronger than others.
  • which shapes they could make to test their theories.

The team recalled a previous learning experience of going on a shape hunt and decided to refer back to the activity to choose the 3-dimensional shapes they wanted to make and test. When choosing the shapes Oliver stated, “Sphere is impossible for me cause how can you fold the paper round. I want to make a cylinder!”

Eli pointed at the pentagonal prism, “I want to make that one.”

Having thought about their options for paper, they decided to choose card stock instead of paper for their test as they believed it would be stronger than the A4 paper.

Oliver made his first paper cylinder by rolling up the paper and fastening it with tape. However, he quickly noticed that the edges weren’t flat and realised that this would impact the test. He decided to make a second cylinder, taking care to keep the edges of the shape levelled. During testing, Oliver discovered that the top and bottom edges of his first cylinder were not stable enough, so he decided to make a new cylinder.

 

Having looked at the pentagonal shape, Eli realised that to fold a pentagon, he needed to divide the paper into five equal parts. Eli initially used a ruler to draw lines but found that the width of one ruler was too narrow, which resulted in a lot of extra space at one end.

Then, decided to use the width of two rulers, but each section was too wide and there wasn’t enough space on the card for 5 equal sections.

Eli shared this challenge with the teacher, explaining that he wanted to divide the long edge of the paper into five equal parts.

Having heard Eli’s challenge, the teacher decided to bring Eli’s attention to the concept of measurement to think about what he already knows about the function of hash marks and numbers on a measuring tool.

Ms. Eileen “How long is that edge? How did you measure it?”

  • Eli thought about this and then pointed to the ruler and said, “Use ruler.”

Eli used the ruler to solve his measurement challenge, learning that the length of the paper was about 30 centimetres.

Ms. Eileen “How can we divide 30 into 5 equal parts?”

Eli found the unit cubes and counted out 30 unit cubes to represent the 30cms. Then, he divided them into 5 equal parts, with each part being 6cm.

Finally, Eli drew out the lines and folded his paper pentagonal shape for the test. The researchers were now ready to test their shapes!

The team decided to choose books that were of a similar size for their test. As they placed one book at a time on the shapes, they began to see that although the shapes were made with paper, they were extremely strong.

The team had enough books to reach a total of 19 books for each shape. Then, they ran out of books!

As they didn’t have enough of the same books in the classroom to support the progression of the experiment, they decided to test their shapes in the library.

The team’s paper and shape experiments have allowed them to think about the function of shapes and materials in design and engineering and the impact of forces like compression and tension that act on structures. Through their experimentation, they continue to explore how the design can impact the strength and stability of structures.

 

 

 

The Garden Plots – Making Decisions 

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The gardening group (composed of student representatives from each class) gathered to discuss their project. Their task for the day was to document what was still growing in the garden and how they might organise the garden plots.

Thirteen gardeners joined the meeting with Ms. Hannah. They began by revisiting their agreements. The gardeners reflected on what it means to be a respectful listener “We talk one at a time and listen to others as they share their ideas.”

Then, they reflected on what they did during the previous session.

  • Emma “We don’t have many plants.”
  • Oliver “Some plants survive when it was snowing, it means when it’s snowing they are not very scared of the cold. The big plant is dead because it’s not cold protection.”

The team wondered about the ‘temperature’ and what plants ‘need’ to ‘survive’ and thrive.

Which plants might grow in the different seasons?

Which ones will survive?

  • Jacob “Because that big plants got too much water and it would die and too much worm pee pee it will die too.”
  • Logan “Earthworm poo, could it help?”
  • Jenny “Not too much water, not too dry (in Mandarin)”
  • Adelyn “Not too much sun”
  • Oliver “If you get a dragon fruit then dig a whole and then a plant will grow and the flower will grow and it is actually a dragon fruit. If you use the outside part of the strawberry seed and put it in the dirt it will grow strawberries. I know how to grow a watermelon to a shape that you want. If you get a square shape cube and dig a hole and then open it and then close it and then it will be the shape.”
  • Albert “If you grow watermelon then you will get a watermelon tree.
  • Keira: “In my home, there are orange trees.”
  • Jacob “Watermelon black and watermelon white seeds. People can eat the white seeds and plant the black seeds.”
  • Emma: “At my home, I have a paprika tree.
  • Albert: “At my home, I have a bamboo tree.”

Teacher “This is a shared space. We have 5 classes. Which means we need to find a way to share the plots. How might we do this?”

The gardeners gathered their clipboards with paper and writing tools. They looked at the plants in the plot and began to draw to share their observations and thinking.

Teacher” How do you know something is still alive?”

  • Emma “Because the seeds were still in the mud. And it didn’t fall out. Some was out but some not.”

We noticed that the team considered the size and shape of the plots when documenting their thinking. The gardeners were encouraged to think about and explain how they knew the plants were still alive. They used their senses to observe carefully, sharing their theories about the growth of plants and the weather. As they visualised the space, they began to share suggestions on how the plots may be allocated to the different classes in the Early Years.

The gardeners gathered to share what they had learned and to decide on what they would do next.

  • Oliver “One is a bigger plot and one is smaller.”
  • Sophia “Prek-K1 has more children so they use the bigger plot and K2 use the smaller plot.” (in Mandarin)
  • Emma “Also we need to plant so many new plants because only in some places there are plants.”

The gardeners agreed with Sophia’s suggestion.

  • Emma “PreK-K1 has 3 classes and K2 has 2 classes.”
  • Albert “The bigger one to PreK K1 and the smaller one to K2.”
  • George “One class has one space.”

The children took a vote and agreed with George’s idea.

The team’s suggestions were based on the number of classes in each grade level and the number of students in each of them. The teachers wondered how they might encourage the gardeners to show the division of a space.

Games

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The teachers noticed that a group of children had been interested in making their games during inquiry playtime. They often used recycled paper and cards to design and create their games.

Recently, the Grade 4 students visited K2, to ask the children about the arcade games. This was connected to their Unit of Inquiry ‘How We Organise Ourselves’.

First, the Grade 4 students conducted a survey, to learn more about the younger children’s interests in games. Then, they returned to create a list and gather feedback to learn “What might make the game fun?”.

  • Jeongyoon “Rules and tag.”
  • Motong “If we don’t have rules and we don’t know how to play.”
  • Oxford “”

We noticed that the children continued to refer to the ‘rules’ in a game. We wondered if the children were making connections with the games they play in their P.E. class, as conversations at the end of the lesson highlight important behaviours that make games fun and engaging. The teachers decided to dig deeper, to learn more about the children’s thinking. The teachers decided to ‘use the discussion to generate new ideas and investigations’.

Why do we need rules in the game?

  • Jeongyoon “If the game has no rules, it’s not a game, because it’s not fun.”
  • Motong “Because we don’t know how to play if we don’t have rules.”
  • Oxford “Rules let us know what we can do and what we can’t do.”

The children highlighted the ‘function’ of rules in the ‘organisation’ of a game. Then, the children drew the games they liked on large chart paper. We noticed that many of the games had mazes. Was this something that interested the team?

We discussed the kinds of games the team would like to make for the other children in the EY. We wondered…

  • How might we gather information to learn about the games that the EY children like to play?
  • What does a game need to have to make it exciting and fun?

The team gathered to discuss their next steps. Could we use a survey or draw some graphs to show our findings?

Oxford chose to create a survey that included three games. He planned to ask the children in the EY to choose their favourite game, to help him decide which game he was going to finally make. The three games to choose from were ‘Whack-a-Mole’, ‘Maze’ or ‘Treasure Hunt’.

Motong chose to create a survey with three choices of games for children in the Early Years. His games were ‘Car Race’, ‘Solider Game’, ‘Code Guessing.

Jeongyoon chose to use the maze game and decided to write some questions that would help him find out how he could make his game fun for the children in the EY.

  • Question 1: Do you like water in the maze game?
  • Question 2: Do you like easy games or hard games?

The Gift – Coming together to build and create. 

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Ms. Eileen had placed an order for new crayons and markers. We were surprised to learn that the supplier also sent us a gift! The gift was a new easel. However, the easel needed to be assembled. We placed the materials and tools in the classroom for the children to decide what they wanted to do.

  • Wyatt “What is this?”
  • Oliver “It is for us. We have to fix it.”

The next day, we left the materials on the floor and invited the children to problem-solve.

3 children offered their expertise. They gathered the materials and began to look at the instructions. The team of furniture assemblers began their work, taking turns, sharing ideas and tools and working to assemble the new easel.

The bell rang for break time play, but one child decided that he wanted to continue his work. He worked on the task throughout playtime.

The rest of the team came in after play and continued their work.

They persevered, looking through the instructions to learn about the different parts and tools to know how the easel was put together. In the end, they were excited to test it out.

The other children celebrated their accomplishments and thanked them for their hard work and dedication to the task.

We noticed the interest the children had in assembling and building. We noticed how they paid close attention to the instructions, and skilfully worked to assemble the piece of furniture.

We wonder how they might use these skills in new situations.

Approaches to Learning (ATL’s) 

  • observe carefully
  • analyse and interpret information
  • listen actively and respectfully to others’ ideas and listen to information
  • negotiate ideas and knowledge with peers and teachers
  • play cooperatively in a group: sharing, taking turns, helping
  • be aware of own and others’ impact as a member of a learning group
  • choose and complete tasks independently
  • follow the directions of others
  • share responsibility for decision-making
  • demonstrate persistence in tasks
  • use strategies to problem-solve

The Pipes – How can we make the balls go faster?

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We have noticed the children playing and experimenting with the PVC pipes.

  • Liz “This (the slide) is so long it goes to Ms. Hannah’s class.”
  • Eli “I was balancing the crystals. Looking which one is more heavier.

  • Because the side will fall down if it is more heavier.”
  • Howie “I made a tunnel, the balls can go inside.”
  • Morning “Me and Wyatt building the blocks.”
  • Eunbyul “It’s no heavy, it’s no long. If it’s not too low the ball goes faster. The slide is faster and the ball is faster.”
  • Motong “When the slide is tall, the ball will go fast. Next, I want to make a hotel with the slide. I want to make it alone.”
  • Eli “Next, I want to make a slide that goes straight, like a mountain, then the ball will go down and up and fall down. Then, I will put a stop there.”

A group of K1 children wanted to borrow the ramps during indoor playtime. The teachers paused to observe and document (video) a group of children from different classes building and testing new designs.

They collaborated with each other, sharing the materials and using their imagination to extend their play.

The next day, we watched the video and discussed their structure.

What did we notice?

What theories do we have?

  • Eunbyul “The ball jumped out of the pipe.”
  • Eli “Because there was something blocking it and it went over the side. The ball fly out. They can put nothing on the track.”
  • Lydia “The ball is come down from the house. Keira and Jacob and me.”
  • Eli “The ball will go faster if it is more uphill.”
  • Eunbyul “Very long is very fast and it will go up, down and out.”
  • Motong “Very tall is very fast.”
  • Eli “Because it has more time to go fast.”

The children shared their theories about speed, height, distance and obstacles.

How might they use their insights as they build and create their new structures?

Homes for the Birds – The Nests

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Over the last few weeks, the children have been looking for ways to solve problems and take action to help the community.

We used the design thinking process introduced by Ms. Jo, to explore how we might use the process to solve the problems we see in the Early Years garden, specifically with the dying birds.

Empathise:

who are you trying to help?

  • The Birds

What do they need?

  • A safe home – nests

Define:

what is the problem you are trying to solve?

  • The nests in the garden are falling down.
  • The birds are falling from the nests.
  • The birds in the garden are dying.

Ideate:

How many ideas can you come up with?

  • The nest should have walls (Oliver)
  • a strong nest on a high tree (Eli)
  • make a nest with sticks (Wyatt)
  • Put cotton inside the nest to keep the birds warm in the nest when it is cold and snowing (Oliver)
  • use a basket because its tall (Motong)
  • Make the basket with sticks (Wyatt)
  • You stand in water to make nests (Morning)
  • use plastic to make the nest the bird won’t get hurt or fall down (Eunbyul)

Prototype:

which ideas will you try first what will you design to test your idea?

The children decided to use 4 different materials to create their prototypes.

  • clay or mud
  • sticks
  • materials for baskets
  • plastic

We noted all these ideas down on chart paper.

Then, the children went back to their first and second design ideas for the nest to see how they could improve on their initial ideas. They used drawings and labels to share their ideas with others. They made improvements to the structure, thinking about the materials they might use and how they could make the nests warm and safe for the birds.

The children created the prototypes of their nests, to help them decide on what works well and the improvements they could make in their final design.

  

 

Through this process, they had opportunities to:

  • Identify needs and opportunities for designing, through exploration. (Design: Ideating)
  • Select tools, materials and processes for specific purposes. (Visual Arts: Creating)
  • Use all senses to observe and notice details. (Research Skills: Data Gathering)
  • Use trial and error to make changes, solve problems, or incorporate new ideas from self or others. (Design: Making)  

 

Ramps: The Prototypes

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The children have been using a range of materials and manipulatives in the construction area to consider the concepts of height, speed, forces, and energy.

As part of this investigation, a team of young designers have been planning, designing and creating prototypes of ramps in their design class. The team began by discussing their ideas and creating a plan for their slides.

They know that designers need to source and test materials for different purposes and make choices about the materials they use for projects.

After careful consideration, the teachers decided to offer the children ‘clay’ as a material for the structure. Clay is malleable and easy to use when creating structures yet offers many opportunities for challenge and problem-solving. The children tested the different tools, making careful decisions about the size, height, width, and foundation of their structure.

While creating, the young designers followed the natural cycles of design as they planned, created, reflected and improved their structures. Through trial and error, the children have reached the first stage of their design work.

Design

Through this experience, the children had opportunities to:

  • identify needs and opportunities for designing, through exploration
  • generate ideas from their experiences and interests
  • add to others’ ideas
  • choose an idea to pursue

Design Learning Outcomes:

  • choose tools and materials
  • make a product using known procedures or through modelling of others
  • use trial and error to make changes, solve problems, or incorporate new ideas from self or others
  • develop their skills and add new ones through play and collaborative work
  • explore the use of simple, available tools and technologies to extend their capabilities

Nests: How can we help?

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We went out to the corridor to look at the documentation about the ‘dead birds’.

The children revisited some of their past observations and theories.

  • Lydia “Cats have eat the birds.”
  • Liz “Cats eat the birds. I think big birds eat small birds.”
  • Eli “I think birds flying and when they are sleeping the cat is down and the cat climbed the tree and then he the ate birds. Birds are in the nest.”
  • Jeongyoon “Nests on the tree.”
  • Liz “I think bird fell down from the nest. Its dead.”
  • Oliver “I think the baby bird fall down and then hits its dead.”
  • Morning “Maybe they rolled and fell down the tree.” 

What new ideas do we have? What can we do to help?

  • Howie “Put the soft things under the tree. If they fall down it will be soft.”
  • Oliver “Feathers, cotton.”
  • Eli “Maybe something bouncy. Maybe grass.”
  • Morning “Paper.”
  • Oliver “I see something white that is outside but it is not cotton.”
  • Oxford “Take the birds to the doctor. Take them home and look to see what is wrong.”
  • Oliver “I think the nest is a little bit not safe for the birds. I think it’s a little bit small. We can build one more.”
  • Morning “Use cotton to make the nest. Maybe grass.”
  • Oliver “Use sticks. Sometimes we can just put a bowl.”
  • Howie “And put inside some soft things.”
  • Oliver “I think they make them with water and mud. To make the sticks not fall off the nests. First, we need to find some stick. Then put some water in the sand. Cover the nests with the mud and then the baby birds can live on them. Not mud, we can use clay.”
  • Eli “I saw lots of sticks outside. I saw a special place that has lots of sticks.
  • Howie “Then we can put them on the tree. We can put them like on the fire trucks, to put the ladder and climb up and put the nests on the tree.”
  • Oliver “If we stick the clay to the tree then the nest will never fall off. Then we don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
  • Eunbyul “Children feed the birds and one more bird is fly and two more birds fly back. Feed the birds seeds.”
  • Motong “We can find some sticks and make a nest. Put paper on the nest because the snow flowing the nest. Put the paper on the top.”
  • Wyatt “Put the bird nest on the tree and the bird is going to the house. And the bird is go there and going to the house. If it’s cold, then there is snow. Snow is body is fall down. Help bird, help to put on a jacket to put on the bird.”

The children ran outside to collect the sticks they needed to build the nest. Oliver found some cotton-like material and put it in another tub.  

 

We wonder what we might need to think about when creating nests for the birds.

An Inquiry into Ramps

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A group of kindergarteners explore a range of concepts while building ramps. They collaborate with each other, thinking, planning and testing their theories (Forces and energy).

They explore how speed, distance, and height may change the result of the experiment. Curious investigators are drawn to the testing ground as laughter and celebration ripple across the learning space. 

Through experimentation, the children begin to explore how a variety of factors including size and shape, can impact the way objects move (Physics).

  • We wonder what variables impact the design of ramps. 
  • How are ramps used in the world around us? 

An exploration begins… 

Creating Essential Agreements

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Over the last few weeks, we have been taking photographs and videos of the children engaging in different spaces around the Early Years. These images have helped us highlight and make observations visible.

At times, the images focused on celebrating learning, community and engagement. On other occasions, the images helped us hone in on challenges and problems that require attention.

Over the last few days, we have discussed these ideas in small and whole group situations, talking about what we see, think and wonder.

See, Think, Wonder is a ‘thinking routine’ that places emphasis on the importance of observation as the basis for thinking and interpretation, through looking closely at an image, object or video.

After many discussions, we gathered to create our ‘Essential Agreements’. We noticed that the conversations often focused on the idea of feeling ‘safe’ in a ‘caring’ and ‘respectful’ environment.

Some of the key points were:

  • Expressing and communicating emotions in respectful ways and asking for an adult’s help when needed.
  • Being aware of how we touch others when speaking or playing with them.
  • Using manipulatives and resources in a safe and respectful way.
  • Moving our bodies safely in and around the different spaces.
  • Cleaning up after playtime to ensure we respect people, materials and spaces.
  • Using kind and thoughtful words to express ourselves.
  • Being inclusive by collaborating sharing and inviting others to play.

The key ideas by the children highlight the concepts of well-being, interaction, participation, belonging and inclusion.

As a learning community, we will continue to revisit our essential agreements to help us make appropriate choices that help us work and learn together as a community.

We are learning that by following agreements and sharing space we can participate safely in our community. ​

The Bike Park Signs

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Over the last few weeks, a team of young designers worked together with Ms. Eileen and Ms. Jo, to create signs for the bike park. After conducting their research, they decided to create the signs using wood, as this was a material that could be used outdoors in all types of weather. After considering many options for the message, the team decided to use the wood-burning tool to burn the message onto the wood instead of using paint, markers or other writing tools. 

They began by planning their message out using pictures and words, to inform the early years community how to park the bikes safely in the bike park area. Their pictures served to remind the children where to park and in which direction the bikes needed to be stored at the end of playtime.

The team considered the type of wood and the size of the sign. Then, they used sandpaper to make sure the edges of the wood were smooth. 

They learned how to use the wood-burning tool to burn the messages on the pieces of wood. They had to think about staying safe and focused throughout the task.

Finally, their signs were ready to be mounted in the bike park area. They talked to each other about the best place to put up the signs and what materials they would use to attach the signs in the different spaces. Noah decided that his sign should be placed standing upright in the bike park. Mason, Sean and Eunice decided that their signs should be attached to the wooden fence dividing the play area. The team were proud of their hard work, and were excited to see that the Early Years community were now well informed about safe parking in the playground.

K2 students are aware of the impact they can have on the community. They understand how they can actively engage in various stages of learning: including thinking about, planning, modifying and creating for a purpose. Through active discussion and questioning, they were able to direct their own learning. The ‘Bike Park’ project helped them make connections to the real world. Through a range of experiences, they could consider perspectives, possibilities and outcomes that would benefit the community. They considered their own responsibility in shared spaces, and were able to use their voice and actions to bring a sense of purpose and belonging to these community spaces.

Organising the Shed: Sorting and Data Collection  

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A team of children went to the shed to begin sorting the toys. They placed tubs for the sand toys, put the kitchen and cooking items on one rack and all the trucks and diggers on the shelves.

Next, Doho and Sean went to look for Mr. Jamie, to ask him if he could help the team mount the hooks on the pegboards.

Sean and Doho explained the problems they had, and then they went out to the shed with Mr. Jamie. Together, they were able to problem-solve and make a plan to mount the hooks.

A team of K2 mathematicians went to the shed to gather more information to plan the next step of the project. We needed to find out how many hooks, tubs and racks we will need to sort and organise the different toys in the shed.

 

The team began to think about the different ways we can record data. We decided to divide the paper into four to record the number of kitchen items wheelbarrows trucks and sand toys.

Then, the data collectors used pictures, words and numbers to record their information. 

We observed the children:

·     gathering, recording and organizing information

·     listening actively and respectfully to others’ ideas and listening to information

·     using mark-marking to convey meaning

·     taking responsibility with tasks

·     using strategies to problem-solve

The Bike Park Plan

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The teachers set up a time lapse video after playtime to provoke the children’s thinking. We watched the video during our class meeting and discussed what we noticed.

We reflected on what Noah had said about blocking the emergency entrance. We also noticed how Kenan and Noah parked the bikes, making sure they are parked in reverse.

Noah used the iPad to show the class how we could keep the walkways in the playground clear of tricycles.

He thought about what he had learned through his research about the school parking lots, and then used the iPad to show how the lines could be marked on the floor. The yellow lines would be a ‘NO PARKING’ area. The class gave him feedback as he made the plan.

 

 

 

 

The messages and signs team are ready to begin their work on the signs to help the EY community know how to park the bikes.

Another team will present their ideas to the facilities department and relevant personnel in school, to help them make the changes they need. They will need to convince the facilities team that their suggestions will ensure we have a safe and organised playground.

The Bike Project – Research Groups

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Our Bike project continues, with children leading research projects to help them make the best decisions for their outdoor space.

 

Name for the Parking Spot: Conducting a Survey

from our brainstorm on the different A group of mathematicians interviewed the Early Years community to find out their preference for the name of the parking spot. The two choices were BIKE PARK or BIKE GARAGE.

The team used tally marks to record the data on the survey.  

Then they worked together to calculate the total for each choice.

Through their research they learned that more people preferred the name ‘BIKE PARK’!

 

NO PARKING area: Field Visit

The children wanted to find a way to create a ‘No Parking’ area near the emergency exit. We know the school has many NO PARKING areas and areas where you can park. Noah went on a field visit to learn more.

  • What do we notice in the parking spaces?
  • How is the space organised?

Noah created a video to share what he learned from his research. We wonder how we might use these ideas to help us organise the tricycle park.

  

Signs and Messages:

Another team of researchers brainstormed ideas for the signs. They began by looking for signs around the Early Years Centre.

  • What materials are signs made of?
  • How are colours, shapes and words used to share messages?
  • What messages and actions do they communicate to people?

They used the iPads to record their observations and brought photographs back to the team.

The researchers discussed their observations while Ms. Eileen documented key points on chart paper. 

The team decided that ‘plastic’ would not be an appropriate material to use as they didn’t know how to make plastic.

They didn’t want to buy plastic from the shop as it was their own project. They wanted to make the sign all by themselves.

 

‘Paper’ and ‘card’ were not the best materials for the signs as it breaks and tears easily.

Although card is stronger, it will get wet when it rains as the signs will be outdoors.

 

Yet another choice were ‘stickers’. They may last longer and are waterproof, but they might come off after a while.

The team decided that stickers were not a suitable choice either.

 

They noticed that the ‘wood’ was very strong and wouldn’t rip. If they used thicker wood, it would make the sign stronger.

The team decided that wood would be the perfect material for the signs.

They wondered if someone used stone to carve the wood, or fire to draw the sign. They decided that their next step would be to meet Ms. Jo and Mr. Danny to ask them more about the sign. Other ideas the team would consider:

  • How big does the sign need to be?
  • Where will the sign be placed?
  • How will it be fitted safely?

The team wondered how they might use what they have learned about traffic rules, signs and important messages in their own planning.

We look forward to our next steps as we begin to use what we have learned to organise the ‘BIKE PARK’.

The Bike Project: Fixing the Tricycles

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We held a class meeting to talk about our nest steps with the Bike Project.

Mr. Danny and Mr. B joined our meeting and took note of the problems the children shared about the older bikes in the playground.

  • The front wheels are wobbly.
  • Some bikes don’t have the pedals.
  • Some bikes don’t have the rubber sleeves on the handles.
  • The seats are moving around.
  • The back tyres are wobbly.
  • Some of the screws at the bottom of the trikes are not tight enough.

A team went back to the design room to bring the tools they needed. They were HEAVY!

Then, the expert mechanics got to work with their eager assistants, tightening nuts and bolts, fixing the wobbly seats and adjusting the wobbly wheels. 

The mechanics took the bike for a test run to see if there were any more problems that needed their attention. The ride was smooth!

Organising the Bikes

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Two photographs of the bikes in the Early Years playground were presented to the class.

What do you notice?

The children looked carefully at the bikes and shared their observations.

They noticed that:

  • The bikes are squished and people might bump into each other when they ride.
  • They might break the bikes when they try to get them out.
  • The bikes are parked all over, (messy) and it is hard to move the bikes out when needed.
  • Some of the accessories for the bikes are not put away safely.
  • People can bump into the exit doors because there is no space to ride them.
  • The bikes are blocking the fire exit and people might fall over the bikes when trying to get out in a hurry.

The children suggested that we:

  • Make big signs to tell people what to do.
    • ‘Park the bikes straight’
    • ‘NO bikes in the water and sand’
    • ‘NO Parking’ sign near the emergency exit.
  • Add lines to show the no parking area.
  • Make a list of all the things we need to fix on the bikes.
  • Conduct a survey to find the most suitable name for the park. The two choices are BIKE PARK and BIKE GARAGE.

Next Steps… 

The Bike Project

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An invitation to create and build.

A group of young mechanics went to the Design centre to look for experts who can help them assemble the new tricycles.

Mr. Danny and Mr. B volunteered to help them with their project. Their task was to assemble a bike that was safe and worked well.

The bike mechanics began by looking closely at all the different components that were needed to assemble the tricycles.

The expert mechanics Mr. B and Mr. Danny worked alongside the children, helping them find the correct parts, the appropriate tools and the nuts and bolts that held the structure together.

The tricycles did not include instructions on how to assemble them, therefore, the mechanics had to work together to solve problems along the way. We noticed that the young mechanics asked the adults questions in order to learn more about the process.

They were deeply engaged in their inquiry, collaborating, testing, and thinking as they learned and applied new skills.

Volunteers from the Early Years classes have assembled all four of the tricycles.

They were excited and proud to ride them in the Early Years playground during their breaks.

The process of assembling the tricycles helped the children explore the concepts; structures, materials, mechanics, tools, safety, purpose, design and collaboration.

Action!

Following the project, the children have begun to notice some maintenance issues with some of the bikes and trikes in the playground.

Attention was also brought to how the bikes are parked each afternoon (systems and organisation). We wonder what steps they would take to help keep the bikes organised and maintained. We wonder what action the children may take as a result of their experience (initiative).

The Bikes

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(Organisation, Collaboration, Function of Spaces)

Kenan saw bikes in boxes in the shed. The group of problem solvers wondered who can help them assemble the new bikes.

Mo asked his dad Mr. Danny if he could help. Mr. Danny agreed and asked Mr. B, the Design teacher to help too.

A group of children went over to the Design room to inspect the space.

Would it be a good space to assemble the bikes?

They met the two teachers and had a look around.

Mr. B had many different tools in the room.

Some were very big and heavy. Mr. B showed the young designers some of the tools that we might need to assemble the bikes. We noticed that the children used measurement vocabulary (big/small/heavy/lighter/long/shorter) to describe the different tools.

They decided that the Design room was a great space to assemble the bikes as it had so many tools and plenty of space to work in. Mr. B suggested that we bring one bike to the Design room to begin the process.

Patrick, Mason and Tracey borrowed a wagon from the Library and used it to transport the box with the bike parts to the Design room.

It was a challenge to steer the wagon, but the team worked together and also had some fun along the way!

The designers in the Early Years will take turn to help with the bike assembly.

We wonder what the new bikes look like.

Are they bigger than the ones we have in the EY playground?  

Are they one or two-seater bikes?

The Stool – Ongoing Project

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Ms. Shemo purchased a stool from one of the Eco-friendly projects at NIS. One morning the stool fell and broke. The children considered the problem for a while.

When Ms. Jo. Came in to class, Noah reminded Ms. Jo that the stool was broken.

Designers are also problem solvers. Ms. Jo asked the young designers if they could fix the stool. They thought this was a good project. The children went to the Primary School Design Pit to find materials to fix the stool.

The designers agreed that they should use “some sticky things” to fix the stool. Glue sticks, masking tape, duct tape, transparent tape, glue tack, a hot glue gun, and white glue were the “sticky things” they could find in Design. They thought that the hot glue gun, duct tape, clear tape, glue tack, and white glue were good fixing materials for wood, and were good materials for fixing the stool, but they couldn’t decide which would work the best. Designers sometimes test materials and then decide on the most suitable ones.

After picking the materials for fixing the stool, our young designers started to test these materials. The first one was the Glu Tack.

The young designers brainstormed different ways to apply the Glu Tack either on the seat or stool legs. Whilst testing the Glu Tack they found some other problems, for example, the seat wasn’t put evenly on the stool legs.

They didn’t forget to fix these problems as well. Finally, the young designers got the seat back on the stool. They will leave the stool in K2A until the next lesson to test and see if the Glu Tack worked well.

 

Test two…

The second material the young designers decided to test was the duct tape. The children used the green tape and pasted the sides down to fix the stool.

Right away they could see that the plastic top moved around. It did not look like a safe choice.

They decided to add a sign to let people know that it was not safe to sit on. The designers will need to reflect on their choice and decide what they need to do next.

 

Test three…

We reviewed our last test and decided that duct tape wasn’t a good solution. Next, we used hot glue to fix the stool.

Before gluing, the designers brainstormed the advantages and disadvantages of using hot glue.

Mason and Patrick thought the hot glue would make cracks in the seat because the glue was hot. What do you think?

Let’s give the hot glue a bit of time and see if it will make cracks in the plastic seat.

Our problem-solving continues…

Documentation by Ms. Jo and Ms. Eileen

The Nest Project

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Big Idea: Designs grow out of natural curiosity.​

We gathered as a group to talk about a piece of outdoor equipment. The children typically refer to this space as ‘The NEST’. The young designers were invited to share what they notice and think about the image.

The first step was to ‘Empathise‘, to learn more about the people who we are designing and creating for. In this instance, it was for the children in the Early Years. 

 

  • Allen “Ms. Bella like to look this house is broken. Ms. Bella look, said, not good.”
  • Kenan “It is broken and Ms. Bella is looking and she is so sad because it is broken. Boys and girls sit there and kick there.”
  • Eunice “This sticks are broken.”
  • Tae Woo “Ms. Bella is standing and looking fix the sticks.”
  • Chloe “Broken”
  • Tracey “The sticks are broken because the boys and girls are sitting on the sticks.”
  • Noah “I think it is a nest.”
  • Patrick “It is a big stick house.”

After the designers shared their observations, we began to ‘Think’, to find as many solutions as we could to solve the problem with ‘The Nest’.

The young designers went outdoors with their clipboards, paper and thin line markers, to look for innovative ways to solve problems and better utilise this great space.

Then, the young designers presented their ideas to the class as we documented these proposals on large chart paper.

Through our observations, we noticed that the children named and suggested many different design and construction materials and tools in their plans.

They made these suggestions by tapping into their prior knowledge about the properties of materials used for building structures.

Some designers visualised the space in unique ways, bringing in design ideas and elements that would offer comfort and purpose. Their sketches included pictures, words, symbols, and numbers. Essentially, they used what they know about writing to communicate ideas as they documented their thinking on paper.

When presenting their ideas to the class, the designers listened and engaged with interest. We noticed how they made connections with what they see, what they heard, and what they know, while looking for ways to understand and solve problems through authentic experiences.

The children suggested including a title on the chart paper, ‘K2A’s ideas to fix the NEST!’.

 

We are excited to dive into our next step, to create prototypes!

Design

Through this experience, the children had opportunities to:

    • identify needs and opportunities for designing, through exploration
    • generate ideas from their experiences and interests
    • add to others’ ideas
    • choose an idea to pursue

The Garden Boxes

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(Responsibility, Ownership)

Three children went out to document a task. What was happening out in the playground? Their responsibility was to observe what was happening, gather the information and inform the rest of the children. There were 4 new garden pots in the Early Years garden. What were they for?

The 3 children observed the activities and used the class iPads to take photographs. They used the photos to create 3 short videos to share their information in English, Korean and Mandarin.

The children shared the videos with the class, informing others about the events. We had 3 plants left. We went outside to decide on our next step.

 

Noah “I see 3 trees.”

Kenan “Me see 3 trees.”

Tracey “I see some lines on the branches.”

Olivia “I see a box.”

Tracey “But that one don’t have it because we didn’t put.”

We had to decide who would get to put the plants in the boxes. We tried various groups to decide on the right number of people that would work together.

The children made suggestions on the number of children in each group.

  • What about 3 in each group?
  • Can we do 7 and 7?
  • Can we have 6 and 7 and 1?
  • Can we have 4 in each group?      

This seemed the best number for each group. We had one person left over and she joined one group of 4. Then we were ready to plant.

Ms. Dora helped us put the plants into the boxes. Then, we added more soil to the left-over garden box and planted the 3 plants. Then, we watered the plants.

We sat down to take notes and sketch our thoughts on our notebooks. While drawing, we thought about the questions we had about the plants and the garden boxes.

Patrick “Why are there no leaves on the plants? It is only October, is it too cold?”

Conceptual Understandings:

Living things: Students understand that living things have basic needs, including food and water.

Inquiry Skills

  • Pose and respond to questions.
  • Participate in guided investigations and make observations using the senses.
  • Share observations and ideas.

A Research Story: The Paper Airplane

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@N has been trying to make a paper airplane using a piece of A4 paper. He approached the teacher and said, “Can you show me how to make a paper airplane?” The teacher noticed several creases on the paper, showing his many attempts at making the paper airplane. After some thought and discussion, @N decided to visit the library to see if there were any books that could give him more information on how to make paper airplanes. He met Ms. Tina in the library and asked if she could help. Ms. Tina showed @N where the books on craft and origami were in the library. Together, they began to look for the books they needed.

The first book on paper crafts and origami did not include directions on how to make a paper airplane. Ms. Tina looked for another book. She looked through the contents section of some books to see if she could find information about paper planes.

@N and Ms. Tina were excited to see that there was a book about paper planes!

@N checked out the book and brought it back to class. He quickly browsed through the pages. He was trying to decide on the type of paper airplane he wanted to make. Others came to see what @N was doing as they were curious about the paper airplane craft book.

@N first tried to follow the instructions to make a plane. He was not sure if he was following the directions correctly. He approached the teacher for help. @N and the teacher worked together to follow the instructions to make a paper plane. When they were both happy with the paper airplane, @N took his airplane outside to test it. A few friends gathered to see what he was doing. They also wanted to make the paper planes.   

@N took the book home to try a few different models. We look forward to his paper plane creation.

  • We wonder which paper airplanes Noah might make.
  • We wonder how far his paper airplanes will travel.

Our story continues…

Presenting the Prototypes!

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The students have been working on their prototypes over the last few weeks. They were ready to present their prototypes to the class. 

Success Criteria

Then, the students reflected on their learning journey.

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