Category: critical thinking

Our Inquiry Into the World of Machines: Connecting Home and Text

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Initial Theories and Curiosities

Our exploration began with a question: What is a machine?

We thought about the tools and objects that use energy to help us work at home, activating prior experiences to draw direct links between concepts in our heads and the physical world we navigate daily. This shift transformed the abstract definition of a “machine” into a tangible, shared study of everyday life.

 

Meeting the Text: Making Thinking Visible

When introduced to an informational book about household tools, the researchers did not just read—they actively constructed meaning. By closely studying the cover and detailed photographs, they practised the art of visual literacy and decoded the visual language. 

“We use many machines at home.”

This central theory became our anchor. By writing this concept down, the writers manifested their comprehension, showcasing how an engaged researcher actively synthesises new data with old memories and rich life experiences.

 

Investigations and Gathering Data

Researchers know how to collect and document their observations and learning through active investigation. To practice these skills and test their theories, we went on a hunt around the learning space—treating our environment as the third teacher—to learn about, identify, and document the different machines we use each day.

 

The Educator’s Reflection

This documentation captures more than a reading comprehension lesson. It reveals the children’s deep competence as capable researchers. They effortlessly bridged text, home environments, and personal theories. Moving forward, we wonder:

  • How do the children distinguish between a simple tool and a complex machine?

The Birthday Cupcakes – Final Steps

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The Field Trip to the Skyways Kitchen!

After months of research, problem-solving, and collaborative inquiry, the children were ready for their field trip to the Skyways Kitchen. We gathered all the materials we needed: the cartons of milk, the lunch cards, and the first aid kit that the children had planned to take. We stepped onto the school bus, excited to visit Skyways Kitchen to make birthday cupcakes. The children spoke about the map they had created, which now directed their journey to the kitchen.

Mr. Patrick had prepared spaces for the children to make chocolate chip cookies and decorate the cupcakes. The children enjoyed both making and decorating the cupcakes, adding frosting and topping the cakes with Smarties, sprinkles, and wafer biscuits. As they worked to decorate over 75 cupcakes, the children in K2B made chocolate chip cookies for both classes.

Next, we went on a tour of the kitchen, looking at all the different areas used to prepare breads, ice creams, chocolate treats, and pastries. Mr. Patrick explained the various sections of the kitchen, showing the children all the tools and materials used, as well as discussing safety and hygiene when preparing food.

Finally, the children enjoyed a treat of hot chocolate. We were pleased that the milk had not gone to waste but was instead used to make hot chocolate for everyone on the trip.

 

The Cupcake Distribution

The cleaning staff and gardeners were excited to come into the Early Years Centre to meet the children. They were eager to learn about the project the children had been working on and delighted by the thoughtful gesture.

K2A visited all the different spaces with their teachers and their birthday cupcake trolley to distribute cupcakes to all the staff who had not received a cupcake for their birthday. They visited Aiden Kitchen, Homecaught, and the security guards.The children’s inquiry created opportunities for authentic learning experiences, allowing them to understand and appreciate the work that various members of the community engage in to make the school a positive and joyful environment. The children’s dedication to the project helped them learn more about themselves and the connections they share with those around them. This thoughtful gesture helped everyone feel included and appreciated. 

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.

Domino Effect – How does it work?

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A group of children were interested in using Domino’s to create a game. They began to prop the dominoes up next to each other, to create a structure that would produce the domino effect. Each time they placed a few Dominoes, they fell over. 

How can we make the challenge more interesting?

Noticing the children’s interest in creating the domino challenge, we decided to share a video that shared many different ways to create the challenge using a range of materials and toys to make it more exciting.

Isabella recalled watching a similar video in the past. She was excited by all the ideas that were shared.  

  • Ciel “Why do we need to watch the video?”
  • Euno “Because this important because Grade 5 made this game.”
  • Isabella “Because you can build it yourself in different ways.”
  • Sea “We can make it together it is fun.”
  • Junsu “We make more blocks and make fantastic fun.”
  • Dahyun “Because then we can make play for some things.”
  • Isabella “Because you can build more cooler stuff.”
  • Euno “We watch the video and we can make dominoes fun and we can play and be happy.”
  • Ciel “We can make and watch, then we will be good at dominoes.”

What are some important things to consider when we play with the dominoes?

  • Ciel “We need to tidy up when we are finished.”
  • Evan “Make a story with dominoes.”
  • Junsu “Dominoes is broken then they go straight and push and then fall.”
  • Dahyun “Be kind to each to each other and kind hands and kind voice.”
  • Isabella “We need to say kind words. Nice words.”
  • Suzy “We can’t do too loud or else people’s ears will hurt.”
  • Euno “We need to be safe with dominoes because we don’t have space and people kick the dominoes because we can’t see. SO careful to play dominoes (accidentally kick it).
  • Sea “We be kind to dominoes because dominoes fallen down the floor and people will slip and their back is hurt.”
  • Dahyun “We need to be kind or people be sad.”

The team went back to work on the chain. They persisted till they created a long chain. More children wanted to join in as it looked like fun! The domino chain spanned the width of the classroom. The team was ready to test the chain reaction. Gently, they pushed the final domino forward hoping for the others to come crashing down. However, the chain reaction only resulted in a few dominoes falling over each time, which resulted in the team knocking some over until they reached the end.Isabella watched what was happening, she said, “They need to be closer or it won’t work!” Ciel agreed and shared his observation too.

The next day Ciel went back to working with the dominoes. Others gathered around him and wanted to join in. They discussed who would use the different materials.

Ciel worked with Isabella. He made a few vertical structures, but they came down. Evan joined Isabella and Ciel.

Ciel “We can make a big circle inside the sofa!”

What information will help us create a successful chain reaction?

Over the next few days, the researchers continued to show their interest in creating the chain reaction. They wondered how they could create an effective reaction. Ms. Sophia suggested that they seek out more information to learn about the domino reaction. The team watched a video to see what they could learn.

  • Isabella “We are watching the video of making the domino video.”
  • Evan “Because we want to look at the dominoes because we don’t know what to build.”
  • Ciel “I see the dominoes standing straighly.”
  • Adalyn “We can look at the iPad we can learn how to build dominoes.”
  • Isabella “When you put the dominoes you need to grab the bottom, not the top. If you grab the bottom it won’t fall down, if you grab the top it will fall down.”

  • Evan “When we are building the dominoes we need to put 2cms away from each other because if you do it too far away then only one will fall.”
  • Isabella “It’s 0.8cms, the gap so it can fall down. 2cms is too far. It won’t fall down.”

The team used rulers to measure the distance that was suggested in the video. Then, they tested some of their ideas to see if they would work. They carefully curved the edges of the ‘test’ chain, being mindful of the distance they needed to maintain between 2 Dominoes.   

  • Isabella “We are trying to see if it can fall down. It fell down together.”
  • Ciel “We are going to build it to PreK-K1.”

As Ciel missed out on watching the video the first time, he asked to watch it with the others.

Ciel “The dominoes need to have a 1cm space between them because if we don’t do that it will not fall. I learned how to make interesting dominoes. I can make it interesting by making some cool dominoes.”

Considering that the team have now learned more about creating the domino effect we wonder…

  • …what new information the team will need to be more successful.
  • …what strategies the children will use to change the outcome of the domino challenge.
  • …how they will collaborate, sharing their ideas and suggestions to work as a team.

Student-Led Conferences

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‘The learning belongs to the students, not the teacher. We are supporting our students to take ownership of their learning and to be able to think and talk about their learning with knowledge and confidence. When students know how they learn best and are able to reflect on their learning, they are able to advocate for themselves.’
(Parent Survival Guide to Student-Led Conferences, NIS)
The Student-Led Conference is a special day in the school calendar. The children are excited to share this time with you, to show, share and lead learning stations around the campfire and the campus. You can help and support your child by maintaining a slow pace, helping them reflect, talk about and celebrate their growth as learners. It is a special day for the teachers as they guide and watch the children take ownership of their learning. 
Learning Spaces

 

 
Reflections

Where do we keep the sand toys?

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Ms. Jenny shared some photographs of one section of the EY playground, which has been closed off temporarily due to maintenance work. As we shared the photographs, the children discussed what they noticed. They were curious to find out how the maintenance staff would fix the ‘hole in the ground’ next to the sand pit.

One of the problems that children continued to focus on was that the walkway to the shelf where they store the sand play toys had been cordoned off.

They wondered where they might keep the sand play equipment after playtime. The children were thoughtful, explaining what might happen to the toys if they weren’t put away safely.

  • Euno, “These are the lines to tell you that going inside is dangerous. I saw a child go inside and then he go out and that’s dangerous.”
  • Isabella “There is a hole inside that needs to be fixed.”
  • Evan, “People are fixing the hole.”
  • Jacob “The hole is dangerous because if you slip inside you will be sucked in deeper and deeper and cannot come out anymore. (In mandarin)”
  • Isabella, “I see there is some water inside.”
  • Riccardo, “Can we lift the strings and go through in?”
  • Suzy “No.”
  • Isabella “We can stand outside of the lines and watch people fixing it.”
  • Suzy “But if we cannot go inside, how can we tidy up the toys?”
  • Euno “We cannot go inside but our tidy up shelf is inside, then we cannot put our toys back to the shelf inside.”
  • Evan “We should not throw the toys in.”
  • Sea “We cannot leave all the tools on the playground, they will look like trash.”
  • Riccardo “We can use the old tidy up area (shed).”
  • Suzy “Maybe we can give the toys to the fixing people and ask them to help put it on the shelf.”
  • Dahyun “We can make a new one (to be the tidy up shelf).”

The children thought hard to find a solution to the problem. After considering and discussing many different ideas, Mohammed said, “In the garden”.

We were curious about what he meant and decided to invite him to share the safe space he was thinking about. Mohammad went outside with Ms. Sophia to take photographs of the spaces he was referring to. He presented his ideas to the class, pointing to the different spaces we can keep the toys, till the shelf is accessible. Mohammad’s solution was to store the toys under the worktables near the garden.

They could also be hidden in the sand so they will be protected.

When Mohammad was done Junsu turned to Mohammad and gave him a thumbs up and said, “Good job Mohammad!”. The children agreed that this was a good idea!

The children’s conversation highlights their natural curiosity about the environment, and how they use their senses to understand how things work around them. It further highlights their enthusiasm to explore possibilities and be solution driven.

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.

A Map to the Skyways Kitchen

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What is a map?

When Patrick came in to talk to the children about their field trip to the Skyways kitchen, Riccardo and Evan asked him if he had a map to help us get to the kitchen. Patrick did not have a map but provided the children with directions on how to get to the location. We referred to the information and realised that we would need to create our own map using the information.  

We began by asking the children what they knew about maps.

  • Dahyun “A map is if we don’t know a place we can see the map.”
  • Sea “We don’t have a map, we take a map in the school.”
  • Riccardo “You can use a map to find treasure.”
  • Evan “You can use a map to drive the car.”
  • Adalyn “You can use a map to find somewhere.”
  • Isabella “You can use a map to find some place you don’t know.”
  • Suzy “You can use a map to find a place to drive.”
  • Euno “When you want to go to a market but you don’t know where is the supermarket, you see the map.”
  • Jacob “When you don’t know how to go home, then you can use a map to go home.”
  • Sea “We don’t have a map, we can see a map in a handphone.”
  • Dahyun “We cannot go to NIS we can see a map.”
  • George “If you want to go somewhere you can go with a map.” (in Mandarin)
  • Evan “You can walk with a map in the phone.”
  • Riccardo “In some maps, some things are in the right place and some things are not.”
  • Ciel “If you don’t have a map you can talk to another people.”
  • Sea “We don’t have a map in the phone we can put it in the car screen.”
  • Euno “You don’t have a map on the phone you see the iPad map.”
  • Ciel “If you don’t have a map you can make one.”
  • Euno “Mum’s handphone has a map, so my mum has a map.”

What does a map need to have?

  • Ciel “You need a paper, and markers. It has a house, schools.”
  • Sea “Supermarkets, hospitals, fire stations.”
  • Suzy “A car on the road.”

A team of children signed up to create a map to help us with our trip.

The cartographers documented the information using everyday language to describe directions, plotting locations, traffic symbols, and signs along the roadway.

They discussed the ‘purpose‘ of crosswalks and traffic lights and how they keep people safe.

  • Suzy “If we have traffic lights, other cars can go first, then the people will go, and then the traffic light will go green. When the traffic light is green the cars can go. The people have to stop because then they will go under the car’s wheel, that is super dangerous.”
  • Ciel “People need a crosswalk because people need to walk to the street. When you are on the crosswalk you need to look left and right because the car can hit you. When the walking man traffic light turns to green then you can walk. When it is red you can’t go. I go with my sister on the crosswalk. We have elevated roads because we can see the nature.”

The children’s conversations share their understanding of the ‘function’ of signs and symbols and safety equipment and how they communicate meaningful information to road users.

 

What is 1 Metre?

The cartographers paused to think about some of the information Patrick shared with the directions to the Skyways kitchen. The instructions read ‘go 200 metres’. 

Teacher “What is 200 metres?”

  • Isabella “We only heard centimetres before.”

Teacher “What is a centimetre?”

  • Isabella “The ruler.”
  • Sea “Only have numbers up to 30 centimetres.”
  • Evan “I think 1 metre is 100 centimetres.”
  • Ciel “I think 1 metre is 9 centimetres.”
  • Jacob “I think 5 centimetres is 1 metre.”
  • Evan “I think 200 centimetres is 1 metre.”
  • Ciel “I think 10 centimetres is 1 metre.”

We noticed that the children’s estimates ranged from 5 to 200 centimetres.

Therefore, we decided to provide them with a comparison example.

  • Shemo “I am about one and a half metres tall. How many centimetres might that be?”

As they looked carefully at the height of the teacher, Isabella recalled measuring height using a long ruler in the classroom.

  • Isabella “Mr. Seth has bigger rulers!”

Isabella brought back a ruler that was 50 centimetres long. The children looked at the number and realised that it wasn’t tall enough to measure the teacher. Isabella went and brought back a longer ruler that was 100 centimetres long.

They placed the ruler close to the teacher, but she was taller than the ruler. They placed the 50cm ruler above the 100cm ruler, the teacher was still taller than the ruler. Finally, they placed a 30-centimetre ruler above the other rulers and added the numbers together.

  • Ciel “I think Ms. Shemo is about 160 centimetres tall.
  • Sea “Because 100 and 50 and 10 is 160!”

Through this discussion, the children concluded that the 100-centimetre ruler was one metre. Now, they wondered how to show 200 meters on the map. After some thought…

  • Isabella “We can just write 200 meters on the paper!”

The children’s conversations and problem-solving show their developing understanding of standard units of measurement and how they are used in everyday life experiences.

Once the cartographers complete their map, they will present it to the rest of the class for feedback. We wonder how feedback and reflections will lead to improving the final map of the directions from NIS to the Skyways kitchen.

 

The Final Map

The map was presented to the class for feedback. The children decided to colour in the map to make it look ‘beautiful’.

They also suggested that including names (labels) will be helpful.  The children gathered around the map to include the different elements discussed.

They used what they knew about letters and sounds to write the labels.  We noticed the children helping each other when words were too hard to spell.

Finally, Ciel included a title for the map.

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.

Planning a Field Trip

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During Atelier time, the children revisited the PTA cupcake project. They were excited to tell George why they had decided to visit the Skyways bakery and make the birthday cupcakes as it was his first day back in K2A.

Inviting K2B

The children had suggested inviting the children and teachers in K2B to join the field trip. However, the K2B class didn’t know many details about the project. The children decided it would be a good idea to provide more information to determine if they wanted to join the field trip to the kitchen.

What would we need to tell them about the trip?

  • Why do we want to go on a field trip
  • Where we were going
  • What we hope to do and how we will do it
  • Who will go on the field trip
  • What we will do once we get there
  • Jacob explained why we were going to the kitchen.
  • Mohammad reminded everyone that we were going to make a “Cake” in the kitchen. He wondered if he could make a cake shaped like a “car”!
  • Adalyn “We want to make some cupcakes.”
  • Riccardo “For people who didn’t have PTA cupcakes.”

  • Suzy, Mohammad and Jacob quickly recalled Patrick’s suggestion about making chocolate milk with the leftover milk that we collected after lunch.
  • Jacob wondered if we could get to the kitchen in our vehicles.
  • Ciel wondered if we could make people.
  • Junsu wondered if we could make a vehicle to take us there.

The children documented their ideas about making the cakes, thinking about all the ingredients they needed to make the cupcakes.

Next, the children will prepare to interview the children in K2B to share their plans and ask them if they would like to join the field trip.

We decided to revisit our plan to make the cupcakes.

The children referred to the plans they had created when they were in the Atelier. They discussed the ideas they had documented in their notebooks.

  • Dahyun “We need milk, eggs, flour, butter, chocolate, salt, water, cherries, sprinkles…”
  • Suzy “We need to go there by school bus.”
  • Adalyn “We need the lunch card.”
  • Jacob “We need the lunch card so people know who we are.”

This led to a deeper conversation about the concept of safety. Jacob suggested that we book 2 school buses. Susy explained why when she said,

  • Suzy “One for K2A and one for K2B.”
  • Jacob “We can go count how many seats are there in one bus.”
  • “We have 26 children in K2” explained Ceil, calculating the total number of children in both kindergarten classes.
  • Evan “We need a map. We need our water bottle.”
  • Jacob “Backpacks.”
  • Dahyun “We need the big oven. And we need our books.”

We documented all the children’s ideas and suggestions for their next steps. It was clear that many different aspects needed to be considered and planned before we went on the trip to the kitchen. They would need to:

  • calculate the quantity of milk they would need to take with them
  • gather the required data, and then organise and book the school buses
  • Create the map to make sure we know how to get to the location safely
  • and consider all the different items we would need to take with us to make sure we have a safe and fun learning experience.

Waste: Leftover Milk

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We have been exploring the concept of ‘waste’ in many different situations around the classroom. We have been thinking about and taking action to solve some of the problems we have noticed with food and paper waste. We decided to gather the children to discuss yet another issue to do with food waste during lunchtime.   

We began by trying to identify the problem.

  • Suzy “Some of the people don’t like the milk.”
  • Euno “People wasting the milk. Because we drink one box of milk. We cannot drink the other box of milk.”

The children agreed that the leftover milk was going to waste. We began to look for ways we could solve this problem.

What are the things we can do?

  • Suzy “We can drink the leftover milk during the snack time.”

We discussed this idea further and invited the children to think of possible solutions to the problem.

  • Riccardo “We can use the milk to make something.”
  • Isabella “We don’t have cups for the milk during snack time.”
  • Evan “We can make cups.”
  • Suzy “I made a cup during Olivia’s birthday.”
  • Isabella “Bring the colour cups from the EY kitchen.”
  • Suzy “We should ask the kitchen Ayi if we can use the cups. The Ayis who cook the lunch.”
  • Jacob saw possibilities with reusing some of the empty milk cartons when he explained, “We can use the empty box to make something.”
  • Suzy added, “Maybe we can use the box for making paper.”
  • Riccardo “Ask other classes if they have plastic cups for us to use.”
  • Evan “We can ask the big kitchen for some cups.”
  • Dahyun “Go and ask other classes do they have some cups.” She suggested asking a Grade 3 class!
  • Riccardo “Maybe grade two?”
  • Euno “Maybe K1? When I was in K1, we have cups, white cups.”
  • Riccardo “We can buy some cups.”

What if we don’t like the milk?

  • Adalyn “We can try.”
  • Suzy “We can drink a little bit, if you think you don’t like it you can try it again.”
  • Riccardo “If you don’t like the milk, you shouldn’t pour the milk in your cup.”
  • Isabella “If you don’t like milk you can drink water.”
  • Suzy “You can drink juice, I see a K2B kid drinks the juice.”
  • Evan “I think it comes from the big kitchen. If you want the juice, you can tell the Ayi of the kitchen.

Ricardo provided another suggestion…

  • Riccardo “Use the milk to make something!”
  • Ciel “Maybe we can make some chocolate milk.”
  • Isabella “Hot cocoa.”
  • Evan “Hot chocolate.”
  • Euno “Strawberry milk.”
  • Junsu “Banana milk.”
  • Dahyun “Lemon milk.”
  • We could hear the children’s excitement about flavoured milk.
  • Evan “Yoghurt.”
  • Jacob “We can make some chocolate yogurt.”
  • Isabella “Ice-cream.”
  • Evan “We can put vanilla in.”
  • Suzy “We can put some strawberry jam.”
  • Ciel “My sister can make ice cream with yoghurt. She put yoghurt in the fridge and she can make ice cream with the yoghurt. She puts some fruit when she makes the ice cream.”
  • Jacob has not forgotten his solution to the waste problem saying…“We can use the milk boxes to make some funny things.”

As we listened to the children’s creative ideas and solutions, we noticed their developing understanding of the choices we can make to reduce waste. We look forward to exploring some of these suggestions, to create an action plan for their next steps.

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.

Which one does not belong? Bicycles

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Which one does not belong? Why?

The children were encouraged to look carefully at the four different quadrants with bicycles. They had to decide if A, B, C or D did not belong and explain why. A group of children focused on the positioning of the different bicycles explaining that some were parked in the shape of an X and others in rectangles. Ciel noticed that some bicycles were smaller than others. Isabella and Suzy decided to count the number of bicycles to decide which section did not belong. We moved to count the number of wheels in each section. Then we counted how many purple or yellow bikes each section had.

The children use their knowledge of doubling to find the total, explaining that 4 + 4 was 8, 5 + 5 was 10, 8 + 8 was 16 and 10 + 10 was 20.

The ‘which one but doesn’t belong’ activities help the children look carefully at the clues provided to make decisions. It encourages them to think about what they know about numbers, patterns, shapes and data, and to explore connections to make decisions. These mathematical conversations help the children estimate, notice and analyse information to develop their mathematical identities. 

Celebrating Everyone in the Community

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The Birthday Cupcake team met with Ms. Hannah to plan their next steps. One of the first steps was to find out how many people at NIS don’t get the PTA cupcakes. 

Ms. Hannah showed the children the list of the outside contracted workers at NIS, which was shared by the Human Resources department at NIS> Collectively, there are 18 security guards, 17 cleaners,  9 gardeners,  8 Homecaught workers, and 14 Aden workers at NIS.

These members do not receive a Birthday cupcake from the NIS PTA, as they are outsourced contracted staff. However, they get different types of birthday celebrations. The children thought it would be great for them also to get the PTA cupcakes and wondered how they could make this happen.  

  • Isabella “Where did PTA order the birthday? Maybe We can go to the place where the PTA orders and make the birthday cupcakes?”
  • Suzy “Maybe we can learn how they make the PTA cupcakes?”
  • Adalyn “I like to learn how to make the PTA cupcakes.”
  • Isabella “We can make cupcakes for our families.”
  • Evan “We can give cupcakes to those at NIS who don’t get the PTA cupcakes.”
  • Jacob “We need the map.”
  • Isabella “We need to find out where this bakery is. We will need a car, and if everyone goes, we will need a school bus.”
  • Suzy “Can we do it during Atelier time? Maybe we can ask everyone if they want to go at the end of the Atelier time.”
  • Adalyn “We will need transportation because we are all going. We can’t just go there.”

The team wondered who they could ask.

  • Suzy “We can ask the school bus driver. Maybe he will know.

They wondered how much money they needed for a cupcake.

  • Isabella “Maybe we can ask Ms. Rebacca about the cupcake cost?”
  • Jacob “We can then use the calculator to figure out how much in total.”
  • Isabelle “School bag and student ID card.”

The children presented their proposals to the rest of the K2A. They had some questions to solve before the field trip to the Skyways Bakery:

  • Can we visit the Skyways Bakery? Who can we ask?
  • Where do you get the map to the Skyways Bakery, where they make the PTA cupcakes?
  • How many cupcakes do we need to order?
  • Can we also make cupcakes for our families as well?
  • How much is the cupcake?
  • How much money do we need to pay for all the cupcakes

The PTA Birthday cupcakes project invites the children to explore a range of different concepts through the process of research. Their inquiry has focused on the concepts of ‘inclusion’ and ‘community’, as the children have been learning about the people in their community to look for authentic ways to connect with them. As they dive deeper into this project, they will need to apply a range of skills to answer the questions and wonderings they have noted, plan their field trip and organise a special treat for those who do not receive one for their birthday. They will need to find more information about the location of the bakery, and explore maps signs and symbols to make decisions about the journey. They will need to contact relevant members of the community to organise the transportation and plan the field trip. They will need to contact the bakery to find out important information about the visit and plan for the necessary items and the money that would be required for the trip. We look forward to observing how the children apply their knowledge and skills to take responsibility for the preparation and organization of the field trip.

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?

Rules for Sorting

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We have noticed the children categorising everyday objects around the campfire as they play and construct with different objects and materials. We decided to present the Mathematicians with an opportunity to sort, categorise and organise a collection of objects to help them explore how objects can be organised in different ways.

To help them think about this further, we referred to prior documentation from the ‘waste’ project, when the children sorted the different foods into groups and discussed their rules for the sort.

The children noticed that:

  • Isabella “Pictures tell what it is.”
  • Adalyn “Words at the bottom tell everybody what is that picture.”
  • Riccardo “There are numbers because you can tell how high the people like more food.”
  • Evan “How many food there are.”

The children worked in teams to sort out the different collections. We discussed the skills they would need to use to complete the team challenge.

One team was given a collection of loose parts. As they observed the contents of the basket, they decided to sort it by shape. The team were invited to think about other ways to sort the objects. 

Next, they decided to sort the objects by colour. They noticed that the coloured objects also had different shapes and put them into new categories sorted by shape and colour.

The team were reminded about the graph they had made previously, to help them think about how they might organise the information they had gathered. They moved the objects to a new piece of paper, placing the objects in lines.

The team were given feedback on the placement of the objects, encouraging them to consider where the objects were placed in relation to the numbers they had written on the left side of the paper.

Finally, the teams included labels at the bottom of the chart paper to help others know the different categories. Together they decided that the title for the chart would be ‘Shape Tower Chart’.

A second team were given a bucket of loose parts. The team spent a lot of time discussing all the different objects in the bucket, talking about the shapes and colours, and deciding how they might want to sort the objects.

At first, they decided to sort them into two categories beads and buttons. After some negotiations, they decided to categorise them by colour instead.

Having sorted all the different colours out, they transferred this information onto a new piece of chart paper. They were encouraged to refer to the ‘favourite Foods’ graph they had made previously, to help them notice other information that should be included on a graph.

They began to include labels and numbers on the graph and helped each other out with the spelling of the labels. 

They finally repositioned all the different objects to create an organised representation of data and labelled their graph ‘Colour Shape Graph’.  

A third team was given a mixture of cutlery.  The team shared and explained their ideas to each other and then came up with three ways of categorising the collection of cutlery: by colour, size and function.

It took a long time for them to decide on the rule for the sort.  They voted to sort by colour but decided to try out all three ways to see which one works best.

Finally, they agreed on sorting the cutlery by their function as this was ‘the best’. They sorted them into 5 categories, spoons, forks, knives, chopsticks, special spoon (for getting things like ice-cream, salt, or sugar). They were encouraged to refer to the ‘favourite Foods’ graph they had made previously, to help them notice other information that should be included on a graph. They realised that organising the objects vertically rather than horizontally helped create a better graph. They included labels and numbers on the graph and helped each other out with the spelling of the labels. 

They used Google Translate to find the word ‘tableware’. They finally repositioned all the different objects to create an organised representation of data and labelled their graph ‘Tableware Graph’.

Learning Outcomes:

  • collect data
  • sort and label real objects into more than 2 sets by more than one common attribute
  • record data on simple tables
  • present information using pictographs where one picture equals 1
  • explain data using simple comparative language

The Language of Paper

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Isabella was curious about the recycled paper in the classroom. She wanted to see if the paper could be reused. Isabella wondered if the marks, drawings, and lines would disappear if she soaked the paper in water. She decided to test her theories by finding a large glass bottle to place the paper in water and observing what happened over a few days. 

She made a sign to inform others about her paper experiment and documented her observations over time.

Isabella noticed that the water began to change colour and the texture of the paper changed from dry to wet to ‘mushy’. Finally, she placed the pieces of paper on a drying rack and presented her findings to the class.

The children were inspired by Isabella’s experiment and decided to make their own paper. We began by creating a plan, documenting all the steps that might be essential in the process.

As we drew and wrote what we heard the children say. We included images and labels to help us express our ideas clearly. The children volunteered to lead different parts of the process, beginning with informing others of their plan for paper-making and collecting recycled paper from the community.

The Foods We Like to Eat

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Our discussions about ‘food waste’ led to the children sharing all the foods they like to eat from their school lunch menu. They drew pictures of the different foods and included labels to share their ideas.

Then, we gathered to sort and organise the information we had collected.

We began to sort and group the different foods. The children discussed the data that emerged through this process. Rice, hot dogs and pizza were some of the children’s favourite foods.

How can we tell how many people like each type of food?

  • Suzy “We can write numbers!”

 

The children included numbers on one side of the graph.

How can we tell which foods are in one column?

  • Riccardo “We can write the words.”

We decided to add the names as Riccardo suggested.

The children discussed the idea of a title, to let people know what the graph was about. They agreed that it was ‘What K2A Like to Eat’.

 

  • How do the rest of the children in the Early Years feel about their options for school lunch?
  • Do they also like the same foods?

We wonder what choices the children might make because of their data collection.

How will they use the information to guide their next steps to reduce food waste? 

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.

Waste? Recycle?

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Story #1 – Why should we use Recycled Paper?

While planning our paper airplane challenge, Evan suggested that we use drawing paper to make the planes. Isabella said recycled paper would be a better choice. However, we noticed we did not have much recycled paper in the classroom. We decided to go towards the Grade 5 classes to see if they had a stack of recycled paper. On the way, Jacob and Evan met Ms. Jacqui and told her about their problem. They asked her if she knew where to find recycled paper. Ms. Jacqui was excited to tell them that she had some in her office. Jacob and Evan followed her to collect the paper.

  • Jacob “Recycled paper is better because we can fold. Cardboard is too hard we can’t fold it, it will break.”
  • Isabella “Clean paper, if you draw on it you can say that’s not my drawing, don’t put it away you can use the other side it is clean.”
  • Evan “Recycled means everybody don’t want the paper. White paper is for drawing.” 

 

Story #2 – Used Pens

Three students from Grade 4 visited us with an important message. As part of their inquiry into systems and organisation, they are looking for ways to reuse colouring markers at NIS. They presented their idea to the children and asked for their support.

  • Riccardo “Do you have pens that cannot draw with, the ink is gone?”
  • Isabella “When they make a new ink, they will pour it in the old pens and it can be used again.”
  • Jacob “Not just throw in the trash because that will just be trash. Then, there will be not many pens. There will be only 1 pen!”
  • Archie “If you throw it in the garbage then it will get dirty and disgusting. That means it’s stinky. One time I put something in the garbage and I smelled it and it’s disgusting.”
  • Isabella “If you throw it in the rubbish bin, they were a lot of time in there then it will be disgusting.”
  • Jusnu “This box is no pens.”

Euno and Dahyun translated to share the plan for the used pen box.

  • Adalyn “They will collect the dry markers saved in the box so they can get the markers filled with ink again.”
  • Evan “Grade 4 will come every Thursday to collect the pens.”  
  • Sea “Not dry pens not going into the box. Only dry pens in the box.”
  • Finn “This box is for putting pens, green, purple, pens after they cannot be used anymore.” (in Mandarin)

The children were curious about the plan for the used pens and asked the students to return to share the process of refilling the pens.

 

Recycle? Waste?

Considering this developing interest in the concept of ‘recycling’ we decided to revisit two occasions where the children talked about ‘waste’.

  • Isabella “People had drawn on the paper and they don’t want the paper anymore but someone else can use it, then the paper can be recycle paper.”
  • Jacob “If no water in the pen, you can put it in the box and people will help cut it and put water in it so we can use the pen again.”
  • Archie “We can flip the paper and use the other side of it.”
  • Jacob “Broken stuff we can use them again. Some toys that broken.”
  • Ethan “My mum throw away a pen at home.”
  • Dahyun “My jacket is too small and then my mum give it away.”

We made a list of the things we throw away. We identified a few we wanted to discuss in depth.

Wasting water

  • Archie “Wasting water means pouring it out on the ground outside.”
  • Jacob “When you have water in the bathroom or kitchen, you keep the water open. If you don’t close it, that’s wasting water. Sometimes when people were not using the water and the water still open, that’s waste water.”

Wasting paper

  • Archie “My brother wasted paper by pulling it out of the book. My brother made the paper airplane and he doesn’t want it, and I used it.”
  • Jacob “Breaking drawing paper.”
  • Evan “Throwing the paper away.”
  • Riccardo “I always waste paper by cutting it.”
  • Euno “My brother throw away a paper. I talk to my brother ‘why you throw the paper?’ He said ‘paper is wet’. Then he take another paper and another paper and so many used paper.”
  • Sea “My brother’s friend used so many of my paper to draw. That is wasting paper.”

Wasting food

  • Isabella “You don’t eat the food you have and waste it. It is in the rubbish bin.”
  • Adalyn “Something you don’t want to eat is wasting. You can give another person to eat it.”
  • Evan “My brother don’t want the food and my grandpa throws it to the sink.”
  • Jacob “Something you don’t want to eat and you put it in the trash or sink, the wasps can eat it. Wasps like stinky food.”

Although the children shared many examples of waste, they believed they did not waste anything at school. We decided to gather evidence of waste throughout the day to present back to the children. 

We wonder what they notice and think about the evidence that has been collected.

The Bike Park Signs

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The children had decided to make changes to the Bike Park in the Early Years playground to maintain a safe and organised space. We went back to the documentation we had collected, to think about on next steps.

  • Jacob “We want the bike park to look beautiful.”
  • Shemo “What would a beautiful bike park look like?”

The children began to share their ideas. They believed the Bike Park would look beautiful if:

  • the bikes were parked next to each other in an organised way, each trike in its own bubble space with distinctive lines to demarcate each space
  • there were guardrails at the back to protect the fence
  • there were signs to show where the children were allowed to park the bikes and signs that communicated no parking zones
  • plants that were scattered across the space were cleared away
  • shovels and other toys that did not belong in the space were stored in designated spaces around the playground.

We went back to look at some of the Bike Park signs created by previous K2 students. The children noticed that the signs were no longer useful as they were wet and drawings on the signs were unclear and invisible.

The children decided that they would like to create new signs and discussed important considerations when creating new signs. They talked about the choice of materials. This seemed important as the weather outdoors had affected the previous signs.

A group of children volunteered to take on the challenge of creating new signs for the space.   

  • We wonder how the project may evolve as the children make important decisions about the materials and their properties to create messages.
  • We wonder how they will use signs, symbols, illustrations or words to communicate important information.
  • We wonder how the children will present these new ideas and messages to the Early Years community.

 Approaches to Learning:

  • Use discussion and play to generate new ideas and investigations.​
  • Understand the ways in which images and language interact to convey ideas.​
  • Make inferences and draw conclusions.​
  • Negotiate ideas and knowledge with peers and teachers.​

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)

Patterns and Tessellations

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The children have been exploring, creating and playing with a range of coloured manipulatives in different spaces around the campfire.

We have noticed them using the colour tiles to create patterns and pictures. They have also been using triangular shapes to create growing patterns and tessellations. A tessellation is a pattern of geometric shapes that fit together perfectly on a plane without any gaps or overlaps and can repeat in all directions infinitely.

These incredible designs and patterns reflect the children’s ability to notice and follow sequences to create complex designs. We have noticed how they work together, discussing their ideas and making choices to create. We have noticed the children’s focus and attention as they spend extended periods around the invitation, creating and then documenting their final work using technology. Their choices are intentional and thought out.

The children explained that they had decided to take out the suggested templates as they wanted to create their own designs using the triangular shapes which showed their interest to make and extend using their creativity.  

We wondered how the children would represent and transfer these designs and creations in different ways. We decided to offer the children an opportunity to think about and transfer these patterns and designs into a new medium.

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.

Voting for 3 Minute Challenges!

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We have noticed the children are showing interest in the concept of ‘time’. Isabella and Adalyn have been thinking about what they can do in 3 minutes.

But how long was 3 minutes? We used an online timer to ‘feel’ the time pass by. The children sat patiently, thinking about the length of time that passed by.

We challenged them to think about the things they could do in 3 minutes. They drew to share their thinking:

  • Euno: Draw a heart, Take a photo, Talk and share 3 ideas
  • Isabella: Run 3 circles in the playground, Read 2 small books in the library, Put my socks on
  • Ethan: Go to sleep, Cooking a cookie, Eat snack
  • Archie: Go on a train to Africa, Come to school in 1 minute, Go to Japan in 5 minutes, Put my shoes on
  • Jacob: Make a paper airplane, Build a puzzle, Make a Lego car
  • Evan: Make a block tower, Eat lunch, Draw a house
  • Adalyn: Run 2 circles in the playground, Pack my backpack, Talk about a tower
  • Suzy: Eat an ice-cream, Build a tower with coloured blocks, Run 3 circles in the outside playground
  • Dahyun: Put shoes on, Draw a heart, Read 2 little bit small books
  • Sea: Read a book in the library, Wash your hands for lunch, Swim across the pool
  • Finn: Wash hands, Put on my jacket, Write my name, Put on my shoes
  • Riccardo: Write my name, Draw a clock, Eat a sausage
  • Junsu: Go a friend’s house with daddy, Read a big book in the library, Robots break the blocks

We gathered many different, interesting ideas and wondered which ones to try out. We decided to vote on each child’s ideas, using tally marks to track our data.

While discussing our next steps, we wondered if other children in the Early Years would also enjoy some of our challenges. The children believed that K2B and PreK-K1 could also do some of the challenges as they run fast and like ice cream because everyone likes ice cream!

We look forward to seeing how the children develop a plan to present these ideas to others.

PTA Birthday Cupcakes – Next Steps…

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Nest steps…

The team gathered to analyse the data they had collected through the survey. They noticed that many people received cupcakes from the NIS PTA, but a few didn’t. We made a list of all the people (or groups) who didn’t receive cupcakes. Then, the class took the information they had gathered to Ms. Hannah to plan their next steps.

 

Considering the children’s ongoing questions about the cupcakes, we suggested that the team speak to the PTA President to learn more about NIS Birthday cupcakes. The children brainstormed the specific wonderings they wanted to take to her.
  • Isabella “Why do somebody have cupcakes, but somebody doesn’t have cupcakes? How to decide on who has birthday cupcakes?” 
  • Jacob “Why does the PTA want to give cupcakes?”
  • Suzy “How did you make cupcakes?”
  • Evan “How many ingredients do you need to make cupcakes?”
  • Adalyn “Who made the birthday cupcakes? Did you make it by yourself?”
  • Sea “How many cupcakes did you need to make?” 

The PTA President came in to speak to the children about the cupcakes. The children gathered their notes to ask her the questions they had brainstormed. 

  • Isabella “Why do somebody have cupcakes, but somebody doesn’t have cupcakes?

We learned that the PTA had to think hard to plan and organise the cupcake distribution. At first, they wondered if they could deliver cupcakes every week or every month. They decided that it was better to share the cupcakes once a month with children, teachers and staff who had a birthday in that particular month.

  • Rebeca “When it is your birthday then you get a cupcake. Next week we will go to November so you need to check when it’s your month and then you remember and go to pick the cupcake.

  • How to decide on who has birthday cupcakes?” 

Rebeca “Every teacher and student receives a birthday cupcake. Not parents. All the children get the cupcake. We give to all NIS employees on the list, some of them belong to the facilities department like the bus drivers, so they receive their birthday cupcakes. The guards are not NlS employees so they don’t get a cupcake.”

Noticing that Ms. Hannah was on the list of people who didn’t get a birthday cupcake, Ms. Rebecca explained that perhaps Ms. Hannah was sick on that day or was not in school for some reason.

Rebeca “Some people don’t pick their cupcakes, and then we keep the leftovers in case they ask for them.”

  • Jacob “Why does the PTA want to give cupcakes?”

Rebeca “Do you like to get a treat when it’s your birthday? We thought that every child in the school liked to have a treat so we decided to give the children a cupcake.”

  • Suzy “How did you make cupcakes?”
  • Evan “How many ingredients do you need to make cupcakes?”

Rebeca “There are many ways to make cupcakes. You can use a recipe book. If you never made it before you can use this list of ingredients to make it. Egg, oil, milk, flour, baking powder, a tiny bit of salt. All together.

Then, you beat your eggs for 3 minutes, add oil and keep beating. If you don’t eat egg then tell us so we can make you a special cupcake. Then put the flour and baking powder and salt. And then you keep the dough for 3 hours and you put it in the oven, you make the tiny cakes and you wait for 20 minutes and that’s it. You can decorate the cupcakes as you wish. With cream, chocolate and candy.”

The children wondered if they could put gummy bears on their cake.

  • Adalyn “Who made the birthday cupcakes? Did you make it by yourself?”

Rebeca “Skyways are the ones that bake the cupcakes. They have a special place where they have a very big kitchen for professional cooks, chefs and bakers.”

Ms. Rebeca shared photographs of the kitchen. “Can you see how many things they have there? This is the place they prepare the dough. At the end of the year, we make 700-800 cupcakes. And then there are special tables where they make the dough and when they finish they need to put the cupcakes in a place where they can cool. There is an oven. There are 4 units as tall as the room. When they open the oven and take out all the cupcakes they put it in the tray. Then they decorate them.”

  • Sea “How many cupcakes did you need to make?” 

I think we make 800 or 900 cupcakes.

  • Hannah shared her wondering “If they forget to pick up their cupcake what do they do?

Rebeca “At the end of the day we send it to the teacher’s room so you can go to the teacher’s room you can pick it up.”

We learned that some people on the list did not receive a cupcake for their birthday.

We wonder how the children will use what they have learned to strengthen their relationships with the community

We look forward to hearing about their next steps…

The Bike Park – Safety and Functionality

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Over the last few years, different groups of children have worked on projects connected to bikes and trikes in the Early Years playground. We decided to share some photographs of the Bike Park to see what the children might notice about the bikes and signs in the play area.

The children quickly noticed that toys and gardening tools were not cleared away after playtime.

They noted that the bikes were blocking the walking path, and emergency exits, and that overgrown plants and bushes were making it challenging to park the bikes in the allocated spaces. Some suggestions for improvement:

  • toys need to be stored away in the correct places
  • bikes could be parked facing forward making it easier to write them away
  • store the sand toys on the sand table
  • clear the overgrown plants
  • Park the bikes along the fence
  • make new signs for the bike park

As they took a closer look at the signs that were made for the bike park, they realised that the wet and hot-dry weather had caused the signs to fade and get mouldy.

The children’s keen observations sparked conversations about the changes they could make to the bike park and play areas safer and more functional.

We decided to share documentation about the bike park from the previous years with the children, to help them understand and appreciate student-led projects that positively impacted the EY.

The children were excited to see some of the work past students had undertaken to make the play areas safer and more exciting for others.  

The children decided that they wanted to create new signs for the bike park. They wondered what materials would be most suitable for the purpose, considering the challenges with the weather and temperature outdoors.

They discussed the properties of different materials such as plastic and wood, providing interesting improvements to ensure the signs would last longer.  

We wonder what elements the children would consider as they move forward in planning, designing and creating new signs for the bike park.

What is the significance of height?

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Adalyn and Finn were deep in conversation about their height. Adalyn believed she had grown taller over the long break. Finn believed this was also true for him.

Am I taller or shorter?

As Finn considered her observation, he wondered if he had grown taller than Adalyn over the holidays. Previously, the class had decided that Adalyn was the tallest child in the classroom. Adeline and Finn decided to compare their heights by standing against each other.

  • Finn “I am comparing my height because I think I am getting taller.” (in Mandarin)

They concluded that Adalyn was still taller. 

Ricardo watched and listened to the conversation between Finn and Adalyn. He noticed that Finn was not as tall as Adalyn so he wondered if he was taller than Finn. He decided to check if Finn was taller than him and invited Finn to stand with him.

After some checking, he realised that Finn was taller!

Riccardo thought for a while and then invited Susie to the discussion. He asked Suzy to stand next to him to compare their heights. This time, he was taller.

  • Suzy “How tall are we? Who is smaller and who is bigger?”

The children explained that they are taller or shorter depending on the person they are making a comparison with.

Over the last few weeks, the children have worked collectively to build towers that were taller than them. They have shown an interest in measuring their height using a ruler in the classroom. Through a collection of documentation, we have noticed that the children often emphasise ‘height’. We wondered about the theories they had about the concept of height.

What do you think about ‘height’?

  • Jacob “He is measuring who is taller and who is smaller? We need a ruler to measure how tall everybody is.”

(Standard: We use tools to measure the attributes of objects.)

  • Isabella “When we ride a rollercoaster, we have to measure ourselves. If our height is not enough, we cannot get on the roller coaster. If we can’t get the seatbelt on the roller coaster then they fall off.” (safety)
  • Suzy “If they are smaller, they are scared on the top.”
  • Isabella “When I go to play, I saw everyone they are screaming. They are scared.”
  • Archie “Me and my brother goes in the roller coaster I won’t be scared. I like the rollercoaster, I have to go with my brother because I am too tiny.”
  • Evan “I finished the rollercoaster I am very dizzy.”
  • Riccardo “I do roller coaster it is so fast. I didn’t scared. All the children are scared but not me.”
  • Isabella “I am not tall enough so I need to have my daddy.”
  • Jacob “When you are tall you are grown up. Be a daddy or mummy. Or you are still a baby. All tall people became daddy or mummy. And then grandpa and grandma.”
  • Suzy “If they will go older they will die.” (change)
  • Archie “My mum is scared of heights because she has a baby inside her tummy.”

What can you do when you get taller?

  • Jacob “You are a grownup, you can do something you want.” (choices)
  • Even “You can look at a phone.”
  • Isabella “It has phone numbers so we don’t know how to open it.” (pin numbers)
  • Jacob “You can drive a car.” (skills)
  • Evan “The mummy gets older when the baby gets taller.”
  • Shemo “So when will I stop growing taller?”
  • Isabella “You stop growing now because you are a grown-up.”
  • Sophia “So, when someone is a parent they will stop growing?”
  • Evan “Ms. Sophia will stop growing when she has a child. When you grow older you go to the sky. 100 or 200 years old you will fly to the sky.”
  • Isabella “It is heaven not sky.”
  • Evan “Heaven is a house in the sky.”
  • Isabella “When someone is 100 and they die then they maybe they will be a star. Because my friend said that.”
  • Dahyun “I think tall is many things. You get money.”
  • Sea “I have 2 money.”
  • Dahyun “I think cooking when taller.”
  • Sea “I can get bigger then I am better at drawing. My daddy is good at drawing. Mummy only a little bit.”
  • Dahyun “Maybe taller then be a teacher?” (jobs)
  • Junsu “I can be taller then be a police officer.” (In Korean)
  • Euno “I want to be just me. Like quiet time.”
  • Riccardo “If you drink cola you can get shorter because its not good for your tummy.”

We wonder how we may dig deeper into some of the emerging theories the children have shared:

  • people stop growing when they have children
  • as you get taller, you have more choices and opportunities
  • we change as we grow older

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?”  

 

Survey Data

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A team of researchers have been visiting different spaces in the school to gather data using a survey, to find out who gets a PTA birthday cupcake on their birthday month.

  • Isabella “We asked people ‘Do you get a PTA cupcake?’ because we want to know did they get one.”
  • Jacob “Because we want to ask people because we want to know a ‘YES’, a ‘NO’ or a ‘MAYBE’.”
  • Isabella “We asked people and then and we wrote it down.”
  • Adalyn “And we want to know if all the school people and teachers have a PTA cupcake.”
  • Evan “Some people said yes, no and some said maybe.”
  • Suzy “We want to ask mummy or daddy do you get a PTA cupcake?”
  • Evan “We asked the office, the teachers and the bus drivers and now we know that some people get a PTA cupcake.”

Next steps…

What do we do with the information we have?

  • Isabella “Maybe we need to count on our paper.”
  • Adalyn “To see how many people said yes, no and maybe.”

The team of researchers have been documenting their learning, and sharing the information with the rest of the class. The process has helped the children better understand their research questions as they learn more about the community at NIS.

The team then used what they had learned about data and graphs, to transfer their data into concrete graphs.

We wonder what new theories the children have as a result of their research, and what decisions and plans the class might have as they move forward with their project.

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.

Discussing Appearance: What does it mean to ‘be handsome’ or ‘pretty’?

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The children were deep in conversation about appearance while making a house for the panda.

  • Jacob “你觉得小panda是男生还是女生?” (Do you think the little panda is a boy or a girl?)
  • Adalyn “女生。” (a girl)
  • Jacob “是的，她是女生。”（yes, she is a girl.) “因为它看着像女生。” (because she looks like a girl)

Ms. Sophia “What should a girl look like? and what should a boy look like?”

  • Isabella “Boys look handsome.”
  • Jacob “Yes, boys look handsome and girls look pretty.”

Ms. Sophia “What is handsome and what is pretty?”

  • Jacob “I can’t quite tell you what is handsome and what is pretty.”

We decided to share the conversation with the class to see what they thought about appearance.

  • Jacob “She is pretty, she will use everything she makes to be pretty. Something beautiful on her face and her hands.”
  • Suzy “My mum, she puts drawing on her face.”
  • Isabella “I saw my mum, she draws on the nails. It is shining, it makes it pretty. People do it to make it prettier. I have it on two nails.”
  • Jacob “Handsome is cool. Use something on your face. Maybe something that is new. New shoes is cool.”
  • Evan “Like a new jacket. That is cool.”
  • Jacob “You will use fast things then you will be cool. You will run fast then you will be cool. And everybody looks at your shoes then she will be cool. He will have a long, long green things you will see on the shoes.”
  • Adalyn “When girls put makeup then they are pretty.”
  • Jacob “Put some decorations.”
  • Evan “Girls is pretty because her hair is long.”
  • Riccardo “People short hair is also cool.”
  • Sea “I think mummy and cat is pretty because I love mummy and so cute cat.”
  • Dahyun “Princess is beautiful because the dress is beautiful.”
  • Euno “I think cat is cute. Cat is small (kitten). I like baby cats.
  • Sea “Daddy is handsome because his eyes and ears. He has pretty eyes.”
  • Euno “My daddy is little bit big.”
  • Dahyun “My daddy is cute.”
  • George “Beautiful hair. My mummy has beautiful hair because it is long. My mummy is pretty.”
  • Ethan “Friends Dahyun and Euno is pretty because they play together.”
  • Suzy “I think Jacob, Riccardo, Finn, Evan are cool. I am pretty.”
  • Finn “My airplane is cool” (in Mandarin)

We know the ‘power of words’ and that the children’s words matter. The children’s conversations revealed many interesting ideas and theories about gender and appearance. They talked about products, styles and clothing that are used to enhance or change appearances. The words ‘cute’, ‘beautiful’, ‘handsome’ and ‘pretty’ were used to share these observations.

We wonder how we might challenge some of these theories about appearance and image to help us be more aware, open-minded, inclusive, accepting and appreciative of the people around us.

What can you do in 3 minutes?

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Isabella and Adalyn were wondering about the sand timers and the idea of moving sand:

  • Isabella “We are thinking can we can have a race with the timer to see who is the fastest.”
  • Adalyn “10 minutes race and 5 minutes race.”

  • Isabella “And then I saw the 5-minute sand is the fastest.”
  • Adalyn “Because the 10 minutes were more than 5 minutes. But the 3 minutes is faster.”
  • Isabella “I think the 10 minutes is faster because we can count to 10 more shorter. I think because it’s fast, we can count to 10 and it’s fast.”
  • Adalyn “The 5 minutes and 3 minutes, it’s 2 minutes short.”

Isabella agreed.

 

  • Isabella “3 minutes is faster than 5 minutes and then 10 minutes.”

 What can you do in 3 minutes? How fast is 3 minutes?

  • Adalyn “I can draw in 3 minutes.”
  • Isabella “I can run in 3 minutes, a circle outside.”
  • Adalyn “I can do it too.”
  • Isabella “I think 3 minutes is not long its so short!”
  • Jacob “I think 3 minutes is 100 seconds plus 200 seconds. Seconds mean you have to count.”
  • Isabella “You have to count 1 and then wait a little while and count another number.”
  • Adalyn “I think 3 minutes is three one-minutes.”

This has led to planning a race against time, to see what they could achieve in 3 minutes. We wonder what their research will reveal about time.

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.

Base 10 Blocks

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A team of mathematicians worked together to solve a math problem.

We used Base 10 Blocks and place value mats to help us calculate. 

  • Ethan “Put 2 cubes for red.”

  • Suzy “10 blocks in the squares because there are 10 spaces.”
  • Archie “Counting the blocks to see how many blocks Sea has.”
  • Ethan “Ms. Shemo got the blocks every time there is 10.”
  • Isabella “Then, she gave one long one.”
  • Evan “10 in the long one.”

We played an addition game with regrouping 1’s for 10’s using one dice, Base 10 Blocks and a place mat. The children were excited to add the blocks each time and practiced grouping.

Big Ideas: the base 10 values system is used to represent numbers and number relationships.

 

The Game!

Isabella and Adalyn decided to create their own game using bricks, glass stones and sticks. The goal of the game was to earn lots of glass stones. You had to pass the ball to each other using a stick. Each time you shoot the ball into the goal, you get a brick. When you have 7 bricks you can trade it for a glass stone.

We noticed that the game designers revisited the rules of the game many times to make changes that made the game more exciting. They listened to each other and made changes through negotiation. The person with the most stones is the winner!

Creating a Plan for Data Collection

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Creating a Plan for Data Collection

The children have been thinking about the people in the community that they would like to speak to, to find out if they receive a PTA birthday cupcake.

They have been making lists and taking photographs of people in the NIS community to collect and organise their research.

As we thought about the task, we wondered about the ‘process of research’.

  • Jacob suggested that the children should spread out and speak to different people in the community, to make the process faster.
  • Isabella thought it would be better if three or four children went as a small group to speak to different people in the community.
  • Adalyn suggested that each group should have a teacher for safety and support.

The conversation went back and forth as the children shared many different perspectives and suggestions. The teachers decided to ask the children …  

  • How can we remember all the things we talk about?
  • How can we share or make our thoughts more visible?

A teaching Moment:

The children suggested writing down the ideas that were shared, to help us plan the next steps. The teachers scribed, drew and wrote as the children shared and discussed the details.

The teachers modelled adding details to illustrations to share information with others. We discussed the way illustrators choose colours and show action and key details through drawings. These are important techniques the children will be invited to practise and use when creating illustrations for different purposes. 

 

Creating a Survey

The children’s initial belief that everyone at NIS receives a birthday cupcake has been challenged!

A deep dive into our wonderings about the PTA birthday cupcakes at NIS has resulted in the children wanting to find out more about the cupcakes. They decided to speak to the community, to find out if this belief was true.

We discussed the next steps in our research. Perhaps a survey was required to gather the information the children were seeking. When this was suggested to the children, they recalled gathering data in a similar way, the previous year. They explained how they had done it, writing sentences down and seeking out people to find out what they thought. They recall recording their information on paper.

Isabella explained that a good question to ask the community would be, “Do you get a PTA cupcake?” The children agreed with Isabella’s idea. Next, a small group gathered to prepare the survey.

We began to plan our writing. Saying and stretching the words helped the children isolate the sounds and look for the letters they needed in an alphabet chart. Sight Word cards were used to help the children write the words that were harder to sound out.  We talked about leaving spaces between words and punctuation at the end of the sentence.  

The surveys were photocopied and clipped onto boards as they needed to ask many people in the community.

The researchers practiced conducting their survey by asking their friends and teachers in K2A.

Next, they will visit different people in the community to see what more they can learn from their research.

The team of researchers will bring their data to the rest of the class to share their findings.

We wonder what they might uncover through their research!

Do you get a birthday cupcake?

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Euno and Ms. Shemo received a birthday cupcake from the NIS PTA. They were both excited to have their cupcakes at the end of the day! 

Jacob “But why do YOU get a cupcake?”

Ms. Shemo explained that she also received a birthday cupcake as her birthday was in August. However, Jacob’s wondering got us all thinking. Do ALL teachers get a cupcake?  

– Does everyone at NIS get a birthday cupcake from the PTA?

This led to a discussion about the community at NIS. The children tapped into their experiences at school to share what they knew about the different people who work around them. Some people we knew a lot about and others we didn’t. They decided to speak to people to ask them if they received a cupcake from the PTA for their birthday. We documented the children’s ideas on large chart paper to gather all our thoughts and observations in one place.

During the next few weeks, we will seek out opportunities to engage with the people the children identified in their brainstorm, as well as others in the school community, to get to know them and their roles at the school.

– We wonder how the children will document their thinking.

– We wonder what they might uncover through their inquiry into their community.

Approaches to Learning (ATL’s)

  • Use discussion and play to generate new ideas and investigations.
  • Engage in conversations.
  • Listen actively and respectfully to others’ ideas.

Math Talks: Snacks

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During our Morning Meeting, we gathered to join in a Math Talk. A Maths Talk is a collaborative process where children’s thinking, ideas and strategies are discussed, shared and or exchanged. The routine reveals children’s understanding and misunderstandings and encourages dialogue about mathematical concepts.

The children’s thinking was provoked by an image. Questions were asked to help the children notice details in the image. 

– What do you notice? What do you wonder?

– Use pictures, numbers, or words to show or tell what is happening.

The children were encouraged to think about the image. Then, they documented their observations using paper and coloured markers.

Next, they shared their observations and thinking with the class.

Finally, they included their documentation in their Maths journals.

Approaches to Learning (ATL’s)

  • observe carefully
  • analyse and interpret information
  • notice relationships and patterns
  • listen actively and respectfully to others’ ideas and listen to information
  • participate in conversations
  • understand symbols, use mark-marking to convey meaning
  • document information and observations in a variety of ways
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