Design Challenge – The SNOOP Family Home

13th April 2022 shemogani Leave a comment

The Brief:

Your task is to PLAN and then use any type of Lego or any other building material to CREATE a home for the SNOOP family. They have made a list of requirements. Think of how you might design and create a strong, safe and beautiful home for them.

The home:

should be 2 floors high (don’t forget the staircase!)
each floor should have 2 rooms
will need a chimney as they want a fireplace
must have lots of windows to let the cool breeze in
should have a beautiful garden with two big trees
should include an outdoor kennel for the their pet dog ‘Woof’
must have a two-door garage to park their two cars
an outdoor pool

1) Make a PLAN on paper.

2) Use building materials to CREATE the structure. Make sure you think of ALL the requirements to make a safe, strong and beautiful home.

What do we need to know about building structures?

We watched ‘Look at That Building!: A First Book of Structures‘ by Scot Ritchie.

This wonderful picture book introduces young learners to basic construction concepts through the eyes of five friends keen on building a doghouse for their pet pooch, Max. Many important concepts, and vocabulary are explored through this simple picture book.

Snoop Family Home Designs and Final Structures

Area and Perimeter

13th April 2022 shemogani Leave a comment

How can we measure the perimeter of different objects? What is area?

We know that objects have attributes that can be measured using appropriate tools.

First, we watched two BrainPop Movies to learn more about Area and Perimeter.

Then, we used Lego to explore this further, sharing different examples of how perimeter and area can be calculated.

Next, we used virtual colour tiles to calculate the area of a shape.

Tower Challenge!

1st April 2022 shemogani One comment

Explore materials and their properties to build the Tallest Tower!

TASK:

1. Watch the video for instructions.

You will need:

50 toothpicks
a material that can hold the toothpicks together (suggestions: tape, clay, play dough)

2. Design and build your tower

3. Measure your tower in centimeters (cms)

4. Reflect:

on what you did (the design of your structure)
on what you learned about the materials and structure

What we learned…

What Are Structures?

30th March 2022 shemogani Leave a comment

We documented our initial ideas about structures.

Seolah “Like a building. Like a bridge.”
Yuchan “Some building that is manmade.”
Hyun Seo “It can be high and low and it is like a building.”
Agata “A structure can be a tower.”
Lawrence “Something that is manmade to help people.”
Ethan “Some structures are hard to break.”
Seungbin: Structure is like a building.
Amber: Structures sometimes can be tall. They build it to be tall.
Eirinn: Structures can be small or tall.
Ella: It’s something that people build to go in or to look at.
Fedo: Structures can have different shapes.
Yuki: Structure is building.
Gihyeon “Something that a car can go on, it can go somewhere like over the river or ocean. We can go to in the elevator and up to the tower.
Hayoon “Can be a tower or a building or a castle and bridges.”
Alejandra “Like a building that people can go in and play or eat. Then you can stay in the same place without leaving the building. You need a ticket to go into Disneyland. That castle is only for looking and playing inside. Kids and adults might want to know what an actual castle looks like in real life so then they want to go in. You can do some activities in there.”
Diego “A place that people need structures because they want to live in there like a hotel. If they go to another county then they can live in a hotel.
Grace “Something hard or something can go inside or something you cannot go inside. Disney castle is a structure you can go into. You can’t go into structures to rest and eat snacks like the Eiffel tower.

Next, listened to the story ‘Iggy Peck, Architect‘ by Andrea Beaty.

Then, we continued to add to our ideas.

Seolah “Like a famous building.”
Yuchan “A model of something.
Hyun Seo “Something is manmade and they use materials to make it.”
Agata “A building could be a model. They might be building cities for other people to go into the structures. They can be outside the city. If you are in a city and close to the building you can go there easily but if you need to go into a building you need to travel to a city.”
Lawrence “It can help people to cross the ocean or go to outer space like a rocket. They use metal to make the rocket.”
Ethan “Some structures are like towers and towers might have metal and it is very hard so it is hard to break. They use nails and put the nails in the metal and connect things.”
Seungbin: Structures could use any material like diapers, sticks, or blocks.
Amber: Structure can be made out of anything. Structures can be made of art. You can make a structure with clay, just like art work.
Eirinn: You can make structures out of lego, sticks, and even fruits. Buildings can be old and new. Some buildings are old-style, but they can be newly built.
Ella: Structures can be things that help us go in or keep safe. There are many purposes or reasons for people to build structures. There are many famous structures in the world, such as landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, the Great Sphinx and so on.
Fedo: Structures can be made with different materials like wood, stone, sticks and everything else that they can have.
Yuki: Structures can be made from concrete, just like buildings that people live in Japan. Structures can be hard things.
Hayoon “We can make structures with almost everything!”
Grace “You can use materials around you like tree trunks, sticks or mud.”
Alejandra “You can also use materials like pillows and stuffed animals and glue to build structures. You can use chalk and pencils.”
Gihyeon “We don’t always use glue, we can also use honey to stick things together.”
Diego “Structures can not just be bridges and buildings.”

This led to a discussions about structures with the students sharing examples of structures.

Then, the students went off to design and create like architects!

Lines of Symmetry

29th March 2022 shemogani Leave a comment

We were exploring shapes and lines of symmetry.

First, we looked at a square. How many lines of symmetry can we find?

Next, we looked closely at an equilateral triangle. What do we notice about this shape?

The students explained that the angles are the same size and the sides of this shape are the same length. Finally, we looked at the circle. The students commented that the circle have ‘many’, ‘countless’ or ‘infinite’ lines of symmetry.

We recorded this information, counting and labelling the different lines of symmetry.

Next, we looked for lines of symmetry in our homes.

Then, we looked for lines of symmetry in nature.

Finally, we created symmetrical pictures with shapes on Polypad.

Structures Around the World

28th March 2022 shemogani Leave a comment

The students have been exploring shapes in structures. We wondered what we already know about these structures. The students worked in groups to share their ideas.

What do you already know about these structures?
What questions do you have?

Group A Brainstorm

What we already know about these structures:

These structures are tall.
They are all popular structures.
These structures are in different countries.
Bridges go across the water. They help people go across from one side to the other.
The bridges are tall, because if the water comes up then the cars will go under the water, so they need to be tall.
They use hard things like metal and brick because they are strong and the people and cars will not drown in the water.
The bridge is made out of metal and concrete. Concrete is very hard so the car can go on it.
We use iron because it is hard.
They might use bricks and metal.
Some structures might be made of one material.

Questions we have about these structures:

What are these structures (structure 1)?
What did they use to make these structures?
Where, or what country is the first structure in?
How are structures made?
What materials were used to make the Eiffel tower?

Group B Brainstorm

What we already know about these structures:

My structure is a bridge. A bridge helps people to cross the river.
All these structures are made of different shapes, like sphere, triangle, rectangle, rectangular prism, circle etc.
We need to use technology to build these structures. They help our life. We work more easily. A sailboat helps us to go across waters.
These structures are located in different places.
The spaceship helps us to go to the outer space so we can see things in the outer space.
They all look special.
They are different in shapes, they are made by different people in different places of the world, and they can look complicated using tricky shapes.
Some of them are big and some of them are high.
They are all famous, pretty, and unusual structures. People talk to each other about them so more and more people get to know these structures.
They have different shapes and different colours to make them more pretty. They do not use too many colours because that would make people dizzy.

Questions we have about these structures:

Why do people build these structures?
What do people do on the structures?
Why are some of the structures big?
What do people need structures for?
How can the people build a bridge across the river?
How do these structures help us?
Why do these structures look so difficult? How can they build such difficult structures?

Group C Brainstorm

What we already know about these structures:

Some of the buildings are big and tall.
Some of the buildings have spheres.
I know they are tall buildings because I saw a tower line the one with the circles (3).
These are made out of shapes like cylinders, cones and cubes.
I know they are made of different sizes and many people can visit them. I think they are very tall and everyone wants to see it.
The building (3) has very funny shapes, this building is in China.
All buildings are made out of concrete. Concrete is like cement. Cement is really hard so that the house stands tall. Cement is really heavy.
I know it is made out of clay and some are made out of glass because picture 5 is wide white and it looks like it has clay and picture 3m the bottom has 5 cylinders shapes and that is why I think it has a glass.
All the different constructions are famous ones from different countries. They are famous because, picture 1 is a landmark from France, picture 2 is from Australia, picture 4 is from the Netherlands.
Picture 4, this is used for dumping water. They are used in many countries.
Picture 2 is kind of like a house because houses have the roof just like that. And the rest are not houses, they are buildings. The pictures 1,3 and 5 are really tall, but picture 4 is like it has wings on it, it is like a fan that goes round and round.
Picture 5 is the Sydney Opera House.

Questions we have about these structures:

Why do people make towers?
Why are some of these towers tall and some short?
Picture 5, how is that tower not falling because it is leaning?
Why do they need to be tall? – Why do people like to build tall and big structures?
Do people like to build tall towers? – Picture 3, there are little wooden rectangles, have they used glass or is there nothing inside?
Who built the towers? Who made the 1st tower?
Why are these towers made out of shapes?
Do people like towers made out of shapes?
How are towers made?
Which is the oldest and latest tower?
Number 5 is the oldest and number 3 is the latest building.

Next, the students used guiding questions and sentence starters to write about the structures they had chosen to recreate with shapes.

Form:

Name it! What is your structure? My structure is…

Describe it! It is…

Structure: What materials have been used to create it? Why?

Purpose/Function: What is it used for? How does it work?

Connection: How is it connected to us?

How might we use new vocabulary to talk about our own structures?

Creating Structures with Shapes

26th March 2022 shemogani Leave a comment

The students were invited to recreate a structure using shapes.

TASK:

Choose a structure that you would like to recreate with shapes. Recreate it!

Three Options:

Option 1: Use the virtual shapes on Polypad: https://mathigon.org/polypad

Option 2: Use paper shapes to create a collage

Option 3: Use play dough or clay

2. Create a table showing all the different shapes you have used.

Student Responses

Through this experience, students were learning that:

information can be expressed as organised and structured data
geometric shapes and associated vocabulary are useful for representing and describing objects in real-world situations
specific vocabulary can be used to describe an object’s position in space
shapes can be transformed in different ways

Paper Power Challenge!

24th March 2022 shemogani Leave a comment

Explore materials and their properties to build a BRIDGE!

1) Watch the video for instructions.

You will need:

one A4 regular paper (NO Card)
some books
some coins

2) Design and build your own bridge.

3) Reflect:

on what you did (the design of your structure)
on how it helped you hold the coins

Student Responses!

The Present

19th March 2022 shemogani Leave a comment

We watched the beautifully animated story ‘Penguin‘ by Polly Dunbar. This is a story about a silent penguin who has a very special way of expressing himself.

For the story read by the author Polly Dunbar click HERE!

Writing Task:

Imagine that you rip open a present just like Ben does. Which animal would you like to find inside and why? What adventures would you have?

This writing task encouraged students to:

write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences
develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach
use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others

An Inquiry into Shapes

19th March 2022 shemogani Leave a comment

What do we already know about shapes?

First, the students used whiteboards and markers to draw all the shapes they know.

Next, we offered a challenge with toothpicks.

TASK:

Tom is making shapes with ’12’ toothpicks. Using all of the toothpicks (12), create 3 different shapes he could make. How many other combinations can you find?

Student Responses:

Exploring 3 Dimensional Shapes

TASK:

Create the 4 shapes using clay, Lego, play dough and toothpicks, paper or card.

Big Ideas:

Geometry

geometric shapes and associated vocabulary are useful for representing and describing objects in real-world situations
changing the position of a shape does not alter its properties
specific vocabulary can be used to describe an object’s position in space
shapes can be transformed in different ways

Literature Circle Roles – Passage Picker

19th March 2022 shemogani Leave a comment

We read the story ‘A New Home for Beaver‘ by Henna Goudzand Nahar, illustrated by Jeska Verstegen. This is a wonderful story about 3 friends (Elephant, Pig and Beaver) who learn about the importance of kindness and inclusion.

After reading the text, the students were invited to pick out their favourite part of the book and explain why they chose it. This could be…

an interesting part
an exciting part
an happy part
an sad part
an scary part

5 Moves to 100! – Math Games

9th September 2021 shemogani Leave a comment

The students continued to strengthen their understanding of place value and addition through the game ‘5 Moves to 100’.

They were encouraged to discuss their thinking and strategies used while playing the game.

Students could make the game more challenging if they wished.

As always, we are reminded that playing collaborative games helps students build a positive classroom culture that celebrates relationships through connection.

It’s OK to be Different

2nd September 2021 shemogani One comment

The students listened to a favourite story by Todd Parr ‘It’s OK to be Different’. Todd Parr continues to inspire and empower children around the world with his bold images and positive messages.

After the read aloud, the students were invited to create their own page for a class picture book that would communicate thoughts, ideas, and messages of appreciation for our individuality and diversity. They could use different mediums or materials to design their page, which also encouraged their creativity.

Conceptual Understandings:

Students understand that:

(PSPE)

accepting others into a group builds open-mindedness. (Interaction)
every person is an individual. (Identity)

(ARTS)

people communicate feelings and ideas through the arts. (Creating/Responding)
we solve problems during the creative process by thinking critically and imaginatively.

Number Sense – Math Games

2nd September 2021 shemogani Leave a comment

Our Math focus this week was on building our number sense through games, discussion and problem-solving. Students were encouraged to interact with each other during the online sessions to help build a sense of community.

Math Vocabulary

We began by talking about ODD and EVEN numbers. We used manipulatives, pictures, and numbers to share our ideas.

Students:

“odd and even numbers can be divided by two and each person gets the same
if I had three sweets and I shared it with a friend then it won’t be equal
15 is an odd number because one person has 7 and the other has 8
ODD numbers are like 1,3,5,7,9 and EVEN numbers are 2,4,6,8,10”

Next, we played ‘Reach the Beach’!

The focus of the game was to identify odd and even numbers. The students were able to make the game as challenging as they wanted to by adding more dice, or multiplying the digits instead of adding them.

The next game we played was ‘Trash and Treasure’. This game develops an understanding of how the position of a digit within a number determines its value.

The students were then invited to create and play their own games. This provoked their thinking and developed their self-management skills. Students were able to stretch their thinking by making the games more challenging. Taking responsibility for completing tasks and being open-minded while playing team games was also fostered through these activities.

Odd and Even

Trash and Treasure

Conceptual Understandings:

Number Sense:

the base 10 value system – the position of a digit within a number determines its value

the operations of addition and multiplication

Writing Small Moments

2nd September 2021 shemogani Leave a comment

We have begun to explore ‘small moments’ writing during our literacy sessions. First, we read the ‘The Roller Coaster’ by Marla Frasee. Through this text, we began to think about the way authors write about ‘small moments’ in their life that are meaningful to them. We looked closely at the images, the feelings and actions expressed through them.

How did Marla Frazee write about a small moment? What did we notice?

The students explained:

she changed the way the words and sentences are written and drew lots of details in the picture
she added lots of details make the story more interesting
the pictures show how the roller coaster goes fast
the little girl changed her feelings during the story (scared and then happy), we know this because she used actions in the pictures

We wondered how we can use these different ‘craft moves’ in our own writing.

We thought about all those special ‘small moments’ we have had. Some were about the people in our lives, the places we go to frequently or the things we do all the time. Some first-time experiences and some were things that happened at the end. This led to the students creating their own list of small moments.

Next, we chose 1 small moment to write about. They used a graphic organizer to include their thoughts, emotions, words, people, places, and things that are to do with the small moment.

Then, the students began to put those ideas together to write about their own small moment. We know that good writers continue to improve their pieces of writing by refining their ideas and checking their writing.

The students were introduced to a Narrative Writing Checklist. After assessing a sample piece of writing, they used the checklist to self-assess.

SAMPLE

This process encourages students to evaluate their own work, while identifying and setting goals for further improvement.

Writing – Conceptual Understandings:

write narratives to develop real experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences
develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

The Best Part of Me

26th August 2021 shemogani Leave a comment

We are wondering how knowing ourselves and others can help us build strong trustful relationships.

To inquire into this further, we read the story ‘The Best Part of Me‘ by Wendy Ewald (photographer).

This wonderful story includes beautiful pictures of children. As the children in the picture book talk about their bodies, we were reminded how unique and diverse we are. Through discussion, the students began to appreciate the many different ways they experience the world through their body and senses.

A follow-up activity invited the students to share ideas and thoughts about the best part of their own body.

We wonder how these stories help us think about our feelings and interactions with each other.

Approaches to Learning (ATL’s):

Social Skills – Interpersonal relationships

listen closely to others’ perspectives and to instructions
learn cooperatively in a group: being courteous, sharing, taking turns

Communication Skills – Writing

record information and observations by hand and through digital technologies
use a variety of scaffolding for writing tasks
organize information logically

Summer Memories

26th August 2021 shemogani Leave a comment

The students were invited to write about their summer holidays. We began by thinking about our vacation.

What do we remember?
What are some of our favourite memories?
How can we share these ideas through our writing?

We began to document our ideas.

Then, Ms. Shemo shared a photograph of her favourite holiday memory. The students helped fill in a graphic organiser that included the headings Who?, When?, Where? and What?

They helped construct a sentence using the key words.

The students were invited to document their own memories through a Seesaw activity. They began by choosing 2 favourite pictures from their summer holidays. Next, they used the graphic organiser to plan their writing. They were excited to use their writing journals!

The students were encouraged to extend their sentences using details, action and feelings. They edited their work, checking the spaces between words, punctuation and past tense verbs.

Approaches to Learning (ATL’s):

Through these writing experiences the students:

wrote narratives to share real or imagined experiences in sequence
planned, wrote and revised their writing through feedback
recorded information and observations by hand and through digital technologies
used scaffolding for writing tasks
organized information logically

Exploring Numbers

26th August 2021 shemogani Leave a comment

We began by documenting what we already ‘KNOW” about numbers.

Next, we used manipulatives to show the number 15 in different ways. The students suggested different equations and we documented these ideas using counters and number sentences. Next we showed our thinking using an empty number line.

The students were invited to ‘show’ numbers in different ways through a video provocation.

They could use materials/objects (blocks, stones, chopsticks) to share their ideas. They could use numbers and symbols to explain their thinking.

They went on to create and show the number ‘21‘.

They were challenged to write a story problem to go with one of the ways they showed 21.

Through this activity the students explored numbers, using manipulatives, to compare and model numbers in a variety of ways.

Learning Online

20th August 2021 shemogani Leave a comment

We began the year at a distance, finding ways to come together, to learn and grow as a community. Every school year is unique, including many opportunities to take risks, be creative and grow as learners. This year was no different, beginning with planning and rolling out a distance learning programme. We began by unpacking and discussing the distance learning framework at NIS.

Distance Learning at NIS:

is rooted in our Mission and Strategy
is based upon our existing curriculum
leverages existing blended learning platforms
prioritizes relationships and communication
remains adaptive to our situation and context

(NIS Distance Learning framework)

The goals of the program include creating opportunities for personalized learning experiences centered around the NIS curricular framework that allow students to learn independently and as a community. These experiences are aimed to nurture the dispositions and approaches to learning (ATL skills).

We began our online learning sessions by discussing agreements, and learning routines that will help us learn and work together. The students reflected on what a ‘quiet space’ for learning may look like, why this was important and how these agreements impact learning.

We created schedules for synchronous and asynchronous learning experiences, ensuring that students had opportunities to connect with each other and the teachers through regular scheduled sessions.

Schedules for synchronous and asynchronous learning.

During these sessions, the students were invited to collect resources and materials that they will need to complete activities. The students reflected on what a good space for learning might be and identified or created this space in their home.

The students introduced themselves to the class, sharing their favourite foods, sports, games, and other interesting details about themselves, through an activity.

Next, we paused to think how we felt about the week and documented these reflections through an activity.

The students ended the week by joining a whole class dance routine led by the teacher through a choice board!

We are excited to take our next steps together as a learning community. We look forward to the different learning experiences that will help us learn and grow individually and as a community.

We watched the beautifully animated story ‘Penguin‘ by Polly Dunbar. This is a story about a silent penguin who has a very special way of expressing himself.

We read the beautiful picture book ‘A Sick Day for Amos McGee’ by Philip C. Stead, illustrated by Erin E. Stead.

In this story, Amos McGee is a friendly zookeeper who always makes time to visit his good friends: the elephant, the tortoise, the penguin, the rhinoceros, and the owl. While reading the story, we:

The students continued to strengthen their understanding of place value and addition through the game ‘5 Moves to 100’.

They were encouraged to discuss their thinking and strategies used while playing the game.

Students could make the game more challenging if they wished.