Category: Problem-solving

The Birthday Cupcakes – Final Steps

6 comments

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. 

The Highest Tower in the World

Leave a comment

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?

Leave a comment

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…

Domino Effect – How does it work?

Leave a comment

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.

Where do we keep the sand toys?

Leave a comment

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

Leave a comment

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

Leave a comment

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

Leave a comment

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?

Leave a comment

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.

The Chocolate Milk Project: Calculating Volume

Leave a comment

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!

Leave a comment

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.

Student Presentation on the Recycling Center in Nanjing

Leave a comment

Two years ago, Patrick was in K2A. During this time, he was interested in learning about waste and recycling and made a presentation to his class after conducting his research. Patrick is now in grade 2. He recently visited a waste recycling center in Nanjing in response to a unit of study in class and was excited to return to K2 to share what he had learned during his visit.

Oliver, who was in K2A the previous year, had created a poster about waste disposal while learning about recycling. Patrick referred to Oliver’s poster, explaining which items could be disposed of in the different coloured recycling bins. The children have noticed some of these bins around the school campus and were eager to learn more about their function in recycling.

Patrick shared many different photographs of the recycling center, providing explanations on the Process of transporting and sorting materials such as paper, food and plastic waste. He was excited to talk about how long it takes for materials such as paper, fabric and plastic to decompose.

The next day, we revisited Patrick’s presentation.

  • Suzy “It is the machine.”

  • Riccardo “He said it is so stinky.”
  • Suzy “They take long to disappear.”
  • Jacob “In soil. They will disappear in the soil. How many years it takes to disappear.”

  • Suzy “Cardboard is harder than paper so it has the different number. It takes longer to disappear than paper.”
  • Suzy “This is for the trees.”
  • Isabella “This is from the food garbage. Its good for the plants.”
  • Riccardo “So they can grow up big like the trees.”
  • Jacob “I put the new soil in the new plants in the NIS garden, before K2. Ms. Hannah let me help she, I was putting new soil because then the trees will be grown up.”
  • Evan “The things get grabbed and it takes it away.”
  • Isabella “It can carry the weight of two elephants.”

  • Ciel “This is wood. This is to make something new. Maybe wooden chairs.”

  • Jacob “Wooden tables. Some people can make wood chairs and wood tables and something else with wood.”
  • Riccardo “And have glass waste.”
  • Junsu “This is cans. This is waste cans.”

  • Jacob “It will make it into new bottles. Someone will use the fire to make it like disappear, then you can make the new bottle.”
  • Suzy “They are recycling it.”
  • Mohammad “This garbage. This is bad. Water bottle in garbage.”
  • Suzy “Patrick wanted the NIS to be not so stinky. Too many trash. The children are making the trash because they have a lot of trash in their hands from the paper and bottles.”
  • Jacob “And some cans. And wood and cans.”
  • Suzy “He wants us not to make so many trash.”

Ms. Shemo showed the children her snack bag. It was made of plastic.

  • Suzy “Because you have the plastic bag which is going to be the trash.”
  • Jacob “Even the tissue.”
  • Suzy “Ms. Shemo will throw the plastic bag in the bin and then it’s going to be stinky. It is going to take 30 years to disappear.”
  • Jacob “If you don’t want to eat the bread, then it will be in the trash too.”
  • Riccardo “You can buy a snack box to carry it to school.”
  • Jacob “You can wash it then”

Ms. Hannah “Do you notice any trash waste around you at home?”

  • Riccardo “I don’t have trash at home.”
  • Hannah “How do you have no trash? What do you do?
  • Riccardo “Its only a little bit because we don’t use so much. Because my mum throws the trash in the other places.”
  • Euno “I only have a little bit trash at home because so many trash is waste food. Korean trash is different but here we can find other trash altogether. In Korea trash is not wasted.”

We wonder about the action the children will take in response to Patrick’s presentation on the importance of recycling.

Waste: Leftover Milk

Leave a comment

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?

Leave a comment

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.

Designing the Bike Park Signs

Leave a comment

We revisited the bike park project to discuss our next steps. The children were invited to create new signage for the bike park.

A team of volunteers sketched their first ideas on paper. We noticed that some of the children wanted to include drawings, and some of them were keen to use words.

These ideas will be presented to the class to gather feedback.

The Trolley Project – Measuring Accurately

Leave a comment

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?

The Language of Paper

Leave a comment

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

Leave a comment

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

Leave a comment

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?

Where are the cupcakes?

Leave a comment

  • Isabella “We saw the table and on the table there was no cupcakes.”
  • Adalyn “We went to the teacher’s room to look at the cupcakes.”
  • Evan “We say we give it to Ms. Lei, she is so happy”.
  • Sea “Me go to Ms. Lei to give her the cupcake. She was so happy and said, ‘Thank You’ to Isabella.”
  • Jacob “Some teachers forgot their cupcake because we go to the teacher’s room so we looked and so we know some teachers don’t have the cupcakes.”
  • Suzy “We saw the teacher’s name, we gave the cupcake to Ms. Lei.”

Ms. Shemo “How did we know that the cupcakes were there?”

  • Evan “We know Ms. Lei forgot her cupcake because we did the tick on the paper.”
  • Suzy “On the way we met students and teachers and they told us it is in the teacher’s room. We know that Ms. Lei forgot the cupcakes because we saw the name and we give Ms. Lei the cupcake.”
  • Evan “Before we take the cupcake we needed to have a check on her name to let people know we took Ms. Lei’s cupcake.”
  • Isabella “We have the message to tell everybody to so they know if they forgot the cupcake, it will be in the teacher’s room.”

Ms. Shemo “How are you going to share that message?”

  • Isabella “We’re gonna put it out.”
  • Jacob “We do the poster to tell the teachers and children who forget to take the cupcake that the cupcakes are in the teacher’s room. We have a big board to make the poster.”

We wonder what information the children will include in their poster to share this important message with the school community, to help them find their birthday cupcakes if they have forgotten to pick them up after break time.

Solving the Waste Problem

Leave a comment

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?

Leave a comment

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

Leave a comment

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.​

Creating Safe Spaces for Play and Learning

Leave a comment

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

The Table

Leave a comment

A few years ago, a senior student at NIS made a rather unusual table for the children in the Early Years. Since then, the table has travelled and lived in many different classrooms. The unusual design allows children to work and play in interesting ways while sitting comfortably on the floor. Although the table has been used with care, parts of the wood on the surface began to peel and break away. We decided to reach out to Mr. Matt in the Design Woodwork studio to help us solve the problem. Mr. Matt worked on the table while the older students were away discovering China.

We were excited to hear that the table was ready for collection. A group of volunteers went to the Woodwork Studio to collect the table. They were excited to see the table, gently touching the smooth surface while smiling and nodding to show their approval of the change. Then, they had to figure out how to bring the table back to the early years safely.

Together, they lifted parts of the table so it could be moved along the corridors. Everyone was happy to see the table.

The children decided to make Mr. Matt a card to show their appreciation for fixing their favourite table.  Mr. Matt was surprised to see the children return with a card, which he placed carefully next to his daughter’s drawings. 

The design studio for the older children was a fascinating place with many interesting spaces and lots of different tools, equipment and materials. We noticed the children’s curiosity as they walked through the different spaces.

Curious fingers touched Lego cars and recycled plastic creations that lined the walls. They began to ask questions about what the older students were creating and designing.

We wonder what opportunities may lie in this space for young children.

The Bike Park – Safety and Functionality

Leave a comment

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.

The Trolley Project – Parts and Instructions

Leave a comment

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?

Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

The children shared estimations of the height of the tower.

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

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

 

The Water Bottle Trolley (Part 1)

Leave a comment

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.    

Taller than a Teacher!

Leave a comment

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

Leave a comment

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!

The Connection Between Reading and Writing

Leave a comment

Friendship and problem-solving are important concepts that we explore throughout the year in K2. We read the story ‘A Cat and a Dog’ by Claire Masurel and Bob Kolar, to help us talk about different ways we can help and support our friends and community in school. While reading the story, the children were encouraged to connect with the story, share observations and predictions, and look for ways the characters might solve problems to develop their friendship.

Over the last few weeks, the children have been creating the Morning Message, using pictures, symbols and writing. At this developmental stage, the children often use their phonetic knowledge to create messages and stories. As a result, words may be spelt incorrectly. It is important to honour the process of learning by giving children plenty of time to observe, notice and make connections to understand the relationship between letters and sounds in words.

A great teaching moment presented itself when we noticed that the author of the book had used the word ‘friends’ in the story. When looking at the word in the message, Evan was able to spot the difference in the spelling. He then rewrote the word with the correct spelling.

 

These mini-lessons help us make the connection between reading and writing more visible to the children.

We will continue to use books, literature and environmental print to explore concepts about print, to help the children explore and use these strategies and ideas in their writing.   

The Egg Carton Problem

Leave a comment

We began by asking the children what they see, think and wonder about the image. We documented their observations using words, numbers and symbols.

See

  • Eunbyul “I see eggs.”
  • Wyatt “Egg box and eggs.”
  • Eli “Six eggs in the box.”
  • Oliver “I see words on the box. There are holes on the box. 6+6 is 12.”
  • Motong “There are six eggs and there are no six eggs. There were 12 eggs and it only 6 eggs.”
  • Jeongyoon “I see a table.”

Think…

  • Wyatt “I think this is a bird’s egg.”
  • Liz “I think its chicken eggs because birds’ eggs are not big.”
  • Oxford “I don’t think this is not a bird’s eggs, this is eating eggs.”
  • Lydia “The chicken egg is for the people to eat.”

Questions:

  • Wyatt “Why there have eggs?”
  • Motong “Why there are only 6 eggs but 12 spaces?”

We modelled another way to arrange the 6 eggs in the box. We used manipulatives and drawings to share many ways to represent our thinking.

Then, the children were invited to share multiple solutions to a problem.

If you had 6 eggs left in your egg carton, how would you place them?

Share your sorts using pictures, numbers and symbols.

Egg Problem Template

The children develop an understanding:

– that the operations of addition and subtraction are related to each other and are used to process information to solve problems

– of how number operations can be modeled in a variety of ways

– that there are many mental methods that can be applied for exact and approximate computations

Creating Bird’s Nests

Leave a comment

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

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

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

Silkworms

Leave a comment

Ms. Hannah shared a sign she had made for the mulberry tree in the Early Years garden as she noticed that some of the tender fruits were on the floor.

While having a meeting to discuss the poster, the children shared some of their wonderings about the silkworms that PreK-K1B have been caring for in the classroom.

  • Motong “Why the silkworm don’t like to eat the wet leaves?”
    • Lydia “Because they can touch the water and die.”
    • Oliver “Because they don’t like drinking water and eating at the same time, they have a small mouth not like our mouth.”
    • Eli “Because if they eat wet things or get wet in the rain they will not because the water gets their body sick. Because they are very lazy.”
    • Liz “because leaves have wet and silkworms drink lots of water and they get sick.”
    • Lydia “Why is the silkworm eats the leaves and grow up?”
  • Liz “Why is it yellow on the side, why is it not white?”
  • Oxford “How can the silkworm take the food when he is stuck on the box?”
  • Wyatt “Why does the silkworm eat the leaf?”
    • Eunbyul “Because worms like leaves.”
  • Lydia “Why does he have little circles on his body? Why does he have more colours like white and yellow (on the body)?”
  • Eunbyul “Why are there lines on the yellow (strings)? Why does the silkworm eat the leaf and then become in the yellow?”
    • Lydia “Because them is broken and they look like a butterfly.”
    • Eli “Its because Ms. Hannah put the yellow ball there because the silkworms can play with it. That is like a, first silkworm and turns into a cocoon and then a butterfly. It’s a cocoon.”
    • Jeongyoon “They get big and then they come yellow.”
  • Liz “What is inside his tummy?”
  • Oliver “How do silkworms peel their skin up to grow?”
  • Eli “Why when it’s a baby it’s black and when its not baby its white. How can it turn black to white?”
  • Oxford “Where did Ms. Hannah find the silkworms?”
  • Jeongyoon “Why is the worms so long?
    • Wyatt “Because he eats the leaves for a really long time.”
    • Oliver “Its because the worm seat more leaves the longer they become.”
    • Oxford “When he is small he eats and go big big big and then get long.”
  • Lydia “Why the silkworms has legs and worms have no legs?”
  • Oxford “What is black on the end?”
    • Oliver “The black is poop.”
    • Lydia “I think there is a baby silkworm there.”
    • Eli “I think it’s because their mouth is black.”
  • Eli “How does the silkworm survive every day?”
  • Lydia “Why does the silkworm have no ears? Can they hear something?”

We gathered to build on our knowledge of silkworms. The children had wondered about the different coloured cocoons and the silk moth.

We watched a time-lapse we had taken a few years ago to see how the silk moth comes out of the cocoon and the different cocoons Ms. Karen had collected over the years.  

We will continue our inquiry to learn more about these interesting creatures by inviting Ms. Hannah and PreK-K1B to answer some of our questions.

Earth Week

Leave a comment

Does trash last forever?

We began our day by talking about Earth Week and the different activities that we might be engaged in to bring awareness to our role in keeping the environment safe and clean.

During snack time, the children noticed the amount of garbage we were producing. The children shared their observations and began to suggest how we could solve some of the problems we have with trash. 

One suggestion was to reduce the amount of packaged food we purchase and bring to school. Another way is to avoid using plastic or disposable cutlery.

To learn more about trash, we watched a Mystery Science video on the question ‘Does trash last forever?’.

The children were surprised to see the mountains of trash that humans had collected.

They were sad to see what plastic in the ocean can do to the different creatures and plants that live in the water.

As part of our ongoing research into what happens to the trash and garbage we collect at NIS and Nanjing,  Ms. Nicole gathered some videos and photographs of garbage being collected around the city in Nanjing.

The children quickly recognised the workers in orange uniforms. We talked about the important service they provide to keep the city clean, safe and beautiful. How could we be more mindful of the waste we generate each day and how this affects our environment? 

Finally, we invited the children to bring in all the recycled materials they could find at home to see how we can sort, organise, re-purpose or create with these materials.

The children brought in recycled materials and then thought about the different ways they could recycle, create or re-use the items.

  • Wyatt “I am making an airplane fighting robot.”
  • Oxford “I am making a robot.”
  • Oliver “I am making a new flowerpot for new flowers.”
  • Motong “I am making trash boxes.”
  • Lydia “I am making a unicorn.”
  • Eli “I am making a rocket with a fire engine at the end.”
  • Liz “I made a bird and a bird’s nest.”
  • Beomjun “This is a little home.”
  • Jeongyoon “I am making a drum with a big cup.” 
  • Yui “I made a person with blue hair.”
  • Hana “I made a turtle.”

 

 ACTION: Taking Responsibility

SEE

  • Eli “I see Oxford cleaning up so many of the toys.”
  • Liz “I see some of the other children are not cleaning up.”
  • Lydia “I see some children are playing with the water and Oxford is cleaning up so many things.”
  • Motong “Oxford is NOT counting things.”
  • Jeongyoon “I see some people drink water when its tidy up time.”
  • Eli “I see the people are not cleaning up the shovels and Oxford had to clean all of the shovels up.”
  • Morning “I see people throwing toys in the Shed when its clean-up time and it’s very messy.”

THINK

  • Liz “I think other children are not cleaning up and are running around. I think play the things and not clean up.”
  • Oliver “I think some people just don’t want to clean up, they just count and clean up only 3.”
  • Lydia “I think them is play together and teacher ring the bell and them not clean up, just play.”
  • Eunbyul “I think some people do not clean up and drink water.”
  • Motong “I think Oxford did not play.”
  • Wyatt “When the bell gone, just play and not clean up it’s not ok.

You don’t get the toys and you don’t play.

  • Jeongyoon “I think only some are cleaning up.”
  • Liz “I think the teacher is done and the people are looking and Oxford just cleaned up. The playground is not clean up its not nice because its then so messy.”
  • Lydia “I think play is over and them play and go to drink water and teacher say take 2 gongs and then they go to class and not clean up, Oxford is cleaning up.”

WHAT CAN WE DO?  

  • Motong “Clean up all the toys and don’t count the toys. We hear one bell we need to clean up, and we hear two bells we can drink water.”
  • Lydia “We can tell people. We can take a paper writing and use the glue stick and tell everybody play and everybody needs to clean up.” Make a poster.
  • Eunbyul “We can drink water after we clean up.”
  • Eli “We can say to people ‘You HAVE to clean up even if you don’t play anything because this is everyone’s playground’.”
  • Wyatt “You hear the gong, you need to clean up.”
  • Morning “Put the trucks on the shelf and the shovels on the hooks.”

 

 

Caring for Living Things

We have noticed the child’s continued interest in living things in the Early Years playground. We decided to share some of the documentation the teachers have collected of the children’s play.

  • Liz “We found worms and roly-polys in the soil.”
  • Lydia “We are in the outside and we used the shovel to find the worms and the roly-polys and put them in the water. They were swimming. It looked like people swimming. We gave them to Eli and they are making a house for them.”

  • Eli “I hide them where the wood things are and I put the cap on so the roly-poly won’t come out and I can play with it next time. I put some leaves so they can eat.”
  • Oliver “It’s a baby beetle. They dig in the wood.”

  • Eli “They live in the wood.”
  • Oliver “They love the playground, they want to live there every day. They have lots of fun things to do. They are playing hide and seek under the soil.”
  • Liz “We put worms in the water. It was like water on my hand.”
  • Eli “I think you can’t keep them forever or they will die because you keep them every day in that pot and he eats all of the fruits and then they will have nothing to eat and they will die.
  • Oxford “There we have so much creatures.”
  • Oliver “You can just take a picture of anything you want to keep or the creatures you keep them for many days they won’t have anything to live.”
  • Wyatt “I and Eli play with the roly-poly and then put it in a cup and we just play there. And then finish playing.”
  • Liz “When we look at the worm they are moving, she wants to go to the soil because worm don’t like you holding it. Put it in the soil quickly.”
  • Motong “When we hold the insects we need to put some wet wood because they like it.”
  • Morning “I am looking at the roly-poly because it’s coming in the cup and then we put it back because they like the wood.”

We noticed that the children have a deep appreciation for the living creatures in nature. Their theories about the different insects reveal how they observe, form generalizations and develop understandings of nature. The children’s discussion about their play outdoors shows their sensitivity and growing awareness of how to care for living things and what they need to survive in their natural habitats.

  • We wonder how the children might document what they see, hear and know about the world around them.
  • We wonder how we might continue to develop their curiosities about the different creatures in our environment.  

 

Important messages to our community…

The Shape Test

Leave a comment

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

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

The team wondered:

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

The Garden Plots – Making Decisions 

Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

Which plants might grow in the different seasons?

Which ones will survive?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The gardeners agreed with Sophia’s suggestion.

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

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

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

The Octopus House: A Collaborative Design Project

Leave a comment

A group of children have been working together to create a house, which they named ‘The Octopus House‘. They used their imagination and experiences to inform their art-making.

While building the house, we observed the group sharing and listening to ideas presented, then using a range of materials to improve the different elements in their creation.

Working on one creation can be challenging, problems require solutions and disagreements need to be worked out.

We saw the team work through these different challenges, persevering and then celebrating their final design. Finally, they presented their creation to the class. The architects were invited to keep a record of their design using their visual arts skills.

We noticed how they thought about and used shapes, colours and mark-making to record their creation on paper. These creative experiences allow the children to collaborate, persevere, listen, learn and have fun together. 

Games

Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

Why do we need rules in the game?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What can we grow in the garden plots?

Leave a comment

Many of the children worked to maintain the garden plots in K1. The children noticed that some plants had died, and others needed to be pruned.

The children began to make suggestions on what they could grow next. We decided to gather this information using pictures and words.

The children were invited to share 2 suggestions. Then, we sorted and organised the information.

The children quickly noticed that some suggestions such as flowers (8) and trees were very popular. Other suggestions were mint plants (3) orange plants (1) grass (1) trees (5) strawberry plants (5) apple trees (3).

We wonder what we need to know about these flowers and plants to be able to grow them in our EY garden. We wonder what resources will help us learn more about the needs of these plants.

Our inquiry continues…

Learning Outcomes: We are learning that we can…

  • gather information by asking questions
  • record data on simple graphs
  • present information using pictographs where one picture equals 1
  • explain data using simple comparative language

The Gift – Coming together to build and create. 

Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Approaches to Learning (ATL’s) 

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

Waste

Leave a comment

Ella & Luna “What should we do with waste?”

Two students in Grade 4 had a question for the NIS community.

  • Oliver “What is waste?”
  • Jeongyoon “Is it like erasing?”
  • Oliver “I think waste is like wasting money.”
  • Oliver “Wasting new paper. The teachers use the new paper but I think some people take the new paper. People will make an airplane and then when you open it is broken. We use recycled paper, we don’t want to waste the new paper.”

What is recycling?

  • Oliver “The paper has lines on it and the new one does not.”

Where does all the paper you use go?

What happens the paper that you use in the washroom?

  • Oxford “We can use the paper in the bin to make.
  • Oliver “The Ayi takes the garbage. When we put it in the garbage bin they will turn it to paper.”
  • Liz “It goes into the river.”
  • Lydia “They will put them in the garbage truck and take them away.”

Ms. Eileen reminded Oliver about a picture he shared of his holiday.

  • Oliver “We drink lots of plastic bottles and we put it in the garbage and then it goes to the recycled and people bring it to build it.”
  • Motong “If you take 2 papers then the new paper in the garbage bin. So the new paper is broken. Then the paper is waste.”
  • Liz “We use it again.”
  • Morning “We don’t waste the water because if you waste the water then we won’t have any more water. We can not wash the hands. We eat apples at home and throw the peel in the trash. I don’t know what happens to the trash.”

We decided to document the waste we collected at snack time.

  • Oxford “The banana peel in because the bin has all a picture of food. The box and the plastic in the other bin.”
  • Lydia “I put it in the bin.”
  • The Children “We have 2 different bins. One is the food garbage and the other is plastic, paper and wood bin.”

  • Oxford “I have trash at home. I don’t put it in the bin. But I can use it to make things. Grandma uses to make compost.”
  • Teacher “What does she do with the compost?”
  • Oliver “The things that look very cool then I want to keep it and make something with it. I can make something with the wood spike. I put the garbage in the bin at home. I have a recycled bin but its outside. I don’t use it because its cold outside. My mummy will take the bin and take the recycled all in the recycled bin. She puts plastic recycle. I don’t know what will happen to the food. I think they will make squishies.”
  • Teacher “I wonder what you can learn about the garbage and recycled waste at your home.”
  • Eunbyul “We have garbage at home. I go outside and find the rubbish bin.”

We decided to answer one of the questions on the Grade 4 survey.

We wonder what we can learn about garbage and waste.

ACTION

The Paper Airplanes

Leave a comment

Noticing the children’s interest in making paper airplanes, Ms. Eileen decided to introduce the children to a new design.

The children followed the instructions to make the paper airplane.

  • Eli “I want to throw it outside because outside will have wind so it will fly fast and high.”
  • Howie “I think the airplane the airplane can fly really high and really fast because the wind is really strong and it will go fast. We can feel it when the wind is cold you know what is the wind.”

We looked at a photograph of the playground to help us decide where we might fly the planes from. What would we need to consider?

  • Liz “I think airplanes go to water is broken. Airplane is paper, paper in water is wet and broken.”
  • Oliver “I think the airplane might go round and round all the time I think. Because the wind is going left then the airplane will go left and if the wind is going right then the airplane will go right.”
  • Wyatt “Outside is airplane is go out of school and people can’t go outside of school and then you make it again.”
  • Morning “The airplane will go to the tree and the people cannot play with it.”
  • Eli “It can go over the fence because if you throw on the mountain then it will go over the fence and no one will get it and it might go into the building and there might be sharp things and then it will get a hole in it.”
  • Motong “We can send it from the slide. We can stand on the yellow wall because the airplane will fly very far.”
  • Jeongyoon “If we fly it from the roof, then we can’t get it.”
  • Lydia “I think this flying to outside you can’t take it (the airplane).”
  • Eunbyul “If it goes to a very tall tree then I will not catch the airplane.”
  • Howie “Then, we can climb the tree.”
  • Oliver “The sticks are not very strong.”

How can we find out which airplane has gone the furthest?

  • Oliver “I think if the airplane looks the best then it goes the furthest. And my airplane looks the best.
  • Eunbyul “Throw it and it will go up and down.”

When you run a race, can you start from different places?

  • Eli “No, we have to stay together.
  • Howie “Some people together in the back, the first people will get number 1. The people in the back will be number 2.”

The children explained that they had to fly the paper airplanes from the same location for it to be fair. The children discussed the different options. The children were excited to see many planes flying high above the playground. Perhaps our planes would fly high too!

Many of the children suggested flying the plane from a height as it would help the plane go further. They agreed that the best spot would be the top of the short wall.

We decided to go out and try this out. The paper panes took off from the wall. We watched them scatter around the playground. 

How would we know which plane went the furthest?

Howie suggested that we use a tape to measure the distance. Ms. Shemo did not have such a long tape but had some string instead. We measured and cut out the string to mark the distance.

When we went back to class with the string, we had them in bundles on the floor. Many children believed Eli’s plane flew the furthest because his bundle of string was ‘higher’. We recorded everyone’s best guess using tally marks.

But how would we know for sure? How do we measure things in real life?

Eli suggested using the ruler. But the ruler was short, and it would take a long time to measure them.

Liz suggested measuring them using the white PVC pipes. We brought one over and kept it next to the ruler. It was longer. We noticed the numbers on the ruler and decided to add them to make our ruler with the pipe. But, there were too many numbers to write.

After some thought, we decided to count in 5’s and record them on the pipe. The children helped identify the numbers from 0-100.

Then, we began to measure the twine. We recorded the distance each paper airplane flew. Finally, we had the data we needed. Eli’s paper airplane flew the furthest!

Throughout this experience, the children shared their theories about paper airplanes, and considered the properties of paper. They considered the concepts of speed, height, distance and variables that may affect the flight of the paper airplane. They explored measurement, data handling and number, to find out who’s paper airplane flew the furthest.

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

Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

What did we notice?

What theories do we have?

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

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

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

Homes for the Birds – The Nests

Leave a comment

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

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

Empathise:

who are you trying to help?

  • The Birds

What do they need?

  • A safe home – nests

Define:

what is the problem you are trying to solve?

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

Ideate:

How many ideas can you come up with?

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

Prototype:

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

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

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

We noted all these ideas down on chart paper.

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

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

  

 

Through this process, they had opportunities to:

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

 

Ramps: The Prototypes

Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

Design

Through this experience, the children had opportunities to:

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

Design Learning Outcomes:

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

Balance

Leave a comment

Two children explored the concept of balance using manipulatives in the construction area. One explained that something was balanced ‘if both sides were the same and the beam remained straight’.

We explored this concept using our knowledge of numbers. The children tapped into what they knew about ‘addition’ to solve the equations to balance the scale.

 

We wonder how we might explore the concept of balance in other places and situations.

Kelso’s Choices

Leave a comment

What are small and big problems?

The children began by drawing to share their ideas.

Next, we read the book ‘Big Problems and Small Problems’, and discussed the children’s drawings to decide if the different situations in their pictures were big problems or small problems.

BIG PROBLEMS:

If it is a ‘big’ problem, the children were encouraged to reach out to an adult ‘right away’!

SMALL PROBLEMS:

If they decide it is a small problem, then the children were encouraged to use ‘Kelso’s Choice Wheel’ to use 2 choices before reaching out to an adult.

As we discussed the problems the children had drawn out, they decided if they were big or small problems, and how they might use ‘Kelso’s Choice Wheel’ to choose the most appropriate choices they could try, before reaching out to an adult for support.

The children decided to post the choice wheel in different places in the Early Years to help them refer to the choices when needed. They will give each campfire one poster and pin up two more in the EY playground.

Approaches to Learning (ATL’s)

Social Skills

Interpersonal relationships

  • Practice empathy and care for others.
  • Listen closely to others.
  • Be respectful to others.
  • Play cooperatively in a group: sharing, taking turns.
  • Help others.

Social and emotional intelligence

  • Be aware of own and others’ feelings.
  • Manage anger and resolve conflict.
  • Be self- and socially aware.
  • Be aware of own and others’ impact as a member of a learning group.

Self-management Skills

Mindfulness

  • Take responsibility for own well-being.

Organising the Shed

Leave a comment

We observed the children at the end of outdoor recess as we noticed that they were having some challenges with putting the toys away in the designated spaces. We were particularly interested in learning more about the storage system in the ‘shed’, a storage space where all the water toys, cooking utensils and trucks are housed.

We decided to start by revisiting past documentation on ‘The Shed Project’, to learn more about the space. The previous K2 class had organised the space, ordered pegboards and hooks for the toys, and posted signs to help the children know where to store the toys.

A group of children went into the Shed to think about their next steps.

  • Liz “It is dirty and messy”
  • Lydia “We can clean it up!”

The team worked together to clean up the shed. They gathered all the rakes and spades and hung them up on the pegboards. They sorted the water and sand toys, and placed the bamboo waterplay toys, in separate tubs.

We noticed that the signs and labels were wet, and the messages were smudged.

When we returned to the classroom, the team created new labels for the shovels and rakes.  

We compared a label that was in the shed with a new one.

Teacher “What do you think happened to the label?”

  • Oliver “Melting. The colour has almost go off from the water. Someone came with a bucket of water and put it and it melted the colours.”
  • Howie “It will come off.”

The children decided that a piece of plastic would protect the paper. We looked around the classroom for the type of plastic we could use and discussed each option.

The plastic like the drawer…

Oliver “That is too hard and too heavy.”

The plastic that is used to cover the food container…

  • Oxford and Howie “It breaks easily.”

The plastic pouch…

  • Eli “It is too small”

The plastic folder…

 “It’s too big.”

The different ideas presented by the children moved us to offer a suggestion, a plastic film that is used on the overhead projector screen. The children quickly made the connection.

  • Oliver “Ms. Eileen has a transformer to turn this card save, then no water can melt the colour and smudge it.”

The team went with Ms. Eileen to prepare the cards for the machine.

  • Morning “Put the paper in.”
  • Wyatt “Put the paper in the plastic.”
  • Liz “Then no water in the paper.”
  • Liz “Plastic in the machine.”
  • Morning “It is going on the side and the paper will not fall out of the plastic.”

  • Liz “It is so hot.”
  • Eli “It has power. If you don’t have the power it can’t move out and in.”
  • Oliver “And it can not stick the plastic together. Because it’ hot it sticks.”
  • Oxford “Because this has a yellow sign says no touching.”
  • Eunbyul “It says ‘NO Finger In’.”
  • Howie “If you put your finger it will get hot and stick together.”
  • Liz “Cutting paper because no cutting paper, these is so big. Plastic in and cut into two.”

After presenting their process to the rest of the class, the team went to the shed to put the new signs on the wall.

  • Morning “Put the paper on the wall people will know the yellow one does not go to the red one.”
  • Oliver “The blu tack behind the picture will get smudged.”

Next, the team will visit the rest of the classes in the Early Years to share their video with the children, to tell them about the new labels. They hope this will help the children think more about the way we store and care for the toys in the Shed.

This project was connected to the unit of inquiry ‘How We Organise Ourselves’ as it encouraged the children to look at community spaces around them and to consider how they might take responsibility for the care and maintenance of these spaces.

1 2 3 … 5