K2 Turtle Class

Dear Parents and Caregivers, After the term break, the children have immersed themselves in the new Unit of Inquiry (UOI) learning - "How the World Works" (世界是如何运作的). We began by exploring some basic shapes, including circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, and stars, through the story "形状" (Shapes). The children enjoyed searching for these shapes around the classrooms and playground. Next, the children were inspired by the story "你叫什么名字？" (What Are You?), which showcases different animals created using various shape combinations. Eager to apply their newfound knowledge, the students tried making their own animal or object creations using an assortment of shapes. As Halloween fell during this week, we also learned about the traditional custom activity of "Trick or Treat" through the story "火鸡的万圣节" (Turkey's Halloween). The children even had the opportunity to make their own dancing skeletons using cotton buds and glue, which added ...

 Dear Turtle Class Families, This week the Turtle Class has learned an important word ~ PERSERVERANCE ! To help us understand this essential skill further we have read a number of storybooks. One of our favourite storybooks that we have read so far is The Magical Yet, written by Angela DiTerlizzi. Inspired by this story, the class wish to create their very own Magical Yets. Therefore we would like the children to bring in some materials that they would like to create their Magical Yet with. This can include the following, stickers, recyclable materials (cardboard boxes, plastic bottles/pots) or anything else that they would like to incorporate into their design. Please send in your child's items in a bag labelled with their name. We will have many resources in school for the children to use for their creations, but we would like to honour the children's agency and creativity if they would like to add further resources from home! We will begin planning and designing our creatio...

The K2 children have started tuning into their next Unit of Inquiry  How The World Works , with a focus on design and creation through play. Last week, classes went over to Bradbury School's makerspace "The Shed" as a provocation to explore different tools and materials. This visit surfaced a lot of the children's prior knowledge and was helpful in guiding the next steps in class inquiries. These provocations will no doubt support children's thinking and gradual understanding of how play can lead to purposeful design and creation.  Here is the unit's key information: If you would like to learn more along with some concrete examples of what the learning might look like, feel free to hear me walk through the unit in greater detail. It's a 4 min video and you may press the full screen button for a clearer view. This unit holds so many opportunities for true transdisciplinary learning as design and creation organically invites learning across subjects - you mi...

 Dear Turtle Class Families, It has been so wonderful reconnecting with the class after the October half-term break, and it was great to share some of the adventures that the children had experienced during their holidays!  We began our week by discussing the changes in weather we have noticed recently and the further changes that we are yet to see, with the change of seasons. We had some wonderful discussions about Autumn and how it can look and feel in different places around the world.  The Turtle Class were encouraged to be inquisitive and to explore a variety of real and unreal natural materials in class that were related to Autumn, which led to many discussions about colour, weight, size and the properties of the various materials. These activities are preparing the class for further scientific investigations throughout this current unit of inquiry - How The World Works (HTWW). The Central Idea for this unit can be seen below: "People can design and create through p...