As our Unit of Inquiry focuses on how health and well-being shape relationships, learning and growth, we continued our inquiry by arranging activities, routines and the physical environment so that the children might have a range of opportunities to make choices about what they would do and how they would do it. During the Early Learning Centre (ELC) assembly time, Ms. Kristina showed us a big plastic bag full of used paper towels . As a provocation, she tipped all the paper towels out onto the carpet at the front of the group. The students were informed that it took only one day for Ms. Hulkar to collect this pile of paper from the ELC. This provocation led us to have a big discussion about the fact that paper comes from the trees and to consider would happen if everybody wastes so much paper in this way?” This was another case of being reminded that our choices can not only affect others but also the environment in a positive or a negative way. We discussed how paper is made out of trees, and therefore the more paper we waste, the more trees need to be cut down. After watching a video about how paper is made from trees, we came to an agreement about how we can reduce the number of paper towels we need by shaking our hands twelve times after we wash our hands and then use one folded paper towel to dry our hands. Later on, the students were able to read some books about the important role trees play in the environment, and how we can save living things by reducing the need to cut down trees by in turn reducing paper-towel usage. As a whole ELC community we are going to share our ‘Big Idea’ of reducing usage of paper towels on Friday when we celebrate Peace Day at TIS. In order to develop the students’ cooperation skills, we have been introducing them to different games from around the world. We have been discussing the rules and how it can change the game if we don’t follow them. The children were introduced to a few problem-solving strategies when it comes to taking turns. Playing games like this will help to reinforce social skills such as sharing, taking turns, cooperating and will also help in developing self-management skills. Parents As Partners and Building a Learning Community
If any parents or other locally-living family members remember some favorite games from their own childhood, we would be very grateful if you would be willing to share them with us. Real life experience, and having visiting ‘experts’ sharing ideas with us would help to broaden the children’s knowledge about the world. You may also like to ask your child to explain to you some of the rules of the games they play at home or at school.
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We continued our Unit of Inquiry by playing group games together. To continue working on building our learning environment, we discussed more about choices we make and how they affect others. The teachers presented a role play provocation in which they were playing a game but not following the rules. They were cheating by peaking when they should have been closing their eyes, not taking turns fairly, and were shouting out when the aim of the game was to guess the name. The students shared their ideas about the choices the teachers made while playing the game, and how it is important to follow agreed rules when we play all together. Later we discussed how our choices can be either wise or unwise, and how our choices might affect the people around us. We talked about our behavior at school and at home, read books, discussed pictures with different choices and tried to sort them. We shared ideas about our own wise and unwise choices. Shape investigation The students enjoyed taking part in learning engagements where they had the opportunity to paint, construct and create shapes in different ways. Reading books about shapes, playing shape bingo, and creating pictures using shapes were the most exciting part of investigation. The students were able to make connections with the environment and find different shapes in the classroom and outside in the playground. Number Investigation We continued our inquiry into numbers. We are learning number concepts through songs and using cubes and creatures to practice our counting. We particularly enjoyed rolling a dice and matching the dots with the correct numerals. |