This week we started our second Unit of Inquiry. This unit falls under the Transdisciplinary Theme of How We Express Ourselves. The Central Idea is We express our thoughts and ideas in many different ways. The Lines of Inquiry which will be guiding our learning are:
Throughout this unit, the students will explore different ways of expressing stories. They will be able to orally tell, dance, draw and act out stories. They will also paint stories while listening to and being inspired by music. Children will become familiar with book terminology including author, illustrator, title, spine, blurb, and front and back cover. As an initial provocation we watched a retelling of the classic story of Snow White through ballet. It was naturally without words and lyrics. Then the students were encouraged to reflect on what they had seen. They also reflected on how the story made them feel and how it was interpreted by the dancers. The story provided a common but open-ended starting point for our Unit of Inquiry. We continued our inquiry by brain-storming about the different ways in which people express stories and came up with:
The classroom was set up so that the children could initially express themselves and experiment with different media and art materials. So far the they enjoyed listening to two traditional stories; The Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks and The Three Bears. They enjoyed drawing the stories, performing using puppets, and acting out the story wearing costumes. In order to make an authentic home-school connection, we would like to invite you to come and read stories to the students in class, in your mother-tongue language, or to present different versions of familiar stories, for example through music, drama or visual art. Please contact any of the PS2 teaching staff if you are interested in sharing a story with the children.
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During our inquiry the students continued playing and enjoying games we learned together, helping each other with remembering the rules. With the help of parents and teachers the students were introduced to different traditional games. We would like to say a big thank you to Mrs. Feng Zhu, Junhan’s mother and to Mrs. Dora Elia Pinedo Henrandes, Nicola’s mother, for visiting our classroom and sharing their favorite childhood games. Mrs. Feng Zhu introduced us to a traditional Chinese game called, "Eagle and Chicks". The students enjoyed running away from the eagle holding on to each others cloth. This game was not only very physical, with lots of running, but also great for encouraging teamwork. Mrs. Dora Elia's traditional Mexican game, “Loteria”, a game similar to BINGO, was great fun, too. The students enjoyed playing this game as a whole class and they were introduced to some Spanish words. We were also introduced to Russian games by Ms. Lisa, our Russian teacher and some Uzbek traditional games by Mrs. Shakhnoza, our Uzbek Cultural Studies teacher. As students played the different games, they discussed the rules of each game making connections and finding similarities between them. Teachers noticed some of the students creating their own games with friends while playing outside during recess. When these students were shown photographs of them playing games and encouraged to share with their peers, they were proud to explain the rules of their newly created games. Sharing, taking turns, and being caring to each other are some of the most common topics we discussed during our Unit of Inquiry. We discussed the importance of carefully considering our choices in those moments when we want the same thing at the same time as someone else, or what to do when somebody doesn’t play nicely, as well as discussing other conflict situations that occur in class. Students shared how conflicts can make them feel angry, sad or upset in those situations. They came up with the following strategies to use to express feelings, manage anger and resolve conflicts with friends:
When we feel angry or hurt:
When we have a conflict with a friend:
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