The First Few Weeks

Unit of Inquiry

In Art, each child made a full size cut out self-portrait. In class they drew in their faces, decorated their bodies and added drawings of their special objects. The children will add to these cut outs over the coming weeks, creating their own unique portraits. 
As an introduction to how our five senses influence our preferences, the children took a "sensory walk" around five different stations on the Prep floor. Their senses were certainly actively engaged at the different stations and the walk sparked off a lot of discussion! They quickly connected their experiences to the physical processes of listening, seeing, tasting, smelling and touching and some children noted how the senses are often inter-linked, i.e. smelling and tasting. 
As a lead into our first unit, What Makes me Unique, the children presented the special objects they brought into school. This was a great way to find out about their particular talents, preferences, and activities and the children began noting interests they had in common. They continued exploring some of these connections by passing a ball of string to a classmate with whom they had something in common thus creating a wonderful web of "connections." The children then worked with a partner asking and answering questions about their preferred activities, foods, etc and recorded the information on a venn diagram. 

 

Language

The children were introduced to their journals where they will be encouraged to draw and write about their weekends, holidays, special events, at least once a week. Some children had a go at writing some words on their own. 

Our unit related book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? (focusing on sight) was greatly enjoyed by the children. They quickly picked up on the pattern of repeated words and were soon "reading along." They noted that repeated words, like choruses in music, help you to learn and remember. Using their own names and photographs, they made their first class book: Prep A, Prep A, Who do you See?  

Our first sight words, I and like were introduced and the the letter names/sounds for t and b were taught. The children practiced writing these letters and sight words.

We have also begun looking at non fiction books about the senses. We made a book titled I like..., You like...

                            

      "t, top, /t/"     "b, bat, /b/"

Maths
The children have been working on developing number sense. They worked on recognizing and writing numbers 0-10. In addition, they have been improving their one to one correspondence by counting sets of items. They also practiced sequencing the numbers during different activities.

Italian
I 5 sensi ci consentono di vivere nel mondo e di interagire con esso, e ci permettono di capire meglio chi siamo noi. Leggiamo Gli occhi sbagliati, di Roberto Piumini e cominciamo a riflettere sulla vista. Vediamo come sono fatti un cannocchiale ed un binocolo, e giochiamo con un caleidoscopio. I bambini costruiscono il loro cannocchiale e raccontano ai compagni, fingendo di essere il capitano di una nave, cosa vedono con l’aiuto del cannocchiale. Con il viso coperto tranne gli occhi ogni bambino comunica ai compagni i propri sentimenti: allegria, tristezza, paura, rabbia. E tutti indovinano con grande divertimento.

Art

In Art the children started the year by getting reacquainted with the classroom and its resources as well as discussing the art room essential agreements.  Each lesson begins with the children on the carpet discussing what they will be doing during the class and going through the basic art room rules and routine. They then move onto the tables to carry out the work.

For the Unit on Senses each child received a sketchbook that will be kept at hand in the classroom for them to work on throughout the year. The children decorated the  cover of the sketchbook  and glued a photo of themselves on the front. We stress the individuality of each personal sketchbook and encourage the children to start viewing their sketchbook as their visual diary that can contain drawings, visual thoughts, and emotions that they can work on or refer to in any moment throughout the year.

Through the use of collage Prep children have started experimenting with color, shapes and lines in an effort to understand how images make us feel.  We have been discussing the properties of color and the emotions different colors bring out in each child.

Music

Listening games are very important in music lessons.We learn to listen with our body as well as with our ears! Is the music quick? Is it slow?

We are learning to distinguish the different sound of the instruments and had lots of fun doing it with our eyes closed using only our ears!

Our voice is an instrument too, and with the 'doggy song' we strive to improve our listening skills when recognising our friends singing voice.

PE

We’ve had a lot of fun in PE getting to know the new classes and finding out about the children’s wonderful skills.

We explained how important it is to follow instructions during our lessons so everyone is safe.

We start each lesson with a short warm up and very important stretching afterwards.

The children have enjoyed using different balls; beach balls, sponge balls, tennis balls to practise their coordination. Something you can do together at home or at the park.

We have started learning about the game of hockey. First to know the hockey stick (plastic), how to hold it and how to control a small ball with the stick.

We did lots of fun exercises like hitting the ball against the wall, dribbling the ball with the hockey stick and even playing a game.

Everyone is keen to come to PE and learn new skills. We all have a smile on our faces!

Library

As last year, each Library class begins with circle time and our library song. The children then have time to choose books to read individually or with friends.  At the end of the lesson a story is read to the whole class. In a few weeks, the children will be able to check out a book to take home till the following week.  You will receive an email with more information at a later date.

The first few Library classes were spent learning about the basic care of books and going over class rules and expectations. In keeping with the theme of expected behaviors, we read David Goes to School by David Shannon. To connect with the “Senses” Prep Unit of Inquiry, we read The Blind Men and the Elephant by Karen Backstein, a tale about how we all perceive things from our own perspective and the importance of taking into account other people’s point of view.

Intro to our Unit of Inquiry 1

Unit of Inquiry: What Makes Me Unique

                                   

The transdisciplinary theme for our What Makes Me Unique unit is Who We Are. The students will begin by getting to know each other and making connections, finding similarities and differences. They will then investigate the five senses, learning "how our senses help form our preferences", and comparing their preferences with others'. Inquiring into the impact of one of the senses not functioning will help deepen our understanding of the central idea, that "each person has a unique way of experiencing the world around them."

During this Unit, we encourage families to help children notice how our preferences are connected with our senses, for example asking questions: Do you like the strawberry ice cream? Why? How do you know?

We welcome your contributions to classroom learning, so please let us know if you wish to come and visit the class.

Language Arts

Each week, Language Arts activities focus on a specific book, often chosen because relevant to the Unit of Inquiry, the Learner Profile, or other current aspects of school life. Students work individually and in groups to improve their knowledge and skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing.

At the beginning of the year, we assess students individually on their knowledge of letters names and sounds. Throughout the school year, students work at their own pace to extend their knowledge and strengthen their skills.

In phonics, we will begin practicing the letter name-key word-letter sound (for example, t-table-/t/, see the poster below), and students will progress at their individual speed. We will also practice handwriting, learning to form lower case letters alongside capitals.

Mathematics

In Maths, we are working with numbers 0 to 10. We are practicing counting in many different ways. We are also learning to recognize and write numerals.

Students will be engaged in a variety of sorting activities (for example, sorting buttons according to a particular attribute), that encourage them to compare objects and reflect on similarities and differences. 

We will soon begin the maths unit on patterns. We will start with AB color patterns (for example, red-green-red-green), and move on to more complex patterns (ABC, AAB),  not necessarily based on colour. We will also connect the Maths activities to our current unit of inquiry and the five senses, for example discussing how to sort objects according to the sense used to perceive them, or making patterns using sounds, textures and movements.

Maths is also incorporated into our daily routines and especially our Morning Meeting. We look at the calendar, counting forward to specific days (such as students' birthdays); we count how many children are in class, noting how many are absent by using our 'class tower'; we keep track of how many days in school, both by circling a number on the 100 chart and by adding a stick to our units-tens-hundreds cups.

Ways to support your child at home

Mathematics

• “Counting all around”: count things around you (especially numbers between 0 and 10). Examples: stairs you are climbing, chairs in a room, apples in a bag. 
• “Finding numbers”: identify numerals around you (on the telephone, on a bus, on a clock). 
• “Making numbers”: form numerals by writing, painting, modeling play dough, tracing in sand. 
• Watch these short song videos: "Ten little numbers" ; "Let's count up to ten" : "The Numeral song"
• Use a counting/number game on the iPad, such as Tally Tots or Letter School. 

Language Arts

• “Alphabet Book”: make your own alphabet book. Use a notebook, one page for each letter studied. Cut out and paste pictures of things that start with that letter. 
• Singing: practice singing the abc song, or watch and sing along with this phonics song
• “Letters all around”: identify the letters studied in the world around you (shop signs, billboards, books). 

What Makes Me Unique

• Reinforce key vocabulary: connection, unique, senses, sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell. 
• Find similarities and differences among family members and friends. 
• Discuss different preferences and the positive value of being 'unique'. 
• "Senses in all languages": learn the names of the senses and the parts of the body used in your home language(s). 
• “Using senses all the time”: discuss/notice the use of the senses in everyday situations (smelling food cooking, listening to music, seeing stars at night etc).

First Day of School!

It was wonderful meeting all the students today! The students explored the materials in the classroom and met new friends.  The children had fun excercising in PE and listening to a story in the library.  We also discussed Prep expectations and school rules. Tomorrow they will make their own Essential Agreements and learn more class routines!

Listening to The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Sorting above the line, below the line, and bottom of the line behaviors

Listening to a story 

Tracing the letters of the alphabet