End of Term 1

  

Oh my goodness, how quickly this term has passed.

I am very proud of the work that has been completed, the things that each student has learnt and the way that they all have participated in our learning     adventure.

I would also like to thank you, our wonderful parents for all of the contributions that you have made to our class and for taking time out to attend the ‘Parent – Teacher Conferences’. Your feed-back is important and an essential aspect of your child’s learning and development.

Ms Mersy and I have updated the blog with all of the learning and images from this term. We would love to hear what you think – please feel free to comment in the boxes underneath each section.

We are looking at more ways to present your child’s voice. I hope to have audio and visual presentations on the blog, so will continue to investigate how we can do this.

Our last job before we head on our break is to have class activities and school events for Term 2, times and dates, to keep you up to date with things.

On that note, please be safe, enjoy your holiday and both of us look forward to seeing the kids back at school on Monday 17^th October.

Kind regards,

Ms Donna and Ms Mersy 

Wire Man

Our Wire Olympians

Creating the wire skeleton

Adding muscle and form by twisting and layering newspaper.
Then the paper mache.

Painting the body all white so we have a clear surface to paint.

Here are our finished Olympians. They will be on display in the corridor next term.

Maths 3D

What's a polygon?

A dead parrot? 

The last two weeks of this term, in mathematics Grade 1 & 2 have been working with 2 and 3D shapes. 

We have read about them, drawn them, named all of their attributes, built them, drawn them again from different angles and listened to Ms Donna's terrible jokes about a dead parrot?

'Kyle, what shapes have you made?'

'I have made a cube, pyramid, a cuboid and a triangular prism'

'Nasya, what 3D shapes did you create?'

'I made cube, triangular prism, pyramid and a tetrahedron.'

'Yunchae and Zo, what is a tetrahedron?'

'It is a triangular prism, it has 4 faces - counting the one on the base.'  

Examples of our finished polyhedrons

Book Week

Celebrating Book Week

5th - 9th September

The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go
Dr Seuss

Book week this year enabled Grade 1 & 2 to read, discuss and review a wide range of literature. Each book had a book report written about it and is now available to others to read. 

Our final assembly - characters from our favourite books and stories.
(Kaitlin's photo still to come)

Rice Cake

Korean Rice Cakes

Ibu Annie sharing a story about how this celebration came about.

Annie sharing with us how to make these special cakes used as part of Korean celebrations.

Everyone had a great time rolling out the special dough, shaping them into little bowls to add the sugar and closing them up ready for boiling.

Even Ms Donna managed to make one.


A big thank you to Ibu Annie for sharing one of your family traditions with us

Simple Machine

Exploring Simple Machines

Simple machines can be found in all areas of life.

They are designed to make work easier.

Six simple machines we worked with are the lever, pulley, wedge, incline plane, screw and wheel and axle. 

Each group had to look at different material and design a simple machine.

Once we had created our simple machine we had to explain and demonstrate how it works to our class members.

Thinking, communicating, problem solving and working together.

The girls worked hard to design, put together and demonstrate how a pulley worked. Lots of fun was had by everyone trying to get it to run smoothly.

Remy and Zohar sharing their simple machine, explaining to the class how it works and how it can help us in every day work.

The Survival Island Camp 15th September 2016

The Survival Island Camp

What an amazing experience for the students. The children certainly enjoyed all aspects of this adventure. 

Before I begin sharing lots of photos and stories, I would like to acknowledge Ibu Mersy, Ms Ali, Pak Sam and the security guys for making this possible.

Ava making friends with the wildlife

Working on building their bed for the night.

Done, already for night time.

Knot tying with Ms Ali - it is a lot harder than it looks until you have got it, then you wonder why you had some much trouble.

Ibu Mersy got it!

The girls got it!

Our amazing dinner - all the things that we would have found on a tropical island - fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and chicken.
Best bit - eating with our fingers, no plates, knives and forks to be found.

Putting our knot tying skills, hut designing and build techniques to use.

Finally, weaving for the walls and the roof of our shelters. Pretty awesome skills. I would be happy to be stranded with this group of kids.

Well done Grade 1 & 2

The Island

                 Grade 1 & 2 Camp

Thank you for allowing your child to come on this overnight adventure with myself and Ms Ali.

With Ms Ali, Ibu Mersy and Ms Megan helping in different role and chores, We do not need any extra help.

Please remember that we are creating a deserted island scenario and will try to imagine the difficulties that we would face should this be real. 

With this in mind, I have selected only a few items for the children to bring along.

• ·         1 set of old clothes (that can get dirty) Pants, t-shirt, underwear, socks, shoes and a sweat-shirt.
• ·         1 soft toy for bedtime
• ·         A torch
• ·         Pillow, bed sheet and sleeping bag or bed cover
• ·         Tooth brush and tooth paste.
• ·         Swimmers and a towel.

No electronics or sweets please.

Our adventure starts after school activities on Thursday afternoon. 

Our adventure starts after school activities on Thursday afternoon.

Children will be involved in a range of activities including swimming, hut making, knot tying, weaving, food preparation and co-operation games. They will make their beds in the hall and meal preparation and eating will be in the eating area of school.

On Friday, all activities including Bahasa Indonesia, Swimming and Music will be held at Ms Ali, Ms Megan and Ms Donna’s house next to school.

For catering and collection of resources, we need to have your permission forms in ASAP. (Found in your child's homework folder)

Mid-term 1 Newsletter

Grade 1 & 2 Mid-term Newsletter
How quickly this first term is going. The children have settled into class well and are getting used to the new class dynamics, expectations and routines. I am really enjoying their attitudes to learning, enthusiasm and behavior.

Our first units of work are slowly coming to an end. We have looked at simple machines, how they work and the way in which they make things easier. The Olympics enabled us to learn about why and how these games came about, it also has given us the opportunity to look at the human body – making tin and paper mache athletics. In mathematics we have been exploring addition and subtraction, numbers to 100, doubling and halving strategies.

Our Unit of Inquiry’s central idea is:
People create organizations to solve problems and support human endeavor and enterprise

Using a ‘survival’ on a desert island scenario, the students are learning how to light a fire, build a shelter, and find water and food. So I am hoping that you have been having some interesting conversations.

With this ‘scenario’ in mind, I would like to have an overnight camp with the class on Thursday 15^th September. We will sleep in the school hall. The evening will involve games, hut building, swimming and camp fire stories. We would prepare our own night meal and breakfast from the food available on our ‘island’.

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated so that the planning can be confirmed. We may also need a couple of volunteers.

Just some housekeeping now.

Swimming will continue until the end of the term and we will see what the weather is like and decide if it will continue in term 2.

We have a number of students that are coming in at or after 8am in the morning, they are missing an important part of the morning. If it is possible to have everyone in class at 7:45am it would be much appreciated.

Lastly, with many thanks to Ibu Mercy, we have refreshed and added images and captions to our class blog of our learning so far this year. So please check it out – your kids are awesome.

As always, if you do have any concerns or question please let me know. Enjoy your long weekend.   Ms Ali, Ms Megan and I are heading to Jogjakarta to explore some more of this beautiful country.

Kind regards Ms Donna aka The Cat in the Hat