In EY2 the children have started commenting on text in the environment. They have been inspired to make their own marks in the form of drawing, letter writing and list making. Some children have shown an interest in writing ’emails’ after noticing a keyboard in…
All posts by “Fiona Affleck”
Becoming a Community
We have spent the first weeks of school fostering a sense of community in the classroom. In the Early Years at ICS we believe that a strong sense of community and a supportive emotional environment provide a solid foundation for…
Life is Affected by the Seasons
An inquiry into the natural world
We explored our surroundings with a focus on how the natural world, including animals and plant life, is affected by the seasons.
This short video displays some of the things we have been doing in our class to explore these ideas and observe changes in our natural environment.
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Planting sunflowers and appreciating nature
As part of our year long unit about how the world works we have been inquiring into the different seasons and how different forms of life are affected. We noticed that buds had started to form on the trees and…
Student-led Conferences and the Importance of Reflection
As a PYP school, we encourage students to become reflective learners as part of our curriculum and the IB learner profile: “Students give thoughtful consideration to their own learning and experience. They are able to assess and understand their strengths…
Creative exploration and investigation of natural and beautiful materials
To invite close exploration, investigation and imagination we invited the children to look at some natural materials and beautiful sensory jewels. It was wonderful to observe the creativity and creative expression when the children worked together, representing their ideas with the objects provided on a large mirror.
Natasha: I’m making an island, a big island.
Mats: I’m making a pattern.
Inga: A red heart and a green heart, there you go Natasha. This one is so pretty, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …. Do you need this?
Natasha: Yes I do, I like that one. There is much room here on my island, look I’m making a big island.
The children became inspired by such intriguing objects and it was fascinating to observe how they used their developing language skills to communicate and work together to share ideas and solve problems.
For Joao this was a valuable opportunity to count the objects in English and to sort them according to various attributes. The children used mathematical language in their play like ‘big’, ‘small’ and ‘pattern’.
Natasha, Inga and Mats were able to tell their own stories about the objects and what they might represent in their imagination, providing them with a rich language experience.