When investigating into our unit of inquiry ‘Who We Are ‘, we explored about ourselves through the Central Idea, “We use our bodies to learn about the world.” The children were invited to participate in a variety of learning experiences…
All posts tagged “EY1”
Early Years Mud Kitchen
With the Spring weather having arrived here in Switzerland, we’ve finally had a chance to get dirty in the Early Years Mud Kitchen. We collected donated pots, pans and crockery to stock our kitchen. Our School Caretakers helped us attach the…
Collaboration in Music Making
These last few months, the children have spent time joyfully exploring sounds, songs, fingerplays and rhythms as part of our inquiry into ways we can create music and have musical experiences collectively. One of the many advantages of integrated specialist classes like…
Learning About Mathematics and Science Through Cooking
Cooking is always a popular learning experience for our Early Years students. Not only is it a fun activity where we get to eat and enjoy what we have made, but it is also a wonderful way to learn some…
Encouraging and Supporting Children’s Individual Inquiries
Supporting Our Personal Inquiries and Wonderings — Cracks in the mud inquiry In the Primary Years Programme, we believe that optimal learning takes place when it is genuinely connected to the world around an individual student. Acquisition of both knowledge and skills…
Collaborative Problem Solving – Water Play
Water play is a daily learning experience available to our EY1 students. It fosters creative learning in all areas of their development and, because it is such an open-ended activity, it provides opportunities for extended learning. Providing a variety of materials with the water encourages the children to try out new ideas and find solutions to problems.
We posed a challenge for the children, which was to transfer the coloured water from the water tray in the upstairs classroom to a large bucket located down on the stairs. As the children began to manipulate the water play materials, they quickly started to problem-solve and work out how best to transfer the water. The children were incredibly creative with their ideas about how to move the water. They communicated well and worked together to achieve their goal. Their encouragement of each other was truly inspirational! The children were experimenting with mathematical concepts throughout this learning experience and were using mathematical language such as more, less, empty, full etc. New vocabulary was also quickly learnt and it was wonderful to hear words such as funnel, syringe and tubing being used so confidently.
It was delightful to see our students further developing their social skills as they played cooperatively, negotiated together and shared space and materials!