KP

Today some children made a big blanket out of paper. They decided it was perfect to eat their snack on. It may also be useful to sleep on during the sleep-over. When we were waiting for our buddies the children became silent. They curled up on the floor and closed their eyes.

What were they doing?

Sleep-over practice!

For many children this will be a landmark in their personal learning journeys in  that it may be the first time that they have slept away from their parents.  The sleep-over is an opportunity for the children to spend time together and to experience the adventures of camping in a familiar and safe environment.  The children have been planning the sleep-over, thinking about what they will need to bring, what they will eat, where they will sleep etc.

The children made detailed lists of their sleeping requirements.

• Change of clothes
• Toys
• Sleeping bag
• Pillow
• Tooth brush, cup, toothpaste
• hair brush
• Wash cloth and soap
• A small towel
• A small bag or suitcase
• A torch/flash light.

Food fun and the opportunity for data handling as part of our maths curriculum.

In the last few days their minds have turned to food. Today the two classes decided what to eat. The food feast starts with sandwiches and fruit in the park. This is followed by Zest gourmet pizzas. The children choice the food based on surveys they created. This was brought together on a shared using a Goggle doc.

Next we had to get the food. We set off for Homes this afternoon with our shopping lists and brought the supplies. The children carried them all the way back. They have been very responsibility and taken ownership of the sleep-over.

Thank you for the support parents have given the teachers and children.

Two more sleeps to go!

We are beginning to explore materials. This is something you may wish to do at home. Today we explored three kinds of clay. They were made of paper, clay and wood.

These questions may help generate inquiry.

• What is this material like?
• How can we change it?
• What did you do?
  
• How did it change?
  
• Why did it change?
• what words would describe ….?
• How can you change the materials? (roll, tear, whisk, smash, stir etc)
  
• How does it feel/ taste/ smell …?

Materials we identified that change, water, rice and paint.

Words we used to describe what we did, squishy, sticky, roll, square, cut, pinch, flatten and twist.
Manipulating clay on PhotoPeach

The children are learning a song for Kodomo no hi. You can learn more about it by following this link.

Yesterday we talked with the children about having a sleep-over in school to celebrate the end of Kindergarten.  For many children this will be a landmark in their personal learning journeys in  that it may be the first time that they have slept away from their parents.  The sleep-over is an opportunity for the children to spend time together and to experience the adventures of camping in a familiar and safe environment.

The children will be planning the sleep-over in the next few weeks, thinking about what they will need to bring, what they will eat, where they will sleep etc.

Initial ideas for the sleep-over. The children thought we would need

• Sleeping bag
• Blanket
• soccer pillow
• Soft toys
• Pajamas
• More clothes
• Some where to change
• Toothbrush
• Hair brush
• Scooters to play outside at night
• Flash light/torch
• Tent
• Their house moved to school
• A cherry blossom tree
• Chocolate
• Pizza
• A fire to toast marshmallows

This is the first video Asako Clark has made. I think it captures the spirit of  YIS. The children have learned this routine so can join in!

The children have been working on instant recall of number facts but I wanted to make sure this made sense to them. The children represented doubles to ten using some of the class materials. The children said this was challenging because they found it hard to find the same things for each number. They said counting in two’s is really good for counting larger amounts.
maths doubles on PhotoPeach

The children use Photobooth as a tool to

• help them feel comfortable seeing their image on a screen
• help them feel confident hearing their voice played back to them.
• explore storytelling
• critique their ability to read aloud from text with fluency and

Sammy  returned to England. The children have been sending him messages on Twitter. They have been asking him about his new room and school. The children noticed Sammy will be six on the 24th April, when they looked at the calendar.They decided they wanted to celebrate with him.

Ideas

• Send something on a fast plane  DHL (not enough time).
• Send something in the post (not enough time).

Here is the solution they came up with. Draw him a picture of a cake and send a message with Fotobabble.

Oh no it’s upside down… solution from Hwaji. He can be on the sofa and go like this (puts her head between her legs).

A soccer cake for sammy.

Ms. Yuri recorded the children during Japanese story time. The children started to ask to read and translate the stories for us. The children are so inspired by this form of storytelling that they have made their own story.