Ms Courtney's Class

The end of this week has marked the half way point of our unit of inquiry. One of the things I like about the PYP is that units don't follow a linear path and it doesn't matter if it is the first or fifth time a unit has been taught it is always different. Through prior assessment and student questioning units follow the path of the students and what they are interested in and want to know. At the start of the unit we asked the students what it means to be healthy and what they wanted to know. We found that most students had a general idea about the importance of exercise and eating well. We gave the students some statements about lifestyle choices and asked them to rank them from 'unhealthy' to 'healthy'. Statements included 'We should never eat pizza', 'We need to exercise everyday' and 'we need to relax daily'. These statements made the students begin to question their current understanding of healthy lifestyles and think about wha...

Images and emotions - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires This week we learnt how to create a Google Doc. Today students had the opportunity to all collaborate on the same same Doc at the same time. Students worked on the iPads to add their thoughts about images they were watching on the screen in the classroom. The students enjoyed seeing the document change as they were working on it. Click here to view the Google Doc.

This week saw us moving from the early stages of our unit to starting to ask questions and inquiry into what being balanced means . We looked at different ways we can relax and the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. In mathematics we continued our number focus. Students had an opportunity to play Mathletics and enjoys being able to play against each other on live Mathletics. Students have their username and password on their home folder. This has not been assigned for homework, but students can log in and play at home if they wish. On Monday we brainstormed what a good writer is. Students did a really good job, talking to each other and brainstorming all the different elements involved in writing. Our writing focus for this unit is recount writing. Students created an individual recount on a recent event. Next week we will be doing guided recount writing and working through the main elements of a recount. Learning the app 'Explain Everything" What makes a ...

Who we are - Student Questions. In class students were asked to think about all the questions they would like to find the answers to for this unit. We created a padlet to collect all our questions.  Please open the link below to view the padlet. http://padlet.com/wall/jt930t8yu73z

As our first full week of Grade 2 comes to an end it is a nice time to reflect on what we have achieved so far. It seems like a lot more than just 6 school days ago we started. The students have become familiar with the new campus, they know where all the classrooms are and generally settled into their new surroundings with ease. They are developing routines and made a great start to the year. In the classroom we started our Unit of Inquiry this week. Please see the Unit of Inquiry page for two updates of what we have done. Making maps of the school On Wednesday we went to the computer lab. Mr Matt talked about not sharing our passwords and the students logged in and sent an email. Students were introduced to Mathletics  this week. Next week students will have the opportunity to use this in class. Their usernames and passwords will be on their home folders, they can use this programme at home. Next Monday students will bring a reading log home in their home folder. T...

The main purpose of this blog it to celebrate the learning taking place in the classroom. Each week the blog will be updated by either myself or the students. As well as updating what the students are doing at school I will add weekly homework to the blog and from time to time add articles of interest regarding current educational practices and unit of inquiry related information. Please sign up for RSS feeds so you do not miss any updates on the blog.