Ms Courtney's Class

This week students have been starting to ask questions about urban environments. At the start of each unit we spend time encouraging the students to start thinking about the unit, the big ideas and develop questions they would like to answer. As we have only just started the unit often these questions are in the form of wonderings. We went for a walk around the school on Thursday and the students completed an "I see, I think, I wonder" activity. They were encouraged to think about the school, its settings, what they could see and hear around them and write down any wonderings they had. On Friday we developed these wonderings further and started asking questions we would like to find the answers to over the unit. We started by discussing the wonderings and developing deeper questions. We revisited the central idea and watched two videos to see what students in other schools have done to modify their environment. After this we came up with student quest...

This week marked the beginning of our third unit of inquiry for the year. We started off by reminding ourselves what a unit of inquiry is and how we know what we are focusing on. Transdiscplinary Theme:  The PYP has six transdisciplinary themes that are taught each year. These themes have been selected due to their global significants and read world application. The themes provide opportunity for the development of knowledge, concepts and skills. Sharing The Planet An inquiry into the rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within a between them ; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution. Central Idea: Each unit of inquiry has a central idea. The central idea is to support students' understanding of the transdisciplinary theme, and challenges and extends what the students already know. The central idea is engaging, relevant, challenging ...

This week is the final week of our How We Express Ourselves unit. Students have been busy working on their inspiration boards and art work. Each students selected an art form they wanted to make. They then needed to justify what inspired them to chose this art form and find examples of inspiration. The students have almost finished their art work and will have it on display for you to look at next Thursday evening at the Grade 2 Spotlight on the Arts . More information about this night will be communicated to you soon. If you are unable to attend Spotlight on the Arts we are opening our classrooms next Friday 13th November at 7.30 - 8.00am for you to visit.

A great article on the importance of reading aloud to children. The Conversation - 3rd Nov 2015

At the beginning of this unit students asked questions they wanted to answer. We recorded the questions here as well as in the classroom. These questions helped us to guide the inquiry. We spent time today finding the answers to the questions the students had. We grouped the students into areas of interested and they worked together to record the answers to the questions. They used the knowledge gained from guest speakers, viewings, readings and class discussions throughout the unit to answer the questions. Look at the collaboration and thinking happening! Why and how to people create art?  "To improve their intelligence" "Get ideas from other pieces of art" "Maybe they want people to like their art and how they created it" "People create art in different ways" "I think some artist have emotion and they want to create art because maybe they have a favourite place and want to create it" "People have to pra...

Last Friday afternoon we were very lucky. Tara, Ben's Mum, came to play the cello to us. She spoke to us about the cello, the different sounds it can make and what inspired her learn to play the it. What we learnt: " I learnt that bow is made out of horse hair ". George "  I listened to her and she said that 800 years ago there wasn't any cars. There were horses so that is why the bow is made from horse hair ". Alex " I learnt that the cello is made out of wood ". Nicole " I remember she said that you use rosin to help make the sound louder, the wax sticks to the strings ". Taylor " I learnt that the cello is very old ". Joshua " I learnt that on a aeroplane a cello must have its own seat "! Eliza " She said she started with a violin but she moved on to a cello, she changed because she liked the sound of a cello when she was playing in an orchestra" . Jodie Today James, Ms Anita's husband, ...