Ms Courtney's Class

Watch some of the videos and leave a comment on at least two different videos using the sentence starters: This video helped me to understand …. From this video I know know ….. http://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/help-your-local-bees-plant-a-bee-friendly-garden

It is amazing what can happen in a week. We completed our science experiments on Friday and the students have been busy writing their scientific reports explaining the resutlts. Math We spent time this week on data handling and creating bar graphs. We started graphing the height of our maize and will continue this until the water festival break.

This was a another successful week of learning. Please read on to find out what happened. Minecraft What possibly could be the highlight of the year began on Tuesday. Minecraft!! Mr Matt has created a Minecraft world with different environments for plant growth. Students are working in groups and each have their own land to plant and grow plants on. The need to recreate the right environments for the plants to grow and care for them. To find seeds students need to travel to the different environments in the world like the dessert, rainforest and cave to find seeds. This was the first of three weeks we will be using Minecraft to help develop our understanding of the central idea and lines of inquiry. Plant Experiments We began our scientific experiments on Wednesday. In pairs students created a question and hypothesis and conducted the experiment. We are observing results each day and very excited to see what happens next. We will feature on Monday's episode of ISPP TV. I ...

We started our second unit of inquiry this week. The students were very engaged in their learning and looking forward to the rest of the unit. Central Idea:  Plants require specific environments and conditions for growth.  Lines of Inquiry: Cycles and characteristics of plants Factor that influence plant growth Ways plants adapt to their environment Key Concepts:  Form Function Causation Related Concepts: Appreciation Curiosity  Prior Knowledge assessment: On Monday students were asked to draw and label a plant. After they had completed this they wrote what plants need to grow. We started looking at the form of a plant. Students label each part of the plant in their mother tongue and this has been displayed in the classroom. The students enjoyed learning the parts of a plant in different languages. We have been tracking and with the help of Mr Ben caring for the maize we planted in August. On Friday we measured the maize and it...

This week we completed our Who We Are unit. Students shared their understanding of the Central Idea by brainstorming our rights and responsibilities as a learner and how our mindset can help us to learn. You should have received a Seesaw post with your child's assessment and rubric for the unit. On Wednesday the students participated in a tabloid sports with our new house teams. The students all enjoyed the morning!! We also participated in Pchum Ben activities by our Teacher Assistants. We learnt about this and some of the traditions from the festival. I hope you all have a wonderful break and I look forward to seeing you back at school on Monday 25th September. 

It was wonderful to see everyone in their house T-shirts for the assembly this morning. UoI In UoI this week we created posters on what we know about the brain. The students worked in pairs to discuss their knowledge and make the poster. They have learnt a lot over the past few weeks on what the brain does, what it looks like, the parts of the brain and our responsibility to keep the brain healthy. We continued to add information to our brainstorming of what we know about how we grow and learn. We also started our summative assessments this week. Students have begun reflecting on what they have learnt this unit. Next week they will add their assessment to Seesaw for you to see. Math Here are some photos from math this week. We continued to work on our understanding of measurement. The importance of nightly reading Each Monday we reflect on our learning goals and decide what to focus on in reading at each each week. We have discussed the importance...

Another week has flown by and the students have been busy learning about their brains in UoI. In Math we started a unit on measurement and we have been writing recounts with the help of Ms Petra. UoI This week in UoI we focused on 2 lines of inquiry The rights and responsibilities we have for our learning Ways that help us grow and learn We spent time this week learning about the brain. We started by comparing our brains to a camera, jelly, pot plant, cup and playdough. We read My Fantastic Elastic Brain and looked at the different parts of the brain and what they all do. We used Todaysmeet to write interesting facts and information while reading the book. Students painted a picture of a brain and labeled the different sections.  Towards the end of the week we reflected on our learning using a Padlet, each student was able to record their thinking. We will revisit this Padlet at the end of the unit and add more of our learning to it.  Math I...