Unit of Inquiry

 The week began with an engaging demonstration on how rocks break up in nature which eventually led to a discussion on how rivers flow. Students were made aware of the journey of a river and participated in a group activity for creating and coloring models of different landforms. Also weathering and erosion were demonstrated to the students. Students explored the ways in which the physical features of Earth have changed which culminated in a group discussion and presentation on different natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano, tornado, hurricane and cloudburst.

Landforms What are Landforms? Erosion and Landform: Science activityErosion’s effect on different landformsWeathering and Erosion.  Know the disastersVarious Natural Disasters

JOURNEY OF A RIVER

LANDFORMS

Weathering and Erosion

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NATURAL DISASTER

MATHEMATICS

The new week began with students revisiting the concept of rounding off numbers through a rapid-fire quiz. This was followed by a discussion on the different strategies of rounding off numbers using a number line, number hill and poem. Students dove into the addition of 2, 3 and 4 digit numbers and got involved in a ‘Bus stop’ activity to discuss the ‘commutative’ and ‘associative’ nature of addition.

Rounding off to the nearest 10 and 100 Rounding off poem Adding 3 digit numbers

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ENGLISH

Students were eager to learn the reading techniques used in day to day life known as skimming and scanning. They were made to read a news article and used their understanding to answer given questions from the same. They created sentences and attempted fill in the blanks with ‘spell bee’ words. Students were familiarized with the concept of novel study with ‘The Eyes of the Eagle’ by Ruskin Bond. Using De Bono’s Thinking Hats, the eager readers set out to discover various interesting facts about the book and acknowledged the skills that they had used during the activity. The cover page of the book was then analyzed and the students discussed what they predicted the story to be . 

HINDI

During their Hindi lessons, students watched a documentary, engaged in a  ‘Listen and tell’ activity and acquired knowledge about marine life. Students also recited the poem ‘समुद्री जीवन’ (samudree jeevan). They expanded their vocabulary and were able to form simple yet meaningful sentences whereby they enhanced their thinking and speaking skills .

Documentary on marine life

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Hindi ab-initio

To boost their reading capabilities the students read the Hindi story ‘Mithaaee’. They improved their writing skills as they wrote sentences from ‘aa’ maatraa words.  Watching an interesting Hindi video ‘Sher aur Gadhaa’ helped the children enhance their listening skills. They celebrated the festival of‘Janamastmi’ and identified learner profiles  for Krishna from various stories about the lord.

FRENCH

Learners found and sorted words from the manipulative available in the language room and created their personalised dictionaries ‘MONABECEDAIRE’. These included engaging illustrations which made an interesting addition to the theme. They then enhanced their social skills by sharing their words with one another. They also improved their French vocabulary by learning many new words.

SPANISH

Students learned various phrases for greetings and farewells in Spanish. They became adept at spellings as they were aware of the letters taught to them earlier. They were also asked to spell their own names as well as the names of their peers, which they were able to accomplish confidently. This activity helped them to build their thinking, social and communication skills.

LIBRARY

This week, students collaborated to outline a few essential agreements that they suggested were necessary for everyone to follow. These terms were then drafted, discussed and concurred upon by them.

SWIMMING

As the Inter House Swimming Competition drew closer, the students pushed themselves to hone their skills for their respective events. They also practiced relay racing as per their houses.

ART

To integrate with the current unit on evolution, students explored the changing trends of art from ancient times to the modern era of today. They also created a time line of the same defining their understanding of each period.

DANCE

Dance lessons were focused on the development of strength, balance and flexibility. Students used their own body weight and strength to go into a bridge and flip over. Different phases of jazz were also introduced such as jazz walk and isolations which gave them clarity about  choreography.

MUSIC

The students were introduced to Notes and Note Values and also learned the song ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’ from Toy Story 3.

ICT

Students were introduced to the computer programme ‘Google Earth’. As they learned to navigate through this app, the explorers developed their research skills and used this app as a tool to enhance their knowledge of physical features of Earth and different land forms. At the end of the lesson students posted their video responses to share their learning using Flipgrid app.

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING

This week’s Social and Emotional Learning class focused on enabling children to identify their own feelings and emotions and use them appropriately in everyday situations. Students were given two lists – one containing feelings and the other emotions. They were then asked to read out the feelings from one list and then match with the  corresponding emotion section. After the activity an animated discussion was held on how and when to identify these emotions.

Unit of Inquiry

The new session began with a fun filled web game activity which encouraged the students to get to know each other. They were taken on a tour of the secondary building and were encouraged to come up with suggestions toward setting up a conducive learning environment in class that would promote lively discussions and collaborative work. The students were also introduced by the facilitator to the current Transdisciplinary Theme. After a gallery walk, they were made aware of planet Earth and discussed continents, oceans, countries, landforms and more. The eager inquirers were then introduced to Pangea and tectonic plates through some informative videos. The students then progressed from Pangea to the continents of today through a power point presentation where they were encouraged to identify and label the different land masses on a world map. They were then divided into teams and their research on landforms was presented to their peers.

http://kids.britannica.com/elementary/article-346101/plate-tectonics

MATHS

The session began with an engrossing team bonding activity followed by an exciting secret number game. Students understood place value in a better way through manipulatives like golden beads, cards and mat. The ‘Place Value Bingo’ activity was a highlight for the students as they wrote their individualized numbers on a Bingo card. The excitement was palpable as the facilitator gave the children clues about the numbers that had to be cut out.
The class discussed different ways to show or write numbers and proceeded to write the standard form, word form and expanded forms of various numbers in their journals. The students recapped face value, place value, odd and even numbers and were keen to learn about the successors and predecessors of the numbers as well.

English

The students were eager to get to know their new classmates through an interesting team bonding game. A brainstorming session took place between the students and facilitators on the Essential Agreements that would serve as the building blocks of structure and norms in the classroom. Students revisited the attributes of Learner Profiles through the story ‘O Trip to Planet Earth’. They comprehended the story and identified the Learner Profiles that were being displayed by the main characters of the story. The students read an interesting story called ‘The Earth’ and listed some facts that they had learned.
Students also enjoyed weaving meaningful sentences in their journals using nouns, adjectives and prepositions through a challenging game. Upon reading an insightful poem, the students showed their creativity by creating a visual image. They were also excited to read the article from the newspaper to   classify the nouns into common and proper nouns.

Our learning journey

https://www.storyjumper.com/book/index/24731808/THE-EARTH#

https://www.storyjumper.com/book/index/28659266/-O-Trip-to-Planet-Earth#

Hindi

During their Hindi lessons, students watched a video ‘सब्ज़ीवाले का सपना’ and identified the associated Learner Profile in the story which led to a lively discussion in the class. They enhanced their thinking and communication skills through this activity. Students revised all the ‘swar and vyanjans’ and made their own word wall in Hindi class.

Hindi ab-initio

In an effort to enhance their reading skills, the students read a Hindi story ‘Billee ke Bachche’. Their speaking skills developed as they learned a few words from  ‘ba’,’sa’,’na’,’la’ akshar. In order to improve their writing they wrote  ‘ba’,’sa’,’na’,’la’ akshar. They also identified the names of fruits and vegetables. A Hindi story ‘Haathee aur darzee’ was read to develop their listening and speaking skills.

French

Students were taught different salutations in French through the game ‘Jeu de 5 secondes’ wherein they had to articulate five greetings in five seconds. They developed their social and communication skills by communicating the same to their peers and the facilitator. They were extremely enthusiastic and excited to learn the intricacies of a new language.

Spanish

Students learned about the letters in Spanish and were enlightened about the sounds and words associated with each one. They watched a video based on letters to better learn how they were pronounced. 

Students also took part in an activity in class which helped them to recall the letters and spellings in Spanish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vudw7GtB034 (letters in Spanish)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD9ULInjZTs (letters in Spanish)

Library

This week celebrated the birthday of one of the bestselling fiction authors of all times – Enid Blyton, who as per UNESCO, is the most translated children’s author in the world, having sold more than 600 million books.

The children were given a brief introduction about the author and the popular series written by her – Noddy, Famous Five, The Secret Seven, Amelia Jane, Malory Towers and The Faraway Tree. A few children also borrowed books from her collection.

Swimming

The students were looking forward to begin lessons in the water and were excited to participate in activities planned for them. They practiced bubbling, breath control under water and confidently self submerged themselves. They showed determination and enthusiasm while practicing front and back floats, deep pool submersions, kicking moves and safety swims. They also practiced lengthwise swimming for the upcoming Inter House Swimming Competition.

Art

Students commenced their art lesson by framing their Essential Agreements and by learning about the meanings of terms like integration, responding, art appreciation and so on. Later the students created a composition ‘the best memory of my summer vacations’ and shared their reflections with each other.

Dance

Dance lessons were focused on the development of posture wherein the students practiced back walk over. A new dance routine was also introduced to them.

Music

Students learned about note value and also learned a new song called ‘You’ve Got a Friend in me’.

Social Emotional Learning

Facial expressions and body language were the main focus areas of the first Social and Emotional Learning class that saw young learners enact various emotions in front of their peers. Laughter and learning combined in this interesting activity as students became familiar with feelings being enacted.
In the next session the children were given booklets made of recycled paper which had three blank faces on them. After listening to various situations, the students had to identify and draw emotions showcased in the story on their booklet.