This week was a huge success for Preschool. A real opportunity for them to celebrate their learning and their many achievements together with you during the Student Led Conferences! They did such a wonderful job showcasing their progress and taking ownership for all the wonderful skills and work they have completed this year.
Preschool has spent the past two weeks continuing their inquiry on Transportation, looking at air, water and land transportation and produced paintings to consolidate their knowledge on these various transportation types.
Preschool explored road signs and symbols by taking a closer look at those around Rokko Island. They made excellent conclusions and practised expressing their thoughts in full sentences. They then used their their findings to come up with their own signs and symbols.
From looking at signs and symbols Preschool learnt about boats and how they manage to stay afloat. They made predictions about whether different objects float or sink and then had to test their predictions like true scientists. There were some surprises especially regarding ice cubes and why they don't sink!
After such a busy year, Preschool is looking forward to one more week in Preschool before starting their well deserved summer break. The classroom is starting to be packed up and with that the year is slowly coming to an end!
Reminders
To celebrate their successful cooking this year, Preschool will be preparing their own lunch on Wednesday, we will be making and eating Pizza as a class on Wednesday. I will provide tomato sauce and cheese as toppings. Any other additional toppings need to be sent in with your child.
These past two weeks have been a whirl of getting more familiar with the new Unit about transportation. Finishing off their summatives on Life-Cycles, Preschool impressed with their patience when it came to using needle and thread. Their mobiles hang proudly in the classroom, ready to be shared with you during the Student-Led Conferences.
Our unit on transportation has been the perfect opportunity for Preschool to explore maps in Maths. They are very knowledgeable when it comes to maps:
I know that some pirates need to look everywhere to find the treasure and they use a map.
People want to go home but it’s and there is a tsunami, so they need a map to find their home.
Some guys use a map to see if the Earth is a circle or a square. Japan is an island.
Japan is smaller than Brazil. Brazil is very big.
The biggest country ever is Russia.
Maps tell you where to go. There are lots of kinds of maps.
Different types of maps: place maps, treasure maps, Earth maps
They have familiarised themselves with giving directions, Preschool could be seen wandering the school corridors giving directions; right at the stairs, straight to the window, three jumps to the left etc.
They were able to use mapping tools on the computer, producing indoor and outdoor maps.
Preschool identified that there a many different means of transportation with people using different types depending on the distance they are travelling. This brought Preschool to exploring the different means of transportation seen on Rokko Island. They used their observational skills to record the various transport types and quantified them back in the classroom. They concluded that there are a lot of cars, people walking and bicycles on Rokko Island!
The students also had a lot of fun in Art, producing different transportation types!
As the school year is coming to an end, with only three weeks left of school, Preschool has really started stepping up their game but everyone is starting to feel tired as well. We can do this!
I wish you all a very relaxing Sunday.
Sabina Michelotti
Reminders:
Show&Tell on Monday: please send in something to do with summer.
What a week! It is hard to believe that it was only five short days with so much going on. Preschool's achievements this week and the new experiences they made are definitely there to be remembered and cherished.
I want to give another HUGE round of applause to Preschool's brilliant performance during the Wednesday Assembly. They practised hard, put on their game faces and were able to showcase their knowledge in a truly memorable way. I am certain everybody at DESK will remember Preschool's interpretation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. For those that would like to relive the exciting performance, the video is below.
Other highlights of this busy week included the trip Kobe Airport on Monday. Preschool had the opportunity to watch airplanes take off and land as they observed them from the viewing platform. They learned many new things about airports and aeroplanes:
there are 30 scheduled flights in and out of Kobe Airport everyday,
each plane taking off has a special send off party equipped with teddy bears waving goodbyes,
there is a 24 hour security guard surveilling the airport and they even have a supermarket at the airport!
Preschool was eager to ask questions and open-minded in their ability to process this knew knowledge. Their behaviour was exemplary making the whole trip a huge success and a great way to kick off their new Unit.
Preschool will inquire into their final Unit of Inquiry for the year and it will be all about the world of Transportation. Transdisciplinary Theme:How we organise ourselves. Central Idea:Communities make efforts to create transportation systems that meet their needs. Lines of Inquiry:
Features of transportation systems
Decisions involved in using transportation
How systems of transportation meets the needs of all people (global link, being more environmental friendly)
However, before Preschool can really dive into this new unit, they still have some loose ends to tie off from their old unit on Life Cycles. They have taken ownership in inquiring and deciding which life cycle to learn more about and are currently in the middle of creating their own mobiles. To do so, Preschool is learning a key life skills, how to sew. Their patience in this tricky process has been impressive. Miss Michelotti cannot wait for these mobiles to be finished, so far the work is looking very promising!
To help wrap up their learning about Life Cycles, Preschool had the opportunity to visit the Environmental College on Rokko Island. Preschool saw many different animals, ranging from friendly house pets to reptiles. They enjoyed learning about these different animals and seeing them close up.
If all these events were not enough, Preschool's week was even busier! In maths, it was all about counting. Or better said, skip counting and grouping! Preschool can count confidently up to 100 and has started skip counting by 2's, 5's and even 10's!
In Language, Preschool continued practising the writing process and completed a multi-step writing project, where they created and wrote about their own Wild Thing.
And of course no Preschool week would be complete without a bit of cooking! To celebrate such a busy and eventful week, Preschool cooled off with some ice-cream!
Thank you for the great week and wishing you all a very relaxing weekend! Sabina Michelotti Reminders
Show&Tell- please send in something related to transportation to support our new Unit.
Preschool has had another addition to the class and are happy to welcome a new student and his family.
Trip to the Rokko Liner Garage on Monday from 10:30-12.30.
