Celebrating Celebrations and Undercover Detectives

These two weeks have been a blur of events and I am just slowly coming to terms with all the learning that Preschool has achieved this week. 

Firstly, my apologies go to not writing a blogpost last week.  I was at the Edtech Conference all weekend. It was extremely inspiring and I could not wait to try out some of the things we learnt about in my own teaching! I was pleased to see that my excitement wasn't overrated as it was a hit in the classroom!  

Secondly, a huge thank you goes to all of you for supporting the celebration this afternoon. The students put large amounts of effort in planning for the event and it was a pleasure to see you share it with them! 

What a turnout!

From Robot Party to Elf Party, they were pretty well represented! 

Food, people, decorations, entertainment...Preschoolers had it covered! If you need party planners you know where to find them. Although Miss Michelotti won't give them that away easily...

Unit of Inquiry

All the planning and hardwork on their summatives was definitely worth it and I am so proud of their hardwork. Preschool successfully identified the key components of celebrations: people, food, costumes, entertainment and of course, the decorations. It was a real pleasure for me to watch them use their creative minds to make their own decorations. They were truly engaged and completely autonomous (my only job was handing out tape...).

Celebrating Setsubun, Carnival and of course Pancake Day 

PANCAKES!!!!!

Maths

Circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, sixagon...oh no wait is it a hexagon?

Shapes, shapes and more shapes have been on our minds. Preschool has been exploring 2D shapes in extreme depth.


 Finding Shapes in the Preschool Classroom

Preschool began reviewing their knowledge on 2D shapes in their classroom. They found that shapes are everywhere

Undercover shape detectives on Rokko Island

Clipboards in hand, Preschoolers explored nature, discovering that most things can be categorized into shapes. The highlight of that trip however, remains the rare sighting of a pigeon that was mistaken for a bat! Shape exploration took a slight backseat after this rare sighting.

Using shapes to make designs 

Students went all out, testing their creative limits regarding shapes. They used toothpicks to make shapes, blocks, stencils and more. 

Language- Thinking Routines 

The real focus in Language was tuning into their Thinking Routines.  Preschool had to focus really hard on Seeing, Thinking and Wondering about different books and share their ideas in a reflective manner by predicting what the book Lacey Walker, Non Stop Talker could be about. They even made the connection that Miss Michelotti might just be trying to hint at something about Preschool's ability to talk, talk, talk... 

They even rose to the challenge and were exremely principled when it came to deciding on when the different Learner Profiles appeared in the story! Well done! 

Art 

Getting ready for the real challenge ahead, Preschool tested their crayon and water colour skills producing colourful pieces of artwork. Crayon resist art proved to be a lot of fun and are definitely ready to use their new skills to creat their self-portraits next week.

Reminders 

• On Monday, February 15th, we will be starting our new Unit and it will be all about our local environment. To launch this unit, Preschool will take a trip around Rokko Island. We will leave at 9 and be back for 11:45. Make sure your child has a bigger snack and waterproof clothing in case of rain. 

• For Show&Tell on Monday, I would like them to bring something related to nature. 

• Please remember to return the sign up sheets for the Three Way Conferences. 

• This week cooking will take place again on Wednesday, so please send in containers with your child. 

Thank you for all of your support and I wish you a lovely and restful weekend. 

Sabina Michelotti