Week 10 Term 3-THE FINAL POST

We have been reflecting on our time in K2BeM. We have looked back though our Portfolios at everything we have explored this year...we have certainly been busy! We were invited to try and sum up our year in a few words. Here is what we had to say:

"I have loved my time in K2BeM because I have learnt many new things. I want to continue my learning next year." Ananya

"My time in K2BeM has been amazing because I have learnt some fantastic things and I want to join this class again." Griffin

"I have had a fantastic time in K2BeM because I have had the best teacher I have ever had. My teacher was awesome!" Sebastian

"My time in K2BeM was very fun and I had the best teacher I have ever seen in my whole life. I have met new friends and my whole class was awesome." Ashwin

"My favourite unit was 'Magic Materials' because I found out lots of new things that I didn't know before. I have lots of good friends in my class and that's it." Maggie

"I like my time in K2 because it was fun. I really loved looking at the houses in Kampong Buangkok." Georgie

"I loved my time in K2BeM. My favourite unit was this one, 'Animal Adaptations.' It helps me learn more about animals. I wish a lot of my friends will still be in my G1 class." Ansel

"I had the best teacher ever! I had the best friends. It was amazing in K2BeM. My favourite unit was 'Animal Adaptations' because I got to find out some new things and I love animals." Miguel

"My time in K2 was great. I learnt a lot of stuff. It was very fun in K2. I always feel happy in K2BeM because we are a team. My favourite unit was 'Magic Materials.' I like everything actually." Aditya

"My time in K2BeM was lovely because of the nice friends I have. 'Passion Projects' was my favourite because I love dinosaurs!" Toby

"I had fun in K2BeM because I met so many new friends. My favourite unit was 'Arts Festival' because I like to sing. Being in K2BeM makes me feel very happy." Saanvi

"I had a nice time in K2BeM because I liked my teacher and friends. I liked Reading Workshop because it is fun and nice to read. I love being with my friends and playing with them." Sama

"My favourite unit was 'Passion Projects' because I got to share my passion. I have the best teacher ever in the whole wide world because he is so nice! I have the best friends too. I hope I might see them in G1." Finnley

"I had a wonderful time in K2BeM. I have never seen such a wonderful class! I loved to learn about animals. My friends are all very kind." David

"My class is super awesome! My favourite unit was 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' because it is very important not to make lots of rubbish. In K2BeM I have wonderful friends because we are a team." Hana

"I had an awesome time in K2BeM with my kind friends and I think that in G1 some of my friends from K2 will be even more awesome than I think!" Myra

"We had a nice time in K2BeM and it was fun. My favourite thing was making the puppets. We had really nice teachers and we like a lot of K2 stuff that we've learned." Coco 

"My favourite thing about K2 was Reading and Writing Workshop because I like to do that all the time. I liked all my friends in K2." Brandon

...and a special few words from two girls who are leaving UWCSEA:

"All my friends are wonderful and they are always kind to me whenever I am sad. I will miss my friends when I leave the school to Hong Kong. I hope my friends will remember me and keep in touch." Kayna

"I liked it when I could learn more things and I loved Writing Workshop. I love creating my own stories and information stories. I like to use my imagination to create stories. I love my friends in K2 and they were really nice to me. " Gitanjali

We have also been thinking about next year and are really looking forward to life in G1. Here are our hopes and wishes...

"I hope it is going to be very fun in G1 and I wish that I will learn new things." Aditya

"I hope everything is going to be OK and I wish that the classroom won't be that noisy and I wish that I keep on reading." Miguel

"I'm very excited about G1 because I am moving higher. There is going to be harder work to do but I hope it is going to be very fun." Brandon

"I feel a bit nervous but when I start G1 I won't feel nervous any more. I wish Mr. Morley could be our teacher and Miss Ida." Sama

"I am excited because of all the good stuff like Reading Workshop and all the stuff we already know. I am going to be happy with my friends." Georgie

"I think G1 is going to be ultra cool actually because we are going to do new stuff and we have a sleepover in school!" Finnley

"I am excited because I will be with the oldest kids in this block and I am also excited because I am going to have a sleepover. I wish we go on loads of field trips." Sebastian

"I am feeling excited because I have never done some stuff in G1 and I wonder what it will be like. I am lucky that my friends are in my class." Griffin

"I wish that G1BeM is going to be the best class in the whole entire block. I am looking forward to making new friends." Myra

"I hope G1 will be the same like K2 and I look forward to the sleepover. I wish I will learn more things in G1, more writing and more reading." Ansel

"I am looking forward to the end of G1 for the sleepover and I am looking forward to getting to know new friends and new games and new units and new stuff!!" Ashwin

"I will have fun in the sleepover and I am excited about learning new things. I wish I can get better at everything in G1." Ananya

"I am looking forward to the sleepover and I want to know what units we will be doing. I hope everyone in G1 will be kind and I wish we can all stay together." Saanvi

"I am really happy because I want to learn all the new things. My favourite part is going to be the sleepover because we get to wear our own clothes and I bet it will be fun." Coco

"I am excited because we will go on new trips and I really want to visit our friends at Happy Lodge. I wish we can all stay best friends forever." Hana

"I hope G1 will be fun and the new kids in our class will be kind. I wish that we will learn lots of new things and I am looking forward to all the units." Maggie

"I am excited because I can make new friends and we will have a sleepover in G1. I wish we can still do Writing Workshop and Reading Workshop." David

"I am excited about G1 because I have my K2 teacher and K2 friends with me. I wish I learn lots of stuff and have lots of fun. " Toby

...and for our friends starting their new school:

"I hope my new friends will be nice to me and I might learn new languages like British because it is a British school. I will miss my old school. I will miss all my teachers and friends, especially my silliest teacher...you! (Mr. Morley). Keep in touch and please don't forget me." Kayna

"I am kind of nervous and sad and excited. I wonder if they are going to be nice to me and I am excited because I want to see what it is like in a new school. I am sad because I am going to miss Singapore and my friends in Singapore and in UWC. " Gitanjali

It has been a fantastic year. K2BeM is such a special place to be and Ida and I love spending our days with your children. We are so happy and excited to be moving on with them next year and look forward to all the learning we will enjoy in G1. Thank you to all of you for your enthusiasm, positivity and support throughout the year...it makes such a difference and has been a huge part of the success of our little community. A special mention to Julia and Katrina for being such wonderful Class Reps. I am told they already have their names down for next year!!!!

Have a safe and restful break wherever you may be and we look forward to seeing you all in August and hearing about your adventures.

Travel well.

K2BeM eBooks

Here is a link to the K2BeM Animal Adaptations eBook  and (better late than never!) here is another link to the K2BeM Character Studies eBook.

If you want to read these on your Mac or PC, you need to add the Readium app to your Chrome browser...here is a tutorial on how to do that:

If you are on your iPad it is a lot easier and they should open up on your iBooks app...and here is a tutorial for that:

Week 9 Term 3

This week, the children have been putting the finishing touches to their collaborative pages for the class non-fiction eBooks. Working in small groups, the children have started recording the voice overs for their pages on Book Creator and the depth of understanding is wonderful to see. The vast majority of information relayed in the eBooks is related to how animals have adapted in order to survive and each page includes a photo, illustration or annotated diagram alongside other non-fiction book features. The MISO research technique has really helped the children to organise their thinking and ideas to make their information clearer to the reader. 

After lots of badgering, we finally got around to making our puppets this week. The children tried to follow their designs as closely as possible but were somewhat limited by colour choices. Also, some children decided to adapt their animals as they went...linking beautifully with our unit!

Next week, we will spend some time looking back through our Portfolios and celebrating our achievements across the year. All being well, these will be sent home with the children next Wednesday and will provide a fantastic record of their learning in K2BeM. Look after them!

To celebrate the end of this final unit AND the end of a wonderful year of inquiry in K2, we are planning an “Animal Dress-Up Day” next Tuesday 17th June. The children are invited to come to school dressed as a favourite animal, wearing an animal t-shirt, animal patterns or anything associated with animals. Of course, this is not compulsory and the children can wear their regular uniform if they wish to. We are planning a last session with our G3 buddies on the same day and were wondering about animal face painting as a fun activity to enjoy together at the end of the year. We thought we could design and paint animal patterns on each other. Of course, we will source child-friendly face paints BUT if you would rather your child did not have their face painted for whatever reason, please let me know asap.

In Reading Workshop, we have spent time reflecting on and celebrating our journey as readers over our the last year. We have certainly come a long way in terms of reading strategies and skills but, hopefully, we have also developed a passion for reading that extends far beyond the classrooms and will continue to grow for many years to come. Having said that, there will be no more reading books coming home next week! This is to allow us the time to take stock of our books and organise everything for next year. Please return any school books as soon as possible. In addition, if you have one of our 'Whisper Phones' at home, please also return that next week.

In Writing Workshop, the children have been fixing and fancying up their writing, making final revisions on their selected pieces ready for publication next week. These published pieces will be the final entries in the Portfolios and, hopefully, comparing and contrasting these with the children’s very first writing sample from August 2013 will highlight just how far they have come as writers. 

In Mathematics, the children have been exploring real-life problems (involving raccoons and piranhas!) and generating the most efficient ways to solve them using addition and subtraction strategies. In each instance, they have been encouraged to illustrate their thinking either on paper or on a white board. They were invited to include illustrations, words and/or numbers in their explanations and, then, to talk a friend or an adult through their thinking process. It is very heartening to hear how comfortable, confident and articulate they have become at sharing their mathematical reasoning. As you observed during our Mathematics Workshare, this is something they have learnt to embrace in Number Talks and watching them transfer these skills to problem solving is fantastic to see.

Lastly, Happy Dad's Day for Sunday...we hope you enjoy your special messages!

Requests and Reminders

*No more reading books coming home-please return all school books asap

*K2 Animal Dress-Up Day-Tuesday 17th June

*Swap Day-Wednesday 18th June-the K2 children will spend some time with their G1 teacher and classmates

*Reports and Portfolios-these will be sent home on Wednesday 18th June
*Crazy Hair Day-Thursday 19th June

*End of Term-Friday 20th June-School finishes at 11.00am for Infants

Have a great weekend. 

Week 8 Term 3

Congratulations to our Service Ambassadors-Griffin, Sebastian, Devangi, Finnley, Coco, Toby and Sama-who did us all proud last weekend. We really enjoyed hearing about your visits and look forward to finding out more at the last K2 Assembly of the year. It has also been great to hear from you, the parents, who went on the trips and, by all accounts, it was a meaningful, emotional and eye-opening experience for everyone involved. 

The children are evidently thinking and talking a lot about Service at the moment and it is heartening to hear stories of children taking the initiative to help others outside of school, such as Saanvi, who decided to bake cookies for the Aunties who clean our floor everyday and provide such a valuable Service to all of us. Keep it up, guys!

Thank you to everyone who returned the Service Diaries this morning. It has clearly been a worthwhile experience for many of you and the children have been helping out in all sorts of areas at home. Some of you have explained how helping out at home is already something of an expectation for your child and, in line with this, were slightly reluctant to "reward" them for "doing their chores." This is completely understandable and, once again, the aim of the diaries is to raise awareness about the importance of Service as well as begin to instil something of an expectation in the children. Completing the diaries encourages the children to think about and reflect upon Service and this is far more powerful than raising money. Having said that, any money raised in the process is an added bonus and, this year, will be donated to help fund the purchase of an air-con unit for the kitchen at the Kuma School.

This week, we divided into interest groups and began researching specific animals and how their physical adaptations help them survive. Next week, each group will work on the iPads to create and record a page for a class non-fiction eBook using Book Creator. Each page will include a photo, illustration or annotated diagram of the animal, a number of facts related to adaptations and survival and any other non-fiction book features the groups choose to make their information clearer to the reader. After deciding on an animal to investigate, the groups adopted the MISO research technique to organise their thinking and ideas. This technique incorporates media, interviews, surveys and observations.

We have been using the human graphing activity, "Mostly True...Mostly False" to help organise our ideas, separate fact from fiction and decide on the most important information to include in our eBooks.

Many of the children are using their Reading Workshop sessions to find out even more information on their chosen animals, using the features of non-fiction texts to discover new and interesting facts to share. We have explored ways of synthesising various pieces of new information to develop a deeper understanding of a particular area. The children are becoming more familiar with Contents Pages, glossaries, indices, ‘Did you know?’ and ‘Read more’ boxes. Many of the children are trying to include these features in their own ‘All About Books’ during Writing Workshop. The children have been encouraged to include a lot more than one sentence on a page in order to “say more” about their chosen subject. Next week, the children will begin to revise one or more of their pieces with the aim of publishing a final piece or two before the end of the year.

In Mathematics, the children are becoming experts at inventing more and more complex growing patterns. This week, the children have created their patterns using musical instruments in the music room, inch grid paper, wooden shapes and, even, hundred squares. They have even been creating Lego animals with growing pattern camouflage!! Exploring patterns is evidently an enjoyable experience but it is an essential building block in understanding about number. In time, the skills the children develop will translate to skip counting, repeated addition (and therefore multiplication and division), algebraic reasoning and beyond.

<< Miss Imogen would like to remind you to check out the Music link at the top of this page. On there you will find video performances of different "animal compositions" and a self-assessment form (this can be found underneath the videos). It would be great if you could find the time to complete this with your child as they will be discussing the questions further in Music next week.

Lastly, next week, our second swimming session has been switched from Thursday to Friday due to a clash with the Junior School Aquatics Day. Please make sure your child brings their swimmers on that day.

Reminders

*K2BeM End of Year Party Lunch-Thursday 12th June-10.10-11.30am

Please add your name to this doc if you would like to bring in something to share

*Swimming next week is on Wednesday and FRIDAY (not Thursday)
*End of Term-Friday 20th June-School finishes at 11.00am for Infants

Have a great weekend.

Week 7 Term 3

Firstly, our K2BeM Kuma ambassadors (Griffin, Sebastian, Coco, Devangi and Finnley) have arrived safely in Cambodia. Right now, they are visiting the villages where our Kuma friends live after having spent the day together at the Kuma School. Hopefully, they will have lots of stories to share on their return. Our Island Foundations ambassadors (Sama and Toby) are boarding a ferry to Bintan as we speak. Fingers crossed they too will have lots to tell us when they get back. Good luck, guys! We are proud of you.

In the classroom, we have started to think about animal adaptations in more detail, focusing on camouflage. We researched different animals that use camouflage to help them survive. We discovered that some animals use it to avoid predators and, others, to hide from the prey they are trying to catch. We played a fantastic game to try and illustrate the power of camouflage. The children worked in groups to find as many newspaper animal cutouts as they could in a given time, the catch being that the newspaper animals were all hidden on a background of...newspapers! This made it very difficult to see them and the discussions following the game were very revealing.

Later, we started work on our own animal patterns. We zoomed in on the fur, scales or feathers of an animal of our choosing and recreated this on an A3 square in pencil. We were encouraged to focus on the detail. Then, we tried to imagine the texture of the animal skin and were invited to replicate this using different media, including paints, fabric and natural materials. 

Next week, we will divide into interest groups and begin researching specific animal adaptations with the aim of creating a class non-fiction eBook using Book Creator on the iPads.

In Reading Workshop, our “Non-fiction” unit continues to compliment the ongoing “Animal Adaptations” inquiry. This week, we established Book Clubs based on interest groups...many of them involving animals! We then worked together, using what we now know about the features of non-fiction books, to identify and, later, share interesting facts we discovered. Some of these facts are now displayed on our "Did you know?" board. In Writing Workshop, we continued working on our own “All About Books.” Again, we tried to incorporate some of the non-fiction book features we now know to try and organise our thinking so that our books are not just a jumble of facts. In addition, we have been adding labels to our illustrations, diagrams, ‘zoom-ins’ and “Did You Know?” boxes. 

In Mathematics, we have been exploring more complex growing patterns and creating our own using different media. These have including fish and trees that grow in a specific way every time they become a year older! We have also created simple t-charts to record the number of blocks or shapes used each time a particular pattern grows and have explored any number patterns we have noticed in these charts.

Thank you to everyone who came to support us on Wednesday at the Bedok Swimming Complex. We had so much fun displaying all the skills we have been practicing during our swimming lessons at school. A big thank you to the P.E. team for all their hard work in organising the morning for us. Of course, we also started swimming in P.E. this week, so it has been a very wet week for K2BeM!

On Wednesday, we also met up with our G3 buddies to take part in Coins for Change. This was a student-led initiative to raise funds for Bali Bridges. Over the course of the day, children were invited to add their coins to a giant flower mural on the floor. It looked fantastic and, at the end of the day, all the coins were donated to this wonderful GC. I am just glad we did not have to count them all!

Please do not forget that the SERVICE DIARIES are due back in school next Friday 6th June. It would be great if you could find the time to support your child with this over the coming days.

Lastly, we said farewell to Jaisimh this afternoon. He is moving with his family to the U.S. and I am sure you will join me in wishing them all lots of luck on their new adventure together. Jaisimh has promised he will keep in touch and will take a little bit of K2BeM with him!!

Have a great weekend

Week 6 Term 3

Firstly, the results are in for the K2Athlon. Together, K2 covered 555 laps of the course! Each lap was a 30m swim, 120m run and a 90m cycle. So, in total, K2 covered 16.65km in the water, 66.6km on foot and 49.95km on the bikes - for a grand total of 133.2km. Not sure if we reached Cambodia but what a fantastic effort!

Monday's trip to Happy Lodge was a wonderful start to the week. The children seemed to really enjoy themselves and are excited about returning to visit the residents more regularly when they are in Grade One. Of course, the experience was very different for everybody and we talked a lot about what to do if your resident did not speak English, was reluctant or did not want to join in the craft activity or, even, did not seem particularly happy to see you. We discussed how it often takes time to build up relationships and that this was, after all, only our first meeting. On the other hand, some children came back with gifts from their residents!!

In the classroom this week, we started tuning-in to our sixth and final Unit of Study for the year, “Animal Adaptations.” In this unit, the children will explore animals from around the world and investigate the features that allow them to adapt to life in specific regions and survive in their environment. We unpacked the idea of adaptation and what the word ‘adapt’ actually means. After adding our ‘wonders’ to the Wonderwall, we started by thinking about ourselves and how we adapt to changes in our environment or circumstances, such as when it is raining or when we moved from K1 to K2. We then began to shift our thinking to how animals physical features and behaviour have adapted over time to cope with similar changes. In pairs, the children explored non-fiction animal books and created lists of recognisable physical features. We discussed any similarities and differences we discovered and tried to group the animals accordingly.

We selected two animals that we feel we already know a lot about and were invited to draw them as accurately as possible, again focusing on their physical characteristics. Then, we were interviewed about the different animals and the following questions were put to us:

How are the two animals similar?

How are they different?

How do their body parts help them to survive in their habitat?

From here, we will introduce the idea of camouflage and how and why animals use it.

In Reading Workshop, we started our “Non-fiction” unit. This ties in perfectly with “Animal Adaptations” as the children will be able to transfer a number of their reading skills as they research animals. This week, the children explored a wide range of non-fiction texts and identified features of information books, such as a Contents Page, glossaries, diagrams and photographs, labels, an Index and so on. Over the coming weeks, we will explore how to use these features to access information from non-fiction texts in an efficient manner.

In Writing Workshop, we also started a new unit, namely “All About Books.” Again, this unit allows for meaningful links across the curriculum. Following their “on-demand piece” which we complete at the start of every unit, the children started creating their very own books. At this stage, we discussed ways to select topics to write about, planning ideas across the pages to make sure we are really “experts” before committing pencil to paper. Over the coming weeks, we will look at how we can sort everything we know about a specific topic into sections of a book so that they are not just a jumble of facts. We will also look at some of the craft moves real authors use in information books and see if we can adopt some of them in our own pieces.

In Mathematics, the children are greatly enjoying our “Patterns” unit. Following “pattern hunts” in and around the classroom, the children have been creating their own repeating patterns using a variety of media, including oral, rhythm, number and shape patterns. From here, the children moved onto growing patterns and, again, explored this idea through a variety of media, focusing on shapes.

We ended the week with a visit to the wonderful Grade 5 Exhibition. The "big kids" did a fantastic job explaining the journey of their exhibition to the children and then sharing their work. Suffice to say, the K2 children were very impressed! Congratulations to everyone involved.

Miss Imogen has now uploaded the Arts Festival video. It can be accessed directly by clicking on the 'Music' tab link at the top of this page. Finally, do not forget that we start swimming in P.E. next week. It all kicks off with the Infant Aquatics Day next Wednesday 28th May from 9.00-9.50am at Bedok Swimming Complex. Please come along and enjoy it with us. I am not sure if we will still have swimming that afternoon but, either way, they will already have their swimmers with them.

Please do not forget to encourage your child to complete some/all of their Service Diary and, remember, raising awareness is more important than raising funds...although every little bit helps.

Have a great weekend.

Week 5 Term 3

This week, we have been investigating and celebrating Service Week across the Infant School. The children found out more about the different Service initiatives we support, both here in Singapore and overseas. The main objective was to raise awareness of these initiatives both within the grade and across the Primary School and we certainly believe we achieved that.