On February 8th 2013 our class celebrated our 100th day in K1! It was very exciting for all of us and the children got the chance to explore the number 100 in a variety of ways. We had a 100 cup stacking challenge, we chose 100 pieces of Lego to create a structure together, we made a 100 days hat and had 100 days glasses. We also took 100 steps around school to see where we would end up!

To find out some answers to our questions about water, we decided to visit the Marina Barrage! The trip was very fun for all the children and they learned about different ways that water was managed in Singapore. The children especially enjoyed the model that simulated what happens when there is a lot of rainfall and the water level rises in the reservoir. We learned that a lot of the water that we find in our sinks are toilets are from the rain water! It gets cleaned and sent to our homes and schools through pipes. Now...how does that rain water get cleaned? Hmmm...

Hanoch Piven has written two books that I never get tired of using in the classroom! These books never fail to bring out much laughter and creativity in the children and are a great way to teach the Trait of 'Word Choice'! Each child chose one of their friends in class to describe and we all made collages of these friends. Take a look at the great descriptions and word choices that everyone made!

Our new central idea is: Water is important to all living things.
The children have discussed what they know about water and what they think it means to "share the planet." We have just come to the connection that water is used by many living things and this is something that we need to share on our planet. To get the children tuned in, we started the unit with some good old water play! We also went on a water hunt and found water in all sorts of places around the school. The children are just at the stage where they have formed questions which will guide the direction that our inquiry will take. Here is what they are wondering:

'Not a Box' by Antoinette Portis is one of my favorite books to use in my classroom! It is such a simple book but it sparks such creativity in the children and aligns very well with the Trait of Ideas from the Six Traits of Writing. We created our own class book about what we might do with a cardboard box. Below there is also a slideshow of the children playing with a cardboard box and their peers are guessing what they could be. Can you guess what we are pretending to do or be with the box?

Kisaki has been a very active member of our class and always tries her best even when she cannot always understand what is being said in class. Kisaki is an only child, her favorite book is Peter Pan and she enjoys drawing! The class also realized that even though Chloe and Kisaki begin with different letters, they both make the same sound! Great connection guys! Let's take a look at the letters in Kisaki's name:

• 'K' is like the 'K' in 'K2'
• 'i' is a slide
• 's' is a snake
• 'a' is a zero with a flick
• 'k' is some fingers on a hand
• 'i' is like a volcano
  

It never ceases to amaze me how children can take learning into their own hands as well as challenge each other. After playing this game of "Guess My Rule" once as a class, the children began to play the game on their own using their knowledge of shape attributes. The objective behind this game is that one child thinks of a 'rule' which can be as broad or specific as he or she likes. For instance, it could be anything from 'shapes with straight sides' to 'only small shapes with 4 points'. The game targets each child's ability to think carefully about the attributes of the shapes in front of him or her and to think of a rule that will make it hard for his or her friends to guess as well! Here is a video of one round of this game that occurred this morning as the children were trickling into school. Here, Alex has come up with a rule and as his friends discover shapes that are in his rule, they start to guess what all the shapes in the circle have in common. At the end they figure it out and put the rest of the shapes that match Alex's rule into the circle.

It is that time of year again for class parties and school concerts! On Tuesday, our brilliant class parents arranged a fun-filled end of year party for the children. Not only did we have a very tasty selection of food for lunch but such creative activities planned! First some Christmas card making and then cookie decorating! Thank you parents for being so supportive and helpful!

Any visitors who come to help teach us something always get a little gift from the students. We always reflect on what we learned and these reflections come together to make a book so that whoever comes has something to remember us by! Here is what K1PA remembers from Andy's visit

Chloe and Aina M. wondered about cars. We searched on the computer but a lot of the videos and pictures were confusing and we couldn't really understand what they were telling us. So we decided to ask Ms. Hazel to show us her car! What better way to learn about how a car moves than to observe it closely. Ms. Hazel showed us how to use the key to start the engine, how the steering wheel controls the wheels and she even opened up the hood so we could see and hear the engine. We looked at special features like the lights, and learned that her car is very special because the roof can be put down or up. Sam knew the special word for this car and told everyone it was a "convertible". We got to try out turning the key and the steering wheel too!

After days and days of asking when Miss Pana's scientist friend was coming in to tell us about sea creatures, Andy finally arrived in our classroom! He showed us lots of really cool pictures of animals that live under the sea including a cuttlefish, seahorse, dolphin, blue-ringed octopus, tiger shark and a sea cow! The children also loved seeing pictures of Andy diving! It seemed the questions wouldn't stop! What wonderful inquirers you all were! Stay tuned for our reflections...