School's Out!

I have had a wonderful time teaching and getting to know you guys! 

Thanks for being so faBuLOus! 

Have an amazing holiday, keep practicing your English: read, write diaries, write poems, tell stories, watch movies, listen to stories online, play language games online, chat with your friends, learn a new word every day, sing songs, and have fun! 

Enjoy your... 

G2/3 Explanation Texts

Grade 2/3 has been practicing a really difficult skill during the last few weeks; explaining things.

Initially, we explained things orally within our groups and used this activity to work out what difficulties we were having. We identified the types of language needed to explain things more effectively, before developing our skills further.

In groups, we continued to investigate what makes a good explanation and were able to identify more structures, such as ordering things correctly. We were pleased that we were able to explain our work on simple machines more easily.

Finally, it was time to learn about explaining things in writing. We inquired into written explanations and saw the similarities between them and our oral explanations. Then, we deconstructed an explanation text to identify its features.

As you can see, we had to work really hard and it was exhausting!

Next, we researched how bees make honey and used this to create our own explanation texts. Here are some of our results:

Finally, we were able to assess our own work using the features we identified before writing. We were very proud of our achievements. 

G2/3 thinking Skills

G2/3 worked together to solve an extremely challenging crossword puzzle about simple machines. They used a variety of sources to find their answers, including previous work we had done, texts and the internet.
Their knowledge of the unit of inquiry words was very impressive! In the end though, it was Ryu who saved the day and helped complete the final answers. Well done Ryu!

G2/3 Paired Reading

Today, Ms Tatiana's group joined us for some paired reading. We chose books at appropriate levels and then used comprehension cubes to aid our reading. The red cubes were pre-reading tasks, the blue cubes were during-reading tasks and the green cubes were for after we finished reading. We had great fun working with friends from the other group.

G4/5 explaining markets

In this unit, we've been learning about markets. After doing a lot of word work relating to the unit, we worked together to try to explain what we know so far:

How markets work

An explanation text by: Nayan, Rathnysa and Ty Muy (Grade 4)

If you’d like to know what a market is and how it works, then you’re in the right place. A market is when people around the world manufacture products (or offer services) and then sell them to other people. The people who make things are called the suppliers and the people who buy things are called the buyers.

Demand is when people want or need to buy products. When demand is high, people want or need a lot of the item, so suppliers will increase the quantity of goods supplied.

Supply is when people make things and then sell them. When supply is limited, the prices go up because people really want the things and will pay more to get them before they run out. If suppliers manufacture too many products then they have to make the prices lower so that more people will buy them.

Equilibrium is when demand and supply are equal. This means that there are not too many products being made and everyone who wants to buy it gets what they want. The price is fair for people and suppliers, therefore it is called a fair price.

Markets change all of the time. They depend on supply and demand.

Glossary:

Manufacture = make

Products = things that you buy

Quantity = amount / number

Limited = small / not many

How markets work

By: Hyewon and Jaehoon (Grade 5)

Do you know what markets are? Markets are when people make things and then sell them.

Suppliers manufacture products to sell around the world. This is called supply. If supply goes down, then the prices go up, because there are not many products, so the people who offer the highest prices get the goods.

Demand is people’s wants and needs. If demand is high, then the price is also high, because people really want the product and will pay more money for it. If demand is low, then the price is also low, because suppliers need to sell all the products they made. If people don’t want the product, they have to make the price lower so people want to buy it.

Equilibrium is where supply and demand meet, which means it’s good for sellers and it’s good for buyers. Sellers can sell all their products and buyers can all buy what they need or want. The price is not too expensive and not too cheap, it is fair for everyone.

So, whenever you buy something, you are part of the market, because you help the sellers by creating a demand.  

G4/5 Express themselves through poetry

Last week, we worked on similes and looked at how they can be used to express ourselves in more interesting and imaginative ways. Together, we planned and wrote brief poems about the emotion 'confusion':

CONFUSION

Our words: disturbing, dark, cloudy, soggy, messy

Confusion is…

As messy as squashed watermelons,

As disturbing as a baby crying,

As dark as a winter night,

As cloudy as the monsoon season,

As soggy as a soapy sponge.

By: Rathnysa, Ty Muy and Nayan

CONFUSION

Our words: messy, twisted, mixed up, dark, foggy,

Confusion is…

As messy as a teenager’s bedroom,

As twisted as a subway map,

As dark as a criminal’s shadow,

As mixed up as fruit salad,

As foggy as a steam room

By: Jun, Hyewon, Kevin and Alex

G5 debate 'Should wild animals be held in captivity?'

Today, after preparing their arguments earlier this week, Grade 5's set out to persuade each other that they were right! They listened extremely well to each other's arguments and responded with very thoughtful counter-arguments. Aex and Jun argued strongly that wild animals should not be held in captivity, while Kevin and Hyewon argued that, under certain circumstances, it may be necessary and indeed helpful to keep wild animals in captivity.

As debate chair, I was impressed with the arguments on both sides. Team members used persuasive arguments, including facts and information researched from the internet, and expressed themselves using excellent speaking and listening skills. Well done Grade 5's!

G2/3 Word Work

G2/3 students have been finding out about the food we eat and where in the world it comes from. They have discovered the names of a variety of staple foods and other plants that we eat. They have also learned the names of the seven continents and looked at which foods are grown where and how they are exported around the world.

G2/3 'Food' Games and Activities

I have added a link to the 'Useful Websites' section of this blog. Click on it to find lots of different activities relating to 'food' - some are more difficult than others. Enjoy exploring!

G4/5 Art Reflections

G4/5 students have been learning about different ways of expressing themselves through various art forms. They have also been looking at how people express their feelings through the arts, what connections can be made between feelings and the arts and how people's responses may differ when they see the same thing.

This week, we looked at two photographs and shared our feelings about them. It quickly became clear that we can have very different responses to exactly the same images.

We also enjoyed thinking about why the photographer took each of the photos and what emotions they wanted their audience to feel. We tried to identify a message in each photo.

Here is the first photo, with two very different responses:

"I do not like the photo because it makes me feel sad. It makes me feel sad because it looks like the mum is sick and the girl is worried. I think the photographer took this photo to show that you should care about each other." Nayan

"I like this picture because it makes me feel calm when I look at it. This picture remind me when I was play with my mom when I was young, because young girl is playing with her mum. The green background makes me feel calm. It is natural. I think person took this picture because the picture is very happy and peaceful to look at." Kyung Won

Here is the second photo, which seemed to make everyone feel the same emotions, but some people liked it and some people didn't:

"I don't like this picture because it makes me feel sad and worried about that boy in the photo. He is crying, maybe he is falling down or maybe he lost his parents and is alone. I think the people took that photo to tell people how sad he is and to help him by donate money and give toys. It makes me think of when I was small and fell down and cry." Rathnysa

"I like it because it can tell people around the world that there are lots of children like this around the world. I also feel very sad and worried because maybe he does not have a mom or dad. The photographer took it because they want us to feel really sorry for him because he is crying by himself and no one is taking care of him." Ty Muy

How did you respond to each of these photographs? 

Did you have positive or negative thoughts and emotions when you looked at them? 

Did you like them? 

What messages did you think they had for the people looking at them?

G5 Puppet Shows

During their exhibition, Grade 5 students can choose a variety of different ways to share their global issues. Possibilities include posters, movies, acting, singing, artwork, puppet shows and anything else you can think of. Today, we had some fun with puppets and discovered that sharing ideas using puppets was much harder than expected!

It was also a lot of fun!