This week we began the second of our four transdisciplinary themes - 'How the World Works'. The children were able to experiment with and explore light and shadow during a dark day at school!

We turned out all the lights and put black paper over the windows so that the only sources of light were our torches, light table and overhead projector. Then the exploration began! During the course of the day we played and experimented with prisms, transparent stones and paper, flashlights, lamps and much, much more. 

We read books in the dark and listened to music in the dark. We even enjoyed a candlelight lunch! 

Here are some 'wonderings' that we had today . . .

Abulkhair: "I wonder how does the flashlight make light?"

Amira: "I wonder why things are more colourful (in the light)"

Aubrey: "I wonder how you can see light through transparent things"

Julian: "I wonder how you can make a shadow"

Kili: "I wonder how a flashlight would look through a diamond"

Check out our star name work this week. We love thinking about questions to ask our 'star'. Take a look at our great work!

We have reached the end of our unit: Who We Are is Shaped by the People Around Us. I asked the children to use 'Draw and Tell' on the ipads to show me the people that make them who they are and tell me how they influence them in their lives. Here are their wonderful responses. 

Classifying and ordering skills are natural and interesting to children. Sorting and classifying objects not only teaches children about attributes and relationships, but also promotes thinking logically and applying rules. Sorting and classifying exercises can also provide children with models for organizing things in the real world, such as putting blocks away or setting the table for dinner.

Children learn to classify by focusing on attributes of included objects, then later focus on which objects were not included and why. For example, certain people belong in the set called family, and other people do not. Kindergartners can also practice sorting by moving objects into different groups based on observable characteristics such as size, shape, color, or number. By learning to follow rules that take into account the defining characteristics of sets, they are grasping concepts that form a basis for understanding mathematical functions. 

Learning theorists tell us that a large part of the cognitive development of young children is driven by classification and kindergarten mathematics begins with ideas of making, describing, and comparing sets.
(Sorting, Classifying, and Patterning: Critical to Mathematical Understanding
in Kindergarten by Dr. Jean M. Shaw)

This week we used the connection key to unlock our thinking and construct sets using different pictures of the children.
Karla: “How are these connected?”
Julian: “We can put them together.
Aubrey: “We can sort them! We can sort them by shape . . . oh, they’re all the same.”
Abulkhair: “I can see the same people.”
Aubrey: “I have an idea. - We can sort by people.”
Kili: “You have to get the other ones like William.”
Aubrey (holding up a picture with two people on it): “This is tricky.”
Karla: “Some photos have more than one person. What can we do?”
Amira: “We can put them in the middle.”

We are coming towards the end of our unit: 'Who We Are is Shaped by the People Around Us'. This morning, we read a beautiful story called Pezzettino, which means “little piece” in Italian. The story of Pezzetino follows a ‘little piece’ who visits several creatures made out of colorful squares, to find who he belongs to. He thinks that everyone else looks so big and does daring and wonderful things; while he is small and lost. The conclusion is a delightful and satisfying realization that he, like everybody else, is made up of several little pieces and is actually whole and complete by himself. We talked about our own 'little pieces' and decided to interview our buddies and find out about the influential people in their lives. 

Here are the questions we wanted to ask: 

• Who is important to you? Why?
• Who helps you?
• Can you tell me about someone who has taught you something important?
• Who plays with you?
• Who loves you?
• Who has made you who you are?

First, we practised our interviewing skills on our friends in our class. We shared our family books with our friends and asked them the questions we had thought about.


When our buddies arrived in the afternoon, we had our questions and our ipads ready. We took a photo of our buddies and recorded what they had to say on Fotobabble. Here are a few of our interviews.

In the PYP, it is believed that education must extend beyond the intellectual to include not only socially responsible attitudes, but also thoughtful and appropriate action. This action will extend the student’s learning, or it may have a wider social impact, and will look different within each age range. Previous ‘Action as Service’ projects at ISS School have included creating a butterfly garden and a whole-school recycling system. 

Through such service, students are able to grow both personally and socially, developing skills such as cooperation, problem solving, conflict resolution, and creative and critical thinking. Moreover, these actions are ways in which the students develop the characteristics of the PYP learner profile and attitudes, to become responsible global citizens.

In Kindergarten 1, we have started to write notes of gratitude. In our 'Who We Are' unit of inquiry, we have reflected on how the people around us have shaped who we are. We have a lot to be thankful for; especially the family and friends who make us who we are; by helping us, teaching us and loving us so much! 

The curriculum connections we are making and learning we are doing includes: 

• Purposeful writing for an authentic context 
  
• Learning about and emulating the Learner Profile and Attitudes
• Making connections between our learning and personal experiences
• Sharing of feelings and experiences (Speaking and Listening skills)  
  
• Using reflection as strategy to evaluate experiences and make decisions
• Cultivating a thankful disposition

Here is our Star Name work for the week. This week we interviewed Anri. We studied, discussed and traced the letters of his name. We especially loved writing the letters in his name on each others backs. 

Each year, the world celebrates the International Day of Peace on September 21st. We thought that Peace Day connected beautifully to our current unit of inquiry, as we have been thinking about who we are and the people around us. We thought it was important for us to consider what we could do to be good friends and family members. 

So, we read a lot of books and discussed what our peaceful words and actions were; as well as, what peace meant to each of us. Here are some of our ideas:

We knew that our ideas were important so we invited ISS elementary school to celebrate Peace Day with us. Kindergarten 1 planned a performance and invited other classes to participate in some peace-related activities. We displayed our ideas about peace outside our classroom, shared books that related to peace, and asked other students to share their thoughts about peace, so that we could compile them to make a big Peace Book. Our central idea was: Peace begins with me. My peaceful words and actions help me to form relationships and make and keep friends.

After our performance, we spend some time together reflecting on our day and had a delicious cookie (Thanks to Nadine, Kili and Siena's Mum!). K1KB wish you a wonderful Peace Day.

Today we read a book we all love; it's called "We All Went on Safari: A Counting Journey through Tanzania". Then we had an idea . . . we could go on our own counting safari! 

So we grabbed the ipads and wondered around taking snaps of the different things we could see and count . ..