All about clothes - great times in upper pre-primary!

What a fantastic few weeks we have had in upper pre-primary! So much learning, so much fun and so many visits!

The children have been exposed to so much knowledge during our IPC unit on clothes. Following up from our discussion on where clothes come from the children did their own weaving using paper, this really helped their understanding of how weaving works. The children have thoroughly enjoyed dressing up in the various clothes we have in the class. They have become more independent and help each other with the tricky parts – bows, belts, zips.

The children had great fun celebrating our ‘funky hat day’. They arrived to school in a wonderful array of hats and then at school they created their very own special hat. They had to do all the work themselves, from planning the design to cutting the paper or material they needed to then adding their chosen decorations. They had lots of fun, it was a pleasure to see them so busy and productive.

The children have been very curious and interested to learn about clothes worn long ago and how clothes have changed through history. We looked at the clothes worn by early man, Egyptians and the Romans. Jeremy’s mum made beautiful Egyptian crowns that the children could try on, they watched a short movie about the Egyptians and learnt about the pyramids. While learning about the Romans the children had turns trying on a toga and a tunic. A group of boys became very interested in the clothes worn by the Roman soldiers and decided to make them – shields, armour, swords and helmets. What super enthusiastic and motivated work!

The children have also learnt about special clothes worn for specific jobs. What a better way to learn than have some special people come to our class!

Our buddy class ‘upper primary’ our learning about life in space. They very kindly came to our class and showed us clothes worn in space! Very interesting, the children loved trying on the space helmet!

The local police also came to visit us. They showed us their clothes and all the things they carry with them. The children had turns at trying on the clothes and holding the objects. The children had a big treat at the end when they could have a ride in the police van!

Our next visitor to our class was Nanami’s dad who is a surgeon. He brought all his clothes he wears in the hospital to show us. He explained how he wears white clothes when walking around the hospital and then comfortable blue clothes when in theatre. He talked about hygiene and how everything needs to be sterile. The children were really inspired by his visit and have been playing doctors and hospitals in the class ever since!

As a special treat and before Nanami will leave on Friday, Nanami’s Mum told us some stories using the Japanese Kamishibai theatre, great story telling! We are so sad to say goodbye to Nanami and her mum and dad, we will all truly miss them!

To really consolidate the children’s learning on clothes we went to the MIAT museum in Ghent. There the children could see many clothes made from cotton, they touched the balls of cotton from the plant and saw many different threads and looms. they even saw a loom in action! They also saw clothes worn for different jobs, and clothes made from different materials (heat resistant, waterproof, elastic) It was so nice to see the children so interested and excited.

Today we had our exit point to our clothes unit. It consisted of two parts. For the first part the children acted out the story of ‘the emperor’s new clothes’ for the other pre-primary classes. The children were great, they acted very well and remembered their lines, everyone enjoyed it! The second part was a fashion show also with all the pre-primary classes! The children modelled their own t-shirts which they designed themselves while they walked on the cat walk! Each t-shirt was so different! Congratulations to everyone for their great work!

Finally, besides all this work on clothes the children have been learning about morality. We have used a traffic light symbol to understand its meaning, red – stop, orange – think, green – do the right thing. The children are working hard to make good decisions!

We are looking forward to starting our Jolly Phonics workbooks 4 after the holidays!

Hope you liked your Valentine cards!

And now tomorrow our carnival party! Have a great holiday next week with your children! Bye!