Blown Away!

Welcome back to our Blog! Since January, we have been very busy with our new unit of inquiry, 'What is it made of?', and many more activities! What a busy couple of months!!!

The children have been involved in various activities aimed at understanding how materials possess different properties and how they can be processed into useful things. We explored various materials to create fit-for-purpose hats. These hats needed to be comfortable to keep the children cool in hot weather, protect them from the sun, and be sturdy. Using their creativity, the children crafted some interesting hats and gained an understanding that different materials have different properties to serve a purpose.

Together as a class, we reflected on how most of our toys are made out of plastic. The children agreed that plastic is a material that can be melted and poured into molds to make many copies. With this idea in mind, the class tested materials to see if they would melt or not. They also made predictions and recorded the results of their findings.

To learn more from an expert, Dr. Artur Tamm, an atomistic physicist and Adeele’s dad, talked to us about atoms. He explained that everything is made out of atoms, and the way they are arranged determines the strength of the material. As a follow-up, we conducted strength tests with metal, plastic, and paper. The children came up with their own hypotheses for which material was the strongest.

We also delved into the process of crafting common objects. Showing resilience and perseverance, the class designed flow charts to explain how something is made, from the raw materials to the finished product.

One of our last topics was exploring how plastic is made and why it is a big problem for our environment. Through interactive activities, we highlighted alarming facts such as the vast amount of plastic polluting our oceans. We also learned about the five Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, and Recycle. Applying these principles, we repurposed plastic bottles creatively.

For our exit point, we had the pleasure of visiting the fantastic workshop of the famous glass artist John Moran, who won the third season of the Netflix series 'Blown Away'. He provided a wonderful demonstration of some of the techniques he uses to create his art while giving us an insightful explanation of glass blowing in general.

In numeracy, Year One has been working on counting patterns, introduction to fractions, 3-D shapes, and recognizing odd and even numbers. To boost their creativity and understanding of fractions, they created lovely pizzas and cakes, which are proudly displayed in the corridor. At the same time, Year Two deepened their knowledge of 3-D shapes and fractions and started to understand the concept of multiplication. They creatively used arrays to design their own times table buildings.

Throughout this term, the Lower Primary children have been working hard to improve their reading and writing skills through guided reading sessions and different literacy-based IPC activities. Our favorite one was the creation of some idiomatic expressions inspired by the phrase ‘As useless as a chocolate tea cup’. The children made their own animated stop-motion videos to illustrate their ideas.

Uniting forces with our friends in UPP, we had a successful snack shop! The children raised 49 euros, which we will use towards an end of year pizza party! Well done everybody!

This term, we celebrated a few birthdays. Congratulations to Leon, Adeele, and Adam! In January, we also welcomed a new friend, Kei; he comes from Japan and is a Year two student! Welcome Kei!

We would like to wish Ms. Maria all the best in her new role as an intern in ISG+. We are sad to see her leave Lower Primary, as she was a fantastic teacher assistant! We all loved her enthusiasm and commitment to the well-being of our class. We will miss her, but we are happy we will still see her from time to time at ISG.

We wish all of you a fantastic mid-term break. Take care and enjoy the time with your wonderful children! See you in a week's time!

Ms. Elspeth and Ms. Julieta