Going Global !

Upper Primary pupils play trading games every now and then these days…

Upper Primary pupils are Going Global. During our Entry Point pupils played a trading game. They all represented different countries and they had a secret list with commodities that they could export and import. Without showing their trading cards, they traded cards with each other and tried to get 6 matching cards. When they did, they could go to Miss Jenny’s ‘bank’ and score 5 points. A tally on the white board kept the results visible to all pupils.
Little did the pupils know that Miss Jenny had prepared very different lists of commodities to export and import. When the pupils evaluated the game their comments were:
Now pupils play trading games every now and then! Our classroom books are sometimes very expensive!
During our Knowledge Harvest, pupils looked at what it means to be a good member of a community. They made a mind map and came up with many ideas on how to be a good member of our own community, the ISG community, and of the world community. They had great ideas. This led us in to thinking about the role we play as global citizens, that what we do affect others in other parts of the world.

Some of the Geography tasks have focused on how our host country Belgium is connected with other countries. By looking at labels, wrappings and manuals, pupils have worked with maps and atlases and they have located links to many countries in other parts of the world. The map looked a bit like a spider web in the end. Pupils have also looked at the top exports and imports in their different countries.
Upper Primary pupils discussed ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ one day, and then participated in a role play where their respective country produced what they needed to cover the needs for the citizens in their country. Upper Primary pupils thought that this is how it should be, that this was ‘the ideal world’, ‘the best of worlds’, ‘the perfect world’…
Then the rules for the game changed, and some pupils got more cards than they needed, and others didn’t have enough to cover the basic needs for their country. They found this very unfair… We will learn more about fair and unfair trading during this unit.

Miss Jenny and Diba had their birthdays in August and celebrated this together in class. (Parents and pupils had prepared a birthday party, with beautiful cards, yummy cupcakes and a wonderful gift for Miss Jenny! Thank you, everybody!) Kaaru’s birthday is on Saturday and we ended the week with a party – again! We like birthdays!
Of course Upper Primary pupils work with lots of different things during these weeks as well. Don’t forget to ask them about their learning. There are so many different things going on in the classroom every day! They have had their first Lego Challenge, they have also read to Upper Pre-primary pupils and they are making a drawing of their dream school.
Upper Primary pupils continue to take good care of their brains, to learn as much as possible, by thinking about healthy snacks and healthy habits. We are active, we play and we dance and from now on we will eat a healthy snack every day! Yey!