Look at all our learning!!!!

Welcome to our blog!
It has been a while since we last shared what is going on in our class, and I am so proud to report that the learning in our classroom is remarkable. From Numeracy to Literacy and everything in between… our IPC project and our personal values. It’s amazing how much the class has matured and developed!

This week, we saw our fantastic project ‘People from the past” come to an end. As our exit point, we visited the Historium museum in Bruges. The children immersed themselves into the medieval times. They could picture how everything looked like in the XV century.

Every week, the class records on a special book facts and interesting remarks about an important person from the past that we are studying. This is an activity the class looks forward and enjoys doing because it has become a very familiar task, and at the same time it is very personal. This is a great way to get the children engaged in their writing!

We studied the life and legacy of “The wise man of Ghent” Jacob Van Artevelde. The class understood how this famous person from the past helped to shape the grand and beautiful city of Ghent.  Reflecting over what he achieved during his life, we tried to imagine being in his position and what we could do to help our city grow and develop. To get inspired the class dressed up as a medieval citizen. They posed as the statue of Jacob Van Artevelde and created a map mind full of ideas. Gathering these ideas, the class wrote a few sentences imagining what they could do if they were Jacob Van Artevelde. Year Two learned about the difference between will and would and used would in simple sentences, they also learned about ellipsis. Year One learned about nouns and used them in simple sentences.

Moving on to important scientists form the past, we also studied the legacy of Marie Curie. After reading about her life we created some artwork to honour her remarkable research and achievements. We created our own forearm and hand x-rays using Paint and Chalk.

We all agree that we all should be treated equally, isn’t it? Well…sadly, this isn’t always the case. But there are some amazing people who have done incredible things to fight for equality. One such person was a civil rights activist called Rosa Parks. We studied her life as well, and the children were really inspired by her courage and determination.  As an art activity we created a very special portrait of Rosa Parks. We used 7 different skin colours to create a ‘mosaic/puzzle’ portrait of Rosa Parks to illustrate that we are different and yet we are the same. Then they created their own quotes about diversity and equality and how we all should have the same rights, just like Rosa Parks believed it should be.  To accompany these lovely thoughts, we learned a new art technique called marbling.   

In the arts, we studied the life and work of one of the most famous painters in the world, Gustav Klimt. Lower Primary students wanted to experiment and create a masterpiece just like Gustav Klimt. We studied his paintings and discovered how he loved to create patterns and swirls, how he loved to use gold and vibrant colours. The tree of life is one of his most renowned paintings. It is complex and fascinating. The children fell in love with it and decided to reproduce a section of it. We used a projector to trace the outline and then we divided the painting in 11 parts. Everybody was responsible for one eleventh of the painting. Looking at every detail, colour and shape, the children did their best effort to create a masterpiece that even the maestro Gustav Klimt would have been proud of.

 To close our unit, we learned about three explorers. Christopher Columbus, who was the first person (recorded) to arrive to the American continent. Afanasy Nikitin, a Russian merchant who ventured finding new routes to India and wrote a very famous Journal of his travels. And we also studied about Valentina Tereshkova, who was the first woman to go to space and to spend more than 3 days orbiting Earth in her space capsule.

The children reflected about the characteristics and values that these three exceptional characters have in common. They are Brave, Risk takers, Curious, and Resilient

The class chose to sketch a map of the journey of either Columbus or Nikitin. It was a challenging task because they had to look at a real map and then sketch it more less on scale. Everybody did a remarkable job, they always showed resilience.

One of the many things we learned when we studied the explorers is how they oriented themselves during the journeys. We learned about the compass and how it works.

We learned about the earth’s magnetic field and we created our own compass using a needle, a magnet, a container, and water.

Year two took on a geometry challenge, and created their own compass rose…. They used a protractor, compass, and ruler.

Year one, also created their own compass rose using fancy patterned paper and cutting and pasting shapes (triangles and circles)

We also learned about the cardinal points (N E S W) and that the sun sets in the West and rises in the East!

We were so moved and inspired by Valentina Tereshkova and her achievements. We could only wonder how marvellous it must be to be in space and to look at the earth from so high up!

Inspired by this, we created an abstract painting on canvas. The class learned about the art technique “pouring”. It was so much fun (take a look at the pictures).

The cherry on the top was our assembly. The class had the opportunity to share what they have learned with the whole school! I am so proud of all my class, they not only wrote the ideas they wanted to share, they also memorized everything and delivered an amazing presentation. Bravo!

Carnival day was such fun! In the class we had male and female football players, Snow White, a cosmic dragon, two ninjas, one samurai, Tutankhamun, Valentina Tereshkova, a mouse, and Moana.

This is all for now, please enjoy your break! Have lots of fun, keep practising your reading and take good care.  See you in March!