From Brainwave to Learning Online!

Welcome everyone to our first post from Middle Primary 2023-2024!

What a fantastic start to the new school year! It has been a great adventure welcoming new friends who were new to the school, getting to know each other better and having the pleasure to meet our super intern from Germany, Ms. Annika!

After a well deserved summer break, all the children settled in quickly and became part of all the new routines. In just a couple of months I can proudly say that Middle Primary is becoming a little great family, where learning new things is highly celebrated every day.

First we jumped head first into our new IPC Unit called “Brainwave: The Brain”. The first thing we worked on was by recapping the personal goals (ethical, thinker, adaptable, resilient, communicator, respectful, empathetic, and collaborator) and making sure we understood what they meant. After that, we got together to discuss the meaning and the differences between Knowledge, Skills and Understanding. 

During this project we found out why having a growth mindset is important to become critical thinkers and capable learners. We discovered once again that we are all different and unique, and so are our brains and the way we learn best. The students in Middle Primary were very enthusiastic to come up with a very creative way to teach a new skill for other people to learn. They all came up with a plan, they thought about the steps they should follow and the material they would need. 

Finally, each student got in front of the camera and recorded how to teach the following skills: How to play football, discovering Ecuador, learning about the planets, how to inline skating, how to speak Slovak, how to cook a 1-2-3 cake, how to speak Russian, how to play a game on the ipad, how to play two different songs on the piano, how to build a Nakamura lock paper aeroplane, how to ride a remote control monster truck FTX, how to tie your shoelaces and how to draw a lion. The videos were a complete success!

As part of our Exit Point, the Middle Primary students visited Lower Primary. All the children were very excited and proud of organizing themselves the way they wanted to transfer their knowledge to the younger ones. They prepared an introduction about Knowledge, Skills and Understanding. After that, they explained each part of the brain and its function. Then, they came up with a short game about Facts and Myths about the brain. To end the visit, the MP students got the LP kids in four groups and enjoyed different activities about learning a new skill. Both classes had an amazing time. I felt very proud of them all!

Our second IPC Unit called “Learning Effectively Online” became a great success and a favourite subject among the students! These kids were born in a digital area, so if they were to use the internet we want them to do it safely. The MP students learned about differentiating between real or fake online news and pictures, and what to do to check for its authenticity. We did some research about Online Safety and understanding what we can share online, and what kind of information we should never share online. Besides all of this, we had a great time learning how to use our computers to create documents, how to search for information online, how to read the News on child friendly websites, among many others. 

Furthermore, the students became real experts at working with the camera and the Green Screen to create both real and fake pictures. All these pictures will be shared with the rest of the school during our next Assembly. Everybody is looking forward to seeing how many will they get right!

We also had three birthdays: Rayaan’s, Isabella’s and Ms. Annika’s!

Once a week we have a Show and tell where one student at a time is welcome to bring something special into the class and make a presentation about it. Up until now our Show and tellers have been Igor, Andrew, Kezhen, Siya, Saisanth, Paul and Rayaan.

Once a month we celebrate Fun Fridays! In September we had “Crazy Hair Day!” and in October “Halloween Day!”.

These past two months have been full of growth, creativity, cooperation and responsibility, but this is just the beginning! And we are ready for so much more to learn!

Ms Cristi