We kicked off our exciting new unit with an Entry Point in the Citadel Park. We played games related to a real trip and luckily we ran a lot, because it was cold, windy and rainy on Tuesday! We had fun when we packed the suitcase in our ‘Suitcase Relay’, we practiced both patience and trust when we guided our blindfolded pilots through storms in ‘Daring Descent’, and we showed how well we can co-operate and support each other when it was time to remember what we packed in the suitcase in ‘Lost Luggage’. We had to write a list of all the items we had packed and describe them well to get any points in this game. We remembered a lot! We have memories like elephants!!
Our Knowledge Harvest was to try to remember as many things possible needed around and in an airport. We showed our teacher that we have travelled a lot, because we know what it is like arriving at the airport, checking in, going through the security check and waiting in the departure lounge before it is time to board a plane. Miss Jenny was impressed!
Now we are working with Geography. We have started looking at maps and we are now using words like symbol, key and scale when we talk about maps. We know that maps aim to represent reality, but that they don’t show everything, because then the map would get too messy. One needs to decide what the map is showing, before one starts choosing the symbols representing the most important things. On Monday we wrote presentations about ourselves, to put up on the big World Map in the shared room, before we even knew we were going to work with maps and geography! We have also worked with vocabulary related to travelling, using dictionaries. Journey was a tricky word for some of us, but now we know that it is just another word for a trip. We have talked about some of the countries we have visited, but we still have lots of work to do with our atlases and maps!
We spent one lesson talking about what travelling in Belgium was like 100 years ago – before there were fancy cars and fast airplanes that would take you far. What was it like to travel when you didn’t have much time to travel and couldn’t afford expensive trips? Where did you go if you only had a bicycle? What was it like to take a train to the seaside and see the sea for the first time?
Of course we have worked with mathematics and language activities and we have had our PE and swimming lessons too! It didn’t take long before we were back in our normal hard working atmosphere here in Upper Primary. Lots of questions have been asked, lots of answers have been found, lots of discussions have taken place and lots of learning have been going on, already! We had a really nice week!
Happy New Year, everybody! We think 2015 will be a fantastic year!