Individual Pages

Everyone has been working so hard this week. A lot of our work has been recorded on the iPads so I thought this week our blog update won't be on the main page. Instead it is on your child's individual page. 

Please take a look at all of the fabulous work they have done: 

Writing a fable, creating questions and statements, a reflection of our trip to Aeon Mall and a short movie of a positive or a negative interaction! Phew it has been a busy week for ICT!

Guest Speaker

On Thursday morning we had a guest speaker via skype. We spoke to Mr Jon's friend Meghan Begaly. She lives in America and is a marine biologist. We watched a slideshow about the ocean and how we use it. We saw that it is a source of energy, food, transportation, research and recreation. But there are consequences when we use the ocean too. To further our understanding about the consequences we asked Meghan a lot of different questions. She was very knowledgeable and gave us lots of interesting information. 

Issues

In small groups the children were given a range of photos to do with the ocean. The had to discuss each photo together and then organise them however they liked. Here is what the groups thought.

We were very lucky today to also have two birthday to celebrate! 

First we helped Nak celebrate his seventh birthday. A very happy birthday to you Nak, hope you had a great day and enjoy celebrating with your family and friends tonight. Thanks for sharing your delicious cake :-)

Second up we had Adam celebrating his seventh birthday. A very happy birthday to you Adam, hope you have a great day next Wednesday. Thanks for the cool Minecraft cupcakes :-)

Finally just a friendly reminder that school is closed all of next week for 'Water Festival.' We will be back to school on Monday the 30th November.

Have a great holiday everyone! 

Fun Friday!

We were very lucky on Friday to have another guest speaker come and talk to us. This time Ross Sinclair, who is Itzia's dad from Ms Corey's class, shared his knowledge about the oceans and the animals that live in it. He talked about the five oceans and the problems that the oceans face everyday. We talked about pollution, the rubbish patch, over fishing and drift netting. We also learnt about the food chains and what happens when one of the elements is taken away.

A very big THANK YOU to Ross for a fantastic talk that all the children thoroughly enjoyed!

A Friday is never complete without a visit with our Grade 5 buddies. We have finished our ocean mural and it is now on display outside our classroom. 

Our finished product!

We also watched this clip from Youtube about drift netting. The children were really interested in it and it sparked a great discussion about all the issues caused by this type of fishing.

Also we have been learning through singing song, Ms Corey shared this one with us at team time.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Oceans, Guest Speaker and Field Trip

Monday morning we were very lucky to have a secondary teacher, Ms Ethel come and speak to us. She is a very experienced diver and shared with us first hand what it is like exploring the ocean and what you might see. 

Ms Ethel explained to us that when you're diving you need to move slowly through the water so that you don't disturb the animals or use up too much of your oxygen. She also told us the most important rule of all - Never touch anything in the ocean, we can look but we must never touch. Ask your child why we can't touch things in the ocean. 

We also watched a video of Ms Ethel and some of the secondary student going on a dive. The children in Grade One were amazed at what they saw on the dive. A big thanks to Ms Ethel for taking the time to come and speak to us.

Finding Out

In the afternoon we had four centres that we rotated around. We have a great time building on our prior knowledge and recording the things that we have learnt so far.

We are creating a mural for outside our classroom:

We went on an app called 'Bitsboard' and listened to information about the ocean:

We wrote and drew the positive and negative effects humans have on the ocean:

We organised many different items on a table - glass and plastic bottles, plastic bags, polystyrene, cardboard, cans etc. This is what each group did with those items.

Each group had a very unique way of looking at the items and as a group they worked out how they wanted to categories them. I was really impressed by how they organised the items :-)

Field Trip

We had such a great time on our field trip. Aeon supermarket has a lot to explore!!

A very big thank you to all the Mums and Dads who came to help us on the trip. They did a great job guiding the children around the supermarket and helping them to locate all the items on the checklist. I hope you all received your 'thank you' cards!

Mystery Reader

A very big THANK YOU to Roland Ly (Adrien's Dad) for coming to be our mystery reader on Wednesday. After the excitement of our field trip and the party to follow with all the treats we brought from the supermarket, it was nice to have some quiet time listening to a story. 

First Roland read 'Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!' written and illustrated by Mo Williams. It is a hilarious story about a little pigeon with big dreams and he will stop at nothing to drive the bus! Mo Williams is a very talented author and illustrator and one of my absolutely favourite writers of children's books.

The second book that Roland had for us was 'The Pigeon Needs a Bath!' written by Mo Williams. This time however Roland ask if someone else in the class would like to read it. Champa was a risk taker and read the story to the whole class. She did a great! Again it was a hilarious story about a very stinky pigeon who doesn't want to take a bath. But once he finally gets in the bath he realises that he loves it and never wants to get out.



Do you have friends or family visiting over the festive season? Would they like to be a mystery reader? Follow the link to sign them up.....we already have a grandfather visiting us again for the second year running!!

Sign up - Mystery Reader

Our week....

We started to inquiry into our new unit on 'Oceans' this week. I was so impressed with what the children already know! We spent time tuning in with various activities and had great discussions about what an ocean is and what they are used for. I know that these discussions will lead into more inquiry from the children as we start to wonder and question what is happening in our oceans.



We are working on an ocean mural, a deep sea door to the class, ocean words and inhabitants of the ocean. More photos to follow next week.

We also watched this clip from Youtube of the 'Wet market' here in Phnom Penh. The children did a visible thinking activity where they wrote down - What I see, What this makes me think about and what this makes me wonder. Watch the clip with your child and ask them what they - see, think and wonder about the market. You may also want to share with you child what you see, think and wonder too. The child had some really fantastic things to say!

Mystery Reader

A very big THANK YOU to Simon Fellows (Anna's Dad) for coming on Wednesday to read to us. After having a fire drill just before the end of lunch we were all very happy to get into the classroom and relax by listening to not one but TWO stories!



First Simon read 'Green eggs and Ham' written by Dr Seuss. It is a favourite of many and the children are big fans of any Dr Seuss book. Here is an interesting fact for you - the author 'Dr Seuss' was challenged to write a book with fifty or fewer distinct words, hence Green eggs and Ham! The book is written with exactly 50 words that are repeated throughout the story. Very impressive!



Our second story was by one of my absolutle favourite authors. Simon read 'Hairy Maclary Hat Tricks' written by Lynley Dodd. There are a series of Hairy Maclary books that are about a little dog that goes on many adventures. Lynley Dodds is a highly accomplished author from New Zealand and her books are very popular in my house.

It's not too late to sign up to be a mystery reader! Please follow the link:

Mystery Reader - Sign Up

Our unit on 'Interactions' is finished, but we're still remembering to use Gecko's Choice when faced with a minor problem. We made a few role plays using our puppets to show positive interactions and negative interactions.

Take a look:

We also had our favourite time on a Friday.....Buddy Time! Both Grade Ones and Grade Fives thoroughly look forward to their time together. On a Friday both myself and Mr James (Grade Five teacher) commented that it was the most frequently asked question throughout the day as to when they will 'hangout' with their buddy!



With our buddies we made a short movie using our puppets to show an interaction. We had sooooo much fun. We also made a start on our shared ocean mural. This is a work in progress and will be continually added to throughout the unit.

It is very slow uploading the videos to each of your child's pages so I will let you know when they are finally all there.

Gentle Reminders

Monday is a national holiday - there is no school or after school activities. School will be back on Tuesday 10th November.

Thank you to many of you for returning the permission form for our field trip on Wednesday 11th November. If you have not signed the form for your child please do so by Tuesday. I would also like to thank the three parents who have offered their time to join us on the trip. We are still looking for two more to help us. If you're able to give us 40 minutes of your time at Aeon Mall please let me know. 

Thanks everyone and have a great long weekend!