Making Connections and Reflection

As we are to wrap up the unit, Grade 1s looked into their learning and reflected on them. They pondered on the following questions: What do I LIKE and NOT LIKE about the life of the children in the past? What do I LIKE and NOT LIKE about my life as a child of the present? What are the possible reasons why life changed overtime? How do we imagine life would be in the future? What do I LIKE and NOT LIKE about the life of the children in the past? Child of the present?

What are the possible reasons why life changed overtime?

How Our Lives Have Changed Over the Years

This week, we looked into how people's lives have changed over the years. The Grade 1s generally got the idea that life before is not the same as life now, and that a lot of changes have occured. The inetrview with their parents gave way to getting a deeper understanding of this general knowledge. This week, they were given the chance to think of a specific area that interest them and explore how that has changed over the years and what possible reasons paved way to the change. They presented their work using slideshow in google. During ICT time, Grade 1s were taught how to create a new slide, insert text, insert photos and even change the colour and style of the fonts. When they finished the computer work, they presented their findings to their class.

Sewing

One scenario/question posted to the grade 1s was, "There will be a big party in the school and you need to come wearing a new fancy dress/clothes. What will you do?" "I will buy in the shop." "I will ask money from my Mom and Dad." "I will check if I have fancy dress to get from my Mom. " "I will ask my Grandma to make one for me. " Of course at this time, if we need new clothes or shoes or anything, we just need to do 3 steps: 1. Get enough money 2. Go to the dress shop and choose the style that fits you. 3. Pay for it. However, during the old times, there were no RTW (ready-to-wear)clothes. Instead, people follow the same process that Charlie in the book did. We read the story of 'Charlie Needs a New Cloak'. we found out that aside form manys teps to undergo, it takes longer time for people in the past to make new clothes.

To give them an experience of how challenging it is to make new clothes, we invited a guest, Ms. Faye to teach our Grade 1s how to to basic sewing. They sewed their initials and proudly displayed their work outside the classroom.

School in the Past

"In the past, they have dirty chairs and tables." - Grade 1-A "All students had no fun in the past. They always worked and worked." - Grade 1-B "They ddidn't have pencil. They wrote using the feather of a bird." - Grade 1-C These were only a few of the impressions that Grade 1s shared when I asked them about schools a long time ago. It was actually funny to discover that I had similar impressions of schools in the past when I was their age. To check if their impressions were correct and to better understand how school in the past really was, we explored by asking the adults at present about how their life was at school when they were young. We also watched videos of the school scenes in the past. We read texts about students' school life in the past and even did a simulation of it for one unit block. Afterwards, the students compared and contrasted schools in the past and schools at present using Venn diagram. "School now is more fun. Children have play time." "Teachers are nice now." "Like in the past, we also learn how to read, write and add numbers." These are some of their answers in the reflection.

HALLOWEEN 🎃 👻

Halloween is one of the events that every child looks forward to. It is because on this day, they can dress up and of course they get as many treats as they could form generous families and friends who do not wnat to be tricked. 😊 It was really great to see them come in costumes, share some spooky but funny stories about their halloween experiences in the previous years and go around the school collecting treats. 🍭🍭🍭 At the end of the day, they were all excited to go home so they could COUNT their treats and EAT them. 😋 Happy Halloween 👻 🎃