Personal Timelines and Reports

Here are more images of students sharing their personal timelines last week. They were proud and confident communicators. Well done everybody.

We wrote reports to demonstrate our understanding of our last unit of inquiry. These were based on our personal research. Here are a few examples.

History of Religion In Cambodia

By Anton Skanning

Cambodia has changed a lot. So has religion. I`ll tell you about it in this report.

This is an old statue of Vishnu from the museum - primary evidence

There are many religions in Cambodia today. This is because there are a lot of people from different countries in Cambodia. We know that there were different religions here in the past too because there are still buildings and statues from the past. Some religious statues and buildings you might see here are;

• Ganesha
• Vishnu                                       
• Shiva                                                         
• The building Angkor Wat
• Buddha and naga
• Wats and pagodas
• mosques

You can see primary sources of evidence at the museum and in Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat and statues of Hindu gods tell me that Cambodia was once Hindu. This has changed. There were also islam here. I know this because of the mosques. A lot of these were destroyed in the Khmer Rouge. Also at this time religious practices was forbidden. That means you cannot do it...like going to pagodas and Monks couldn’t pray. A lot were killed.

But now you can be any religion you want. Like Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhist, islam.

Religion itself has not changed, but some of the things about it have changed. Here are some.

• From 1975 Buddhism was officially recognized as the religion of Cambodia
• Before that it was hindu. (Did you know Ankor Wat is Hindu? It’s the biggest temple in the world)

This helps me understand Cambodia because now I know that there have been people here from many different countries and religions. All of all the changes, statues, official religions, and buildings show me this.

Angkor Wat From The Past

A report by Dita Phat

This report will tell you how Angkor Wat has changed in time! It was not always for tourists to visit.

Angkor Wat is a temple made by King Suryavarman 2nd for the honor of Vishnu the God. It was built as a Hindu temple. This is a religion. It is the largest temple in the world. It faces west. In Hinduism this means death. Most temples face east. So sometimes people call it the funeral temple. Angkor Wat mean ‘City of temple ‘or ‘city temple ‘.

Angkor Wat changed over time because of war by Thai / Siamese troops because came to Cambodia to fight. People moved away from Angkor. Today if you visit Angkor wat it is broken into pieces. This is because of the wars and because it is very old. It was once a great city temple built to honor the god Vishnu. He is a Hindu god. He usually has 4 arms and holds 4 objects the 4 elements of life, fire, earth, wind and water. Today it is used for visiting. You pay to look at it and see the old buildings and see how the past was.

This helps me understand Cambodia now because I learned that Angkor wat is important to Cambodia. I know this because it is on the flag of Cambodia. Now it is peace in Cambodia not like before. It not like world war 2! It tell me that before in the past people believe in Hindu.

Angkor Wat is a primary evidence.

Fashion in Cambodia

A report by Fraya Fleschler

This report will be about fashion in Cambodia. It will tell you what it was like in the past and how it is different today.

Fashion is a way to dress. It is about clothes that make you pretty or suit the place you live or the job you do. Fashion is different all around the world because in different countries the weather and culture is different and they have different materials to use. Fashion is used to keep warm or cool, for special events or for cultural reasons. Fashion is sometimes used for weddings and dates but mostly for special events.

Fashion in Cambodia is different cause a long time ago women were topless.

This was in the 18th to 19th century. We know this because of old carvings and art on temples of apasara dancers. Men wore Pbeung (shirts or loose pants).

In the middle of the 19th Century fashion was influenced by French culture. We also know this because we searched it in the iPad and there was evidence of how it was true, the evidence was photographs taken black and white.

In the Khmer Rouge people were made to wear black pants and tops or skirts and tops and Krama (a scarf).

This is different cause before they had to dress up the same way. But now we can dress how ever we want.

This helps me understand Cambodia because there was evidence of the past fashion in photographs the ipad, and in art.

I know now Fashion is for different events and fashion is for jobs and the weather and other things.

Sharing our Learning

On Friday morning, Grade Two shared their learning with the school when they led the assembly. They identified how we express 'creativity' at ISPP. We looked at how we used the creative cycle to guide our inquiry during our Urban Environments unit, and rewrote the lyrics to a song we shared with the school. Here are some of the videos we shared during our assembly. Well done team! We were super proud of you...you were superstars! Well done for being such risk takers.

Here is the creativity video about our Public Art.
Public Art 

Here were the lyrics our class rewrote to the song 'Built This city'. The video was played while we sang along. It shows the cities grade Two built at the end of our unit.

The students were fabulous at assembly this week. They all did a wonderful job presenting, singing, and being on stage throughout the assembly.

Say you don't care much, for this city or this space

Say you don't care what goes in this kind of place

Knee deep in the rubbish, stinking out the air

Too much pollution! Everyone should care!

You’re cutting down the trees again, don't you know we’ll pay the toll

Don’t you remember...

We built this city, we built this city with one small goal

Built this city, we built this city with one small goal

Built this city, we built this city with one small go- al

Time to make a difference, Time to make a change

Cities of the future...that can be arranged!

Use the public transport, get rid of the streets

Make more parks and cycleways, exercise your feet!

Wind turbines on the hills will spin,

Gotta stop burning coal

Don't you remember

We built this city, we built this city with one small goal

Built this city, we built this city with one small goal

Built this city, we built this city with one small goal!

Let’s make our city a better place to live!

The Big Dig

In class we have been learning what archaeologists do. Today we had a 'Big Dig' - a simulated archaeological dig in our school sandpit. The area was sectioned off and students carefully and systematically searched for artifacts. We had a great time and uncovered 20 of the 21 hidden items. Tomorrow we will look closer at the objects and try to establish their possible uses. Children are being encouraged to make connections and ask the question "What does it tell me about Cambodia's Past?'

Sharing our Home Learning

We have enjoyed hearing all about student's personal artifacts. They explained their chosen items and read their descriptions to the class over the past two days. Tomorrow we will finish displaying these in a creative way and will comment on how artifacts can give us an insight into the way people live.

First Week Back

It was wonderful to have everybody back at school after an exciting Christmas break. We were thrilled to welcome Signe to our class. She joins us from Sweden and has settled in fast and made many new friends. She is a creative, enthusiastic learner who has already impressed us with her gymnastics moves and ability to adapt. Check out that smile!


When we arrived back after the break, we were thrilled to see our public art installations displayed around our school. We have been working on how we could have an impact in our community and children decided on creating a variety of artworks to brighten our environment. Their individual process can be viewed on their student pages on the right tab of this blog. Here are some of our students sharing their work. Thanks Ms Dana and Ms Alice for guiding this journey! You can see these displayed around the Elementary School.

Last week we had a busy week wrapping up our unit of inquiry on Urban Environments. On the last day we reviewed our learning an looked at how our knowledge had developed. We build a city again and this time their was a clear improvement in sustainability. Roads were replaced with cycle ways, walk ways and public transportation. There were wind turbines and solar panels as clean energy sources and many green spaces including rooftop gardens! Well done team. You even made the ISPP news!



In reading we continued to build our reading fluency by reading a variety of texts and responding to them in different ways. In this video, children are paraphrasing what they learned in a small part of text.

Catch Up

SPORTS DAY FUN

Here are some photos from the last week of semester. We had a fantastic time at our Grade 2-5 sports day. You couldn't wipe the smiles of the kids faces all day! Thanks to the PE team for organising this.

In our unit of inquiry we made comparisons between model cities like Copenhagen and Phnom Penh...identifying the similarities and differences. We continued to investigate in order to find answers to our inquiry questions. We used the creative cycle to assist us with this.

We had fun using creating our own Google Doodles in art class to end our unit.

We had a musical performance in a Public Art space. We had planned to perform on the Amphitheatre but were rained out...so our concert took place in the outdoor gym.

Updated Pictures

Ms Theary took these last week! We are a handsome bunch!

The Week in Review

This week we have been busy getting familiar with concepts and ideas related to our new unit of inquiry.

We had a busy day on Monday with our second extra art session. These extra classes will continue until the Christmas break and are an opportunity for students to have extra time to work on the collaborative community projects they started during this integrated unit of inquiry. Here are some images of the students working through the creative cycle in Monday's class. Ask your child to tell you what they have been working on!

Here's what we have been up to in the classroom this week;

UOI: We have been exploring issues in our urban environment and recording our wonderings about them. Ms Rachel the librarian came an helped us use a question scaffold to help us think deeper about what we could inquire into. During lab this week, we explored Google Earth - examining the features of our urban environment and reflecting on how it has changed.

Literacy: We have been working this week on journal entries to build our writing fluency. We have also been exploring the Words Their Way spelling programme...working in groups based on our specific learning needs. Here we are presenting some of our word sorts and justifying our ideas.

 

Mathematics: We have been reviewing how to solve sums and word problems involving addition and subtraction. Children have been sharing the strategies they are using to assist them to deal with 2 digit by 2 digit problems. They are using a variety of methods to demonstrate their understanding. We also reviewed our understanding of compact and expanded numerals, and greater than and less than earlier this week. On Thursday we used our community development time to participate in some fun mathematical activities related to our unit. These included measurements of the body, and using coordinates to find items on a treasure map and in the game battleships. 

Upcoming Events:

We have some exciting events coming up during the next two weeks. Please make a note of these dates:

Thursday 8th December: ISPP'S got Talent. 1.30pm - 2.25 in the Black Box Theatre. For more details please refer to the Weekly Bulletin Announcements

Tuesday December 13th - School Closed for 3 way conferences. Please be on time for your appointment. Your child attends this conference with you. Letters were sent home last week.

Thursday December 15th - G2-5 Sports Day - 07.50 start on field

Urban Environments

The week started with parents and caregivers coming in to look at our learning from our 'How We Express Ourselves' unit of inquiry. It was wonderful to see students proudly sharing their learning journeys. They shared their inspiration boards, finished artworks and artists statements, and their book creator journals.

I will add the book creator journals they made to their individual blog pages during the next few days. These were student's personal journals in which they created and reflected on artistic forms they experienced throughout the unit of inquiry. Here is a student example;


This week we began our new unit of inquiry 'Sharing the Planet.'

This is an inquiry into;

Rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.

The central idea for our unit is;
By developing an awareness of an urban environment, we can understand and modify the way we live within it.

We spend several sessions tuning into what we already understood about urban environments. Some of the activities we did this week included;

• Numbered heads together (a game to get groups discussing and using important vocabulary related to the unit). Students answered questions and came up with a group response that one group member had to feed back to the class.

• We completed an online survey to give us an overview of the Grade 2 student's prior knowledge.

• We built a city...demonstrating our initial understanding of how urban environments are organised. We then visited the other grade 2 cities and commented on ideas for change. We then had an opportunity to 'modify' our city based on the suggestions from our peers and our class reflections.

• We went to key spots within our school to view what is outside our gates! We recorded what we saw, what we thought, and what we wondered about the urban environment around us.
• We had a 'spiderweb' discussion reflecting our understanding of the city.
• 

MATHEMATICS
During mathematics we continued exploring our understanding of measurement. In class we have been looking at units of measurement for length, and have been solving problems using what we have learned. On Friday we took our learning outside. With our grade 5 buddies we made paper planes and recorded the distances we threw them in centimetres and metres using tape measures and trundle wheels.

WRITING
We worked on writing character descriptions about a special person or friend. Being able to describe a character in detail will help us when we write our narratives over the next few weeks.

Wrapping up Our Unit

We started the week with a wonderful opportunity to watch the grade 10 drama students in action. They created their own interpretation of the book 'Where The Wild things Are' by Maurice Sendack. 

The children loved the interactive drama and were very engaged and motivated by the show. 

In class we began drawing on our own inspiration to create an artwork. We wrote artist statements to accompany our work and displayed these in class. We would love you to come and look at our learning on Monday after the Water Festival. Class will be open between 7.30 and 8.00am, and 2.00 and 3.00pm. Above are some pictures of us working on our art forms. It was wonderful witnessing the children working together to assist each-other. They are very proud of their work.

Artist Statement

Sawyer

My artwork is called Super Carrier. It is a paper mache sculpture. I used cardboard boxes, tape, hot glue, paint, straws, red and black paint, old glue sticks, cans, a chip container, paper and glue.

I chose to do this because I love ships and construction. I’ve always been interested in how ships are built and made. My Mom showed me how to do paper mache and I really like getting messy.

I am proud of my work but I would still like to do more to finish it.

When they finished their work, they reflected and made connections to the attitudes and learner profiles they demonstrated throughout this unit of inquiry.

They also worked on completing their Book Creator creative journals...which reflect their learning and responses to art forms during the past six weeks. These will be uploaded to their individual blog pages.

Poetry
In written language, we learned how to choose words carefully to write a piece of poetry. Here are some student examples of personification poems.

The Star

The star lights up at night
She sings me songs
to make me go to sleep

She runs away from the sun
But is happy to see me

She dances 
to make the Moon happy

By Dita


The Wind

Wind whispers secrets to me.
When he is angry...
he shakes trees,
knocks over trash cans,
and howls.
Soon he calms down.
Touches me softly.



By Sawyer

The Moon

The Moon smiles at me with his big round mouth.
He sings a song
to the world below
to make them fall asleep.
The Moon decorates the sky with his beautiful light.
He makes the stars...
They are his babies.

By Fraya

Water Festival
This afternoon we learned about some of the history and traditions behind the Water Festival. Then we made Origami boats.
Happy Water Festival Everyone. I hope you enjoy your week off!