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?'

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.

Maps, Mannequins, and Marvellous Performances!

This week we have been using the maps we completed as part of our home learning to explore Google Earth.

We used many skills to do this...including using the snipping tool, and inserting images into our own google slides. Mr Matt worked with us to add places of interest to our own Grade Two Map. We discussed the reasons why we wouldn't put personal information on a public forum, and chose community facilities that we loved to use.

Kid City and Aeon Mall appeared to be common links!

During Reading time we began to explore texts connected to our unit of inquiry. Groups finalised their deep unit of inquiry questions and began to inquire into them. We have set up community groups on 'Padlet' so that children across grade 2 with similar question can collaborate and share their resources and understandings. Here are our questions;

We also decided as a class on what success would look like in this unit. We created our own assessment checklist which we will refer to as we work through the Creative Cycle to find the answers to our questions.

Student generated checklist for summative assessment.

What we need to do:

• Inquire using the creative cycle.
• Record our plan and investigations through notes, drawings, models.

Explain our assessment with our teacher.

	yes	no
We showed the goal or problem
We answered the group questions
We used the internet, books, people, and newspapers to find information - 2 sources
We organised our information well
We planned how we would share our information
We showed what we learned
We made changes when needed
We asked for feedback and evaluated our work

On Thursday we had two wonderful risk takers take to the stage at ISPP's Got Talent. Irrham and Anton showed us their skills on guitar. Keep working hard boys! We can't wait to hear your performances next year too!

On Friday we reviewed our goals to lead into next semester. We look forward to sharing our successes and goals with our parents at the 3 way conferences on Tuesday.

Finally we ended the week with a great assembly, an awesome session in mathematics and buddy time! Our buddies made a film of us doing the mannequin challenge! Some of us were better at staying still than others! We also played a great racing game in teams called 'Paper, Scissors, Rock'. Plenty of fun to end our Friday!

Have a safe and happy weekend.

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.

Weekly Update

We had a busy week and managed to cram plenty of learning into our four day week.

Mathematics: We continued our learning in geometry, exploring the attributes of 2d and 3d shapes. We explored the features that defined quadrilaterals and polygons, and participated in a variety of activities to support our understanding. We also explored nets for 3d shapes. We used these songs to help reinforce our knowledge;

Polygon song

Shape Song

Art and Music: G2 began investigating into their new Unit of Inquiry this week. 

Students INVESTIGATED examples of public art around Phnom Penh and other countries in both music and art.  In art they created 'fortune tellers'.  They looked closely and thought critically about 4 examples of public art.  Students wrote sentences using sentence starters like, "I wonder...It makes me feel...This reminds me of...".  After folding their fortune tellers, students shared their artworks, thoughts and questions about one another's public art images. 

You can find out more about our learning in art, music, PE, and Foreign Languages by viewing the single subject blogs listed on the top of this page. Ms Dana and Ms Leigh have recently added examples of student learning onto the children's individual pages in the sidebar of this blog.

Literacy: We continued learning how to respond to different art forms in a structured way. We wrote responses to books, films, dances and artworks in our books, and recorded our ideas on our book creator creations on the ipads. In reading we responded to text and some groups began Reader's Theatre...presenting plays to an audience.

Unit of Inquiry:

We painted our inspiration boards this week. We will begin adding drawings, cutouts, photographs, words and natural elements to these next week. These boards will become the motivation for our final summative assessment - guiding the choices we will make when we select, create, and reflect on our own art piece. 

This week in community development we had the opportunity to learn more about artforms. We had inspiring visitors share their passions with us and had a chance to experience our choice of two workshops;

• Drama (with Angela Ascher)
• Paper Mache (with Srisuna Stelzig)
• Songwriting (with Mr Jon)
• Photography (with Ms Paula)
• Poetry (with Ms Rachel)
• Apsara Dance (with our teacher assistants)

PE: Over the past 5 weeks we have been working on invasion games in PE. Our skills have really developed!

Wrapping up our Unit!

On Friday we wrapped up our unit of inquiry 'Who We Are'. We celebrated our learning by having a healthy snack party. Children were encouraged to make a healthy snack and explain to the class what nutritional benefits it had and how it was made. We had a variety of foods that represented our cultures and many of the food groups. Children confidently presented these and then we tucked in!

We have been working hard on researching the answers to our individual unit of inquiry questions. After we came up with our questions, we had a session with the librarian on how to use key words to search information online. We also learned how to navigate our way through the Kids Health website.

It took a while to find the information we needed and complete our mind maps. We then had to synthesise our information and write a statement that answered our question. When we made our posters, we thought about where to place pictures and how to set our information out so that it was eye catching and interesting. We had an opportunity to present these to the class and our grade 5 buddies in the afternoon. The children will record their statements and upload these to their individual blog pages when they return to school.

Interacting with Early Years

On Friday we had a visit from Mr Henk's early years students. Mr Henk told us they love role playing, so they joined us and became our patients! When Mr Henk came in sobbing over the fake wound on his arm...our class were quick to respond! Grade 2 children demonstrated through play how to clean and cover their injuries, how to brush their teeth, and we looked at some healthy foods together. This was a great opportunity for our students to take on a leadership role, and to build a sense of community across the school.

Collaborative Art

Over the past couple of weeks, grade 2 students have been working on a collaborative piece of art. We started with a big idea - 'The challenges we face as learners'.

Step one: We brainstormed the obstacles we face.
We asked ourselves 'What makes it difficult for me to learn?'
'What stops me from doing my best?'
'When is learning the most difficult?

Step two:
All grade two children made some beautiful coloured paper. These were created by drawing in marker pens on paper towels, running them under the tap, and squeezing the water out. The result was a little like tie dye.

When they were dry we cut them into strips.



Step 3: We took photographs of ourselves looking like we we climbing, pulling, or pushing our way through obstacles. These were then cut out carefully.

Step 4: In groups we used the strips and glued them like a collage all over some cardboard.

 Step 5: We painted on the obstacles! It was messy work!

 Step 6: We carefully placed our pictures and the ideas we brainstormed onto the artwork. Ms Karyn threaded the three large artworks onto bamboo poles.

Look at our great finished product! We worked together to achieve this great result! Fabulous effort grade 2!