Teddy discos, dancing and more!!!!

This week we have investigated different ways to move, invented dance moves and used our class stage for some groovy moves! The highlight has been ‘meeting’ the Village People (via You Tube!) and doing the YMCA dance. We have also learnt about Divali and watched Indian dancing, listened to Indian music, invented our own dance moves and written instructions for the moves. In numeracy we have solved the problem of teddies at a disco needing to share a stage and made symmetrical rangoli patterns for Divali! We also met our new buddies from pre-school and watched the teachers have a pretend Melbourne Cup horse race around the oval. The photos show some of our dance moves and our new buddies from Echidna class.

This is what the children said were their favourite things this week:

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" I liked listening to music during News. My favourite song was 'Mamma Mia' " (Ella St John)

"I liked making symmetrical rangoli patterns" (Mya)

"I liked solving teddy disco problems" (Freya)

"I liked meeting the echidnas. My buddy's name is Joseph" (Lucas)

"I liked watching Mrs Press and Miss Michelle dress up as horses for the Melbourne cup race" (Ella Rokic)

"I liked Mrs Press dressed up as a horse" (Dylan)

DROUGHT

PPR children investigated the causes and effects of drought, as well as how we can save water to cope with a water shortage. We read non-fiction texts about drought and then responded by drawing with pastels and colour-wash paints. ......and tea bags! These photos show us creating scenes of what we think a drought would look like.

In maths we used our knowledge of the effects of drought to solve problems. If there were only 2 ponds of water left and lots of animals, how could we share the ponds evenly between the animals? We used strategies such as : making a model, drawing a picture and using our previous knowledge of numbers to solve 'shared between' problems. Then we learnt how to show our solution as a number sentence using the divided by sign. You can see us sharing the animals between the ponds in the photos.

VOLCANOES........

This week in PPR we learnt all about volcanoes - how they are formed, how they work, where they are located, and how volcanologists can predict eruptions.

In maths we made volcanoes out of play-doh and then calculated and compare the area of all our volcanoes:

We wrote labels for the parts of a volcano including: crater, vent, lava, magma, rocks and ash. Then we used these labels for our painted diagrams of volcanoes.

Finally, we designed and built our own volcano models and experimented with how to make them erupt!!!

Floods, Floods, Floods!!!!!

PPR have been learning all about rain, thunderstorms and floods this week as part of their Unit Of Inquiry ' How the world works'. We have made rain gauges and graphed the amount of rainfall at AISS; solved maths problems to rescue people stranded in a flood; experimented with floating and sinking materials and used this knowledge to design our own rescue boats.

This is what the children have to say:

"We found out that blocks float" (matthew)

"I learnt that an empty drink bottle can float" (Eden)

" I didn't know that there are canals underneath Orchard Rd to take all the rain water away" (Toby)

"I learnt that sand bags can save people in a flood by soaking up the water" (Lucas)

"I learnt that floods carry soil onto the river bank which helps crops to grow" (Sebastian)

"I learnt that scissors sink" (Freya)

WHAT A DISASTER!!!!!

PPR arrived at school on Thursday morning to find that we couldn't enter the classroom - it was declared a DISASTER area!!


What happened!??" everyone was asking............after a cooperative clean up we then investigated what sort of disaster could have caused the mess in our classroom. Here's what some of the children thought of: an earthquake (Ella St John and Sebastian); lightning (Ella Rokic); a tornado (Orlando) or maybe a strong wind (Kelly).

The children were then on a road to inquiry about natural phenomena, immediately gathering books and talking about tornaodes, volcanoes, earthquakes, blizzards, floods..........and more!

After today's 'real life disaster' we are all motivated for our next unit of inquiry ' How the world works'.

Something fishy is happening in PPR!!!

THIS IS WHAT THE CHILDREN SAID ABOUT THEIR LEARNING THIS WEEK:

"I learnt that fish can be grown in a fish farm". Mya

"I learnt that some fish poisonous." Sebastian

"I didn't know there was a type of fish called snapper". Toby

"The fish was yummy". Ella St John

"I learnt that when you make sushi you use raw fish". Lucas

The (alternative) zoo walkathon!

Unfortunately our trip to the zoo to participate in the walkathon today had to be cancelled due to bad weather. But we didn't let that stop us!!! ........all the children in Prep participated in a mini-walkathon around AIS, collecting stamps at checkpoints and spotting animal pictures along the way.

Inquiring into .....apples!

The children in PPR have been learning about how apples grow and get processed.

WHAT THE CHILDREN SAY ABOUT THEIR LEARNING THIS WEEK:

"I didn't know that you squeeze apples to make apple juice" Ella S
"I learnt that you can make muffins with apples in them." Max
" I learnt that you can use apples to make apple cider vinegar". Dylan
"I found out that if apples get banged around they get bruises." Toby
"I learnt that apples get put into boxes before they go to the shop." Tom

Some of our mums came in to help us in our groups. They helped us to: make apple muffins; learn about halves and quarters; sequence the process of apples getting from farm to table, and helped us to practise reading a script for 'The Little Red Hen' play.

Making bread

This week we have made bread. We used flour, butter, salt and sugar. We also used yeast to make it grow bigger. We kneaded the dough and left it to prove. Then we baked it in the oven.

WHAT THE CHILDREN SAID:

"I didn't know that you use sugar and salt to make bread." Ashani

"I learnt that you use yeast to make the dough grow bigger". Ella R

" I didn't know that bread needs to be baked". Tom

" I learnt that flour is made from wheat". Kelly

" I learnt that bread has to go on a truck from the factory to the shop". Toby

We read different recipe books to find the contents page, list of ingredients and how to make different foods.

We also put the sequence of steps for wheat going from the farm to the table by putting pictures in a flowchart.

..........and had lots of fun dancing during our Gross Motor lesson on Friday! (watch the video below).

Where does bread come from?

This week in PPR we will be investigating how bread is made. Have a look at the website we will be using at school:

Grain Chain

Who are we?

PPR is a class of 22 children in Preparatory attending the Australian International School , Singapore. Here we are with Mrs Press and Miss Michelle:

PPR's first blog

Welcome to PPR's very first blog! I hope this will be a convenient way for us to share what has been happening in PPR recently.