Our inquiries this week led us to combine our knowledge of light and shadows with reflection. The children spent time creating different shapes with their shadows and observing how their position caused them to change. They needed to be problem solvers to find out how to draw their shadow dinosaurs without blocking the light. The children became story tellers, using shadows to bring their stories to life and they looked at how shadows can be used to identify people or places.
During our Zoom In visible thinking routine at the beginning of this unit, the children asked questions about the moon as a source of light. This became one of our big inquiries and we have spent time this week watching videos and reading books about the moon to find out more about it. The children discovered that the moon does not make its own light but reflects the light from the sun. We used this information to inquire into other objects finding out if they were light sources or if they reflected light. The children explored and then sorted the items and came up with some good ways to be able to check whether or not something was a light source.
Sammy suggested 'if you can turn it on, it is a light source.'
Advaith explained 'you can use a torch to shine on it. If it shines light back then it is reflecting. If it does it on its own, it is a source of light.'
Some fantastic thinking happening in K1!
Sammy suggested 'if you can turn it on, it is a light source.'
Advaith explained 'you can use a torch to shine on it. If it shines light back then it is reflecting. If it does it on its own, it is a source of light.'
Some fantastic thinking happening in K1!
During Number Work, we have been working hard to develop accuracy with counting objects. The children have completed many different activities to support number recognition, counting with one to one correspondence and ordering numbers. Some of the activity stations are completed independently (not teacher led) and it has been exciting to hear the children help and support each other, offering guidance and reminders. They are using their knowledge, communication and cooperation skills, whilst also transferring and applying their own mathematical understanding.
Finally, this week we introduced one of the Daily Five routines; Read to Self. We talked about why it is important to read, how we can create the right environment for reading and different ways to read a book. There are 3 ways to read a book - read the pictures (which we have been practising often both at school and with home reading books), read the words (which we are beginning to do as children develop their letters and sounds knowledge), and retell the story (which the children do through rereading favourite and familiar books). Take a look at our first attempt at Read to Self!