Pattern, Rhyme and Rhythm: The Third Unit of Inquiry

In class 2o we are working on our third Unit of Inquiry.

The Central Idea for this unit is:

Pattern, Rhyme and Rhythm are found in many forms of creative expression

We will follow these lines of inquiry:

• How pattern, rhyme and rhythm work
• How pattern, rhyme and rhythm are connected
• How we can express ourselves using pattern, rhyme and rhythm.

This unit gives us the opportunity to identify, explore and explain pattern in art, music, poetry, dance, language and mathematics. We will be reading lots of poetry and delving into the enthralling stories of Dr Seuss and Julia Donaldson. We will explore rhythm through music, movement and language, and find out how knowing more about rhyme and patterns in language can help with reading and spelling. Students will be encouraged to look for patterns all around them and to bring their findings to school as part of News Time which will usually be on Wednesdays. I will be asking the children to bring in books and music to share with the class and to notice the patterns on the clothes which they are wearing.

Mrs Horsford asked me to include this message:

In our unit on Pattern, Rhyme and Rhythm we will look at patterns in language such as endings, plurals, making poems, adjectives in writing and blends. You will be seeing the blends in their red handwriting Homework book. When we look at Pattern, Rhyme and Rhythm in maths we will look at symmetry, repeating number patterns, patterns in adding and subtracting, number patterns bigger than 100, sequencing, number arrays and more.

The children will be also start to bring home a small blue spelling book in a plastic sleeve with a list of words they should be starting to manage in their daily writing.. Each time we write they will be given one word that they are close to mastering. Please find two minutes to let them write this word two times and bring it back each day with the plastic sleeve.

Happy Pattern, Rhyme and Rhythm searching in our world. The children may like to start to wear patterned clothes to school if they find some. I will be.

Regards

Mrs. Horsford

One of the first activities we have undertaken was to work with a partner on a "Rhyme Hunt" using one of the fabulous selection of books we have in the classroom.The children were given the challenge to find as many rhyming pairs as they could.

Click on the slide show to see the partners at work.





One afternoon the children worked to create repeating patterns using plastic cubes. Their enthusiasm and engagement was amazing.

Some observations from the last few days of Class 2o's investigations into plant life.

All sorts of activities and discussions took place during the final days of our second unit of inquiry "Our World of Plants".

The children were invited to bring in their bean plants to share with their classmates. This was a very real learning experience, which connected well with comments Cova had made during our gardening sessions, that we don't always know whether what we plant will grow, even if we do our best to look after it!. Some of the children remembered to bring their plants, others forgot; some had to admit that their plant had not survived, while a few plants had grown too big to transport!

Have a look at the slide-show to view the plants which thrived. The bean without a person, which appears to have reached the ceiling, belongs to Rik!



We had rather complex discusions about fruits and vegetables and which is which. Of course, much of the confusion arises because quite a few fruits are eaten as what we call vegetables, for example: tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers and courgettes. We came up with the definition that fruits grow out of the flower and contain seeds.
I found this comment about fruits and vegetables on WIkipedia and found that it fits perfectly with the class2o idea of what a fruit is.

"A fruit is actually the sweet, ripened ovary or ovaries of a seed-
bearing plant. A vegetable, in contrast, is an herbaceous plant
cultivated for an edible part (seeds, roots, stems, leaves, bulbs,
tubers, or nonsweet fruits). So, to be really nitpicky, a fruit could
be a vegetable, but a vegetable could not be a fruit."

The challenge to fill a lunchbox, if there were no plants, also provoked an amazing discussion, because the realisation gradually began to dawn, that in fact without plants, there would not be much to eat, if anything, and only water to drink.

We made predictions. What would happen to the cress seeds which were given water but left in the dark? Would celery change if put in a glass with water and red food colouring? After a few days we looked carefully and shared observations. The cress which had been in the dark was yellow and straggly but soon turned green when left in the light.The leaves of the celery became red and when we cut through the stem we could see small red dots where the liquid had travelled up the celery stem.

We had fun tasting the cress with bread and butter. YUMMY.

The class 2o students have definitely become more knowledgeable about plants, and it has been great to observe how everything we have done in the garden with Cova, has been so relevant to all the work which has taken place inside the classroom.

An autumn walk in the park at Chateau de Penthes

On a beautiful autumn afternoon, we decided to take advantage of the pleasant sunshine to go for a walk to the park at Chateau de Penthes. For many of the class 2o students this is a familiar and well-loved place where they spent happy times in class 1, but for the new members of our class it was their first opportunity to enjoy a really lovely place.

On the path by the tennis club, we had to pick our way, with a good deal of hilarity, through the plentiful droppings left by some sheep, who had just been moved from the field across the road from school and had evidently followed the road down towards the Jardin Botanique. As we crossed that road into the park, we wondered where the sheep might be now, but as we wended our way down the path, the children suddenly fell silent, as they heard sheep noises coming from a field somewhere behind a hedge on the other side of the road. (Class 1o went looking for them the next day and sure enough, there they were, but only visible through a hole in the hedge.)

As we traced the familiar paths, our newer students learned about the fairy dell and the troll, which unbeknownst to me, lurks under the little bridge on the way back up the hill.

We enjoyed the amazing views across the lake, wondered at the brilliant autumn colours and were once again (or for the first time) amazed by the sight of the "lightning" tree.

We are so very lucky to have this beautiful park, so near to school.

Even more gardening news......

More planting to do.... On the Thursday after the October break, Cova had bulbs for the children to plant. "Remember which way up they need to be", she said. Most of the bulbs were planted in fruit crates lined with plastic, but Cova made sure the children understood that the plastic needed holes for drainage. Each group used trowels to fill the planters and then put in the bulbs, making sure that they left enough space between them. Some of the planters will be left outside, but others will be kept in the dark. We are going to wait and see what happens... One of the things I really enjoy about gardening with Cova is that there are always wonderings and questions.... Uncertainty seems to be very much a part of gardening.



Did you ever stop to wonder what the children had done with all the old boots and shoes you sent in? Well here they are nestling among the "green compost" waiting for something to grow inside them.

Last week Cova once again asked the children to help with the tidying up. They set to work with a will, raking and piling leaves. Then Cova, as usual, had a question for the children. "What do you think is happening under the piles of leaves we made before the holiday?" she asked. No-one was really sure so, she raked off the dry leaves and underneath we were able to see that the leaves had become dark and wet and sticky, and were starting to decompose. There was a mouldy smell which made the children turn up their noses. Cova told us how wonderful this compost was going to be for our garden soil in the spring.
Then she brought out a head of garlic and wondered if the children knew how big the seeds were. Quite a few of the class had no idea what they were looking at and how we use it. Amazingly most of the group expected the seeds to be small and were surprised when they saw the garlic cloves, which are relatively
large, as seeds go. With the help of the class 2o gardeners we now have garlic growing in our garden. I can't wait till spring to see if the plants grow well.

Creating a Collage

One day before the October break I brought in some of the wonderfully colourful, decorative gourds which were on sale in the supermarkets. They are definitely not good for eating, but they did provide inspiration for an art activity: creating group collages. First the children searched through magazines to find the colours they would need: oranges, reds, yellows and greens. Then they worked with Catrin in small groups to make big collage pictures using torn paper.




The original collages and photos of the gourds can be viewed in our classroom.

"There's really a lot of nature in this class"

The title of this post is a comment I overheard from a child in another class, who came into our classroom for an after-school activity. I thought it was a charming remark and it's actually very true.


There is a lot of nature in Class 2o and since we are studying plants it isn't very surprising!


Many of the Class 2o students took up Mrs Horsford's challenge of doing some homework which involved finding 5 different leaves. They brought in wonderful posters, booklets, plants, seeds and seed cases.



After the children had had the opportunity to look closely at the insides of a range of fruits and vegetables at Le Potager, I decided to bring in some familiar and less familiar fruits, and cut them in half to see the cross-section. Some children had not seen a papaya or a pomegranate before and were amazed to see how much more beautiful the inside was than the outside. They used oil pastels to make some amazing observational drawings, which are now brightening up our classroom.


Click on the slide show to appreciate all the oil pastel drawings on Picasa or better still come into our classroom to have a look.

Our Visit to Le Potager

On October 1st we went on a trip to "Le Potager", a private estate in Chambesy with beautiful grounds. We were able to visit this garden thanks to a former Pregny student, Kirsty Griffiths. It was a really special and fascinating experience, enjoyed by grown-ups and children alike.

It was certainly rather impressive to arrive at our destination, ring a bell and have iron gates swing open to let us in. Once inside we found ourselves in a haven of calm, just a few metres away from the hustle and bustle of a fairly busy road. We followed a winding path, then went gingerly across a rather rickety bridge over a stream which flowed through a forest of bamboos. Close by we could see what looked like an army tent, with a hammock hanging outside. We wondered who might be sleeping there under the swishing bamboos.

After having a good look at a variety of fruit trees and an old fashioned vegetable garden, we found ourselves in a beautifully restored part of the greenhouse, with a marble floor, some garden furniture and even a piano. With Kirsty's help the children were introduced to a variety of herbs and were able to examine the huge stripey green seeds of the wisteria, compared with the minuscule brown seeds which fell out of the dead basil flowers.

The children were real risk-takers as they tasted mint, chives, spring onions, cherry tomatoes, basil and freshly picked apples and lettuce. Some children were amazed to see the inside of a fig with so many tiny seeds in the stunning red flesh. We would be able to take some figs back to school to try. In the vegetable garden we had discovered a large yellow courgette under the leaves and Kirsty cooked it for the children to eat at snack time. Most agreed that it was delicious. After snack the children had a wonderful time playing under the trees.

The children wrote a recount of their morning when they returned to school. Here are some of their comments.

We went on a bridge. The bridge was in a bamboo forest. Adam
We saw a tent in the bamboo forest. Faizal
I was a little bit scared of the bamboo forest. Ko
The greenhouse was cool. It was great fun. I loved the trip. Cillian
We went to a farm and we picked vegetables and fruits. We ate courgette for snack. Clara
We ate carrots and tomatoes. Miguel
We picked vegetables. I ate everything. Philip
We ate what we picked in the greenhouse. I had fun at the farm. Quentin
I saw a snail in the soil. Russell
I saw seeds inside the apples. Octavia
I saw a lot of fruits and vegetables. Emilie
We went to the giant bamboo forest. Federica
The girls went on one bus and the boys went on bus number 4. We ate snack there. Kate
We looked at all the different kinds of plants. Shashikant
When it was snack time we played the piano. Shouq
I saw three greenhouse and we played catch. Sofia
We cooked a big yellow pumpkin and then we ate it. Yona

More gardening news

Going on a soil hunt.....

There we were in the garden with Cova and she asked us to find different kinds of soil. The children already knew, if they went gardening with class 1, that there are different kinds. But what might they be? Cova showed us a handful of soil from one of the vegetable beds. "What do you think is in this soil" she asked. Eventually after input from the children the conclusion was that soil is made up of water, air, organic matter like old leaves or rotting plants and minerals, which come from the rocks and stones. How good the soil is for growing things depends on how much of each of those things is in there!

Cova challenged the children to work in teams to find different kinds of soil around the school garden. They went off with trowels and a plastic container. Under the trees they found sandy soil, light coloured and dusty, as well as stony soil. Both of those were also discovered by the path next to the ramp. At the edge of the flower bed we found heavy clay and in our vegetable beds was the best soil for growing, light and airy and full of organic matter. Plenty of compost had been dug in last spring to help create the sweet smelling, crumbly airy soil in our school garden.

Back in the classroom the children remarked that:
Forest soil has no water and no compost.
Clay soil is sticky.
Really good soil is black, full of compost and minerals and not at all sticky.




Savez-vous planter les choux? or do you know how to plant your cabbages?

This week it was time to plant something. Cova had some interesting looking plants with purpley-green leaves, one for each child. The children had plenty of prior knowledge about the structure of a plant which they were delighted to share with her. However, no-one knew that these rather spindly seedlings would grow up to be cabbages.

The children set to work, some with rakes to make the soil smooth and some with trowels, digging holes for the young plants and then pressing down the soil firmly around them. Maybe later in the year, as winter comes we'll be eating cabbage soup.




A different kind of gardening.

This week we didn't really go near our garden. We started off by sitting under a tree. (It was really interesting to note that boys and girls who usually have no problem getting dirty, did not much appreciate sitting on the rather stony ground.)
First we looked up at the green leaves where the sun was glinting through. When Cova pulled one of them, it clung firmly to the tree. Then we looked down to the brown crunchy dead leaves at our feet. " These leaves are dead", someone said. "Yes" said Cova, "but how do the green leaves, still on the tree, know when to fall?"

She told us there is a tiny trapdoor where the leaf joins the stem. During the autumn the little doof closes, so no more water can reach the leaf. It becomes yellow, then brown and the stem comes loose, so that the leaf and float to the ground.

Cova put the children into teams to rake and collect leaves. The teams worked away at the task, not needing too many reminders about using tools safely. They filled the big red buckets to the brim and took them proudly to the ever-growing pile by the fence. Hopefully, the pile will stay there through the winter and become wonderful compost to use in our garden next spring.

I am sure that if you asked the children they would say that raking up the leaves was a lot of fun.

Our World Of Plants: The Second Unit of Inquiry

As you may know, in Class 2o we have just started out on our second Unit of Inquiry: Our World of Plants.

The central idea for this unit is:

Plants are vital for life on earth.

Lines of inquiry which will drive our learning will be:

• Plants have similarities and differences.
• People depend on plants for many different purposes
• Our responsibility to look after plant-life.


We will engage in these lines of inquiry through activities involving observation of plants, looking closely at their flowers, seeds, roots, stems and leaves. We will investigate what plants need for healthy growth and discover similarities and differences by comparing plants. We will go out to visit places close to the school to find out how plants are cared for and to begin to understand the many and varied uses of plants.

Although this unit focuses heavily on science, there are also possibilities for engaging in a range of art activities and for conducting surveys in maths. All of our gardening sessions with Cova fit perfectly into this Unit of Inquiry.

Right at the start of this unit, we sat down in a group (on our lovely, comfortable new carpet) and the children brainstormed what they knew, or thought they knew about plants.

First you plant seeds. Sofia
Seeds need time to grow. Shashikant

Shashikant's comment led us into a discussion about how long different plants might take to grow. After delving into a book: From Little Acorns: A First Look at the Life Cycle of a Tree, we learned that an oak tree has to be 40 years old before it has flowers and then acorns.

Trees have rings which show how old they are. Faizal
Flowers have seeds in them. Lizzie
Plants have roots. Federica
Plants have leaves. Yona
Plants need water to grow. Sree
Plants need sun for warmth and light. Emilie
Plants need soil to grow. Kate
The leaves make food for the plant. Cillian
Bees go inside the flower. Jan
Flowers have nectar. Adam
At night flowers close their petals. Emilie
Some trees lose their leaves in the autumn. Jan
Some plants are spiky. Russell
Some plants are insect-eaters. Quentin
Some plants can be eaten by animals and people. Cillian

We also agreed that most plants have stems and flowers.

As we go on to further investigation by sharing books, watching DVDS and exploring our school environment this prior knowledge will be confirmed or expanded upon. Any misconceptions can be discussed.

Vegetable Art: Making edible faces

Today with the help of Catrin, the children tried a new and different form of art: using vegetables to create a face. This provided an opportunity to use the names of vegetables, which were not always familiar to the children. It also allowed some of the class, who are less comfortable using pens, crayons or paints, to express their ideas in a different and rather novel way. Another positive aspect of this activity was the possibility to change one's mind, since nothing was ever permanent!

As you can see, the class 2o artists were in creative mood.

After the works of art were dismantled, the remaining vegetables were chopped up, made into delicious vegetable soup by Catrin and eaten with relish by the children!

Please take the chance to talk to you child about the many different faces and the vegetables used in them.

Autumn in Poetry and Art

As the seasons have begun to change, one of our language activities was for the children to tell all the different things they could think of about Autumn. Out of all these ideas we created a class poem. This may have been the children's first experience of a list poem, where every line starts off in the same way.

Autumn is when animals collect food.
Autumn is when some animals hibernate.
Autumn is when it gets colder.
Autumn is when hedgehogs hide under leaves.
Autumn is when the days get shorter and the nights get longer.
Autumn is when squirrels dig up the food they have hidden.
Autumn is when we plant seeds that will grow in the winter.
Autumn is when we pick apples.
Autumn is when the leaves change colour.
Autumn is when leaves fall down.
Autumn is when we rake the leaves.
Autumn is when we put the clock back one hour.
Autumn is when it’s Halloween.

With Catrin the children also worked together to create this wonderful autumn tree using their hand-prints. Do come into the classroom to admire it!


The children also created autumn illustrations which you will find here in the form of a slide-show. You will also be able to see the drawings in the classroom. There are some fabulous artists in class 2o!

If you double-click on the slide-show you can see a larger version in Picasa.

Self Portraits

Here are the self-portraits drawn by the Class 2o students during the first few days of this new school year.

Adam and Ali





Emilie, Faisal and Elizabeth



Clara, Federica and Ko



Kate, Octavia and Rik



Miguel, Philip and Pascale



Shashikant, Russell and Shouq

Sofia, Sree and Yona

Cillian, Jan Peter and Peter


Quentin


If you come into the classroom, you can see the originals and the descriptions the children wrote to go with their portraits.