The original plan this week was to move on to the Line of Inquiry 3, but when the whole class gathered together and updated our wonder wall, it turned out there were still questions left in the minds of our inquirers that they wanted to answer. So we decided to maneuver and make a U-turn and answer the questions: Do praying mantis fly? Do crabs have scissors in their hand? before we move on to the next unit.
Our hearts are filled with glee to see our inquirers satisfy their curiosity, talk about the things they love, and initiate actions that are products of their interests. The evidence of this was seen during our activity where they paired with their buddy and looked for insects around the campus. Each pair had a checklist and for every insect they could find, they would check. At the beginning of the unit, they were able to say the names of the insects they see around, but these days, it’s different, they can say more. There were moments when you could here: Oh, it’s in the pupa stage or larva stage. Dragonflies are good fliers and can fly in different directions, bees have stings, and male cicadas make noises to attract girls and more. This unit has helped them to be more knowledgeable and have an awareness of the things around them.
Our little readers are more in love now with phonics. Before we move on to the next word family which is the short /i/ sound, we decided to review the vowel letters. We again counted the alphabet and from there counted the vowel family, this time we included the letter y. They are now able to say that vowel letters are a,e, i,o,u, and sometimes y. We played a game where they needed to raise the sound they heard from the word the teacher shouted. They are very good at connecting graphemes and phonemes and are now able to read words by sight, tho we still practice the steps: name the letter, sound it, and connect to read.
Before we ended this week, something happened during our workstation time. A big banging was heard from our window, teachers were whispering to one another while rushing to go to their posts, little did we know that there was a stranger loitering on the campus. The students immediately stopped what they were doing and followed the teacher’s instructions. They all sat at the reading corner, hugged each other, and waited. The usual energetic vibe of the classroom was changed to a quiet and intense atmosphere. Despite the tension, our little brave students kept their composure, they stayed vigilant and alert the whole duration of the drill. We finished the exercise by listening to the talk of the police officers who came and visited our campus and spread awareness of the situation. We learned so much and we hope that everyone will apply what they practiced.
The nutrition education goal for September is to “eat without leaving any scraps of food on your plate.” Everyone is making their plates shiny so that they can thank the people who made the food and eat it without leaving any scraps until the end. We have also started cleaning our desks after eating. It feels good to clean up!
Happy weekend!
