"While recognizing the importance of knowledge, concepts and skills, these alone do not make an internationally minded person. It is vital that there is also focus on development of personal attributes towards people, towards the environment and towards learning, attitudes that contribute to well-being of the individual and of the group. By deciding that the attitudes need to be an essential part of the programme, the PYP is making a commitment to a values-laden curriculum." Making the PYP Happen
As well as our academic achievements, it's good to focus on the personal growth that children make at school. Nora is a confident learner who is able to select samples of her best work and explain why she has chosen them.
Nora identified her strength in this area when leading up to student lead conferences. She is beginning to identify her strengths in order to support her learning and personal development.
Patterns are everywhere! We have been noticing & exploring patterns in our everyday lives as well as creating some patterns of our own. Nora chose to share an art work that she created as a sample of work in her e-portfolio because "there are nice patterns." You can find it in our pattern museum at school!
During our UOI we discovered that shapes are an integral part of the world around us. We noticed them on our class trip and we took photographs of the shapes we could spot around the school.
From this we created a comprehensive list of the shapes we knew and experimented with making shapes as well as using shapes to create different structures (such as buildings, landscapes etc.) using a range of materials including: paints, geo boards, peg boards, coloured paper, foam shapes, fabrics, iPads & more!
Here is Nora's shape presentation. She explains that it is her best work because "these are my favourite shapes". Click on the picture below to hear Nora's video about shapes.
We have been reflecting on all of the experiences we have had as a part of our 'How We Organise Ourselves' unit. To prompt some discussion about how we move and why, Ms. Karla, Ms. Alison & Mr. Nathan created a play area full of fun equipment use. Students were able to play freely, then discussed how and why they were moving in different ways with a teacher. Here is Nora's movement conference:
Nora loves to read. She memorizes some of the words in the stories she hears so that she can ‘read’ to others and herself. Nora's emergent reading skills include:
Holding books up the right way and turning the pages
Choosing and talking about her favourite stories
Joining in with her favourite story
Pointing to the part of the story that is read
She is learning to discuss the characters and events in the story that are similar to those she knows.
Here she is during playtime, reading a story to Amira and Siena. Amazing reading Nora!
We have reached the end of our unit: Who We Are is Shaped by the People Around Us. I asked the children to use 'Draw and Tell' on the ipads to show me the people that make them who they are and tell me how they influence them in their lives.