31: Uniquely Me

 "You are the main character and author of your story."

All of us are living characters and authors of our stories. The paths we take and the choices we make define who we are and affect the other characters surrounding us. 

Our characteristics and traits are uniquely ours, shaped by our experiences and background. Oftentimes, the characteristics that we have, develop and change as we grow and experience more of the world and what it can offer.

   Stories are a powerful tool to help us get to know ourselves more through the characters we meet in the pages we read. These characters, in whatever form, shape, or size, teach us what it means to be human through the characteristics they possess. Stories allow us to empathize -- to walk in another character's shoes -- and experience the world through their lens. 

This week in Kinder 2, we explored how different stories can teach us more about who we are through the characters we meet. We read a book called Pink Is For Boys by Robb Pearlman that shares an important lesson about being open-minded and respecting and accepting our differences. We made paperdolls that represent who we are and how we are unique from each other. 

Have a look at the children's Uniquely Me paperdolls:

The children also had a chance to share what they think is special about them.

Louis: I like soccer

Luna: I like eating mushrooms

Emma: I like dancing

Lucky: I like dancing

Veronica: I like strawberries

Luca: I like the color blue

Daniel: I like yellow

Amaru: I like dressing up like Spiderman

Kai: I like learning about bugs and fish

Mai: I like rainbows

Suzu: I like soccer balls

YiChen: I like airplanes

Frankie: I like reading books

Tamaki: I like riding the bicycle

Mamoru: I like whalesharks, penguins, and police cars

Shuya: I like pink

We also looked back at the book we read last week called Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev and shared the unique traits that we love about other people and ourselves. Inspired by the art of Henri Matisse, we created cutout posters to display at the entrance of the classroom to remind everyone that we are all welcome, regardless of what we like. 

It was truly beautiful to see the children celebrating their differences.

To help the children better understand that a character is not one-dimensional but rather multi-faceted, we zoomed into the character Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk. Using the IB's attributes of the learner, we agreed that Jack is a character who is:

curious (inquirer)

kind (caring)

brave (courageous)

a thinker

principled

open-minded

a communicator

We compared the character of Jack to the Giant and agreed that there were stark differences in their choices. Jack is one that we would like to emulate, while the Giant is one that we would like to understand better. We created our own life-sized versions of the characters on our wall to remind us of positive traits that a person can possess and allow us to notice what we can learn from them. 

This week, we also had an opportunity to watch a story through the characters played by the Upper Primary students in the spring musical. It was wonderful to see beloved characters come to life on stage. The children truly enjoyed the magic they witnessed. Thank you, Upper Primary students and teachers for a wonderful performance. 

We also had the opportunity to revisit the tulip field to harvest the bulbs that we planted for spring. We also prepared the land for the next cycle of planting.

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Stories are a good source of rediscovering what it means to be human. The opportunity to learn about the experiences of others allows us to become more empathetic as a person, and It teaches us to appreciate our uniqueness and diversity.

Your Kindergarten teacher, 

Pam

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Upcoming events

May 2024

• 
  
• 09

  Assembly G5/6

  9:00

June 2024

• 13

  Student Led Conferences/Large Canvas exhibition to be displayed

  16:00-20:00
• 20

  G 6 Graduation

  11:00-12:00
• 20

  Last whole school assembly (End of the year graduation)