36: Celebrate the Learning

 "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."

-Benjamin Franklin

Kindergarten marks a crucial milestone in a child's educational journey. It is a year filled with discovery, growth, and foundational learning experiences. Celebrating the learning journey in kindergarten is of utmost importance as it recognizes the achievements, progress, and joy that children have experienced throughout the year.

This week, the children prepared to celebrate their kindergarten journey by working on their final projects this year, and planning for the student-led conferences.

The student-led conferences play an integral part of the IB programme. It serves as an opportunity for the children, parents, and teachers to celebrate each child's collective yearlong experience. During the conference, the students take the lead and share what they've learned with their parents/guardians. Parents get to ask questions, offer suggestions, and provide feedback and insights on their child's learning journey.

In Kinder 2, we've set up 8 stations for the children to share with their parents. To help you and the children navigate the stations better, here are a few descriptions of what the stations are about, and questions that you can use to prompt your children.

Welcome to Kinder 2

At the beginning of our unit on How we express ourselves, the children read a book called Strictly No Elephants in class. This book underscored the importance of being caring, open-minded, and taking pride in one's uniqueness. We agreed that using what we learned from this book to welcome us everyday is a wonderful reminder for us to celebrate who we are, and to use our unique traits to help us express ourselves better.

What you can do:

Look at the self-portraits of the children with your child. 

Ask your child about their artwork. 

Share something you love that makes you different with your child.

What you can ask your child:

What is the story about?

What are the unique things that you love?

How does it feel to welcome everyone even if they are different from you? 

How do you think do they feel when you welcome them?

Story Wall

To tune in to our unit, we started a story wall to share what we know about stories, our favorites, our questions, and what we want to learn about.

What you can do:

Read through the prompts and responses with your child. 

Add your own responses to the wall using post its.

What you can ask your child:

What do you know about stories?

What is your favorite story? Why do you like it?

What do you want to learn about stories?

What stories do you want to write?

Jack and the Giant

The first element of stories that we inquired on is the character. The children discovered that in a story, there can be a protagonist or an antagonist -- which often exhibits a variety of characteristics. It was the perfect opportunity to deepen our understanding of the attributes of the learner profile by connecting them with character of Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk.

What you can do:

Ask your child to retell the story of Jack and the Beanstalk 

or watch Jack and the Beanstalk with your child.

Discuss the story together. 

What you can ask your child:

What do you like about the character of Jack?

What characteristics are the same between you and Jack? (you can read through the characteristics we outlined to prompt your child)

Artists' Paintings

The second element of stories that we inquired on is the setting. The children discovered that stories can happen in different places -- whether real or imagined -- or at different times. Using famous paintings, the children created their own characters and stories that would best fit the settings depicted by the artists.

What you can do:

Read through the stories with your child.

Create a story together using the painting as a setting.

What you can ask your child:

What is your story's setting?

What kinds of places do you enjoy reading about? Why?

Story Settings

To deepen what they learned about story settings, the children had the opportunity to transform parts of our classroom into different places. They chose a unicorn castle, under the sea, and the jungle. We used these settings to learn about the element of plot.

What you can do:

Listen to the stories with your child.

Let your child describe the settings they created.

What you can ask your child:

What do you love about the settings that you created?

What other stories can take place in these settings?

Story Dioramas

The children brought some of the books we used in class to life through a diorama. The children identified the different elements from the story chose, which they recreated using the scrap materials we collected from our Sharing the planet unit. This learning engagement also gave us an opportunity to learn about the lessons we get from stories. 

What you can do:

Let your child describe their diorama.

Read the book with your child. 

What you can ask your child:

What is your favorite part of the story? Why do you like it?

What lesson did you learn from the story?

Published Books

The children became proud authors this unit. After learning about stories and its different elements, they wrote their own stories and are getting ready to publish their own book.

What you can do:

Read the story that your child wrote.

Share your favorite part and how their story made you feel with your child. 

What you can ask your child:

What did you enjoy the most when you wrote this book?

What lesson do you want to share through this book?

Create Your Own Story

Using the loose parts in the classroom, create a story with your child. Include the different elements that the children learned in the unit: character, setting, and plot. 

What you can ask your child:

What do you like about the story we made together?

What lesson can we share to others with this story?

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The student-led conference is a special event for all students as it gives them an opportunity to take ownership of their learning experiences. By actively participating in the conference, students become more engaged and motivated to reflect on their progress and to appreciate their growth throughout the school year along with their parents.

I look forward to celebrating how much the kindergarteners have grown in their learning with all of you next week.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Your Kindergarten teacher, 

Pam

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Upcoming Events

Kindergarten 2 Events

June 17th, Monday - EY Year-end Swimming Party

June 18th, Tuesday - Schultute Making (for Preschool Enrollment party next school year)

June 2024

• 12 - 13

  Student Exhibition 
• 13

  Student Led Conferences/Large Canvas exhibition to be displayed 

  17:00-20:00
• 19

  G 6 Graduation 

  11:00-12:00
• 20

  Last whole school assembly (End of the year graduation)