Being Creative with Sounds

This was the last activity we did in the unit and in this school year. The Grade 1s applied their understanding of sounds to create sound effects for the short story, The Sun and the Wind. They imitated foley in filmmaking and made use of everyday things available in the classroom to add sound effects to the story. They worked in groups, looked into the story and the possible sounds to be heard such as the footsteps of the traveller, the gentle blowing of the wind, the crisp sound of the burning sun, and others. The Grade 1s were very creative and analytical too. Thye listened carefully to the sounds they can create when they rubbed or tapped or rolled objects they found inside the classroom. This marked as our final class activity for the school year 2024-2025. The Grade 1s deserved a big round of applause for a job well done. :)

Student Led Conference (SLC) 2025

In a student-led conference, the learners get the chance to be in charge of their conference and explain to their parents how they have improved as a learner over the year. In this conference, the learners showcase their skills by showing their work or working on some challenges. They also recreate some of the activities they did in the class during lesson and exploration time. This is also a point for the learners to reflect what their current strengths are and what are their areas of improvement. Being there for your child gives them a feeling of confidence that they can actually show you what they can do. Thank you for coming. :)

Photo Editing Skills

This week, Mr Huber conducted a simple photo editing workshop with the Grade 1s using another app called Procreate. In this app, the grade 1s learned to manipulate light and colours and use gradient to edit their photos. Some of them were able to explore further and even change backgrounds. Last week, the grade 1s also edited their photos using 'Inshot' app. They added cute stickers and texts to enhance their self-portraits.

Photography workshop with Ms Esther

This week, we are fortunate to have a professional photographer conduct a mini workshop about the basic of photography and discuss how light affects quality of our photos. Ms Esther is part of the school community and works to help the school in creating content on social media. Ms Esther shared with the students how exposure of an object to light affect the visibility of details in the photo. She showed pictures of infrastructres taken under different environment showing different intensity of light. Using the pictures, she explained what happens to the details of the object when those photos were taken. The mini workshop concluded with the students applying what they learnt by taking photos of an object of their choice using the camera built in to the ipad. Below are some of the impressive photos they took.

Exploring Properties of LIGHT

After a busy STEM Week, Grade 1s continued to conduct experiments, but this time, it is to explore properties of LIGHT. Facts we learned about light this week: LIGHT travels in a straight line. LIGHT travels around 300,000 kilometers per second. LIGHT does not need a medium to travel. It can travel even in a vacuum. LIGHT is the only form of energy that we can see. There is a wide range of light. A small portion of it is called a visible light. This is the portion that human eye can see. Our eyes can see because of the light reflected by an object. The image sent at the back of our eyes is inverted or upside down, but the brain interprets it the proper way. Light can pass through objects that are transparent and translucent. Light is blocked by objects that are opaque. When opaque objects block the light, shadow is formed. Next week, we will explore properties of sound.

STEM Week

STEM Week is one of the big events at school that allows the students to present their creative ideas related to the theme of the year. This year's STEM Week's theme is Sustainable City of the Future. When we had the unit on relationships of living things, we explored the different ecosystems. As we get to know marine ecosystem, the Grade 1s were surprised to find out that only 3% of the water in the world is fresh water. Out of that, 2.5% of the world's water is ice (glaciers, etc.) and only 0.5 % is accessible. This fact opened their interest on problems of water. Thus, we decided to take on water consumption as Grade 1's topic for the STEM Week. At the beginning, we explored water problems that the world is experiencing. These problems include: - water shortage - limited access to fresh water - water pollution .It was very timely, when the school invited the Sailing Rewild team - Stevens Family. The Stevens are sailing around the world and has been on sea for two years. They opened up idea of sustainability because when they are on water, they have limited access to a lot of resources, including fresh water. In their talk about their travel experiences, they mentioned how they keep a steady supply of potable water while at the sea. We took this chance to take advance steps on our STEM Week topic (area). We invited them to our classroom to talk about the process of turning salt water to fresh water. Their explanation was a big help. They explained the series of filtration that the water has to undergo before it turns into potable water, as well as the strict rules they have to implement to ensure wise water consumption.

Aside from looking at filtration and desalination processes, we also conducted simple experiments to see how these concepts work.

The Grade 1s worked in groups and came up with plans and models that will help them in their presentation. STEM Week presentation Day came. Our Grade 1s, despite being shy, showcased their work and shared tehir creative ideas. Good job, Grade 1s!