K2 Show and Share Video

During our class How The World Works unit, my class inquired into the scientific principles and methodology about experimenting with the properties of air hep us to understand how it is used in varieties of ways. My class is looking into the evidence of the existence of air, the properties of air, and how air is used in varieties of ways.

As active learners, we gathered data about our existing knowledge on where we can find air. We asked questions like why is air everywhere, is air moving, how is the wind useful for us and why is air invisible.

To find more information, we invited Kevin's mom to teach us to make pinatas. It was so fun blowing air into the balloon.

We also invited Marie's mom to teach us how to make a flying car.

We went to a science museum to see and observe different kinds of experiments. We applied our knowledge of scientific method and principles by sorting out our gained knowledge. We recorded and organized our experiments into our science journals. We identified differently the step by step method of scientific principles. Being an inquirer and cooperative, we worked together to plan our scientific projects and go further of our understandings. 

Have a look at our learning journey.

K2 Science Show and Share

K2 Science Show and Share

K2 Science Show and Share

What an amazing day. Today, my students presented their air experiment to their parents and the school community. I am so proud of their accomplishment.

My students have been working on an air experiment that they choose. They practiced how to become a little scientist. They are all excited to present the scientific method of their experiment. 

       

                        Tornado                      Baking Soda and Vinegar                         Clay Funnel

                                                                                                                                

         Fly Rocket                                        Paper Lunch Bag                             Hot and Cold Water

Their task is to say the title of their air experiment. They also have to describe the scientific method or the step by step procedure how they conducted their work. After explaining their science board, they will present how their experiment is tested.

Such an honor to see them to be in full confidence.

-msjai-

Clay Funnel Experiment

Another beautiful day to do an air experiment with my K2A class.
Today we will be exploring if air can take space by using the scientific method.


Step 1: Ask a question. 
            What will happen if we blocked the water bottle with a clay?
 


Step 2: Form a hypothesis. 
            I think the water will not go inside the water bottle.

 

Step 3: Test the hypothesis.


Step 4: Make and record observation.
 

Step 5: Draw a conclusion.
            I learned that air takes us space.


Wow, these K2A is so ready for their Science Fair!


-msjai-

Book Week

CAIS celebrates book week with students and parents ready to have fun.
In the early years, these activities include the following:

1. The parents came and read interesting stories for us.

    

2. Drop Everything And Read. Since we love Magic School Bus, here we are reading quietly. Ssshhh!

3. Door Decoration. We decorated our classroom into something we all love.
      


4. Book Character Parade. We wore our favorite book character come alive.



We definitely love and enjoy this day.

 

Teacher's in their book characters. 

-msjai-

Science Museum

To find more information about how to become a successful "Scientist", my class went to visit the Jilin Science Museum.

        

My students were able to experience how to play with different materials to experiment.

What do you think happens if I press this one?

Which key fits this machine?

How did these bubbles float?

Look at the ball!! It's floating.

It's a dizzy walk at this tunnel.

What happens to your body if you ride this bicycle?

How do you drive a boat like this big?




My class definitely learned the importance of scientific method  when doing experiments.
We all can't wait for our Science Fair Day.

Air Tub Pressure

This is our first official air experiments. My class learned about the six steps by step scientific method when conducting experiments. Yes, the words are difficult to remember but I am confident that day by day they will get the language.

So here I am explaining how steps when doing an experiment. My students began to inquire what are the things in front of them. It was so funny listening to their prediction.

K2: Are we going to cook?
K2: Are we washing the cups?
K2: Can I play with them?

I showed them the red tub, a clear cup, and some newspaper. I told them they will need to use their thinking skills to predict their task. I showed to them that they will put the newspaper in the clear cup and dip in the water. I asked them what they think of the newspaper. Will the paper get wet or not? Most of them said, Yes, it will get wet. While a few said, it won't.

I told them we'll do the experiment and see what will happen.

They were surprise that the paper didn't get wet.

K2: I think I didn't dip the cup enough.
K2: I see there is a white portion here Ms. Jai
K2: Is that the air?

Ms. Jai: Yes. That is the air. There is air pressure every time you try to dip the cup in the water and that prevents the newspaper to get wet.

I couldn't stop them when they said they want to do more.

Play Time with Dice

Mexican Houses

I love having parent volunteer. One of our mom from Mexico visited my class to share different houses in Mexico.

My class learned that in Mexico, houses are built from adobe, bricks, hays, and cement. My class were able to have a hold how each materials looked and felt like.

Thank you for sharing Ale.

-msjai-

Giving Student Choices

“Our students deserve opportunities to grow as critical thinkers, to be given purposeful feedback, to develop their passions and independence in pursuing meaningful work. And sometimes that requires us as teachers to take a step back and just make space.” - Maricela Montoy-Wilson

As a teacher, I really love the idea of empowering my students learning by giving them more voice and choice in the class. Embracing this technique gives my students opportunity to discover and learn on their own phase. Allowing them to make further progress as they understand will give them pleasurable learning journey. Since I am teaching Kindergarten, I thoroughly facilitate my student choices by guiding and directing them to achieve their goals. Here are some activities where my students are fully engaged with their choices. I will state here the process how I have been doing it.

Giving them opportunity to choose research skills. Before we unlock our How We Organize Ourselves unit, my students and I will collect information about what do they know about “Community and Community Helpers” using the KWL approach (Know, Want, Learn). After hearing their ideas, they will be given a task to research and find more information about the unit. As their teacher, I will motivate them by guiding and providing them how they will excel in their planning, collecting data and presenting their research. I will set up the four colored tables in my classroom with the different research approach. (Speaking) Blue table will interview people around the school, (Using technology) red table will use the Ipad to research about community helper together with my teaching assistant, (Using books) green table will use different books, and (Fine motor) the yellow table will use community helper puzzles. When the tables are ready, I will tell my students about the expectations of the activity and our rubrics. They can choose any of the four ways they prefer to research. 

 
- My students need to have a significant purpose in their works and they become engage when they identify their own style to learn. By giving them the opportunity to choose how they want to know more about the community and community helpers will encourage them to work hard particularly knowing that the approach they choose is interesting for them. This approach will increase their self-confidence because they feel competent. They can also discipline their behavior by being aware they belong to a group. Hearing positive feedback will encourage them more.

Task force team of Inquiry. Using my magic Popsicle stick (as we call it in the class), I will call names of students written on the stick to forming their task force team. Each team will select a Community Helper from the brainstorm list. My student’s mission consists of investigating the community helper they choose, explore roles and duties and discover responsibilities in the community. While the teams are busy doing their research, my duty is to remind everyone to stay focus on their work. Assist them when they need additional assistance. When they are finished with their task, we will celebrate it by inviting other classes to listen to our final discovery.
By allowing them to choose from the brainstorm list, it will give my students motivation to do their inquiry and each team member is given a chance to make decisions. This approach will give time for my students to coach and help each other by sharing their ideas. They are given opportunities to enhance their communication skills by creating their own knowledge and giving responses as to what and how they learn. 

Choose different ways to present information about their summative task using different form or media. They will choose a partner to create a presentation of their favorite season of the year. I have given them different approaches to how they can present. Since I am already familiar with my students’ intelligence, I know that some of them will have a role-play, dance to a song, create a diorama, read a storybook, create a weather template using the Ipad, or draw and paint their favorite weather. 

 
This is one of my favorite classroom activities where my students are able to exhibit what they have understood in the unit. This will give students a higher motivation to do their task and will feel more competent because they like what they are doing. When my students are taking ownership of their work, they will feel that their work is very important. When my students take charge of their learning process, they are able to channel their energy into activities that matter.
I also have to add the importance of “Class Jobs” as I have successfully incorporated this approach. My students are given choices to what jobs they can do each week. They choose from Captain Calendar, Snack Stewardess, Paper Passer, Line Leader and Caboose Leader. They feel important when they take responsibility for the class. It gives them opportunity to boost self-esteem. As young as 5, I am really happy with what they can do and how they take their job seriously.

In my kindergarten class, I give emphasize of the importance of their choice as it is a great tool for learning. Giving them privilege of making their own choices gives them the opportunity to learn better. Though, I need to modify these choices according to what they can achieve since they are young to decide. I ensure that I plan accordingly by providing and offering student choices. Some of the successful list that I have done with them include choose their reading buddies, invite students to create questions on our “I Wonder” wall, and add their ideas on our big brainstorm list. I also instill appreciation, tolerance, commitment and creativity. I also ascertain that in each activity done, I provide constructive feedback I truly find this teaching strategy most effective and promote students independence.

Actual activities of K2 students

Jai's Linkedin

Resources:
Schneider, E. (2016). Educational Leadership:Creating a Climate for Learning:Giving Students a Voice in the Classroom. [online] Ascd.org. Available at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept96/vol54/num01/Giving-Students-a-Voice-in-the-Classroom.aspx [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Why it is important that WE identify the cause or causes of a behavior?

Please allow me to share my experience as a mother. I thought I would never have an experience of having problem when my son was young. His teachers would tell me how behave and careful he was. I thought he would be behaving well until he was 3 years of age. We were in a mall shopping for some things for our new house. We were walking and checking some furniture’s in Ikea. Until my son started to cry, scream and roll over the floor for no reason at all. For the first time, I saw my son was having a meltdown. The reason for his breakdown was he saw this big remote control car. At that time, I could not understand what he was saying. He was dragging me to go to the toy and buy it. But I was ignoring what he was trying to tell me. I felt so ashamed as people where gazing at us. I was caught in between. 

That experience with my son helped me to be cautious and be aware once I meet my students if this kind of situation will happen. Actually there are different causes for children’s meltdowns, we have to find the right way to prevent or at least restrain these hostile episodes and it is certainly advantageous to identify the cause.

According to Sara Bean, M.Ed.[1], several parents are still confused of their child’s behavior. Their children can be completely different when they are at home, something has had happen, or something that makes their child upset. There is this emotion that parent doesn’t know how to deal, feel at loss, or a feeling how to stop the outburst. And these feelings are the same observations teacher’s asks when it happens in the classroom.           

In my class, I have observed a variety of behavior. I have a student who excels academically but have poor social skills. I just have to encourage him to play with his classmates during recess. I have another student who cried for four months. It was in his first school in a non-German environment. I think it was so stressful for the both of us. For those months, he just stayed close to me because he was scared he couldn’t understand English. Then there is another boy who exhibits overly active behavior. He keeps everyone annoyed. Either he teases them or bothers them during small group activity. To encourage him to improve his behavior, I have used different strategy like behavior rubric, positive reinforcement, and by just being patient with him because it was obvious he was seeking attention after a new baby came to the family.

As a teacher, it is imperative that we identify the causes of behavior of our students especially when they exhibit the inappropriate behavior. If we can identify these behaviors at an early stage, we can help and assist them to not just hurt themselves but also not to harm their friends and families. The earlier we identify the causes of the behavior, the better chance of giving them the appropriate short and long term solutions to solve the problem. We can teach them better self-management skills, if we distinguish what causes the spark why our students are acting inappropriate behavior. We need to find the best strategies and give them the best approach to solve the situation. 

I always believe that we can do more to treat a behavior, not just with a short-term solution. Our student’s behaviors either good or bad are part of the social skills that every children need to learn to control. Treating or finding the best solutions to the behavior properly can help them tremendously. We can response to a situation with short-term solution however few cases need more attention. For example, fidgeting in class can’t be resolved with a short-term solution. Fidgeting needs a thorough planning to improve it. Although we can give immediate remedy for students talking back to teachers, it will be not sufficient for a short-term solution. These behaviors require a long-term solution in order to guide them and help them increase their behavior to something appropriate. Short-term solution can give an immediate response to a situation however this is not enough. We need to enhance our method and prolong the strategies in guiding the students especially if the child is disruptive, over active or is bullying. 

I believe that it is important that teachers and parent’s work together and share the responsibility of empowering positive behavior, most especially if our students are experiencing problems at school. An open communication with the parents is vital to give effective solutions within the school year or, even if the child moves to the next year level for follow up. When we are discussing defiant behaviors, we have to find proper interventions and address the behavior problems to your colleagues and the school counselor. We need to identify what causes the problem and distinguish different strategies to help, improve the behavior. We also need to make a plan either two weeks or 8 weeks period. For example, if a child can’t follow four steps direction, reduce it to two and then increase the directions weekly. 

[1] https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/how-to-find-the-behavioral-triggers-that-set-your-kid-off/

A Visit to the Dentist

My K2 class enjoyed the visit to a dental clinic near our school.

The staff in the clinic showed us how to take care of our teeth. They prepared a beautiful short story about the teeth.

They showed us different apparatus they need when working with our teeth.

The cool part was that they allowed us to be real dentist. Isn't that cool?

What an amazing day!

-msjai