Culture Houses, Flags and Research

Culture Houses

Our cultures are personal and special. 

Our cultures and traditions come alive in the way we live, and the people we live with and around. Therefore, our cultures live in our homes. 

The preschoolers, with the help of parents, created their own culture houses. Their houses included the country that are from, and the clothes, food and celebrations from their country's culture. With great pride, the preschoolers shared their special houses with their classmates.

Flags and Research

The inquirers came up with the question for their research task: 

Which countries/cultures are represented in our school?

The preschoolers worked in groups of two or three, and used their finest creative skills to create their data sheets. 

Once their research paperwork was complete, it was time to practice how to interview students. The preschoolers took turns practicing the different roles - the speaker, the counter and the writer.

Then it was time to switch their researcher hats on and to start gathering information. 

The young inquirers were responsible and brave as they carried out their research. Thank you to the students and teachers for warmly welcoming the preschoolers into their classrooms!

The preschoolers will collate all the gathered data next week, and continue their finding out stage.

 Posture class with Mr Didier

The preschoolers enjoyed taking part in the Spring Posture Challenge with our resident physiotherapist, Mr Didier! 

Enjoy your weekend! 

See you at the Three-Way Conferences next week! 😊

Ms Theona

Celebrations and Cultures

 Last week, the preschoolers continued tuning in to our Who We Are unit. We discussed what we know about celebrations.

"What is a celebration?"

"What does it mean to celebrate?"

"Why do we celebrate?"

The preschoolers were presented with a gallery walk, using photos of different special events. Using their own personal experiences with their friends and family, the preschoolers showed how knowledgeable they are as they did a See, Think, Wonder thinking routine.

The preschoolers chose a particular celebration to draw a detailed picture of. They made sure to include all the necessary elements of their particular celebration, as well. Elements such as shiny balloons, music for dancing, delicious food and yummy cake. Celebrations are occasions where people are laughing and smiling but sometimes there are always tears.

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This week, we tuned into what culture means. Again, the preschoolers showed that they have some idea of what the concept means.

"It's different things to do in different countries."

"It is about special events." 

"It is about different countries."

After some discussion and research, we settled on that culture is the way that people live together; the food that they eat, the celebrations that they have, the languages that they speak, etc. 

We began thinking about the different cultures represented in our Busy Bee class;

German, Chinese, Japanese, Canadian, South African, American and Korean. The preschoolers even spoke about how some of them have more than one culture. 

Food usually has powerful and strong ties to cultures, as it connects us to our culture's heritage and history. We looked at different foods from different cultures. The preschoolers 'made' a plate of their favourite foods and the food that they usually eat with their families. 

It was interesting to see that the preschoolers did not just choose foods related to their culture, but also foods from other countries and cultures. 

This was a reminder to us that we can, and should, share our cultures with others. We may all be different but there is so much to learn and enjoy from each others' cultures!

Next week, preschoolers will start their research phase.

Keep warm, and have an awesome weekend!

Ms Theona

Who We Are

Hello, 2026!

The preschoolers returned to school from the winter break with a skip in their step. To welcome the opportunities that the new year comes with, the preschoolers used their thinking skills to set their own personal goals for the year. 

We spoke about what we can do to help each other achieve the goals that we have set. The preschoolers committed to supporting each other by checking in regularly with their friends about the skill that they seek to acquire and they promised to help motivate one another to practice the craft that they seek to improve. 

I look forward to seeing them be each other's cheerleaders!

Who We Are

The preschoolers kicked off their new unit of inquiry, Who We Are.

The big idea for this unit is understanding that personal cultures, beliefs and traditions help us celebrate similarities and differences.

We started to discuss what the words differences and similarities mean. The students provided interesting examples to describe what these two words mean. A few students even pointed out that the word 'different' can be seen in the words differences, and that the word 'similar' can be seen in 'similarities'. 

To find out some of the differences and similarities that the preschoolers have in comparison to their friends, they asked each other a series of questions.

Using the Venn diagram as a tool, the students were able to clearly display the responses that were the same, and those that were different. Their inquiring minds, creativity skills and exciting spelling skills helped them produce informative diagrams.

Next week, we will tune-in deeper into the complex words in our central idea.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Ms Theona

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