Culture Day

 Our school community celebrated Culture Day! 

Culture Day is always a special event at our diverse school.

With great pride and excitement, the preschoolers came to school in their cultural clothes, made up of beautiful patterns, vibrant colours and unique symbolism. It was wonderful to see them discussing the similarities and differences between some of the clothing.

By now, the preschoolers have become professional flag-makers, as they easily made their home country's flag to wave during the parade!

The preschoolers outdid themselves by performing their "colour" dance! 

🎵 🎶 Before you came into my life, everything was black and white... Now all I see is colour, like a rainbow in the sky! 🎶🎵

A very big thank you to Malin's mom, Marie for being our main dance choreographer! The preschoolers, Ms Chinatsu, Mr Brabant and I acted as supporting choreographers.

The preschoolers were enthralled by the cultural performances by students, teachers and visitors.

Culture Day was a wonderful learning engagement for these knowledgeable inquirers! Next week, the preschoolers will switch on the research hats and settle into the finding out phase of our unit of inquiry.

Have a wonderful, love-filled Valentine's Day tomorrow! 💘

Ms Theona

Celebrating 100 days of Preschool!

The preschoolers have been counting for months, waiting to the special milestone... 100 days of preschool! As our current Who We Are unit is about celebrations, it was the perfect opportunity to celebrate this precious milestone. 

Balloons, music and dancing, yummy snacks, fun activities... we made sure to include all the fun things into our celebration.

The preschoolers enjoyed reading Dr Seuss's The 100 Hats of the Cat in the Hat: A Celebration of the 100th Day of School. The book got us counting in up until 100 in all sorts of ways. Counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s was so much fun.

They used their imagination to think about what they would look like and what they would be doing when they are 100 years old. Their dynamic literacy skills helped them to write sentences describing themselves as 100 years old. 

No celebration is complete without dancing, so we danced and boogied for 100 seconds (and more). 

The preschoolers snacked on delicious fruit.

Followed by making colourful paper crowns to show off their 100 days achievement.

Congratulations on being 100 days smarter, Busy Bees! Here is to the next 100!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, 

Ms Theona

🐝

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