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A celebration of learning | Understanding our world

17 Mar 2022
 
 

EY1 Matters

 
 

 

       

 

We are currently focused on the sensory exploration of the environment and the world around us. EY1 children show us their naturally inquisitive minds while observing and asking questions. They are very interested in looking, listening, and touching the new resources we added throughout the room –feathers, straw mat, stones, shells, tubes, and bags with various coloured liquids inside. 

The balcony area is very popular at the moment, with a new provocation – hay bales. The challenge is to find different ways of climbing and balancing on the bales of hay before jumping into the sandpit. Children have used their problem-solving skills, added wooden blocks and planks, and worked together to support each other.

 

 

 
 

EY2 Matters

 
 

 

 

EY2 children were inspired by a wood-block model Hiba Academy Hangzhou made by Louis. After Louis hosted a question-and-answer session to explain his creation, we decided to go outside and look at our vast campus. What can we see? We were surprised by just how many things surround us, and often they go unnoticed unless we take the time to stop and look. After this, we looked at making models using something different from blocks. A glue gun, sticks, and a group of determined children worked together to build an impressive structure that they were very proud of when presenting their work to our class.

 

       

 
 

EY3 Matters

 
 

 

 

 

EY3 children received some very special mail this week. They were from Year 1A at Wellington College International Hangzhou. Year 1A children invited our children to become reading buddies with them. They wanted us to come and visit them to see their school and share books with them. We wrote letters back with class teachers together. The following day, some of the children visited WCIH to deliver the letters to Year 1A and see an old friend – Ms Talia. 

This visit is an excellent opportunity for us in many ways. Transitions are important for all children, which is even more true when it comes to moving schools. At the end of EY3, some of our children will be moving over to WCIH. By starting this process early, we allow the children to see where they are going and get excited about the move, removing the mystery and fear that might come with entering a new and larger school. This transition is also important for the children who are moving into EY4. It lays the very first step of understanding their journeys and that at the end of the following year, they will be moving into a new school, too.

 

 
 

EY4 Matters

 
 

 

 

In English sessions, we have been learning more about story writing. The children have substantial knowledge and understanding of specific story words in our storytelling and writing. Therefore, we have begun to challenge them further by thinking about how we plan a story. We have focused on four key aspects that are needed in every story. These are who (the characters), where (the setting), when (the time), and what happens (an event). The children have used story squares with these key question words to plan their own stories. They have then had a go at telling their story verbally or writing, remembering to use the key story words too.