Grade 5 EAL Students Working On and Proudly Sharing their First Narrative Writing Pieces for This School Year

Students first listened to a narrative text and then discussed what makes a personal story interesting. Then, the students thought about an interesting true story that had happened to them and shared it orally with the others.  After that, they started drafting their narrative pieces.  With support from Ms. Mitsui, the writing pieces were then edited and finally a good copy was written.

Welcome Back to School

After a whirlwind first few days of seeing old friends and classmates, meeting new ones, exploring the new additions to the building, settling in to new classes and routines, and building a sense of excitement for the year to come, students have settled down to the business of learning.

This week, students have been working with the Seisen Learner Profile to help set expectations, establish goals, and view the profile in a larger, global context.

Firstly, students spent time familiarising themselves with the profile. Students worked individually, in groups and in pairs to define each of the profile's meaning and gather any related words. In addition, students created characters to help bring the profile to life. Have a look at the description below each character.

Reflector-san's clock runs backwards because he is always thinking about his past actions.

Pencils for limbs, a notebook for a body and a computer for a head, Mr. Investigate is certainly an inquirer.

His head is a speaker so he can speak loudly and clearly, his arms are traffic lights to communicate nonverbally, and his ears are large to help him listen intently, an important attribute of a good communicator.

Mr Thinker needs all that hair to cover his large brain. His hands are a notebook and pencil to help him organize all his thoughts.

Students also began tuning in to their first Unit of Inquiry, under the theme of Sharing the Planet.

Students were shown images and quotes relating to peace and conflict and were asked to have a silent conversation about the images. Images were posted around the room and students wandered from image to image adding their thoughts and responding to classmates thoughts.

Here are the images students responded to.  What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.  

              

                 Students begin to respond to the images.

The first student bravely adds her thoughts.

A student reads other people's thoughts before adding her own.

Students contemplating the image.

One waits while the other adds her thoughts.

            What the conversation looked like when finished.

Students notice the blue UN logo and debate the plight of refugees.

This image is a bit harder to decipher. One student comments that "She must be brave!"  I agree.

From one thought came many.
 Besides expressing shock and sadness, students wonder who did this and why was it done to a child. 

As a follow up activity and a way of connecting the learner profile to our current unit of inquiry, students were asked to choose which profile characteristics should be a focus for this unit. Communicators, Collaborators, and Balanced were among the ones chosen. See the student discussions below.

Ask your daughter which profile characteristic she chose.