Houses and Homes

What a wonderful time we have been having in Upper Pre-Primary. The children have all settled into the class and have become great friends. There is a constant buzz of activity in the class with the children driven by excitement to learn more. In September we had a little mini project on apples. The children learnt about the parts of a tree and drew beautiful apple trees. With the yummy apples Alba brought to school, we made delicious apple crumble.

Our first IPC unit of work this year has been ‘Houses and Homes’. So much learning and activities have happened in the class surrounding this topic. We kicked off with a super ‘entry point’. The children had to go on a little hunt, around the school to find six envelopes. Each envelope contained a challenge the children had to complete before finding out where to search for the next envelope. In the final envelope the children found the ‘magic key’ which opened a room that contained different materials from which they could build houses. The search for the envelopes brought them to Ms. Jenny’s class, the music room, the lunchroom, Ms. Ellen’s office, the sports hall and then a little locked room in the sports hall. They were so happy to find the key and unlock the door! The children had to work together in groups to build their houses. Wonderful!

During the unit we looked at the children’s own homes, but we also learnt about different types of houses around the world – mud houses, stilt houses, log cabins, barges, igloos, tepees, bungalows, apartment buildings. We learnt about the continents of the world and looked on the map to find where you would find specific houses. We also looked at some famous buildings like the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel tower. We had interesting discussions about houses long ago, how they were different and how they did not have electricity. The children also learnt about how the first people made their homes in caves. They enjoyed learning about their lives and made their own caves from clay. They also painted beautiful cave paintings. The children designed their own house with a box, deciding where to put the windows and doors and what colour to paint it. During the unit they have had lots of fun playing with these houses. They also painted their own street called ’Rainbow street’ with beautiful unique houses. To get inspiration for making and drawing houses we went on a walk in our neighbourhood. We even passed by Spandan and Aura’s houses to say hi to the Mums. We had lots of fun comparing houses and reading house numbers.

The children loved the story of the ‘Three little pigs’ so we decided to make the three houses-the house of straw, the house of sticks and the house of bricks. The children all had turns at acting out the story. They were super happy to do the show for Lower Pre-Primary!

To end our unit on ‘Houses and Homes we had a quiz. The children were very excited to take part in their first quiz and answer all the questions. It was a wonderful way to celebrate their learning. I hope you were all very happy with the surprise letter, the children sent you in the post!

Besides all the work on houses and homes the children have made great progress in their language and numeracy work.

Both Celia and I were very, very proud of the children when they performed their poems at the school assembly. They all participated, were composed, and did their best.

Well done to all the children for a great first half term! They are now all very excited getting ready for Halloween! They have been singing songs and making crafts!

Have a lovely holiday everyone!

Love Ms. Mia