NUACHTÁN ELEMENTARY | December 2020
Emotional learnings…
LIFE IS AMAZING | By Paola Hernández
The days go by, they feel the same, the routine settles, and the calendar is the one that alerts us that time passes by. The pandemic continues, and with it, the care measures that we already know. Life is as it is, and yet, life is lived as we perceive it, as we approach to it.
An anxious and apprehensive personality will live tense events and situations full of disgust. A positive personality will be able to identify the good fortune of each day and will have more elements to deal with the vicissitudes of circumstances. To do this, it is important to strengthen our temperaments and our will, to develop our resilience capacity. We have been working with children to recognize that life is amazing. Children keep acknowledging that their parents, pets, and toys are wonderful.
During the psychopedagogy class, we worked with the perspective of a small and friendly alien, with the fantasy of discovering all the wonders that he could find visiting our home.
Kurzfilm: Wombo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSbTnBB9-II
Of course, children have the capacity for amazement, which is not in doubt. It is adults who must renew our gaze in the experiences we have because despite the diseases, death, economic crises and other challenges to be covered, life is still simply amazing and beautiful.
Mason-John & Groves point it out as an urgent reminder in our lives. ‘That this life is precious’. That means we’re lucky to have had birth as humans. We can lead ourselves to a rich and fulfilling life. Even if we are born into a family with rooted problems, we can cut with history and family pathology. We don’t know how long we will be on this planet, but we do know that we are living now, right now, and this present moment is an opportunity to change.
We share some images with you:
Applying the PYP…
MAKING CONNECTIONS WITH CONCEPTS AND LANGUAGE USAGE
During the unit ‘Survival’, 6th-grade students learned about ancient civilizations such as the Sumeria and the civilization of the Indo Valley and its legacies. One of the activities they developed was to write in a journal one day in their lives as if they were living at that time.
They chose an invention that is still used today and talked about it to understand how, despite being invented so long ago, it became a legacy as we continue using it nowadays.
Hi, my name is Isa and I live in Sumer
I just came back from school, and it was a very fun day because we learned how to make an instrument made of wood and then they taught us how to play it, so now I know how to play an instrument, of course I play in honor of the gods.
My dad invented sandals himself. I’m very proud of him because now the whole village can walk normal and don’t have to worry about stepping on something that can hurt themselves.
In my normal day, I speak Sumerian, but at school, they are teaching us to speak English so I’m writing this in English to practice but also, I love speaking English.
I have to help my mom keeping my home clean and tidy.I hope that the person who read this get to know me a little better and to imagine my life in Sumer.
Isa Heredia 6° ‘A’
PRE FIRST STUDENTS ARE REFLECTING ON THE CHARACTERISTICS AND QUALITIES OF LIVING BEINGS, AS WELL AS THE BENEFITS WE CAN GAIN FROM THEM
In the image, we can see the mental map they made about the animal kingdom. Of the four animals that we proposed, students drew and wrote the different products we obtain from them.
Within the second Unit of Inquiry in 4th grade, whose Central Idea is: ‘The exploitation of resources affects the development of a country’, students worked on the following learning experience. They remembered a time when they experienced a lack of resources (water or gas ran out, the light went out).
They reflected and wrote about how they felt, what they did, and how they solved the problem. Then, they shared reflections with the rest of the class, connecting their experience with the related concept of ‘resource’ and also became aware of the importance of resources and their proper exploitation, developing critical thinking, communication, and social skills.
APPLYING THE PYP ONLINE | Miss Laura Espinosa
During the pandemic, parents, students, and teachers are working with the new modality and challenges involved in learning online by moving from face-to-face learning into the virtual world. Carrying out the activities of the PYP online, requires designing them by taking the curriculum into account, with precise concepts and dynamism according to the needs of our students, contributing to minimize the difficulties, as learning becomes more visual.
The PYP considers six approaches designed to give teachers the flexibility to choose and use the specific strategies in our context and what our students require. Let us remember that inquiry-based learning in the PYP allows students to seek the information and requirements for building their understanding of the concepts addressed in each Unit as part of the daily routine in our online classes.
Another approach that the PYP considers is the conceptual understanding that allows students to establish connections and transfer learnings to new scenarios. Effective teamwork and collaboration are still present in this virtual scenario. Students develop learning in our virtual classrooms in local and global contexts as real-life examples are used, as well as various means that enable the relationship of previous knowledge with new experiences not only in their immediate environment but in the world. We design learning experiences and activities to overcome barriers.
Teaching in our virtual classrooms is guided by assessment because it allows constant measurements of learning in our children, so it is continuous and relevant. Considering these six approaches to teaching, teachers al Celta have made the PYP a reality by overcoming obstacles and challenges during the pandemic. Although it has not been easy and we still have a long way to go, we are sure that we have given our best effort contributing to our children’s learning experiences, despite the distance, being significant and relevant.
DATES TO REMEMBER
• DECEMBER 4th – Lighting up the Christmas tree
• DECEMBER 11th – Class Adjourn CTE
• DECEMBER 18th – Christmas Event | Short day: 12:30pm
• DECEMBER 21st – Christmas Holiday | Vacation
• JANUARY 11th – Back to school