Ms. Faye's Perky Preschool Blog

Research is what I'm doing, when I don't know what I'm doing!  - Wernher von Braun-  Students, as early as preschool are being prepared to different ways for researching. One of the ATLs (Approaches to Learning) in this unit is the Research Skill.   T his skill prepares the mind to develop comprehension, memory and understand theories and concepts. It also helps them strengthen their time management and problem solving skills.  This week, the preschoolers chose an animal that they will become an expert in and started researching about it . They used multiple resources such as books and videos.    While watching an informative video, they applied note-taking skills to gather information. They listened and to keep their notes organised, they were taught outlining using bullet points, illustrations, labels, diagrams to record important information.        You could see how their skills are already evident as early as 5 and 6 year olds!...

  LIFE CYCLE round.. goes around and around.. never ends... repeats... -Perky Preschool- It is amazing how everyone (children and adults) gets hooked when talking about life. The depth and perspectives of the conversation vary between child and adult's but both agree on one thing - that life is full of wonder! Based on their questions, the students started researching informations about some of these wonderings: "Why do animals and other living things die?" - Leanna " Why do animals kill each other?" - Kai,  "Why do fish and sharks kill other small fishes?" - Mathieu Several prompts, videos, books and examples helped them gain an understanding about  FOOD CHAIN.  Together we came up with a the meaning. It is a process where organisms depend on each other for food.  It is when energy is transferred to other living things.  They discovered that a chain involves   Producers  who makes their own food.  Consumers    are organisms...

'Unless someone like you  care a whole awful lot,  nothing is going to get better. It's not.' - The Lorax -  Dr. Seuss What an exciting week it has been!  As we move on to the Finding Out stage in our unit, the class chose the book 'The Lorax'  for our read-a-loud. They made 'connections' to our current unit and the students were inspired by the story.  I had to step back to let them continue on steering our class learning.  They inquired and talked about the word 'POLLUTION'. Questions came up:  Why is pollution happening? Why do some people only care about themselves? How can they let this happen? They drew and wrote down their thoughts about this topic to share to the school community.  UNIT OF INQUIRY Observation skills is not just simply 'looking' or just 'seeing' things, it can be very specific and children learn how to recognize the importance of things around them.  Noticing - a very important skill of a  researcher.  I...

COMMUNICATOR  Learner Profile: I am confident and creative when talking about my ideas. I can share and receive information in more than one way. I am learning more than one language. I listen to others. - IB PYP - PICTURE SORT The Preschoolers were given a task to sort the different animals. There have been several versions of the sorting which sparked a very meaningful conversation between the students.  They sorted it according to colors, size, movements, the place they live.... They kept on moving the animals around and explained the reasons. Their conversation was a beautiful revelation of how the Preschoolers have developed as good communicators! They agreed and disagreed with one another.  They took turns, asked and answered questions.  It was beautiful!  UNIT BOOKS 'As part of my curiosity - sparking tools, I often collect books related to our unit and have a small area for our unit books in the classroom.  The books are used throughout the unit.' -...