How we organise ourselves

Post the Diwali break we set out to inquire on our 3rd Unit on Inquiry. Our third unit is under the theme  - How we Organise Ourselves.  The central idea that we will be exploring over the next 6 weeks is -  The food we eat goes through many processes and journeys before it reaches our table.

Tuning in 

                                                                         Day 1

We started by a treasure hunt. We went around the class and looked for food items around the class. 

Once we had gathered them we sorted them into pairs giving our reasons for the pairing. 

Day 2 

We looked at pictures of raw materials and brainstormed what are the different things we can make from that.

Day 3 

We looked at magazines and newspapers and found pictures of food products. We then sorted them in to "natural food" and "man made food"

Day 4

We looked at what food we had in our snack boxes. We shared with our buddies if the snack was natural or man made.  We listed the same and then with our buddies brainstormed of how we think those food products were made.

Day 5

We took on some cooking. We made Jelly and Paneer.  While we were making these food products we made a not of what were all the changes that the food had undergone till it was ready for us to eat.  We learnt that these changes were also called processes.

Unfolding the central idea. 

We were ready to unfold our central idea. Based on our past few days we were asked to write down what we thought our central idea meant in our words.

Finding out 

Field trip 1

To find out where the different foods in out houses came form we set off to the Food Hall to gather out data. We looked around and made a note of all the different regions, cities, states, continents our food traveled to come to our table.

We came back and shared what we had found out with our friends. Post that we set off to map out what we had found out  on the maps of the world and India. 

Sharing our findings

Sorting out

We moved on to understanding what are the changes that a food product has to go through before we can eat them.

We started off by reading a book - The Strawberry. This story showed us the steps that are needed to grow a strawberry. 

We then went on to learn more about the same through presentations, board games, interactive games and other activities.

Showing the process of different products

Field trip 2
To understand more about the same we went over to visit Fly Over farms. We were surprised to see that food can even be grown on top of a terrace. 

We began by seeing that flowers can also be eaten. We ate blue pea flower. It tasted just like peas. 


We then went on to explore the farm and look at the different food plants and trees growing.

We also learnt about good soil. We learnt that good soil has a combination of  coco soil, clay soil and compost. We mixed the same in the required quantity. 

Look at the fun we had while doing so -

Once our soil  was ready we were ready to grow some food.

We also planted the saplings and brought them back to school to observe the process from farm to table.

While on the tour we also harvested things for making our natural herb tea. We collected blue pea flowers, ginger leaves, lemon grass and Thai basil flowers. 

We washed them......brewed them to make tea........ added lemon .....Voila. We had made tea right from the "farm to our table" Cheers!!

Field trip 3

To understand how the food is processed we  visited the Monginis cake factory.



We saw the entire process of how flour is made into a yummilicous cake. 

We decorated our own cupcakes and had our own mini celebration too.

Reflecting on the processes raw materials go through to become a product

Stay tuned to see how we take our inquiry further....

Language

In Literacy we are learning about Instructional writing

On the first day back from the break, we were given a blank paper and were asked to read the message on the paper.  Confused we didn't know how to read the message.

We were then shown a few steps that helped us to find a way to read the hidden message.

Post that we were shown instructions for making our own football field.  

We tried and tried but we could not make the football field. Soon we realized the instructions were not in order.

Finally we were successful when we got the right instructions in the right order.

Over the next few days we explored different sets of instructions. Through this we made a list of all the features of instructional writing. 

We took on writing instructions for normal day to day activities like making jam sandwich, brushing our teeth etc...

Learning how to make a paper plane

Coding

We learnt about what coding meant. Guess what, we actually gave the computers some instructions!! 

A peek into some of our codes

Math

In Math, we have been exploring the concept of measurement.

We started by digging into what we already knew about the concept of length, weight and capacity

Capacity

We began by exploring what is the unit of measuring capacity. We looked at containers of food items we use regularly to see in what quantity it reached our tables.

Faced with a problem

To understand better the concept we were faced with a problem. We explored the capacity of each to find out the appropriate solution.

Exploring the concept through different activities, working with problems, interactive games and hands on activities.

We summed up out learning by creating a magic potion which was not more than 600 ml and then wrote down instructions of how to make the same.

Length

Provocation to make us think about what we already know about length....

We started by measuring with non standardized units of measurement. We measured different things in the classroom with our hand spans and foot span. We soon realized we needed to have a unit which was standard and universal.

We measured different objects with meter sticks, We looked at the scale to understand different units used to measure length.

We were given different lines to measure. A problem was posed in front of us to measure a curvy line. Through trial and error we figured out how to measure the same.

Working on length problems

We flew the planes we made and measured the distance it had flown

Here is a sneak peek ....

We also learnt that the perimeter is the measurement if the distance around something. We used our understanding of length. Measure the sides of the shapes and then added the length to find out what the perimeter was.

Assembly time

This week we had some foot tapping performances put up by the PYP. It was a fun filled assembly. 

Take a peek into one of the performances.