Elephant and Piggie

Hello from PYP 2!!

This week is the beginning of Unit 2. This unit is all about storytelling. 
PYP 2 students will be exploring many different books, authors, 
parts of a story and ways to tell stories. 

This week we have been concentrating on the author Mo Willems 

and the books he wrote about Elephant and Piggie. 

    

With these books are we looking at characters in a story. We are listing things that we know about the characters. In these books the main characters are Gerald (the elephant) and Piggie. The students are discussing what they learn about these characters as they are listening and participating in the stories. 

In PYP Beta we read the book Elephants Cannot Dance and the students acted out various parts of the book. 

Piggie is dancing. 

Piggie runs up and yells, "Gerald!"

Gerald is surprised.

Gerald says, "Elephants cannot dance."

Piggie says, "I can teach you!!!"

Gerald tries to dance.

Everything Piggie says to do Gerald does the opposite.

Here Piggie told elephant to lean backwards but elephant leaned forward. 

The students in all PYP 2 classes are having a lot of fun with Gerald and Piggie. Ask them at home to tell you about the stories. 

PYP 2 is learning to read and write!

The children in PYP 2 are learning to read and write phonetically. 
Every letter has a sound (except for the vowels, which are the only letters with two sounds). They start by working on the beginning sounds in words, followed by recognising the last sounds. As the students develop these skills, they start trying to recognise middle sounds in short-phonetic words, such as cat, dog and pen. Once they learn to recognise the sounds and place the letters in the correct sequence, they will try to sound out each letter in a word and eventually blend them together, reading a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) word.

Everyday in PYP 2, the students work with words and letters in different contexts.

Take a look at some pictures from PYP 2 Sigma!

 They work with their notebooks or worksheets with teacher's support.

They tell stories and listen to stories told by their friends or teachers

They might choose to work with a friend on different hands-on activities.

 And in their independent time, the students might choose to work on different class activities, such as sorting, building pictures using different shapes, 
painting and practical life activities.

And at home? 
Are the children interested in letters, sounds, words, stories?
We highly recommend reading to and with children and exploring the 
world of letters, sounds and words... Enjoy the journey!

Hands on Maths

Maths Experiments and Experiences

This week, we learned about weight in PYP 2.
Our goal is to teach mathematics through experiences where students explore and
discuss concepts to gain a deeper understanding.

Students drew pictures of items and animals, they then worked together in pairs to
 decide whether the items were light or heavy, and discussed where they
would be sequenced on a balance scale.


Take a look at PYP 2 Omega students at work!
 And after the pictures you will find some interesting links to further explore WEIGHT at home.

Students explored using a balance to determine relative weight, with common classroom objects

We practiced the technique on making your body a balance to make predictions.

We then tested our predictions...

.
..and recorded the data.

We explored personal connections to weight by visiting the nurse and using the scale to record our weight in kilograms. Then we compared our weight to other students in class.


Visiting the nurse and using the big scale was the highlight of the investigation for all groups.
You can also encourage your child to use this concept 
of weight at home in many different fun ways. 

Check out some ideas:

Clothes Hanger Scale

Simple Wooden Balance

Cooking