As a provocation for the unit, “Where We Are in Place and Time”, Grade 5 did not expect the surprise waiting for them in the classroom on Monday, August 17th, 2020. The students sat down to find the accouterments for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich displayed at the front of the room. Mr. Russell moved robotically around the room. Then, he introduced himself as the latest and greatest in robotic technology. 

The challenge presented was for the students to take an everyday task then break it down into instructions for the robot to execute. Hilarity ensued when, while following the instructions given for drinking a glass of water, the robot simply put the whole glass into its mouth. The instruction read simply, “put the glass into your mouth”, while the following instruction read “drink the water.”

This activity illustrated that the majority of our communication is implied, and why the words we choose are important. One person instructs another person to put something “on that shelf over there” when knowing that said shelf is actually a bookcase. The same is not true for a computer or robot, which only does exactly what it is told. It cannot understand what one meant to tell it. Students quickly understood the activity, then began to refine their instructions.

Eventually, an algorithm, or ready made solution to a problem, was designed. This allowed the students to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Each student robot completed their sandwich making task successfully. Thankfully, enjoying the sandwiches themselves wasn’t bound by any robotic instructions. 

The central idea of this unit is language has been used throughout history to record experiences. In this activity, the students explored how we express ourselves implicitly without thinking about the meaning of the words.  

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Our K1 learners at Wells Bang Na are exploring their new unit of inquiry. And this unit is Where We Are in Place and Time. The central idea is celebrations occur around the world at different times. As we tuned into this unit, we set up a provocation station to showcase the different facets of celebrations. We invited our parents to visit our school. Then, they presented culture celebrations to our class. The students enjoyed this very much. And this activity helped our young learners understand the line of inquiries: time, seasons and the form and function of celebrations.

Chinese New Year

To kick off our unit we celebrated the New Year’s Eve countdown in our class. Since Chinese New Year was approaching, we asked one of the parents from the K1B class to present Chinese culture and traditions. Mr. Francis, Hang-Hang’s dad, shared with us about the legend of Nian. He explained why people wear red clothes, and decorate their homes with red lanterns during this time of celebration.

Setsubun Festival

Last Monday, we invited Akane-San, one of the parents from K1A class, to present the Setsubun Festival. This is a fun Japanese festival celebrated before the first day of spring. Students participated in role playing activities by throwing beans at the naughty ogre called ‘oni’ in Japanese. K1 students tasted roasted soybeans in a small oni cup made by Yuki and her Mom Akane-San.

Hanukkah

Moving on to another celebration around the world, we invited Mr. Aylon Spigel, Ella’s dad from the K1A class, to share the Jewish festival of lights called Hanukkah. Mr. Aylon told us a short story about the Menorah, the candelabra used for the Jewish festival. Again, the curious students asked many questions such as “if the candles were for their birthday.”

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Next, we learned about the celebration everyone loves- birthdays! We celebrated our January and February birthdays in class. This unit is exciting and fun for our students. They are interacting with different cultural celebrations. This enables them to be open minded learners. Our students will develop understanding and learn how to appreciate traditions from around the world.

By Queenie Lively

The post K1: Where We Are in Place and Time first appeared on �ۿ۴�ý | American International School - Wells.

The post K1: Where We Are in Place and Time appeared first on �ۿ۴�ý | American International School - Wells.