Prevention is better than cure

The students of Grade 4 are going to begin inquiring about the different kinds of diseases under the Transdisciplinary Theme- Who we are. On 31st of August, 2012, the students had the opportunity to interact with Ms. Caroline Gowlett, a parent and a Clinical Lead Nurse, who spoke to the students about the different kinds of diseases and their prevention. She made the students aware about some common Communicable, Non- Communicable and Lifestyle diseases. She supported her interaction with a PowerPoint Presentation which had a lot of information. Ms. Gowlett focused on the need for hygiene in terms of Hand Wash and how neglecting it can lead to a lot of diseases. The students were enthusiastic to gain information and were excited to ask a lot of questions. The interaction left the students with plenty to ponder over and carry out their personal inquiries on health and diseases. 

Healthy Post Boxes

The students used slips of paper to write down the importance of the five factors contributing to health. They then put them into the correct post boxes. The students were divided into groups - Food & water, Hygiene, Recreation, Exercise and Sleep & Rest. They had to take all the slips out of the respective post boxes and use them to create a chart about the health component and present their understanding about the same. They also had to think of the possible consequences if that component is removed from the healthy factors. The students presented their work using the charts and role plays.

Collective work on Collective Nouns

The students were introduced to Collective Nouns through an activity in which they had to match pictures to collective noun words. They worked on this as a class and put their heads together to find the right collective nouns for the right groups of animals. It was fun and the students were amazed at some of the strange collective nouns like 'a murder of crows' and 'smack of jellyfish'.

Eid Mubarak

Thinking of you fondly, Farid!

Eid Mubarak to you and your family from all of us in Grade 4X.

Comparison of Food Pyramids

Today the students were given a task of comparing two Food Pyramids, new and old. The students had to complete a jigsaw puzzle on the food pyramids, come up with what they thought the pictures were - most had already guessed they were food pyramids- and then write down the similarities and differences between the two. It was heartening to witness the students' thinking and analytical skills and they were able to come up with all the similarities and differences very quickly. 

OLD FOOD PYRAMID

NEW FOOD PYRAMID

Sharing our ideas.

We are almost ready

The jigsaws completed

Common and Proper Nouns

The students were introduction to nouns using a game where students had to list down ten nouns from outside the classroom. The students then needed to group the words in two columns in any way they wanted and explain the reason behind the grouping. This brought about a lot of grouping like Living and Non living, school properties and people and finally Common and Proper Nouns. A discussion on common and proper nouns was held in class and a task sheet on the same is given to them for the weekend. 

Prior knowledge - Parts of speech

To assess the prior knowledge of Parts of Speech the students were given a set of words and asked to sort them according to any way they wanted but the groups had to make sense and the students had to explain their grouping. It was an eye opener for me as I realized that the students had not revised much over the holidays. A quick recap was done in the class and all the learning came rushing back. The activity concluded with a sign language game wherein the students had to do different activities for the different parts of speech words I read out in class. 

Sorting the words.

Discussion time

Working in groups is fun.

Sorting the words in groups. 

Engrossed in their work

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3