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Ecologically Aware
Hi,

Just wanted to pass on some cute observations from my daughter, who just completed the unit Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle for grade 3.

1. She has shut off the water while I am brushing my teeth. 2. She was taking a shower one night, and I noticed that she wasn't in too long and the water shut off. So I told her that she couldn't possibly be clean and she needed to take a longer shower. She told me she wasn't finished and that she shut off the water to conserve.. 3. She tells all of us to turn the lights off when we leave a room. 4. And, last but not least, I am often reminded of non-renewable resources.

Have a great holiday!!

__**Concerning my 3rd grader **__
 When doing his unit on reduce, reuse, recycle, my son started to introduce a couple of new things into our daily routines. He pointed out that he would prefere yogurt in recyclable glass containers instead of the 4 pack of plastic containers he usually eats. He said it would be a waste and we could easily change that. He also has made sure that I feel really bad when I forgot my shopping bags and buy a plastic one, he even told me in order to avoid this, he would encourage me to put the canvas shopping bags next to the door so I would not forget them.

He now has reduced his minutes in the shower since he saw how many bottles of water one can fill with the running water. This has made it easier to get ready....

As for my other PYP son - I dont know if it is related with the unit but he has been showing an intense interest in inventions. It hasnt led to many actions but it has raised great discussions and experiments at the dinner table and a lot of looking things up on how they work (also at the dinner table which does not please my manner-obsessed husband who now has children that when not knowing something will get up to bring the labtop to the table...) He was trying to figure out a way how one would not need to drive a car on the motorway anymore but instead be hooked onto some sort of rails. He thought about this for a long time and when the last weeks Time magazine had an article on the 50 best inventions of 2010 he actually found something very similar there.

SVB

**Grade: 1st Grade**
My son has become a prolific writer. He has really developed a sense of need and his ability to communicate his ideas in print. Any evening or weekend, he regularly reaches for a pen, pencil or felt-tip and writes on paper from our printer or on the backs of cereal boxes or on tissue paper from kitchen or bathroom. On this occasion, my son had a plan. The audience for this piece of writing was his whole family. The purpose - to get us out and about and more active during the coming weekend. He organised the writing well. The paper was divided into four quadrants (one for each family member.) Each quadrant had a family member name as an __underlined__ title. Each followed a similar list/instruction pattern.



In school, my son had been learning about the human body and healthy life-styles. 1st grade were working on their unit under the transdisciplinary theme "Who We Are" and with the central idea that //Healthy lifestyles are the result of making informed choices.// This first grader was bringing his learning home by helping us all to consider the healthy choices we should be making.

A Drinking Solution
At our recent Parent Teacher Conference my Primary son's teacher (probably //not as in// // singularly // //most important son JB//) told him his reading was coming along really well, but to develop his writing she wanted him to have the target of always writing something whenever he drew a picture. He really seems to have taken this on board and now always adds a word or two to label hi s artwork.

This evening my husband is away, so I took the children out for a pizza. We always take along plenty of plain paper, puzzle books and pencils so the children can keep themselves amused while waiting for the food. My son was beavering away on a picture which he told me I wasn't allowed to look at until it was finished and I complied. When I was finally permitted to view the finished article, I was totally delighted (for more reasons than one - see attached!). I was so proud of him and, what is more, he was proud of himself - at the beginning of this term he couldn't string two letters together.

I should probably add that we have a rule that we only drink alcohol at weekends (otherwise it's amazing how quickly and easily you can get through a bottle of wine in an evening...!), but if our pe nchant for a glass of wine is helping our son to remember his phonics and learn to write then it's almost an excuse to open another bottle!



I Prefer Non-Friction to be honest!
My daughter in pre-primary told me she had learned about FRICTION at school on Monday. Later that same week, she was playing on the floor and scraped her elbow. She looked up at me and said, "The friction just hurt me!"

My daughter knew that friction happens works on an object as it moves across the floor - so when she scraped her elbow on the floor she knew it had something to do with friction :-)



Advertisements. C's Action
Click on the icon to open the complete PP presentation:

We use a variety of media to provoke emotions and persuade others to take action · The characteristics of media messages. · The truth in advertising · Ways media messages are used · How the presentation of a message influences an audience
 * Central Idea**
 * Key concepts:** function, perspective, reflection
 * Related Concepts: t**ruth, propaganda, communication
 * Lines of inquiry**



This 4th grade student took her learning beyond the classroom to independently create the above, 83 page Powerpoint presentation. She seems to have developed a considerable interest in the various logo's used by popular brands in their advertising campaigns.