Last Week of 2M!
It has been a fun packed final week in 2M and it's hard to believe that the year is over!
The students' end of unit assessments were super! On a VERY hot Tuesday afternoon we watched everything from Chinese poetry to Animal dramas, to Turkish dancing as the 2M students showed their uniqueness through the arts.
I was struck by how much more independent the students are and by their ability to take risks through performance. Very well done all of you!
Thank you to the students and families for all the amazing gifts you gave me too! That really was so kind. I felt like a very spoiled Father Christmas as I hoisted my sack of gifts home! - then rather reflective as I read through your kind words and looked at the children's beautiful artwork. Grazie di cuore.
All that is left to say is have a great holiday and all the best for the future - Viva 2M!!!!
Week 37
Felipe: This year, I liked growing a plant in the plant power unit and I really liked painting and the trip to the MAXXI museum. I also liked making a weather report.
Maddalena: This year I liked the unit 'Le Belli Arte' because I learned many different paintings and about different artists.
Gabriel: I liked studying about religions. I liked going on the ipads. Then I liked getting Golden Time and I liked reading in the reading groups. I also liked doing the weather report. I like learning that there are no rules in the arts!
Matilde: I liked everything in grade 2. The things that I liked the most were being with Miss Moll, doing the drawings, doing the end of unit assessments and being with my friends.
Matteo: This year I liked growing the plants that Miss Moll gave me; now it has lots and lots of flowers. I also liked 'Le Belli Arte'.
Nicole: I really liked all of the units but the one I like most is this one: 'Le Belli Arte'. I really like our sketchbooks and all the trips we did.
Aksel: I like doing Golden Time and playing at recess and being with my friends. I like using computers and the ipads and occasionally the food at lunch. I liked all the units and every single lesson we had this year.
Giulia: I liked the 'Weather Watchers' unit, because I learned more things than I knew before. I liked this unit because my grandfather is an architect and so I got some ideas from him to bring to the classroom. I liked playing with my friends and making pottery on the ipads.
Pietro: This year I liked drawing in the arts, mixing colours and to try to be an artist. I enjoyed having many friends.
Catherine: I enjoyed having fun. I like everybody in this class. I like the three boys that are Pietro, Mitchell and Edward. I liked all the drawings of the children. I liked to work so much with Miss Moll. I am getting already to 3rd grade and will not see her again. The class are always caring to help me. Some of them make me laugh and some of them are not. Miss Moll's homework isn't so easy. I did everything for Miss Moll to make the class pretty.
Lapo: I like this unit because it was very interesting and it was very, very wonderful and I like very much this class because it was very knowledgeable and full of risk takers and I like this teacher because she was very caring and I like all the students because they were very clever and I want to congratulate to Mitchell and to everyone in the class! I'm very proud of all my friends and I like all the things we learned in the class - 'Family History' , 'Le Belle Arti' and I like very much my teacher Miss Moll and all my class!
Lou: I liked all the field trips, but my favourite was the mosque because it was decorated and comfy inside. My favourite units were 'Le Belle Arti', 'Plant Power' and 'weather Watchers'. I still liked the other ones and language activities, but I didn't like math activities. I loved PE, art and library lessons. I didn't like music, but liked Italian.
Mitchell: My favourite unit was 'Weather Watchers' because I love watching the weather. I also like 'Plant Power' and 'Mapping our Community' and maths.
Leo: My favourite unit was 'Plant Power' because I love science and it was really fun when Miss Casson showed us pollen with her microscope. My favourite of other subjects was maths!
Jasmine: I have liked Miss Moll a lot. I liked every unit we studied, but my favourite unit was 'Le Belle Arti'.
Luca: I liked all the field trips and all the lessons.
Falco: I liked everything this year - the units, the work, doing assessments and drawing pictures.
Week 36
We have continued to explore our unit this week, looking especially at risk taking in the arts, how technology is used in the arts and all the different art forms that exist.
In language we have been looking at descriptive writing and following the books of James Mayhew. His key character is a little girl called Katie who can't help climbing into famous pictures and having crazy adventures. We wrote our own fictional short stories about pictures that we have been looking at in class. We have been looking at soft 'c' and soft 'g' in spelling as well as reading play-scripts during our reading groups.
In maths we have been revising old skills - especially division: finally more students are grasping the connections with multiplication!
The sketchbooks are getting more full and more beautiful by the day: enjoy the photos!
Week 35
2M have been getting into their new unit this week. On Tuesday we went to the MAXXI museum and saw many interesting works of art. These included a room made to be like the inside of a tree, with it's own sight, smell and touch dimensions, a model of the poet Pasolini's motor car and a whole load of children's T-shirts strung up arm to arm. We discovered some reasons why people make art - to remember people (like the poet), to express a feeling (like sadness), to remind people of important things (like the T-shirts reminding us of unclothed and poor children) and to throw us into a whole new dimension (like the multi-sensory tree room). When we returned, we wrote a review of what we had seen.
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| Snack time |
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| Learning about the building |
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| The T-shirts |
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| An unusual staircase |
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| A gallery room |
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| Sitting on a soft chair that looks hard |
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| Art workshop |
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| Sculpture workshop |
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| Presentations |
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| Lunch time! |
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| Play time |
We looked at the genre of review writing in our writing lesson too and learned about how to structure our writing more. We talked about what we had seen, what we thought about it and how it might interest others; then we wrote our own reviews of the musical 'Oliver'. Today we are going to watch grade 4H do a production of 'Oliver' and then we will try to compare the musical with the theatre production.
In maths we have been revising our multiplication skills by looking at number patterns. 2M are a little rusty on their times tables, so we have been playing games which need quick calculations.
Meanwhile the students have made some truly lovely additions to their sketchbooks. It looks like we've got some real artists here!
Week 34
Felipe: I liked making the cartoons with Matteo.
Aksel: I liked making cartoons with Lapo and I liked playing on the computer and the ipad.
Matilde: I like everything in this unit and I really, really like doing the Toontastic shows.
Catherine: I liked playing with my friends and I am very happy to be at this school.
Gabriel: I like playing with friends and doing the cartoons with people on Toontastic. I liked doing the dance festival and the food they served for desert today!
Falco: This week I liked using Toontastic and making a film with Catherine. I liked working on patterns and in the sketchbooks.
Nicole: I like everything but the sketch books are really nice!
Lapo: I liked everything this week, math and spelling and language.
Sofia: I liked when we painted in our sketchbooks in class and when we needed to write what you liked in our sketchbook.
Mitchell: I enjoyed painting in our sketchbooks.
Luca: I enjoyed painting in our sketchbooks and watching 'Oliver Twist'.
Pietro: I liked everything and the maths, spelling and language. I like the arts and all this thing.
Mia: I like the sketchbooks, when we did our won painting using one colour from light to dark. I liked the dance festival. I like everything, but I liked doing the language test yesterday. I like mixing the colours in the sketchbook and the maths.
Lou: I liked having PE with 2C because it was fun and my team won at dodgeball. I liked doing my homework in my sketchbook and watching 'Oliver Twist'. I liked the homework.
Matteo: I like working in my sketchbook and I like also pattern in maths and art. I like playing dodgeball with 2C because it was fun!
Jasmine: I like this unit, because we work on the sketchbooks, because we did a lot of drawings and because we look at some artists that we didn't know.
Leo: This unit is really fun because I got to work on my sketchbooks and measure was really fun too.
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| Making a moving sculpture |
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| Pottery on the ipad |
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| Our peer leader stopped by |
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| Dancing girls! |
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Week 33
Finally the time came this week for our students to share their portfolios and other hard work with their families. All the parents in 2M came to witness their child's fantastic progress and celebrate a year's learning. Thank you. It was a lovely morning.
Thank you also for taking a risk and making a portrait of your child. Check out the gallery!!!!
Week 32
We have been working really hard this week, trying to get all of
our best work ready for the student led conferences next week. We updated
our portfolios and put some extra work on display in the class.
We also started our new unit 'Le Belle Arti' and began to explore
our complicated but exciting new central idea: 'Through the arts, people use
different forms of expression to convey their uniqueness as human beings'
The students have already shown that they are well aware of their own
uniqueness as our pre-unit assessment photos show.
Weeks 30 and 31
Welcome back everyone! You clearly enjoyed a little sunshine on our break.
Our super short unit is over! Despite only lasting 13 days, the students have managed to create some mammoth projects and their end of unit assessments were really impressive. Well done, you lot!
It looks like we might have some young urban designers in our midst! The students clearly studied their own communities at home during the break, as they made some fantastic booklets and many new features crept into their assessment communities as a result.
We have completed our maths unit on addition and subtraction with all students showing a sound understanding of these concepts.
In language, the students wrote interesting versions of their holidays and it is clear that they have made so much progress here too! As a class we decided to work on finding different phrases to use in our writing, as 'and then' is overused and makes a story dull..... Next week we will be putting our new ideas on a poster.
We have continued to look at prepositions and unit vocabulary, as well as reviewing basic punctuation.
Week 29
Pietro: This week I enjoyed walking around. And talking about the communities and watching the maps.
Giulia: This week I enjoyed walking for the 'field trip' and looking at maps and writing about them. I liked this unit, because we could draw maps most of the time.
Aksel: I liked playing on the computer and doing the math about co-ordinates and drawing and the book sale.
Matilde: This week I enjoyed everything! I liked very much being with Miss Moll.
Mitchell: I liked using the computers to find our houses on 'Google Maps'.
Luca: I liked doing the walk in the neighbourhood of Ambrit and finding the three treasures and getting the ice cream!
Lou: I liked having a field trip because it was super fun! I liked having an ice-cream mustache, because it felt so good!
Gabriel: I liked PE because we did hockey. I also loved this week's Golden Time because it wasn't so noisy and at Circle time we played a really fun game that we had never played before.
Leo: I liked everything this week!
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| Architects at work redesigning our school's space |
Lapo: I was very impressed by the all the communities we are looking at and also I was very happy to have all this class very very kind and very hard working. And I really enjoy all the students in my class and I like very, very, very much my teacher, Miss Moll.
Falco: I liked going on the computer to find maps for my house. I liked drawing a map of the way to school from my house.
Matteo: I liked doing map from the way home to school. I liked looking for a map of my house on the computer.
Felipe: I liked going in our community and making a homework for my friend and I liked designing a new school.
Mia: I was sick this week. I liked the trip because we did a treasure hunt and I liked going in the bar because he gave us 3 candies! I liked getting the ice cream. I got stracciatella and nocciola.
Nicole: I have enjoyed the trip where we needed to find all of the little treasure and I enjoyed the ice cream! I enjoyed everything!
Catherine: I liked to learn and to do maths and learn all about communities. I liked doing music and I enjoyed dancing! My mum likes to help me with the homework that Miss Moll gave me to work. I am so happy that I get all correct and I have fun in this school!
Jasmine: I enjoyed the field trip around the school and I even enjoyed asking the people the questions and getting the treasure.
Maria Sofia: I liked when we went to 2C because I liked when we did the treasure coordinates. I liked doing the maths about number '100'. I liked when Miss Moll read the story about the armadillo.
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| Inquirers in need of ice creams! |
Week 28
What a busy week! After a short Easter break the 2M students returned to a packed time table. In language lessons, we looked at the prefix 'un'. The students used the dictionary to find word definitions and then made their own lists of words beginning with 'un'.
In maths we looked at the concept of subtraction and learned how to use addition to check our answers to subtraction problems.
We started our new unit this week. It's called 'Mapping our Community'. For the pre-unit assessment, the students made maps of the route from home to school. They used pens and paper and wooden blocks to show their routes. We also listed all the facilities we would expect to find in our local area. Next week we are going on a walk to find out if they actually exist! We used our lists to help us find and spell new vocabulary.
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| Dictionary detectives! |
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| A route described in wooden blocks |
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| A route described in drawings |
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| Our new unit board |
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| Thinking about our neighbourhood |
Week 27
The 2M students have come to the end of their unit about plants and, judging by their reflections, they really enjoyed this unit. They made some fantastic booklets of garden designs as the end of unit assessment - there may even be a young Capability Brown lurking in 2M!
To celebrate our hard work, we had lots of fun decorating eggs with some very kind and risk-taking mums!! A huge thank you to Joanna, Marcia, Melissa, Margherita, Sara, Silvia and Angela for giving your time, resources and joy to the class for a really lovely afternoon. And thank you, Oscar, for your great behaviour!
Happy Easter and happy Passover everyone!
Week 26
Maths: This week the students have been looking at odd and even numbers and learning some addition strategies to help them add numbers more quickly. Here are some of the students playing + 9 and +10 bingo.
Language: The students have been looking at word patterns including 'ck', 'ke' and 'just k' endings and trying to figure out rules for when and how to choose the correct spelling pattern. They made posters with Miss Jackie which we have displayed on the wall to help us remember.
Unit: It has been a great week for our unit, as we are now ready for the final assessment. The students showed their knowledge of the plant cycle through drama - video coming soon! They also showed how much they have understood about the uses of plants in a drawing activity and finally wrote some instructions for how to look after a plant to show that they understood how to care for plants. Next week they will design a garden to show how well they have understood the central idea.
In other news, the students are becoming more principled in the garden and at play. Together we have worked out ways to eat lunch more quietly and line up more fairly.
Also one of our students turned 8 this week and we all celebrated in class!
Week 25
Maddalena: I liked the trip because there were many plants that came from different places and I like exotic plants.
Felipe: I liked going to the trip because I learned a lot of new things.
Jasmine: I liked the blind people's garden and the Japanese garden and everything else.
Luca: I liked the field trip to the botanic garden. I liked seeing the bamboo, the rainforest and the plants that you can make medicine out of.
Catherine: I didn't go in the trip because I couldn't walk so much. I have hurt my ankle! I felt hurt.
Mia: I liked when we saw the green house like a rainforest and I liked seeing the long cactus from Mexico and the bamboo forest and even the waterfall of the Japanese garden.
Gabriel: I liked seeing the Japanese Garden and seeing what was inside the bamboo. I liked losing my hat! I liked seeing the garden that blind people can use because there was a plant that looked fake because it was so soft!
Matilde: I liked seeing other plants that I didn't know. I liked to learn more things and facts about plants. I liked seeing the animals living there, like this I could know what plants animals like and where to put plants. I liked being with Miss Moll and the guida and my friends and I liked walking and seeing so many things, especially the bamboo forest and the Japanese garden. I liked smelling and touching the plants in the blind garden.
Pietro: I liked having snack and I liked going to see the bamboo forest and the Japanese Garden and doing lunch with all my friends.
Giulia: I enjoyed seeing the rainforest because I didn't know a lot of things about the plants that eat insects. I enjoyed being with the guida and eating lunch with all my friends. I didn't know that in the rainforest there was a plant named the elephant plant.
Leo: I liked the field trip - everything about it, but especially the tropical forest, snack and lunch!
Falco: I liked learning about new plants, the rainforest and the different types of cactuses.
Lou: I liked going in the greenhouse that looked like a rainforest, because it was fun! I liked seeing the Japanese garden and feeling and smelling the plants in the garden for the blind. I liked looking at the palm trees.
Nicole: I liked everything about the trip, but most of all the rainforest, the garden for blind people and the greenhouse.
Mitchell: I learned a lot of things and I thought it was a big opportunity to look at so many plants and learn about them.
Lapo: I liked all the plants and especially the tall cactus and the plant which catches insects and the bamboos and I see a plant that the rest of the class don't see. I see one plant where an insect went in, the plant closed and it got the insect. I liked the plant that smelled of mint.
Sofia:I liked everything, especially the coffee tree and the bamboo.
Aksel: I liked the bamboo and the banana tree.
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| On the bus |
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| We arrived! |
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| Girls ready to learn |
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| Plants which heal |
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| Rainforest plants |
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| The insect eater |
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| Coffee bean pods |
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| Aquatic plants |
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| Desert plants |
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| Flowers on the ground |
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| Green-haired girls |
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| In among the bamboo |
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| 2M goes Japanese! |
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| What a fat tree! |
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| Panda Boy! |
