KA newsletter October. October has been a busy month. Our portfolio conferences were a great success as we celebrate learning as a community. I enjoyed watching the children sharing their learning so competently with their parents. They were very proud of their portfolio. It was also nice to have the opportunity to talk to all of you about how well your child is learning and developing.

To make our discussions about what our bodies can do more meaningful, we asked Dr David Hang to come in and talk to us. David started by talking to us about what bones are and who has bones. We learnt that bones help us to walk, to run and to jump. Bones also protect important organs in our body like our heart and lungs. We found out that muscles help us to move and some animals, like worms, only have muscles to help them move. We talked about what foods help keep our bones strong such as milk and meat. We then looked at some models of bones and muscles and we looked closely at some Xrays of different parts of our bodies and different animal Xrays. Thank you Dr Hang for coming in to talk to us.

“I live in America, I am just visiting Taiwan.” This is a comment from one of the children which prompted some discussion about where we live and where we are from. We looked at the world map, acknowledging that many of us are from different parts of the world but we are all living in Taipei, Taiwan right now. We looked at some photos of Taipei taking particular note of the types of buildings. We established what an apartment is and then I asked the children why they thought there were so many apartments in Taipei? Minna It’s like a house, like a bit small. It’s big, big and you live at the top. Tal Very high. Nicholas Many families live there.

We compared a country picture to the city picture. How are they different? Anya That picture has trees. Mia There are different shapes. There are lots of cars. Nicholas There’s too much gas in the air, people die in Taiwan. My Grandmother told me. So why do you think Taipei has so many apartments? Tal Because it’s so big. Because there’s so much people. Minna There are so many people they need so much room to sleep. Nicholas There are so much people, that’s why there’s so much houses. Grant Houses, people, there is a building, building, building, building, houses, houses, houses, houses. Jared Many suns. Anya Some people like apartments, they can choose. Megan Here (pointing to the mountains in the country photo) looks like here (pointing to YangMingShan Mt behind Taipei). Jozef Sometimes they build not big and sometimes they are taller than all the people. The typhoon can blow very strong. It doesn’t make my building fall if we go out we walk slow.

Our research had begun. We used the computer to find out a lot more. After the discussions on tall buildings, Taipei 101 came up and we looked at some amazing photos of just how big it is. Some children said they had been there. Some children wanted to build one so they set to work with the blocks. They worked together as they planned and built cooperatively. They had to negotiate and problem solve together.

Other experiences gave the children opportunities to explore different materials to represent their ideas about cities and buildings. Some children drew where they lived and some drew Taipei 101. Clay was offered and some of the children created the tall buildings in Taipei.

Talk of Halloween has begun as the children think about what they will dress up as for the parade on Friday. There have been many language opportunities as we learn some fun songs and poems. Thank you to Teresa Wang and Kristen Carter for organizing the activities and food for Friday’s party.