MaKey MaKey!

Within our unit of inquiry on imagination, the students in Preschool 5 have been exploring a piece of technology called the ‘MaKey MaKey’.

According to the creators of ‘MaKey MaKey’, it is ‘an invention kit for the 21st century’

The ‘MaKey MaKey’ turns everyday objects into a touch pad for the laptop to use online and only works with materials which will conduct electricity.

The students also explored the transfer of electricity as they discovered that some buttons would only work if they were connected to (touching the arm or hand of) the person holding the electrical source (the grey wire). In this way, the MaKey MaKey initiated an investigation into the properties of electricity.

Using the MaKey MaKey the children were enabled to create banana pianos and playdough bongos! 🙂 It was the perfect tool to enable the students to use technology to be creative, inventive and imaginative.

 

Working with Words :)

The students in Preschool 5 have been working hard blending and building words! The children have been engaged in a range of activities within their classrooms to practice reading and making many CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words. We used magnetic letters, play dough and phonics cubes to build words, and practiced reading words through games. We all had a lot of fun! The students are learning fast and are on their way to soon begin reading books! Great work Preschool 5 🙂

 

Class Pet Turtles!

This week, students were introduced to their new class pet turtles. The students named their pets and even came up with rules on how to care for them. The Bunnies class named their turtles Strawberry and Blueberry, while the Ninja Turtles named theirs Roya and Max. The students have started a new unit called, “Under the Sea”, in which they will be learning about sea creatures, what they need to survive, and how our actions affect them. The students will use the class pets to demonstrate these lines of inquiry and hopefully take actions that extend their knowledge and learning outside of the classroom to their greater environment.

MaKey MaKey!

Within the current unit of inquiry on imagination, the students in Preschool 5 have been exploring a piece of technology called the ‘MaKey MaKey’.

According to the creators of MaKey MaKey, it is ‘an invention kit for the 21st century’.

The MaKey MaKey turns everyday objects into a touch pad for the laptop to use online and only works with materials which will conduct electricity. The students caried out an investigation to find suitable materials to use, which will conduct electricty. We found that solids such as plastics and wood would not work. But metals, such as sharpeners or coins, and objects containing air or liquids, such as playdough and various fruits did.

The students also explored the tranfer of electricty as they discovered that some buttons would only work if they were connected to (touching the arm or hand of) the person holding the elctrictal source (the grey wire). In this way, the MaKey MaKey initiated a detailed investigation into the properties of electricity.

Using the MaKey MaKey the children were enabled to create banana pianos and playdough bongos! 🙂 It was the perfect tool to enable the students to use technology to be creative, inventive and imaginative.

 

Attached below is a video of the children’s experience using the MaKey Makey. Well done Preschool 5! The next generation of inventors! 🙂

 

 

SEK Qatar Book Week 2016

Preschool 5 students had a fantastic week celebrating Book Week! The children celebrated their favourite stories and authors throughout the week, and had the special opportunity to dress up as a character from a book and join in the Character Parade! 🙂 Throughout the week, the students had visits from many ‘Mystery Readers’ in various languages, enjoyed buddy reading with older students, had a visit from a children’s authour, attended the Preschool Story Cinema, engaged in daily D.E.A.R Time and also enjoyed the Book Fair, the Book Week Assembly and a field trip to Maktaba Library! Thank you to everybody involved for making Book Week such a success for the preschool 5 students. They had a brilliant week full of fun and reading! 🙂