Empathy

We will be looking at empathy this week. In the past few weeks we have touched on individuality and having differing opinions - learning to accept others for who they are and to understand that people may feel differently to us and that's ok. 
This week we will look at what empathy is - understanding feelings from another person's perspective. We touched on that a little when looking at opinions previously. Children were asked, in groups, to imagine they were someone else and to try to put themselves in that person's shoes to imagine what they would be feeling.

I like this definition of empathy:
"Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the "heart" of another."

I think if we can encourage empathy then children will be more able to understand ideas / feelings from others' points of view - and wouldn't that make the world a better place if everyone can be a little more understanding of each other!

They will also have the chance to carry on with their chosen inquiry project looking at the effect changes over time has on people and communities. 

Inquiry

We are delving more into a class inquiry this week - looking at statistics with the bike track, and

how/if this change has affected people in our community.

Inquiry learning is child-centred. Children will learn to ask questions and find answers. A good start for an inquiry is a good question - open-ended (has no right or wrong answer) and higher-order (requires critical thinking, problem-solving and/or transfer of learning).

We have a class inquiry that we are looking at to reinforce the basic skills needed - formulating good questions, researching using reputable sources, recording information /ideas, and finally sharing our findings. This will take us several weeks. Some children may choose to branch off into their own inquiry.

This type of learning is fantastic for our gifted children as it gives them ownership over their learning. Some however will and do struggle with the amount of choice - their minds will see endless possibilities and not know where to start, or they may start and then overthink and doubt their choice of topic.  Some will start one thing and rush it to get on to their next idea. I want to help children to take their time to have more depth to their learning, to push themselves 'beyond the known'. So that is why I am guiding this more at the moment, to build up skills and confidence for those who need it, so that in time they will feel able to make their own choices, and to encourage those fast learners to slow down and delve deeper so that they will learn more and challenge themselves along the way.

PARENT NIGHT:
On Wednesday 5th April 7-8.30pm in the staffroom I will be talking about intensities/ sensitivities/ over-excitabilities in gifted people. I gave this same talk about three-four  years ago so some of you may have heard it before - apologies. It seems like there is a need to understand more about these intensities that so many of our children (and some of us too!) experience. No charge - a chance to come and mingle and chat with other parents as well if you want to stay afterwards.

Changes over time

This week we will be looking at changes to our community over time - how has this and will this affect the people who live in our community?
Children will be asked to predict what changes may happen in the future for a chance to use their imagination.
We will start by looking at the bike track - how has this impacted on people in our community?

If any parents / grandparents have information / photos about our community 50 years ago we would love to hear from you!

Different opinions

This week we are looking at differences of opinions in communities. We will look at ideas from other people's point of view to help us understand others more and hopefully learn some tolerance and acceptance of others.

The year 1&2 group are looking at similarities and differences  with each other, and talking about feelings to try to help them be more understanding of others.

A few lucky year 5&6 children went to the Nanogirl Science Show on Monday - well worth going to if you ever get a chance. Apparently they are hoping to bring a show to the North Shore later in the year. There is a free video of her 2016 show on youtube if anyone is interested  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkInHz4UoFc