HSK K2 Learning Blog (2020-21)

Children are curious and capable learners with a sense of agency, who brings unique skills and understandings to their own play and learning every day in and out of school. Through play, children create actively create meaning and make sense of their world through interacting with different people, materials, and environments.  I'm hearing the word  AGENCY  a lot, what does it mean?  The IB explains that agency is when... " Students take initiative, express interest and wonderings, make choices and are aware of their learning goals. They are actively engaged, and monitor and adjust their learning as needed. " At Hillside, we offer 1 hour of Open Play every day for children to exercise agency and lead their own learning. Learning engagements are intentionally planned by the teachers to support their current inquiries, develop approaches to learning and more importantly, provide opportunities for children to engage in the 3 facets of agency:  Voice;  Choice;...

The K2 children have embarked on their last Unit of Inquiry of the year-   How We Express Ourselves . Children will be exploring different mediums of expression, with the goal of being aware and intentional about the choices they make in their learning and play. A big focus of the unit is continuing to develop children's communication and social skills, which serve as approaches to learning as they prepare for transition to primary school near the end of the school year.  Here is the key information and learning outcomes for the unit: If you would like to learn more about the Unit of Inquiry along with some concrete examples of what the learning might look like in the K2 classroom, feel free to hear me walk through the unit in finer detail. It's a 5 min video and you may press the full screen button for a clearer view: The first couple weeks of any Unit of Inquiry is always exciting as teachers set up play invitations and plan engaging circle times to gauge the children's p...