Unit of Inquiry
The new unit on ‘Waste’ was introduced to third graders. The students divided themselves into three groups to observe images on waste, analyse slogans or read a poem on waste. They were given the liberty to opt for whatever category they liked and brainstormed different perspectives to enhance their understanding of each. This was followed by an activity where students read the central idea, identified the keywords, discussed their meaning and wrote their first understanding. They then illustrated their perception of the word ‘environment’. Using the strategy of ‘Chalk Talk,’ they discussed the first line of inquiry ‘and recorded their comprehension in the form of a mind map. Working in groups, students had to plan their research on air, water or land. They presented their findings in class and collated notes on all three types of waste.
Mathematics
Students revisited bar graphs by plotting data and interpreting it.
Students grouped themselves for the ‘herding game’ to better understand the concept of division. After this activity, students wrote their first understanding about the operation of division. They were introduced to vocabulary related to division and made a mind map of the same. Students built their understanding of division and tried using different strategies to divide numbers. They brainstormed with each other and understood the relationship between division and subtraction. They were also introduced to the concept of long division with and without remainders.
English
Students revisited opinion writing and were asked to express their thoughts about the country they would like to migrate to, if given a choice. They were introduced to couplets and poems and were taught that two rhyming lines make a couplet. They were encouraged to create their own couplets and poems.
They made real-life connections and used the ‘Avocado’ visible thinking routine to write and show their understanding of a poem by Ken Nesbitt. They employed the ‘traffic light strategy’ to reflect on their understanding of couplets and poems.
Students were introduced to the concept of ‘subject and predicate’. They explored their surroundings and explained their understanding through visible thinking routine ‘Claim, Support, Question’.
Hindi
In order to assess their prior knowledge students were given different pictures and poems. They formed groups entered detail in a VTR (The explanation game) after several rounds of discussion. They recited unit related poems and learned new vocabulary words to make sentences. They shared news articles related to waste and water.
Hindi ab-initio
The students enhanced their reading skills by reading words and sentences with ‘u’ maatraa. To improve their writing skills they participated in a spell bee of words and sentences with badee ‘u’ ki maatra. To hone their listening skills they listened to the story “Hans ka nayaay” and narrated the same to develop their speaking skills.
French
Students voiced their opinion during a group discussion where they shared what they would like to add, change or improve in their French language room. Taking ownership of their environment, the class set up their reading and games corner. They displayed their understanding of academic integrity in the form of a poster and also labelled various classroom objects. They enthusiastically played games like ‘hopscotch’ and ‘guess the number’ to revise concepts done in the previous term. They reflected on their learning and shared their AHA moments too.
Spanish
Students recapitulated the concepts of ordinal and cardinal numbers. They also had a class activity where they were made to read a small text in Spanish. They enhanced their reading and self-management skills and later identified vocabulary from the text.
Library
Students were given information on DDC (Dewey Decimal Classification) system. The Dewey Decimal System is the method of arranging books by subject and is the standard way of categorizing books in libraries across the world. It places books on shelves by subject using numbers from 000 to 999.
An activity was given to students where they matched the DDC numbers with its correct category. Children were informed about how DDC plays a vital role in categorizing and arranging books in libraries around the world.
PHE
Students practiced marching, running events, standing broad jump and medicine ball throw for the upcoming athletic meet. Participating in sporting events helps in building positive self- esteem and can be a great way to increase feelings of physical and mental well-being as was amply evident during practice schedules.
Art
Students inquired into positive and negative space and learnt to balance the two. Keeping this in mind they created a balanced work on Indo Islamic art using shades of one colour family (monochrome) to colour the background of their artwork.
Dance
Lessons focused on the introduction of elementary choreography and body isolations to better understand individual body motions. Students learned advanced workouts including combinations of turns, flips and establishments.
Music
Students were taught the music scale and how to locate music notes on a piano.
They also learned and sang the song “Yeh jo desh hai mera” by A.R Rahman.
ICT
Students worked on Minecraft to construct houses and items. They were introduced to MS PowerPoint. They learned how to open a new presentation and add new slides using different layouts. They also learned how to insert a picture into a slide.
SEL
Having self-control helps children in all areas of life. Being in control of their actions and reactions help them to develop good interpersonal skills to hone self-esteem. Focusing on this essential skill, children were guided to look back and review their performance during group activities that analyzed particular strands like-ability to stay on task, turn-taking, accepting other’s points of view, etc. This helped them understand the positive impact of practicing self-control for goal attainment.
Grade 3c 