Recent Events

Nursery Tadpoles

Our Nursery learners are inquiring out about living things and their needs. We are also finding out about our responsibility towards living things and how we can help them to grow and stay healthy. What better way than to observe the growth of tadpoles and help to take care of their environment and their needs. This week, the learners were involved in setting up a habitat for our tiny friends and suggested what the tadpoles might need in their new home. Some of their suggestions were; water, leaves, plants, rocks, food, mosquitoes (to eat) and flies. After watching the tadpoles for a while the learners noted that the tadpoles have, "wiggly tails like worms but no legs." They are curious to find out how long it will take for the legs to grow and what will happen to the tail.

Kindergarten Gardeners

Our Unit of Inquiry in Kindergarten this term is about how plants have specific needs in order to grow and stay healthy. They've explored what plants needs to grow and investigated a variety of seeds. Some learners have even brought in seeds from home to plant, showing learner agency. There is always great excitement as the first seed pokes through the soil!

Year 1 : What makes a home?

The Year 1 learners have been exploring the concept of 'homes' as they inquire into 'Environments determine our needs, wants and choices'. We have had some very thoughtful discussions on 'What makes a home?' They have also started to research different homes in different environments such as forests, deserts and urban environments. They are starting to discover the common features in all homes, and are also discussing what items they have in their home that are necessary.

Year 2 Trip to the Black Box

Year 2 learners are having a great time inquiring into how 'Light helps us explore the world'. This week we took a trip to one of the school's Black Boxes to investigate how light travels. Our Year 2 scientists did a great job working in teams to design and carry out their experiments. We were very impressed with the scientific conclusions reached! We are looking forward to continuing our explorations next week as we look at how light can be blocked and bounced.

Year 3 Unit of Inquiry

Year 3 learners have been thinking about how systems connect communities. We have been looking at systems we are using in our new school; systems that we use at home to help use achieve a goal and systems that operate in our Singapore community. Our explorations included farming systems, how we get clean water, what makes up our health care system and our transport systems to name but a few. We have been creating our own cities and islands and finding out how these systems need to work together.

Year 4 UOI Experiments

Year 4 have concluded a learning packed energy unit of inquiry. Weeks of commitment to developing experiments using the scientific method culminated in the final product - whereby the learners created their own experiment. These experiments were linked to wind, water and electricity.

Year 5 Loola Residential Camp

Year 5 learners enjoyed an amazing camp experience at Loola Resort on Bintan Island, in Indonesia. Our camp was a key engagement for our Unit of Inquiry Focus on 'Who We Are'. Learners developed their self management skills, as they took responsibility for organisation, managing their well being and displaying resilience when faced with personal challenges. Our two night, three day camp also provided opportunities for learners to take on group roles and support each other.

The Safe Water Garden project is an example of this. Learners dug holes, loaded wheel barrows, carried bricks and finally, after a lot of hard work and sweat, planted chilli plants for the home owner. Through participation in this project, learners increased their understanding of sustainable processes that promote sanitation and good health and well being. Over the years that Nexus have participated in this project, many families have benefited from a more hygienic environment and fresh fruit and vegetables.

Through a variety of 'challenge by choice' activities learners were able to participate in tree climbing, zip lining, dragon kayaking, boom net jumping and sky walking. There were so many risk takers beaming with pride, as they successfully achieved their goals. It was a pleasure to take Year 5 learners to Loola. The teachers and staff would like to congratulate all learners on how they positively encouraged each other and contributed to a fantastic 2020 camp experience.

Year 6 - Sharing the Planet

Appreciation + Empathy = Action

This week Year 6 learners began their new unit of inquiry where we will explore how humans work towards, balancing our own needs against the impact we have on the environment.

Without appreciation and empathy, how will we then act?

That is the driving principle in our quest to find the beauty, sometimes hidden, within nature. We will also explore how humans use resources, the impact to the environment, as well as what we can do as individuals to make a positive difference.

It is sure to be an exciting time as we explore different perspectives. Make sure you ask your children about the 'Tragedy of Commons' a challenging provocation which began our conversation.

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