Curriculum Day for Grade 4

Curriculum Day – 5/7/14, was a wonderful experience for the Fourth grade parents. Parents were invited to come and be a fourth grader and experience how their kids are taught in the PYP. Enthusiastic parents participated in a workshop that mimicked the school classroom environment. The session started off with a fun ice breaking quiz about the school and PYP. Parents were asked simple questions related to the weekly transaction report, UOI and homework schedules. The idea behind the quiz was to make the parents aware of the several transactions that take place in school. The session then moved on to the Math Learning engagement, where the parents were initiated into Data Handling and the concept of CORI (Collect, organize, Represent and Interpret). Parents worked in groups and collected data about their favorite hobbies, organized it into a frequency distribution table, represented the information on the graphs and interpreted the visual data. After a quick energiser, the session proceeded with an English Learning Engagement – reading comprehension. Parents were shown three different visuals and asked to make connections. Then, they collectively worked on a story and tried to make predictions about the storyline, and also answer some questions. The parents were also briefed on how we amalgamate grammar concepts into such an activity. I think the parents had a whole lot of fun being students, and what fantastic students they proved to be!!
Now, for the icing on the cake – debate/discussion time!!! An interesting topic ‘Parent-teacher meets and parent involvement in a child’s school activities, makes a difference in the overall development of the child.’ Most parents felt that they should be aware of the happenings in school and should be actively involved in the classroom transactions. Parents appreciated our school for being a parent-friendly school and also felt that attending such workshops helped them keep abreast of the activities in school. Some of them even shared their experiences about their child’s HRT’s from the previous years. It was a wonderful, positive encouragement for all our Home Room Teachers, that they are doing a tremendous job. Some of the parents suggested that they wanted to start a science/sports/math club after school, where they would volunteer their time and come coach the students at such clubs. Overall, it was a great learning experience for both the parents and the teachers.