At Boston International School, our Early Years team is focused on personal and social skills development of children. The Early Years Center adopts the IB Curriculum and is referring to the IB Primary Years Program in early years setting.  Through the 6 units of inquiry learning process, we place strong emphasis on teachers and students’ interaction and communication to establish learning models through daily exploration.

1

Students in EY center are currently going through the Unit of Inquiry: Where we are in place and time.

Form; Change; Perspective.

To help students better understand this Unit of Inquiry and to achieve goals of this unit, Early Years teachers team has arranged a variety of activities, and even invite the fire truck to come to our school!

Transportation is everywhere. All around us we see different models of transport, such as cars, trucks, bicycles, buses, airplanes and trains. Transportation gets us from place to place. How else can we move around from place to place if we had no transport?

In class, teachers and students discussed times with no transportation, then when the first transportation was invented, and our current day transportation. There were also class discussions about how students traveled to school, the holidays they have been on, how did they travel and what did they see. The theme was taken further with a discussion about road safety, rules to walk on the street, where to cross the street and possible dangers.

In class, teachers help students conducted a survey, students walked inside the school along the fence around the school, identifying all the red and blue cars, trucks, bicycles and motorcycles they saw inside and outside the school premises. Students learned new vocabulary words associated with transportation. They learned that different modes of transport could be classified, air, land and water transport.

Students gained tremendous knowledge through outdoor activities like Fire Truck Drill and Bike & Picnic Day, which makes the learning journey of this unit of inquiry more entertaining.

2

Fire Truck – Learn from a Drill

On the morning of 14^th Mar, Fire Brigade of Xinwu District, Wuxi visited EY students in Boston International School for a fire truck drill. The fire truck drill was meant to teach students that the fire truck is also a means of transportation. The truck is equipped with all the safety items needed for a rescue comparing to a regular truck. Under their guidance, students wore on different kinds of uniforms and got to know the necessary equipment. Firemen also demonstrated the usage of the fire trucks.

Through the drill, students were able to identify the differences between a firetruck and a regular truck and learned new vocabulary associated with transportation. Students got to know the basic information of firefighting and relevant equipment through the drill, which also reinforced their safety awareness.

3

Bike – Learn from a Picnic

On the morning of 21st Mar, EY3 students were requested to bring their own bikes to school and had a lovely Bike & Picnic Day relating the topic to everyday life situations with their parents and teachers.

Students rode their bikes merrily on the playground, while parents were busy preparing the picnic. Enjoying food and laughter, students also learned new knowledge about daily transportation.

At Boston International School, we encourage children to learn through real life experiences, and we believe the environment should be a third teacher for our children.