NJ's House - Teaching Journey

NJ's House, a subsidiary of Headstart School, is a Candidate, for the Primary Years Programme, pursuing authorization as an IB World School. 

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REFUGEES, DISPLACEMENT, and EMPATHY in YEAR 4 Unit: Internal and external factors contribute to people’s decisions to relocate. Teacher: Muhammad Umar, PSPE

The objectives of this migration simulation were: 

1. to build empathy by inviting students to reenact the process of “fleeing their homes” carrying belongings and small burdens.

2. to measure a distance of 100m, using a 10m measuring tape, in order to help students visualize a 1km walk, and thereby appreciate the difficulty of covering a distance of many kilometers. This exercise also reinforces the concept of place value, which is our first chapter in mathematics.

Students migrated, built a camp, talked about the dangers of sleeping in the open, about having to keep watch, deal with fatigue and injury, and the difficulties of finding water and food, etc. They wrote reflection papers upon return from the exercise to describe what they had experienced.

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BETTER THAN HOMEWORK - A Book about Good Government (Y1) Unit: Societies rely on people with many different abilities to function properly. Teacher: Sara Bashir

Year 1 students were talking about roles in government and what they do. One of our students chose to create this book at home and brought it to class the next day to share. 

We treasure projects like these that students undertake independently at home because they show how each child’s thinking on a particular subject/ topic continues even after they leave school. Instead of assigning a heavy load of scripted homework, projects like these allow the child to show what caught his interest, to be a model to his peers, and to add direction to his own education.

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MISSING PAGES WRITING PROMPT  Writer’s Workshop Teacher: Friha 

Our Librarian realised early this week that one of our favourite library books had some torn pages. We wanted to bring this to the attention of students but also use it as a teachable moment. So in writer’s workshop, after reading the story aloud to the children, the teacher invited them to write and illustrate their own version of the missing pages.

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Pleasant and Unpleasant Fragrances in Early Years 1 Theme: Exploring our 5 Senses Teacher: Andaleeb Hashim

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Colour and Texture Collage in Early Years 1 Theme: Exploring our 5 Senses Teacher: Andaleeb Hashim 

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PLAYING THE RECORDER with Year 2 Stand-alone Music Unit: Playing an instrument Teacher: Lee Sook

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RESOURCE ROOM at NJ's House

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EXPLORING 2D SHAPES in Year 1 Standalone Mathematics Unit: Geometry Teacher: Saba Kamran

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CELEBRATING WORLD CULTURES in Early Years 2 Unit: Around the World in 8 Stories Teacher: Sarah Z Iqtidar Early Years 2 are exploring different countries from around the world by reading their stories, eating their food, and talking about their national culture. Each week, they are inviting a guest speaker from the country in focus to make a presentation about the music, arts, history and geography of their home. Although the unit has only just begun, we've talked about Pakistani culture enjoyed desi cuisine, read folk stories and listened to music from every province. We have also explored the United States. Roller coasters were everyone's favourite thing about the US, and so each students was invited to describe a roller coaster ride.

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Big things are often just little things that people notice.

Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger

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MUNIBA'S CENTER in Nursery Playdough and Beads Teacher: Muniba Mazari A few days each week, Muniba joins Nursery to run a play center in the nursery classroom, or to sing with the children at circle time. She is hands down the children's favourite visitor, inspiring animated conversation and excitement. It's such an amazing gift to have her in school.

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PRESENTATION on Learning Disabilities Workshop for Staff Presenter: Asad Yusuf

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PLAYING WITH FRACTIONS in Year 3 Standalone Unit: Mathematics Teacher: Ayesha Pasha Year 3 students cut circles into halves, quarters, and eighths and then used them to create patterns. We discussed how to express first in words, and only then in mathematical notation, how many whole circles and circle segments were used to create each bird. In this way we begin adding fractions in a concrete way that everyone can understand and practically apply before we move onto calculations and abstract situations.

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URDU DICTATION with Early Years 2 Stand-alone Unit: Urdu phonics and blends Teacher: Xaineb Awais We need to assess our students just as much as any school. But our commitment to monitoring student learning without "testing" them under pressure leads to creative new innovations. Asking the children to trace out Urdu phonics and blends in tea leaves allowed me to quickly judge each student's comprehension. The tea leaves made it easy to keep everyone's concetration, and seating everyone in a circle allowed me to balance the natural competitiveness between the kids by openly welcoming collaboration and comparisons.

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IMAGINING A PLACE with Year 3 Unit: How We Express Ourselves Teacher: N Murtaza The central idea we are exploring in Year 3 through our brand new unit is a complex and dense one: A society's response to significant events is an indicator of its values. I am anticipating some heavy conversations in the weeks to come, so I wanted to begin with something soulful and light, which would allow the class to reconnect after winter break. I chose a free writing activity, which has long been one of my favourite provocations. I briefly introduced the students to Ibn-e Arabi, a famous, 13th century Sufi scholar, poet, and musician, and explained that we would be allowing the music to affect our imaginations. We agreed, students and teachers alike, to allow ourselves to be transported away by the music, to a place whose description we would write down. It was lovely to see every child describe a completely different place. Our first song inspired class members to write about, deserts, wide oceans, crowded spaces, a dewy garden, a noisy bazaar, and fish. After each person shared their draft, everyone else said thank you for sharing. When it was my turn to read my piece, everyone thanked me for sharing too  Small niceties really do make the world a better place.

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Our New Year’s resolution? Plant bee friendly gardens, for one!

View the TED-Ed Lesson Why do honeybees love hexagons? - Zack Patterson and Andy Peterson

Animation by TED-Ed

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Why wouldn't we teach science through art? There can be no reasonable justification! sailorscent:

John Gould print image of the Large-footed Myotis Myotis adversus (formerly known as Vespertilio macropus)

Photo from “Mammals of Australia”, Vol. III Plate 47