Elementary School Curriculum Guide 2021 - 2022
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES Discovery & Design Studio/MakerSpace Our Discovery & Design Studio is a hands-on collaborative space inside our Elementary School for making, learning, exploring, and sharing. We have a wide variety of high-tech to no-tech tools, including cardboard, Lego, laser cutters, glue guns, hand tools, and even sewing machines. Experiences with robotics from Beebots and Cubettos to Lego WeDo and Mindstorms to Spheros are enjoyed by all grade levels. This space is helping to prepare our students with critical 21st century skills in the fields of science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM). With an emphasis on integrating hands-on learning opportunities with curriculum in other academic areas, students engage with critical thinking skills and collaboration as they work in teams or partnerships to design solutions to problems.
Elementary Kitchen Our Elementary Kitchen is a newly designed space for our Elementary Students to explore, prepare, and cook with food—often using fresh ingredients that are grown by students in our AISC gardens. With careful supervision, children experiment with a range of recipes and make incredible growth in this vital hands-on learning environment. Opportunities range from developing basic kitchen skills such as measuring and using knives as well as other kitchen equipment, to planning and preparing meals from scratch, such as fresh pasta and pasta sauce to be enjoyed for lunch.
Elementary Garden What began as a series of raised garden beds tucked away in prime growing conditions behind the FAC Building has evolved to now include additional gardens beds along the playground and in the Outdoor Learning Center. Our gardens provide experiential learning opportunities for classes to adopt garden beds. Students collaborate to seed, plant, tend, harvest, and eventually cook and enjoy the fruits of their successes. Teachers connect these authentic learning opportunities to many curricular areas, in particular, science, math, and visual arts.
Passion Projects We aim to provide students with a range of opportunities for personal inquiry. These inquiries arise from students’ own interests, curiosities, and passions. What makes these inquiries personal is that students identify what they want or need to investigate and then proceed to plan, with teacher guidance, a personal pathway for learning. Passion Projects capture the joy of learning while integrating content, conceptual knowledge, learner dispositions, and the attributes of the AISC Vision for a Learner. Students apply skills and strategies they have gained and can often make better connections between their interests and the curriculum. These rigorous learning opportunities often culminate with celebrations where students showcase their discoveries, creativity, and innovations, as well as their growth as inquirers.
American International School Chennai
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