It is a wonderful thing that children are curious about nature. The magic of nature can inspire children's passion of life, and it stimulates kids to think positively. What did our children explore this October at YWIES?

Do you know what our children are looking at?

Just to give you a hint,

They asked “what does it eat for food?” “How many spots does it have?”

Now you know, our children’s adventure has started.

As a parent, you may be wondering; why do our teacher at YWIES take the children on a series of explorations? Why is taking an adventure so important for kids?

Learning through the Emergent Curriculum at YWIES Beijing, our teachers and students construct learning together, the students are supported as emergent multilinguals. Moreover, our teachers make intentional connections to academic skills within student-led experiences.

Generating Theme Exploration Tour

Our teacher took the children to explore and establish the systematic knowledge about ladybugs in the fields of language, health, science, society, art and so on in a month.

For Language, the children composed a story about ladybugs, which improved their language expression and the initial skills of written expression. The children also learned the English vocabulary of different parts of the ladybug through a game, and tried to sing English songs such as “Bug n Roll Dance” with the teacher. We read the picture book "The Very Lazy Ladybug". This boosts children’s desire to explore English and increase their English vocabulary while improving the ability of oral English communication.

For Science, we learned the body parts about ladybugs and how ladybugs grow. We gathered natural resources such as leaves, stones, and fruits to model the living environment of ladybugs. Open materials such as paper tubes were utilized to build a bug house, which enhanced everyone's ability to observe and explore the nature of interest!

For Social, our young learners created a ladybug painting, and they confidently share their ideas with peers. A ladybug protection association was established in order to better protect ladybugs, in which our children showed a preliminary sense of social responsibility.

For Art, the children made their own ladybug costumes with plastic bags, and completed a lot of flat and three-dimensional ladybug crafts through group cooperation. At the same time, the children sing Ladybug songs, follow the music to dance, and even play instruments. All these contribute to the improvement of their artistic expression and creative ability.

Home cooperation - we are all "ladybug defenders."

We invited all parents in the K4 learning community to come to the school to experience the protection of ladybugs. Here come our exciting "ladybug" theme parent-child activities!

The children sent the program list they made to every parent and teacher who came to participate in the activity. We also invited everyone to join us to protect ladybugs by becoming a member of the Ladybird Protection Association.

We shared the process of exploring ladybugs, the harvest and fun with our family through pictures and videos. We then played "Ladybug Hunter" and "Colourful ladybug" game, experienced the charm of the ladybug and enhanced the mission to protect ladybugs.

Children and parents designed ladybug specimens and postcards together. They used different kinds of materials and tools to complete the parent-child art activities. With the company of parents, the children become more confident. They can’t wait the next parent-child activity!

After the parent-child event, the children sent self-made postcards to the Entomological Society of China to express their love and protection for ladybugs.

Teachers, children, and parents engaged actively with the same topic through the exploration of ladybug and sharing event. Teachers helped children to enrich their knowledge about ladybugs in various aspects (language, health, science, society and art). Parents participated in ladybug games with children, and made ladybug crystal specimens and postcards together.

Hope you can get better understanding of the Emergent Curriculum at YWIES through the learning story above. At YWIES, our students are immersed in a supporting, bilingual learning environment where our teachers work together with parents to develop confident, caring and curious young learners. The focus in these early years is on whole-child development, building the character foundations, personal and social values that will support students for life.