Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in an effective and efficient way.
To start the unit 2, we played some games to engage students and help them accept new ideas for inquiry. First, we played “Birthday Lineup,” where the students were instructed to line up in order of their birthdays, starting with April and ending with March. We added an extra challenge by asking them to line up in order of their birthdays without talking within 3 minutes.
They enjoyed this game a lot! On the first try, 7 students didn’t make it to their correct spot. We had a reflection on why they thought some of them made a mistake. Some said it was because they didn’t check our birthday corner, and others said it was because they didn’t listen to their friends. Most of them asked if they could do the game one more time. On the second try, only 3 students didn’t make it to their correct spot, and when we reflected after the game, they said they had fewer mistakes because they used the whole 3 minutes this time, checked the birthday calendar, and did more actions and hand gestures. Well done, Rainforest!
The second game was the “Spaghetti Challenge,” where the students had to build a tower using spaghetti pasta and playdough within 3 minutes. First, they were given a minute to talk to their teammates about what strategy they were going to use to build the tower. Next, with the timer running, each team built a tower, and the team that made the tallest one won the game. During the reflection time, the winning team said they won because they worked together, made their tower higher and higher, and used playdough. Meanwhile, the other teams said they didn’t succeed because they couldn’t balance it, and although they tried to build the tower, it didn’t work well. It was good to hear that they are able to reflect on their performances and share them in class without hesitation. This shows that they are willing to learn, try different strategies, and do their best.
TEAMWORK SONG:
On Monday, we celebrated the Star Festival on our campus. We gathered together and talked about what the Star Festival is. Then, we listened to the story of the two stars, Altair and Vega, and sang a Japanese song.
For our phonics lesson, we focused on the magic “e” with the long vowel “e” sound. We read the words altogether first, then we did “Roll and Read.” For this activity, we used a dice, and each student rolled it and read each word to their friends accordingly.
The green soy beans seedlings grown from seeds have grown big thanks to the sunshine and everyone’s care. Everyone is overjoyed to see the flowers wither and small fruits emerge! They are looking forward to the day when the beans will expand and everyone will be able to eat them.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
