Hello, everyone!
Welcome to our first Milky Way blog. We’re excited to share our learning adventures with you.
The first day of school was super exciting! Milky Way students boarded the ISN bus to Shimauchi Gym for the Welcome Ceremony School Year 2026. We welcomed new students with the song “Hello to All the Children of the World” and said, “Welcome to ISN! We’re happy to see you. Let’s learn, play, and have fun together.” Living the IB values, we made it a point to be *Caring* and *Communicators* from the start, making sure everyone felt welcome!
Back to school, we got settled into our new Milky Way class! We made sure to get well-oriented, organizing our stuff and getting aware of the class rules. It helped us feel comfortable and ready to learn!
Kicking off the school year in Milky Way! We dove into the Learner Profile – the heartbeat of our daily lives! Students rocked reciting the ten learner profile and defining each trait with real-life examples. Then came the fun part – ‘Sorting Photos’. With a picture in hand, they channeled their inner thinkers, matching situation photos with the learner profile. Who knew learning could be this engaging?
Daily, a student leader takes the reins, leading our morning circle time – calendar, schedule, and sight words! They’re also the lunch squad leader, making sure everyone’s ready and leading us in saying ‘Itadakimasu, thank you for the food’. The goal is to build responsibility, communication skills, leadership, and confidence.
We had a blast in Japanese Inquiry time. Students learned to introduce themselves in Japanese and nailed it in front of their friends. They totally enjoyed every bit of it.
We walked to Nambu Park and had tons of fun! We played in the playground, running around and laughing together – it was so much fun! We also snapped some sweet cherry blossom photos before we left the park to treasure the spring season.
In our phonics lesson, we reviewed the sounds of the alphabet – a super important step to enjoying reading words! Students were being *Thinkers* by analyzing the relationship between letters and sounds.
We also made library crafts! We watched a video once, and then got creative by making our own reading buddies with accordion-style legs, and even added a tiny book they could hold. It was so cool.
We practiced writing our names! Students wrote their full name on the base line for the first time, and teachers gave helpful feedback on using uppercase and lowercase letters correctly, and spacing between first name and surname. Students were *Reflective* learners, using feedback to get even better.
Finally, we kicked off our first tennis lesson. Everyone was buzzing with excitement and had a blast. In our afternoon circle, they shared how much fun they had playing tennis for the first time – can’t wait for next time.
Next week we will be embarking to our first UOI unit with the theme, Sharing the Planet and central idea; People’s choices can help care for the earth. We will be focusing on topic about the 3Rs. We also have swimming lesson, reading, Japanese inquiry time, Gym lesson, writing, Tennis, and music lesson.
Have a fantastic weekend!
