Hello, everyone! Our Monday started with Computing, where the students took their first steps into coding. They’re slowly building and adjusting their game world in Godot, and today they set up cameras to follow their characters. Later on, we started our inquiry into food and nutrition and lifestyle choice by talking about what does it mean to grow up, the ways people commemorate growing up in different cultures, and the psychological changes that come with growing up. If you have any photos of students joining events that commemorate growing up (such as graduation ceremonies, shichi-go-san, birthday events, etc.), please feel free to send any photos and descriptions of such, and we will use them in class. The afternoon continued with Japanese lessons.
Our Tuesday started with trying out a new sport during P.E.: Badminton. Our goal was passing the shuttlecock and achieving the longest rally. We managed to get it to 59, and will try out playing 1 vs 1 badminton games with net and court during our next lesson at the gym. Thursday’s gym lesson (and our first period on Friday) will be dedicated to the students’ physical ability test, which will undertaken by all classes.
In Maths, we delved into word problems, one of the trickiest parts of learning Maths, but also one that is probably the most applicable in real life. This was followed by individual learning in Grade 6, and Japanese lesson in Grade 7.
Wednesday was the school Open Day. Thank you to all the parents who participated. We started our day with a lesson in Morals, discussing how one’s words can sometimes be hurtful to others, even if for us they may represent a joke or a comment made in passing. We talked about thinking before speaking and talked about how our words should be kind, true, and necessary. This also connected nicely with the lesson that followed, in which we talked about the human brain development, and how the emotional part of our brains (amygdalae) develop faster than our prefrontal cortex, which often leads to adolescents making more rash decisions or valuing extreme activities.
In the afternoon, the students presented their individual work on the topic of protecting nature and animals. We heard about plans for planting trees, insect and bird houses, bird-watching books, raising awareness of protecting bears, collecting toys for animals in shelters, purchasing products from companies that are active in protecting the environment, and creating animal maps of our neighborhoods and areas. We discussed how these topics all have excellent bones that the students can expand on and present to the entire school during the upcoming Inquiry fair.
Finally, our associate Mr. Hirabayashi offered an introduction to his lessons on AI, which will officially start in July. He was surprised by the students already possessing basing knowledge of the subject, and they seemed very interesting in deepening their learning.
Our Thursday started with the first part of the physical ability examination, which tasked the students with running a 50m sprint, testing the strength of their grip, and the flexibility of their body. The students enjoyed the challenges, even though they were quite tired afterwards, but still seem excited for the second part of the examination, which will take place tomorrow.
After the quick ear-throat-nose examination undertaken by the school’s doctor, the students joined their Music lesson. Currently, they are practicing playing “Happy Birthday” on their recorders, and singing the songs “This is me” and “夢の未来へ”. In Literacy, we heard about interesting books our friends read via their book reports, and revised our knowledge of types of punctuation and punctuation marks. We will focus more on practicing this in the upcoming lessons.
In the afternoon, while Grade 6 studied Japanese, Grade 7 inquired more into identifying and using various types of cohesive devices in writing. We also celebrated our classmate’s birthday today. We sang a birthday song, shared a card, and he even got to wear a very special birthday pin badge and receive birthday wishes from all of his teachers and students from other grades. Happy Birthday!
Friday was the second part of the students’ physical ability test. They tested their flexibility in doing sit-ups, throwing the ball, and side-stepping. This was followed by their Nature activities, which has them practice tying knots in the school yard. It being a hot day as today, the students were properly exhausted by the time they came inside for lunch. We decided to spend the afternoon indoors, tackling two major topics to plan: deciding on the recipes for our collaboration with Storyhouse Cafe, and planning this year’s House team activities, which will be lead by Grade 6 students, in role of prefects.
Monday was a day of diverse learning for our G6 and G7 students! In Computing with Mr. Howard, students dug further into the world of coding. Although challenging at times, their knowledge is steadily growing. Following that, G7 students delved into Japanese, while G6 students continued their exploration of the human brain, building on last week’s interests. We saw a video on the parts of the brain and discussed the intricacies of the brain’s development. Then, in Literacy, we focused on enhancing writing skills by connecting sentences and paragraphs through cohesive devices and pronoun agreement.
We started the sunny Tuesday with a game of soccer in P.E. The entire school is buzzing about the World Cup and even the students who previously haven’t shown an interest in soccer, are now avid fans. Second period brought Maths, where we inquired into different numbering symbols used throughout history, from brahmi numbering system, Egyptian hieroglyphics, roman numerals, all the way to the Arabic numerals we use today.
Wednesday was the first swimming lesson day of the pool season. Everyone was excited to enter the refreshing pool for the first time this season. All students showcased their swimming skills by swimming freestyle and backstroke the length of the pool, followed by games of pool tag, underwater rock-paper-scissors, and jewel hunt. Everyone came back to the school extremely tired and hungry. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the class eat their entire portions this quickly. Even thinking was difficult, but we did manage to share our thoughts and join the planning meeting of our 2-day bus trip. Afternoon was reserved for Japanese.
By Thursday, with the upcoming typhoon, it got rainy again. Wishing for the rain to stop didn’t help, so the students though of games to play indoors that still helped them exercise their bodies, and practice teamwork. Music lesson focused on teamwork as well, with the students practicing choir singing. After two friends presenting their book reports, we continued inquiring into the workings of the human body, by splitting into pairs, visiting the library, and researching about different important organs of the human body.
And finally, Fridays are surely becoming favorite days in Grade 6 and 7. A student mused today how nice it is that Fridays are “not real learning, but just having fun”. The class started their day with exercise indoors in lieu of their Nature activities (it has been raining the entire day) and an indoor lesson on staying safe in nature, followed by joining their interest clubs in the afternoon. While the soccer club went all out with a muddy game outside and the frisbee club did the same thing indoors, the chess, Harry Potter knitting, and Sk8 and Kre8 clubs took a more relaxed approach, perfect for Friday afternoons. Have a great weekend ahead and read us again in two weeks!
