Hi everyone! I hope we have all unpacked our winter wardrobes! Grade 4 have had a serious of wonderful and educational adventures leading up to the start of our work on this year’s winter performance!
First off we joined the whole school in a half day trip to Aida high school, just up the road from the GOJO campus! The Aida students were so welcoming and friendly! They arranged a great program of communicative conversation based games for us! I feel like it was invaluable English exposure and practice for everyone and a great opportunity for us to build solidarity with other local schools!
Our next great adventure was our bus trip! We visited two locations in Matsumoto city! Our first port of call was the old Kaichi school. This is a very important school in the history of both Matsumoto and Japan. The school was the first in Japan to adopt a Western influenced educational method. Also the architecture of the building is a marvel in and of itself! A fusion of Eastern and Western architectural styles it is truly a cultural jewel! This school was built as a result of local merchants gathering together to help found and fund a school for the benefit of the local children. This connected to our Unit 3 Line of Inquiry concerened with how citizens can change their communities and environments by working together. The students particularly enjoyed getting a taste of how classes would have felt back in those days, notes written with chalk and blackboard, all in Katakana!!
Our next stop was the old courthouse on the outskirts of the city! This is a fascinating location! It encompasses the old courthouse, a prison barrack, an old silk factory and the old home of a samurai! It’s a fascinating window into the past of crime and punishment and industrial labour!! Again, this site was influenced by the will of local citizens. This time because it was under threat of being demolished until local people demonstrated and were able to have it preserved and converted into the museam it is today!
Finally, I hope you were all able to drop by the Matsumoto station Starbucks at some point during September and October! ISN GOJO students had the magical opportunity to create some art pieces using some of the Starbucks coffee grounds! Four grade four students devoted their break times to perfecting the images you can see above, marvellously imaginative and gloriously colourful! If you missed the chance to see the pieces displayed in the Starbucks, they are currently on display on campus! Please drop in and check them out!
Now I will get back to class and rehearsals for the Christmas show! Starting to feel nervous, wish us luck!
