Greetings everyone and I hope this finds you well and cool.

The month of July has found us pausing (for we never stop learning!) our investigations into plants and nutrition. We considered nutrition and how this branches into our various food groups, the human digestive system and we also had time to visit Shanti Kuthi in Ikeda, Azumino.

After talking about how plants influenced our food chain, we considered why we eat certain foods and also, why we generally eat 3 meals per day. The class were then presented with a worksheet which began by asking about their eating preferences. These answers were shared and compared with the rest of the group, before we broke into smaller groups. The groups were directed to several websites where they were tasked with discovering about the 5 basic food groups. After affirming these 5 groups, students then selected from their favourite foods and placed these within their respective food group, i.e. rice is a carbohydrate, soy beans are protein, etc.

We then divided again into 5 groups and each group was tasked with creating a poster about a particular food group that included 3 criteria; (a) examples of foods included in this group, (b) how they affect our bodies, (c) what are the recommended servings for this group. We also took time to consider what makes for an effective poster and the field of graphic design.

The students appeared to enjoy this project and I was impressed by the finished results in both their visual clarity and content.

The class also embarked on a data collection project. In this they were tasked with recording what they ate everyday for a 2 week period. This project appeared to bring into greater focus their individual diets and how they related to the recommended servings per day.

We further developed this by looking at the human digestive system and how food is broken down and used by the body.

This was complimented by the “Blue Poop Challenge”.

We prepared blue pancakes together as a group and then recorded how long it took for the pancakes to pass through our bodies. I think the students enjoyed this experiment, as evidenced by their enthusiasm when sharing tales of their “blue events”.

The final part of the month had us visiting Shanti Kuthi in Ikeda, Azumino. The students seemed to really enjoy this experience from the guided tour of the property by it’s owner, Usui-san, to the property itself and it’s abundance of nature, and finally but by no means least, the outdoor play area with various rope swings, rip slides and climbing walls. We heartily thank Shanti Kuthi for an enjoyable and memorable experience.

And, that is us for another month or so. I hope you have a wonderful summer break and look forward to being together again for the Autumn term.

Ciao!