Hello, parents and other readers! We hope your last two weeks went well and you are keeping safe from the December cold! ⛄

All around ISN, the classes have finished up their Units of Inquiry and are intensively preparing for their Christmas performances! There’s a lively atmosphere in the air, helped by the four beautiful Christmas trees that were put up by each of the houses during last Friday’s house event. The house members are getting into the house spirit and are very competitive, trying to trim the nicest Christmas tree and get the most house points for their house. Currently, the Kirins are in the lead, but other teams are not far behind!

We have also brought our short Unit to completion with last Thursday’s visit to the Matsumoto City Museum. We learned that, while the museum building is only a month old, the museum itself has a history that spans over one hundred years, during which time it has been preserving the culture and traditions of Matsumoto city and the entire area. The students got to see a diorama of the entire Matsumoto castle town; learn about how people worked, learned and played during Edo period; and inquire into how the nature of the prefecture affects all of our lives. 🌳

The students seemed to enjoy the excursion very much and excitedly chatted about the things they have seen on the ride back to the school. We were all a little bit tired in the afternoon, but bus excursions such as this one are truly a great way for students to learn in a new way, and experience new and exciting things outside of the classroom. On January 19th, we will go on a whole day train and bus trip again. We will visit the old Nakasendo town of Narai, as part of learning about Traditions, and spend the afternoon skating at the Okaya Yamabiko Ice Arena. Families are more than welcome to join (regardless of your level of skating skill). ⛸️

As usual this time of the year, the class is spending most of their time preparing for the upcoming Performance day. The students are energetic and excited, but Friday’s rehearsal in front of the teachers, as well as Grade 5 and other classmates, showed that some are still a little bit shy performing in front of a large audience and a tiny bit quiet on stage. We will spend the next to weeks practicing our performance, as well as our dances, making props and helping each other, in order to make sure we give all our visitors the best that we can on December 23rd.

Have a great weekend! 🎄