Hello, everyone! We have slowly entered the humid and rainy month of June. On Monday, the students’ day started with Computing, where they jumped into basic programming with Godot – a web-based game engine. The difficulty curve of making their own games started in Figuro just got steeper and the students talked about how difficult this new step is, but were able to focus on learning as much as they could, still excited about their final goal: their own interactive game. Godot is available at https://godotengine.org/ After this, Grade 7 did their Japanese lessons, while Grade 6 took on argumentative essays. The students inquired into the importance of making good arguments and backing up all of their claims with ample quality evidence, and we practiced this by organizing a short debate about spending time in nature. The example article we studied talked about the physical and psychological benefits of spending time as much time as possible outside, and this is something the students seem excited to do as well.

On Tuesday, the students enjoyed two long games of soccer and kick base during P.E. time and revised their multiplication skills in Maths. We multiplied by tens, hundreds and thousands, single- and two-digit numbers. After this, the students had individual learning time. A piece of sad news: one of our class crayfish, Pinchy, passed away yesterday. We organized a small funeral today and shared things to remember him by. It was time for Japanese in the afternoon.

Wednesday went by very fast in the classroom: the students wanted to spend their time planning for their upcoming 2-day trip! Some great ideas were shared and discussion and planning ensued. The teams struggled a little bit with combining the numerous ideas they had into a physically doable plan, but with good feedback from the other teams and minor guidance from the teacher, they were able to focus their plans on what is important: fun times learning with their friends.

Our Thursday started with the P.E. lesson organized by our team leaders (a fun game of dodgeball), and continued with Music. The students are practicing playing the notes on their recorder and have also been instructed by their teacher Ms. Misayo to practice at home, if possible. Little friends from ISN Preschool came to visit us during the morning as well, so the entire campus was filled with laughter.

Two classmates shared their lovely book reports and an interesting discussion ensued about writers using real-life inspiration for the characters, locations and situations they write about. The students were assigned with a homework of creating their own short story, centered around a thing from their real life, but modified and embellished for the purpose of the story.

On Friday, the students visited the Chausuyama zoo in Nagano city as part of their learning about animals. The drive there was a little bit long, but nothing that sitting next to friends and excited chatting couldn’t solve. Upon arriving at the park, we walked around observing the animals’ behavior, habits, and enclosures. The students especially enjoyed the lion, Japanese black bear, and Japanese macaque exhibits.

A fascinating information session with a zookeeper followed. The students learned about the types and amount of food each animal eats and how zookeepers take care of them. The most exciting part of the session for the students was definitely getting to hold and pet a cute ball python named Hechima. A new friend was made and I’m sure many of you will get requests for pet snakes very soon. After delicious lunch carefully prepared at home, the students walked the zoo in small groups with their friends, further exploring everything they may have missed or the animals they wanted to say hello to again. Exhausted, but full of fun memories, we rode the bus back to school.

Another exciting week was had the following week. After a brief Computing lessons, in which the students imported the ghost characters they created in Figuro into the game engine Godot, we had an engaging interview with Mr. Chris from Storyhouse cafe. In September, the students will organize a food sale event in Nawate street in collaboration with Storyhouse, so they have started planning their recipes, thinking about how to source ingredients, how to market and organize the event. As homework, the students were tasked with conducting short market research: asking their families, friends, and teachers about how much they would enjoy certain dishes and recipes. Thank you for helping them with that.

The students reflected on Friday’s visit to Chausuyama zoo on Monday. We looked through all the wonderful animal photos we took on Friday, and decided to submit them to Chausuyama’s annual photo contest. We talked about writing a thank you card to the kind zoo staff and wrote essays reflecting on the trip. Afternoon was time for Japanese lessons for both grades.

The rain has soaked us a little bit on Tuesday, but we are persevering until the weather is nicer! We spent our morning in the Gojo Sky Room, joining an all-class assembly led by Grade 3. The assembly was an interesting mixture of intensive stretching, useful announcements, and learning about gravity. The July assembly will be organized and led by Grade 6 and 7 students, so we also spent some time reflecting on the job Grade 3 did.

The students started work on their monthly projects for May, focused on animal conservation and helping animals. Several interesting ideas were shared, including building birdhouses, creating educational albums of animals of the area, and introducing the work of WWF to their schoolmates. The afternoon was dedicated to Japanese.

On Wednesday, the Grade 6 students inquired into the Nature Conservation Foundation, a non-profit organization based in India that does important work in protecting wildlife in their area. We saw a video on their work on protecting the Himalayan Snow Leopards and the students discussed its importance. One student shared about their previous work with WWF related to the snow leopards. The day continued with continuing work on our May Monthly Concept learning projects and Japanese lessons.

We started our Thursday off with a high-intensity game of basketball during our P.E. lesson. It was the first time for the student to play on a full court, official pointing system, and with five players on each team. It was a lot of fun. After practicing on their recorders during their Music lesson (the students are learning how to play “Happy Birthday”), we used the Literacy lesson for everyone to share the short stories they’ve written with their classmates. Some of humorous, exciting, some mysterious, and some more calming and focused on describing emotions rather than events. The students discussed their opinions of each of the stories and techniques used by the writers in constructing the stories and catching their readers’ attention, such as sudden plot twists, understatements and hyperbole, and rhythm. The afternoon was Japanese time.

On Friday, an exciting day was had in Grades 6 and 7. Going out to climb the mountain nearby as part of their Activities in nature, the students were surprised to see a big furry thing moving in the bushes! Discussion ensued on whether it was a bear or a boar, but they quickly hurried back to the school, excited to share their experience with their schoolmates. Needless to say, the school was on lockdown for the remainder of the day, with the authorities being contacted. The students still had a chance to climb the treacherous mountain, completing the goal despite initial fears from some members, practicing their independence and perseverance.

In the afternoon, all classes had a scheduled time to enjoy some drama activities, in preparation for the pinnacle event of the school year: March’s Performance day. In Grades 6 and 7, we discussed what makes a good actor and whether it’s only their acting skill or also communicating with others, being open-minded and sensitive. We played games focused on our teamwork skills and quick thinking.

Thank you for joining us for another fortnight and see you soon!