Hello everyone! I hope we are all up to date on our hay fever medication as the first pollen season approaches! Grade 4 are busy as usual as the end of the year approaches!

We had the penultimate big event of the year in the form of our annual music concert! Grade 4 performed two songs, one in English and one in Japanese. They also performed an ensemble piece and a piece for recorders. This was the culmination of a year of hard work and practice on their parts, with the great help of our music teacher, Miss Izumi! I felt they performed with a level of technical proficiency that showed the fruition of their labor! But more importantly than that, they communicated the joy of the pieces they sang and lit up the hall with their joy! A delightful and harmonious experience!

We have also been working on our final Unit of the year! The transdisciplinary theme for Unit 6 is “Sharing the Planet”. To that end, we are taking a look at the concept of ecosystems and learning about the flora around us. Grade 4 have elected to create terrariums, using soil and flora (and maybe fauna…?) taken from the school grounds and their surroundings! Now that we have assembled our terrariums (and very beautifully arranged they are to!), it is time to document and identify the plants and objects that we used and consider their role in the land around us. I’m intrigued to find out more!

We are all looking forward to arriving at school everyday to check on how are terrarium are doing! Let’s hope these plants take root and flourish as well as our students have!