Hello everyone! For Milky way, their post golden week holiday began with an inquiry into “various ways of handling waste”. They talked about the various recycling symbols and the different types of garbage bags used in Nagano, Matsumoto city. Some students were able to figure out that garbage is separated based on whether the materials are recyclable or not. Some shared that when they finish drinking bottled water and juice packaged in pet bottles they put the bottles in a yellow garbage bag.

With the quest of further deepening their knowledge of LOI2, they visited Matsumoto clean center on Friday the 9th. The staff there talked about the different kinds of things they recycle and how they recycle them. They explained that burnable garbage is burned at 900℃!! Of particular interest was the paper upcycling machine invented by Epson. The lady in charge explained that they recycle used paper into different colored paper that is used at the city hall!

They reflected on the visit and made a poster to show their gratitude to the clean center staff.

For this week’s phonics lesson they learned about short vowel sounds.

Japanese lesson.

They made recycling boxes on Wednesday and had their reading lesson afterwards.

They made something special for their dearly beloved mothers for May 11th’s Mother’s day. One student exclaimed , “wow this looks so nice, I hope mommy will like it!”

On Monday the 12th Milky way had a guest speaker who talked about recycling and renewable energy. The students learned the following facts:

1.Japan only has 0.3% reserves of crude oil, so it relies on imports from mainly the Arab countries.

2.PET bottles are made from petroleum.

3. The wood from demolished houses is made to make renewable energy.

On Thursday we went to Alps park and spent the whole day there! The students enjoyed playing in the water, sliding down the huge slides and going through the obstacle course. They also picked up garbage to help clean the environment, as Unit 1’s central idea advises them to! Thanks for the very delicious lunches you made for them. They enjoyed them under the lovely blue skies!

Enjoy your weekend!

Below are the link(s) to the songs they sang and danced to this week.