Dear Milky Way Families,
We hope you have had a wonderful week! Thank you for your continued support as we journey together through another exciting week of learning, discovery, and teamwork in the Milky Way class.
This week, we began by reflecting on our Inquiry Fair at the Gojo Elementary School. Together, we thought about what we had accomplished and asked ourselves whether we had achieved our goal. The students confidently shared that they had achieved their goal because they practiced a lot and worked together as a team. They then completed an individual reflection by thinking about how their team worked together during the Inquiry Fair to achieve their common goal. We also revisited our KWL Chart by adding new questions and new learning from our Inquiry Fair experience. Throughout this reflection, the students demonstrated the IB Learner Profile attributes of being Reflective as they thoughtfully evaluated their learning, Communicators as they confidently shared their ideas, and Open-minded as they listened respectfully to the different perspectives of their classmates. To continue exploring our Unit of Inquiry, we watched a video entitled Teamwork is Fun. The video taught us that teamwork is enjoyable because people can accomplish more when they work together. It also showed that successful teamwork requires listening carefully and doing our part. When everyone cooperates, the team reaches its goal, and everyone feels happy and successful. During our discussion, one student shared, “Teamwork can make people proud.” Another said, “Teamwork can help us achieve our goal,” while another added, “Teamwork is fun because team members can ask each other questions.” A few students also wondered, “When can I help the team?” and “Why do we need to help our team?” These thoughtful questions were added to our KWL Chart as we continued building our understanding of teamwork. We then learned about the different team roles—Leader, Thinker, Challenger, Doer, and Supporter—and discovered that every role is important for completing a task successfully. The students reflected on which role suited them best, proudly wore their role badges, explained their chosen roles, and completed an individual activity by identifying their team role, drawing themselves helping their team, and explaining how they contribute to achieving the team’s goal.
During our Japanese Inquiry time, the students became little inventors as they created a fun water-play toy shaped like a jellyfish! Using half of a PET bottle, they carefully covered the cut edge with colorful tape to make it safe and attractive. Next, they placed strips of plastic inside the bottle, letting them hang through the opening like wiggly jellyfish tentacles, before tightly screwing on the bottle cap to keep everything in place. The funniest part came when we took our creations outside for water play—the jellyfish danced, twirled, and splashed around in the water, making everyone laugh with delight! It was not only a refreshing way to cool down on a warm day but also a wonderful opportunity to strengthen our social skills as the children enjoyed playing cooperatively with their friends.
In Phonics, the Milky Way class explored the vowel teams ea and ee, learning that both make the same long /e/ sound. To activate their prior knowledge, the students were asked to think of words with these vowel teams, and they quickly shared examples such as sea and tree. We then practiced reading many ea and ee words together before watching an interactive video that challenged our reading skills by matching words to the correct pictures. Along the way, we expanded our vocabulary while strengthening our decoding skills. The students demonstrated the IB Learner Profile attribute of being Knowledgeable as they built their understanding of spelling patterns and confidently applied their new learning.
During Reading Time, we enjoyed reading the Magic e decodable book, Kate and Jake. It was wonderful to see the students applying the phonics skills they have learned in class, making reading feel smoother and more enjoyable. One enthusiastic student even exclaimed, “I love reading! I want to read a hundred times!” Moments like these remind us that confidence grows with practice, and it is exciting to see our young readers becoming more independent and eager to read.
Next week, we will have our swimming lesson at the central pool, spend time in the gym practicing our performance for the Sports Festival, enjoy our music lesson, and continue our Unit of Inquiry on teamwork through engaging games and activities that will strengthen our collaboration and communication skills. We can’t wait to share all these wonderful learning experiences with you in our next blog!
Please continue listening to and singing this month’s songs with your child at home. Singing together is a wonderful way to strengthen language skills, build confidence, and create joyful moments of learning beyond the classroom.
Thank you for being our partners in learning. We hope you enjoy a weekend filled with love, laughter, precious family moments, and plenty of time to relax and recharge. We look forward to welcoming everyone back for another week of joyful learning and exciting discoveries. Have a fantastic weekend, Milky Way families!
