Dear Milky Way Families,
Greetings! We hope you are all doing well and looking forward to the upcoming Obon holiday. This week was filled with exciting learning experiences, meaningful teamwork, and joyful moments together. Thank you for your continued support in your child’s learning journey.
This week, the Milky Way class had the wonderful opportunity to harvest the fresh cucumbers we had grown in our school garden. The students were excited to carefully pick the cucumbers and experience the joy of harvesting something they had helped care for. At lunchtime, our kitchen staff kindly sliced the cucumbers so everyone could enjoy tasting them. The children chose either mayonnaise or miso as a dipping sauce and happily shared this healthy treat with their classmates. It was a meaningful experience that helped the students appreciate where food comes from while enjoying the fruits of their care and patience. Everyone was delighted and satisfied with the fresh, delicious cucumbers!
In our Unit of Inquiry under the transdisciplinary theme How We Organize Ourselves, we moved to Line of Inquiry 2: How communication and conflict affect teamwork, connected to our central idea, “Teamwork enables people to achieve common goals.” The students participated in two collaborative challenges—the Ball Challenge and a Scavenger Hunt—followed by meaningful reflections. During the Scavenger Hunt, students realized that they had missed looking carefully in some places, such as under tables, behind our Essential Agreement poster, under the teacher’s desk, and in different areas of the classroom and Music Room. They celebrated the items they successfully found together, including the pizza slice, green straw, wooden block, blue letter c, flower connecting toy, paintbrush, and white tray. Through their reflections, the students shared that next time they would communicate more, follow instructions carefully, decide on team roles before starting, do their best, stay confident, work together, achieve their goal, and never give up. Teachers also noticed a wonderful improvement in communication as students searched throughout the Milky Way classroom, Music Room, and Play Room. Although no team found every item, the experience became a valuable opportunity to reflect on how teamwork can be strengthened. During the Ball Challenge, the students were unable to complete the task on their first attempt because they did not yet have a plan, moved the strings too quickly, and were not working in the same timing. After reflecting together, they tried again. This time, they made a plan, moved the strings slowly and together, and successfully achieved their goal. These experiences helped the children understand that effective communication, careful planning, and perseverance are important elements of successful teamwork.
We also continued preparing for our upcoming Sports Festival by practicing our performance in the gym. Even though the weather was very hot, the students showed perseverance and tried their best throughout the practice. They took breaks to drink tea and cool down before continuing until they successfully completed the entire performance. Afterward, we practiced our race with great excitement. As soon as they heard, “On your mark, get set, go!” everyone gave their full energy and raced with enthusiasm. When the practice ended, many students excitedly said, “We want to play!” Since they were having so much fun, we spent a little more time enjoying another race together. On the bus ride back to school, the teacher asked, “Did you have fun in today’s practice?” and the students answered together with a loud and cheerful, “YES!” Their excitement and positive attitude made us very proud.
Reading Time: This week we read the ai vowel team book Jake and Gail Go to Spain. Your child will be bringing this book home again. Please take some time to read it together and encourage your child to practice using their reading strategies.
We have also attached the songs we have been singing in class. We hope you enjoy singing it together at home.
We wish you and your family a safe, relaxing, and joyful Obon holiday. Thank you for your continued partnership in your child’s learning. We look forward to seeing everyone again next week!
