Hello, everyone! The weather is still cold, but Grade 3 and 4 students are very excited about the upcoming Spring and school-year end. Are you excited too?

This past week, we started inquiring into our new Unit of Inquiry, following the topic “Sustainability”. We will think about our environment, the finite resources we have at our disposal, and what would be the best way to use them, in order to preserve enough of them for generations to come. The central idea of the Unit is “We can improve our lives by respecting nature and working together with it.” The students have spent the week discussing the importance of keep our resources at the same level and sharing ideas on how we can do that. There were many good ones, like making paper out of used milk cartons, phone speakers out of toilet paper rolls and clothes from discarded paper! 🗑️

Last Thursday, we visited the Matsumoto Clean Center, that takes care of the entire city’s garbage, either by recycling it, burning it or placing it on a landfill. We participated in an interesting tour, showcasing different parts of the facility, and the students were able to think critically about the different ways of disposing off garbage. At the end, they were even given two presents, in the form of a paper airplane model made of recycled paper, and a free ticket to L’ala Matsumoto pool, which is actually heated by the heat produced by burning trash in the facility. How cool! 🔥

For the past several weeks, the students have also been avidly preparing for their annual Music performance, which will take place next Friday, March 8th. Both Grade 3 and 4 have prepared a performance on the instruments, a dance, and a song to sing. Let’s support them next week!

Thank you to the parents who joined last and this week’s parent/teacher/student conferences. It was motivating for the students to see their parents at the school and see the support they have for their learning. Have a great weekend! ☀️