Exploring Forces and Taking Action

Over the last few weeks, we have been busy splitting our unit time between exploring forces and taking action in regards to saving the planet.

Exploring Forces

Along with unpacking our central idea and lines of inquiry for the unit, the students took on a bridge building challenge. Using only two sheets of paper and no other building materials, the students worked with a partner to build a 10cm wide bridge that could cross a 15cm gap. The bridge also had to be able to withstand the weight of some ceramic tiles.

To test the strength of their bridges, the students added ceramic tiles until their bridges collapsed.

They tried several different designs, and in the end, it was Aira and Richard's arch bridge with a pillar for support that proved to be the strongest!

Taking Action to Save the Earth

Reusing some of the waste materials that they had collected throughout the last unit, the Grade 2 students finally completed their Trash Collage Posters to share a message about something they learnt in the unit. Please check these out before or after our assembly on Wednesday.

In preparation for our assembly on the 27th, the students have been hard at work rehearsing their roles. Please join us at 3pm in the Multipurpose Room.

Special Visitors from Terracycle Sustainability

On Friday, February 22nd we had two special visitors who came to talk to us about the importance of recycling and taking action to do our part in reducing plastic waste. The hour-long session was exactly in line with our previous unit and both Ms. Asami Katayama and her colleague were very impressed with the prior knowledge that the Grade 2 students had on the topic. 

The premise behind Terracycle Sustainability is that everything can be recycled. They brought with them several samples of materials that had been recycled, such as potato chip bags, and baby diapers, as well as some of the products that they have been made into such as frisbees, wallets and safety reflectors. Let's all continue to do more to reduce plastic waste. To find out what you can do about it, come enjoy our assembly this Wednesday at 3:00. Hope to see you there!

Use the Force

Reuse It Flea Market

Over the last two weeks, the students have been busy at work on preparations for our Flea Market which will open tomorrow, Monday, February 11th during snack - recess, lunch recess and after school from 3:30 until 3:45, and again on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Our goal is to help people find new homes for some of the things that they no longer need, by donating them to our Flea Market so that we can try to sell it and raise money for charity.  If you have any further donations, please send them in as soon as possible.

Grade 2 Assembly

We've also been spending some time preparing for our upcoming assembly on Wednesday, February 27th at 3:00 in the school's Multi-Purpose Room. Inspired by our previous unit on limited natural resources, the students have decided to take action by working on four separate, but related projects.


Hiro and Aruto worked with Ms. Rose to sort the items for the Flea Market, they grouped the similar items, then decided on prices for each item. Using a colour coded sticker pricing system, they made a legend to clearly show how much each item is.

 For their action, Aira and Brandon worked on creating a poster with the question, "How do you reduce plastic?" Along with the poster, they included blank answer slips for students to write down their answers/ suggestions.

After collecting the student responses, Aira and Brandon will choose some to read out at the assembly!

Ryann and Riku put on their creative thinking caps and began writing a plan for a short dramatic performance that will focus on the problem of plastic pollution.

 Meanwhile, Tiago and Richard also put their creative minds together and began making some of props for the dramatic performance, reusing some of the materials that we brought in from home to use for crafting!










Our 4th Unit of Inquiry: Forces and Materials

Although we have been very busy taking action to prepare for out upcoming assembly and our Flea Market this week, we also took some time to start our 4th Unit of the Year about Forces and Materials!

To see what the students knew about forces, we took a walk to the park to look for things that use a Push, or a Pull! The students also got the chance to show me just how hard they could pull, as we had a little Tug-of-War match in the class, with the students versus me! Our final, forces related activity for the week was creating "Hopper Poppers" with cardboard and elastic bands to see how high they could make them jump. Enjoy all of the forces action in the short video below!

Visit to Higashi Clean Center

On Thursday, January 31st, Grades 1 and 2 visited the Higashi Clean Center to learn about what happens to all the garbage in Kobe.

Our visit began with a video presentation that explained how the garbage is picked up, dropped off, sorted, incinerated and finally disposed of.

Our guide, Mr. Kawanami then took us for a tour around the facility, starting all the way at the top! Many of the students (and teachers) were huffing and puffing as we walked up the 5 floors to the top of the garbage pit.

There at the top, we could see the giant claw-like crane which could pick up eight garbage truck loads of garbage at one time! That was only a small bit compared to the 17-meter high pit full of trash!

Next, we watched as the crane dropped the garbage down the incinerator chute!

After that, we went down to another viewing platform where we could observe the garbage trucks pulling in to drop off truckload after truckload of trash into the garbage pit.










Then we moved to the other side of the facility to see where the ash from the incinerator came out and was then picked up by another crane and dropped into another truck. These truckloads of ash are then taken over to Phoenix Island, that's a new manmade island just south of Rokko Island. Check it out on the satellite view from Google Maps and you can see just how all our garbage is being put to use building new islands!

 Then we had a bit of time to explore the hands-on area and learn more about how the facility generates its own electricity by burning the trash. The students even got to try a wind-powered electrical generator.









 Or try to answer some of the questions about how the garbage is disposed of.

 It was a great trip and really made us realize just how much garbage is thrown away in Kobe.













 Back at school, the students decided to take some action. In order to help reduce the number of things that become waste, they decided that we need to recycle and reuse more things. To do so, Grades 1 and 2 will hold a Flea Market from Monday, February 11th until Wednesday, the 13th during recess time and after school from 3:30 until 3:45.

Next week, Grades 1 and 2 students will bring in things from home that are no longer needed and can be reused such as books, CDs, DVDs, games, clothes, and toys.

They will sort and gather these items and then prepare to sell them the following week. The money raised will go towards improving the school and any items that are not sold will be donated to an NGO called Shaplaneer which is running a campaign, "Don't throw it away" to help people in Bangladesh and Nepal.

Please support our efforts by sending in any used items, such as those listed above next week.

The students worked hard at creating posters to advertise this event. Let's all try to help create less trash by making donations.

Remember, one person's trash can be someone else's treasure!

Come treasure hunting at our Reuse It Flea Market!