March Madness in Grade 2

The last few weeks before Spring Break have been a bit crazy with all of the different activities that have been going on in class and at DSKI.

Right after our big assembly performance at the end of February, we celebrated Karneval along with the rest of the school. Thanks to the PTA for helping the staff with this event. A week later, the German students in Grade 2 joined Grade 1 and visited Miele in Sannomiya to do some baking!

Culture and Book Week

Last week was Culture and Book week. Each morning we had the chance to learn a new cultural dance from a different country. Special activities were organized throughout the week as well, such as the Cultural Museum set up by parents from different countries in the entrance area, a Pajama Party morning with stories, and lullabies by parents and teachers in various languages, a special visit from the author of "My Awesome Japan Adventure" Ms. Rebecca Otawa, and finally Character Day last Friday!

Forces Unit

On top of all that was going on, we did manage to get some work done and finished up our Forces Unit.

On Thursday, March 14th, Grades 1 and 2 build working sailboats with Mr. Komine and some other volunteers from the Rokko Island Community. We will have a chance to sail the sailboats in the Rokko Island River/ Canal in a couple weeks!

We also had a surprise visit from Ralph, who joined the Grade 2 students while they were experimenting with Lego racers to see what features would make a car travel further down a ramp. Some of the variables they considered were wheel size, car size and weight.

Continuing our research into forces, we experimented with different material to see which had the most and least amount of friction and learnt about the Scientific Method in the process.

For the end of the unit, the students needed to use their new knowledge of forces, materials and simple machines to create their own Rube Goldberg Machines, or as they are better known as in Japanese Pythagora Switch! This was a challenging task for most of the students as it really required students to think ahead and make a plan, as well as the ability to cooperate and communicate with others in their groups. With a bit of guidance and patience from some teachers, most groups were able to get their machines working. You can see these, and some highlights from the other forces experiments in the video below!

Grade 2 Assembly - The Plastic Problem

During our Sharing the Planet unit, the students became aware of a need to do something about the massive amounts of plastic being wasted in our world and filling up the oceans. To deal with this, they suggested several different types of action that they could take to reduce, reuse and recycle.

One way was to hold a Flea Market so that people could find new homes for items that they no longer needed. Another was to create a poster and ask other students for their ideas. A final group decided to put together their ideas and worked on writing a story to share with others. Over the course of the last few weeks, the students were busy rehearsing and creating different props for use in their assembly performance last week.

If you were unable to attend or were hoping to watch it again, then here's your chance!