Friday 23 October 2020

Happy Halloween!

Our Body Systems unit fit in perfectly with my favourite event of the year, Halloween! We began the week by inquiring into the skeletal system. Students worked on drawing skeletons either from our new friend Mr. B (as in Mr. Bones and not Mr. Brabant!) or from YouTube tutorial videos. They did a great job and these became a large part of our Halloween decorations for our door and wall.










We tried to focus on our studies throughout the day by working on a Halloween themed math mystery. Then during unit time, students reflected on their body drawings on Seesaw before hanging them up in the hallway, thus adding to the Halloween theme! In the afternoon unit time, the students enjoyed some donuts from the PTA and we still continued our unit with a Halloween theme, as we examined some organs and had the chance to look at some samples of our body's cells through microscopes, and even got to touch a model of a human brain! (Which coincidentally looked a lot like udon noodles...)

The highlight of the party, was the battle of the Ghouls vs the Boneheads as the girls took on the boys in a game of Halloween Bamboozle! The other highlight was the announcement of the scariest and coolest costumes in each grade, as well as the winners of the best-decorated classroom room door and best-dressed teacher. Our winners in Grade 3 were Kanna H. and Yoshika for the coolest and scariest costumes. In Grade 4, the winners were Hirohito for coolest and Stella for the scariest. Although we didn't win the door decorating contest despite having decorated half of the hallway, we did have the teacher with the best costume!

Friday 16 October 2020

What We Know and What We Want to Know

 Much of our unit time this week was spent on completing the pre-assessment activity of getting the students to show what they already know about what is inside their bodies and how it works. There were several interesting questions and comments that came up as I listened in on partners' conversations. 

"Do you know what a ribcage looks like?"

"Food will バラバラand go somewhere else!"

"Blood carries messages from the brain to other parts."

On Thursday, each group had the opportunity to explain to the rest of us what they had included in their body diagrams and why. All groups demonstrated a good amount of prior knowledge about some of the organs, body systems and some of their functions.

"The brain is protected by the skull." - Simran

"The heart is like a post office, the blood vessels carry blood around the body to every organ." - Hiro

"There are 206 bones, sorry we couldn't draw them all." - Yeonjae

"The lungs will turn black if you smoke and you could get cancer." - Rintaro

"In the tummy are the 小腸 and 大腸." (small and large intestine) - Kanna

"The stomach makes the food into little pieces, and dangerous water inside makes things melt and it connects to the intestines." - Aruto

"The lungs and heart are つながっている." (connected) - Lucas

"The big and small intestines are part of the digestive system." - Yoshika

"Food goes here (胃/stomach) then to 小腸 and 大腸. Things that the body doesn't need come out." - Stella

The students also had a number of interesting misconceptions.

"The red lines show blood, and blue lines are water."

"Inside the heart there is red part and blue part, inside is airline and water line."

"Blood goes to toes, to stand up and 力がはいる (they get power)."

Over the next few weeks, we will be working on correcting some of these misconceptions and will be learning more about the different body systems. Today they were able to identify 6 of the 11 body systems either by name, such as the digestive, muscular and skeletal systems, or by their function - breathing system, heart and blood system. They will be learning the proper names to these systems as well as the names and functions of various organs and hopefully all of the answers to their Wonder Wall questions in the coming weeks.












Friday 9 October 2020

Unit 2: Inside Our Bodies

 This week we kicked off our second unit of the year. Our new unit is under the transdisciplinary theme of Who We Are and is all about Our Bodies and Body Systems.

Central Idea: 

Our bodies are composed of complex systems which are connected

Lines of Inquiry:

- Systems of a human body and their functions 
- How organs and organ systems work together 
- Taking care of our body systems 

Key Concepts:

Function, Connection, Causation

Approaches to Learning:

Research Skills, Thinking Skills

Learner Profile:

Balanced, Knowledgeable

Learning Goals / Success Criteria:

- Students will be able to explain how various organs and organ systems work.

- Students will be able to identify how two or more organ systems are interconnected.

- Students will inform others on ways to take care of their body systems.

Action:

Students will work together to research and create models of different body systems to present and teach to other groups.

Students will monitor if they are working on healthy lifestyle goals.

How to Support Your Child at Home:

Talk with your child about how different organs and organ systems work. 

Encourage your child to find answers to their own questions by working on an independent research project.

Help your child learn new unit related vocabulary in your home language.

Have your child help prepare some meals together. While cooking or eating together, discuss the health benefits of different foods, the importance of eating a balanced diet and limiting the intake of sugars, salts and cholesterol.

Finding Out What Students Know Already

We began the unit with a mystery riddle:

A person was found dead lying face down in the middle of a large field. He was wearing a backpack, but there was nothing else found near him.

How did he die?

To find out more, the students had to be detectives and ask the right questions that could only be answered with a yes or no. It took a little while, but as they put together the hints, the students, with some key questions by Yeonjae and Simran, they finally managed to come up with the right answer.

If you don't already know the answer, try asking your child a series of questions to find out!

This activity led to a good discussion on different causes of death and demonstrated some understandings the students had on how our bodies work.

To show more about what they already knew, students began working with a partner to create a lifesize model showing the inside of the body.










Oktoberfest Celebration

Today the students literally got a taste of Oktoberfest as their lunch boxes were filled with German foods and the PTA provided everyone with a pretzel. At lunchtime, we watched a performance by the school choir.

Meanwhile, during lesson time, the students collected and added survey data about everyone's favourite Oktoberfest foods to a graph. Next,  they did some Oktoberfest themed reading comprehension which also helped prepare them for a fun Oktoberfest Kahoot! 















Friday 2 October 2020

International Collaboration between DSK and BINUS International School in Jakarta

This week the Grade 3 and 4 students had a chance to connect, compare and collaborate with students in Indonesia who have also been inquiring into a unit on Rights and Responsibilities. 

In preparation for the online video call, DSK students formed four groups earlier in the week to create Google Slide presentations. 

Aita, Lucas, Rintaro, Nanoka and Sakura's group created a presentation on Kobe and Rokko Island. The second group, consisting of Hirohito, Yoshika and both Kannas was responsible for telling about DSK. The third group summarized and explained Children's Responsibilities in Japan and consisted of Yua, Brandon, Stella and Aruto. The final group that included Yeonjae, Junsu, Ellie, Simran and Keiya was in charge of presenting on Children's Rights.

The students worked really hard throughout this week, learning how to use and create Google Slides. Within their groups, each member was responsible for their own research and for creating their slide as well as presenting during the video call.

Today, the Grade 3 and 4 had a video call with Grade 3 students and teachers at BINUS School Simprug, an IB School in Jakarta, Indonesia. 

Both classes prepared slideshow presentations on our city and school as well as on children’s Rights and Responsibilities as students in both schools have been inquiring into rights and responsibilities as part of their units of inquiry. 




There was some overlap between both presentations, as both sides specifically addressed the rights of students with our own culture in mind. 

It was a great cultural exchange and the students were able to share what they have learned in our first unit of the year.

Afterwards, the students from BINUS sent us some questions and words of thanks.