End of the First Full Week

 Our first full week back was filled with new experiences as we began our first unit of the year, under the transdisciplinary theme, Sharing the Planet with an inquiry into Ecosystems! Students began by working in groups sorting out pictures of various plants, animals, and environments. They had to give labels or names to the different groups of pictures and explain their reasoning. Some of the initial groups that they came up with were animals, plants, insects, sea creatures, and places. Others sorted things according to where they live or according to size. Then they were asked to try to sort the same pictures into different groups. Finally, they were asked to organize the pictures in ways that showed the different connections by drawing arrows, labeling the connections and the relationships between the different photos. In doing so, the students started to identify some of the important concepts that we will be looking at in this unit such as food chains, habitats, and prey and predators.

 

We watched a BrainPop video and did some reading in a Seesaw activity to discover the meaning of the word: ecosystem. 

In language, we began looking at character traits to help us understand characters better. Students also described themselves using adjectives and character traits in a Seesaw activity. 

Students were given access to their Kids A-Z and a Prodigy math accounts and began reading stories and solving math problems online. They were so excited to have these new accounts and constantly requested them. I happily told them that they could use them at home as well! (They can log into both by logging into their school email accounts and then choosing the "Log in with Google" option.

Grade 3 had their first PE lessons with their new teacher this week! Mr. Brabant! We began the year by playing some fun cooperative games to encourage their teamwork and social skills. 

In art, with Mr. Lubin, students were drawing pictures of life under the sea.

In music, students sang songs in different languages including Happy Birthday to a couple of students who had their birthday during the summer holiday. 

Finally, thank you to everyone who joined the Parents' Night meeting. I'm proud to announce that Leon and Linke's moms have volunteered to be our class reps for Grade 3. Thank you!

First Days in Grade 3

Welcome to our class, here's a look at our new layout!

Our first two days have been filled with new experiences and opportunities for the members of our Grade 3 class as we spent some time getting to know each other as well as our new classroom, routines and weekly schedules.

On Thursday, we had fun playing “Find a friend who...” Bingo! Some of requirements were to find someone...

- who' s name has the letter B in it,

- who likes chocolate ice cream, 

- who knows how to roller skate, etc.

We also talked about what we did in the summer vacation, wrote self introductions and played a math quiz game on Bamboozle, all before going to 3 specialist lessons in the afternoon - music, Japanese then GFL.

Today, the students worked with a partner to do a scavenger hunt in the classroom that helped them to find out more about how our classroom and weekly schedule are organized. They also did a short math activity to see what they remembered from grade 2 and to tell me their feelings about math.

After Japanese in the afternoon, they had their first art lesson with our new art teacher, Mr. Lubin Neepomuceno and then finished the day with our new music teacher, Ms Azusa Nakajima. 

Looking towards next week, on Monday morning we will visit the school library to borrow some books and then begin our first unit of the year under the Transdisciplinary Theme of Sharing the Planet. Find out more about the unit next week as I don't want to give away too much to the students before starting the unit.

On Monday afternoon, we will have our first PE lessons of the year so the students should have their running shoes and clothes for PE as I'm sure they will be sweaty after running around for about 90min. Please refer to the list of things to bring in the parents handbook.

Welcome to Grade 3

 Another summer is almost over, and a new school year is about to begin this Thursday, August 19th! Please let me welcome all of the students and their families, whether new to DSKI or if you and your family have been a part of the school for as long as I've been here, or even longer as in the case of Sarang's family!

For anyone who doesn't know me, my name is Lance Brabant and I am originally from a small town in Eastern Ontario between Ottawa and Montreal. However this is my 21st year in Japan, so I'm almost more Japanese than Canadian at this point! I speak English, French and Japanese and somehow after 20+ years, my French is still probably stronger than my Japanese (I guess that shows how important it is to learn a language when you're young!)

Well, that's enough about me!

For the start of the school year, please ensure that your child comes to school with the items listed in the Parents' Handbook that was sent earlier this month on August 2nd. Also, as many students may have the same items, please make sure their name is also on the items so that they can be returned to your child. For your convenience, here is the list:

1 pencil case
1 ruler
1 eraser
Writing pencils (no mechanical pencils)
1 set of coloured pencils
1 pencil sharpener
1 pair of scissors
1 set of coloured markers
1 glue stick
1 box of tissues
1 drink bottle (tea or water only)
Healthy snack

We have been busy preparing the classrooms and schedules for the new school year and I will share the updated class schedule and update the other links here on our class blog once they have been finalized in the coming days. 

Our weekly schedule at the moment is as follows:

Enjoy your last day of summer vacation! I am looking forward to seeing the students bright and early at our new start time, 8:30 this Thursday morning!

Introduction to DSKI by Grade 3 Class of 2020/2021

I hope the soon-to-be Grade 4 students have enjoyed their summer holidays and are looking forward to coming back to school to meet their new teacher, this Thursday, August 19th.  I will be teaching Grade 3 again this year and I look forward to many interactions with the Grade 4 students as we share units of inquiry between the two grades. It was truly an honour teaching these students for the past two years and I wish them all the best in Grade 4 and in life.

Our last unit of the year focussed on the Grade 3 students recording several videos as part of our drama and information writing unit. Over the summer, I have been busy editing several of the projects while looking after my own two children. Unfortunately, a couple of the projects are still "works in progress" as editing more than 100 separate video clips into several videos; along with adding and editing green screen special effects, has taken much more time than anticipated. 

I will continue to work on and edit these projects and will share the links with the students and families as soon as they are ready.

At the moment, I am proud to present a Tour of DSKI by the Grade 3 English language students as they wrote, and recorded their own introductions to the different parts of our school.