Happy Halloween!

 In Grade 2 this week:

Unit:

We continued our inquiry into how life in the past was different from life today. 

To understand some of the differences, the students looked at images of things from now and from around 1940-1950 and had to sort them based on which category they thought they belonged to. 

We also looked into the central idea and lines of inquiry for the unit. The words for each were cut up and spread around the room and the students picked up one or two and then had to find which group they belonged in based on the font type. Once they found their group, they had to sort out the words so that they made sense.

Our central idea is, “Children in the past lived differently from how we live today.” 

Our 3 lines of inquiry are:

-Daily life then and now

- School then and now

- Factors influencing lifestyle change

We started looking into the first line of inquiry by talking about what types of things we use everyday and put them into categories such as clothing, transportation, buildings, entertainment, etc. and then focused on transportation. We also created a title page in our unit notebooks about our new unit. 

PE: Karate

In PE, we began a unit on martial arts and will be spending the next 5 weeks on learning a bit of Karate. I trained for a few years when I was a teenager and also practiced a few times here in Japan. It has been a lot of fun so far, and the students seem to be enjoying it. In addition to working out physically, we also rest our minds as we have a short meditation at the start and end and also learn to show respect as we bow at the start and end of every lesson. 

Halloween

This year we celebrated Halloween on the last day before the autumn holidays. Everyone showed up in their costumes and we had fun going around the school trick or treating. Leon won the scariest costume award with her Chucky costume, while Emily and Keiichiro tied for the best homemade costumes ( they were SO good that I thought both were store-bought! And Shun won the class choice award. We also played an escape room challenge game in class with groups of students working together to solve different puzzles. The boys group won the challenge and was the first to escape!

Now and Then

 This week we wrapped up our first unit of the year by finishing up unfinished work and by reflecting on the unit work by adding things to our Seesaw Portfolios.

We also began our 2nd unit of the year, under the transdisciplinary theme: Where We Are In Place and Time. This week we began by looking at what types of things have changed over time. The students were quite knowledgeable about some of the changes, such as those dealing with technology.

We also looked at some pictures of objects from the past to see if the students could figure out what they were and what their purpose was. It was a fun discussion. Unfortunately, I didn’t get too many photos!

This week we were also introduced to a new website: PowerSpelling.com The students have a couple games assigned to them as well as an online test to take when they think that they’re ready for it!

And in PE, we wrapped up our unit on cooperative games with a few caterpillar races! Next week we will start something completely new in PE! Something to do with “empty hands…”I’m really looking forward to it!!

Half day on Monday

Please be reminded that Monday will be a half day as the students will finish school at 1pm so that we can have parent teacher conferences.

I’m looking forward to meeting everyone at some point next week.