Getting into the Christmas Spirit(uality)

 Well look at that, Christmas is only 4 short weeks away! Unbelievable, and with it comes the cold weather as I finally switched on the heater in class this week!

With the holiday season quickly approaching we were busy preparing for the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony this past Thursday as the students had the opportunity to make some ornaments for our tree. They used kami-nendo (paper playdough) to make their own original ornaments and then placed them on the tree right before the ceremony.

As a surprise from the PTA, each class received a handmade Advent Calendar with fun activities for the classes to do each day. Leon was randomly chosen to open the first one today and we had fun playing the game of the day outside on the playground as we didn't have enough space in class.

We also started on our 3rd unit of the year, an inquiry into World religions, beliefs and spirituality to go along with the upcoming holidays. We began by looking at how even though we all have different opinions about different topics such as foods like natto, or beliefs about the existence of aliens that we can still be respectful, tolerant, and accepting of others.

Meanwhile, in language, we have been working on expressing our opinions about our favourite books and characters by writing letters about them. 

Then in math, we've begun our unit on multiplication and division. 

Japanese and Indonesian Goods and How Products are Manufactured

International Collaboration 

This week involved quite a bit of research by Grade 3 as students completed individual research on Japanese products to share with students at BINUS International School in Jakarta, Indonesia as they are also inquiring into goods and services. In our exchange, we focused mostly on foods as they tend to differ the most, but we also allowed students to choose other goods that were characteristic of each of the countries. You can check out your child's work on their Seesaw account and also in the Padlet below.

CLICK here: Goods from My Country

After our introduction to manufacturing with our Bookmark Factory simulation last week we began to look into how goods are produced and manufactured. We began with a See, Think, Wonder activity that had the students moving around the room to look and share what they thought of the different images. Some noted that some of the photos were of children working in dirty factories, while others were of robots making cars.

Finally, students were put in groups and chose one type of manufacturing to research and create a Google Slide show to present to the class. Students were given some guiding questions to help them organize their presentations and divided up the work accordingly. The four research topics were: The Industrial Revolution, Assembly Lines, Lean Manufacturing and Robitic/ AI Manufacturing. They will be finishing up the projects over the weekend and will present to their classmates on Monday.

If you saw last week's post, you've already seen most of the pictures of the students Goods and Services projects, but I've put them all, as well as those from Grade 4 together in the video below. Enjoy!

Bookmark Production, Lanterns and St. Martin's

 Over the weekend, the students completed their models of a good or a poster for a service and on Monday we put them on display in the school entrance area along with similar projects from the students in grade 4.

To inquire into how goods are produced the students took part in a simulation to recreate a Bookmark Factory production/assembly line. To add an element of challenge to it, we set it up as a competition between two different assembly lines. The task was for each group to produce as many finished bookmarks that could meet the proper specifications. Both groups were given equal supplies and tools and instructions to start as well. The workers were responsible for staying at their stations and doing the job that they chose: 

1. Measure and mark bookmark size on card paper length: 12cm, width: 4cm

2. Cut out the bookmarks.

3. Measure and cut origami design paper - length: 10cm, width: 3cm

4. Stick origami paper on bookmarks. 

5. Stick on 3 round stickers as per design.

6. Draw borders on bookmarks with a marker. 

7. Quality control. Check bookmark quality and design. Number it and record.

Both teams worked hard, and in the end, we had 2 'buyers' from grade 4 who also evaluated the final products to see which production line had more bookmarks completed that met their high standards and in the final score was 7 - 6!

Saint Martin's

On Thursday we celebrated Saint Martin's. We learnt the history by watching some videos and then brainstormed what things we could share with others and then added a light to the lanterns that we made earlier in the week and then sang some songs. Finally, we shared some bread and drinks that were supplied by the PTA.

We also took some time this week to review our classroom agreements and to make posters about what kind of things we should see and hear in the classroom when people are being principled, caring and respectful.