International Inquirers: End of Unit 2

Over the last two weeks, we continued making connections between things from the past to those of today. Last week on Tuesday, we had a day where we went back in time- Old School Day 1922!

On this day, the students dressed formally (and so did Mr. Brabant!) They sat up very straight in their seats and would be punished by having to wear the dunce cap, sit in a squat position, or have their knuckles whacked with a stick by the teacher! (Many thought for sure that Mr Brabant would do that, or whack them on the bottom! As they had seem images of corporal punishment in some of the photos of school in the past!) Fortunately, those that did misbehave got off with a warning as Mr Brabant only whacked the table with the stick! But it did get their attention!

Ms Marie also came in a couple times and helped teach the class how to crochet. This proved to be quite fun for some but quite frustrating for others.

On Thursday, we went on a field trip to Minpaku- the National Museum of Ethnology. Thanks to help from Maria’s mom and Nako’s dad, it was a fun but busy day. We looked at many traditional artifacts from all around the world and answered some of the questions that the students had asked in this unit such as, ‘How did people in the past catch fish?’

This week was also quite eventful as several students were away for various reasons, but we still managed to complete our inquiry into life in the past by using what we know about how things have changed from the past to now to help them predict how something might change in the future.

Students also worked on their reflections about this unit and started adding things from the unit to their Seesaw portfolios.

In PE, we kept working on our Karate moves, and have added a front stance, cat stance and punches. The students also started learning the first kata, Taikyoku Shodan! Let’s see how much they know in their final week next week!