Our second last unit of the year has Grades 1 and 2 inquiring into how living things around the world build shelters differently for various reasons. We began by looking into where animals and humans take shelter, and the types of homes they build. To develop their ICT skills, Grade 2 began using Padlets to curate all of the information they knew and were finding our about animal and human homes. This was a great chance for the students to learn how to do basic actions such as copy and paste and to use their typing skills that they have been practicing in the mornings at typing.com!
The students also looked into how humans build different shelters around the world, and why.
They also spent some time outdoors, to sketch some of the homes around the school, and had some fun experimenting and testing out designs for a model windproof house.
Meanwhile, in math, the English students have been learning about shapes, fractions and Tangrams so for art we had fun using the different shapes to create pictures.
We also had some fun together with Preschool and Grade 1 searching for Easter eggs in the library! Check out the video below for all of these exciting activities!
Our fun making things also continues this week as the students will design and build shelters from the materials found in different environments around the world. And of course our big sleepover event will be this Thursday night!
One of the annual highlights for the lower elementary students in Preschool, Grades 1 and 2 is almost here! To ensure that the teachers, parents and of course students too are well prepared, please read the Sleepover Letter, to find out all the details of what will be happening as well as what the children will need to bring with them on the night of April 25th. Also, to make sure that the teachers know all the relevant details about your children, please complete the Sleepover Questionnaire and Consent Form online via this Google Form. Even if your child will not attend, please complete the Google Form as it has questions and details that are relevant to school on Friday, April 26th.
Sailing Sailboats on the Rokko Island River Canal
Last week, the students in Grades One and Two had the chance to finally sail the sailboats that they had made during our last unit on forces. Mr. Komine and some other volunteers from the Rokko Island Cup Executive Committee, who had helped us with building the models came back to show us exactly how sailboats use the pushing force of the wind to sail in different directions across the Rokko Island River Canal. It was a nice windy morning so the weather was cooperating with us, although it was a bit chilly!
The children's faces really warmed up when they got the chance to watch their very own sailboat sail across the river. A couple took on a bit of water and unfortunately sank, but for the most part, they all survived the treacherous trip across the river and back a few times!
The last few weeks before Spring Break have been a bit crazy with all of the different activities that have been going on in class and at DSKI.
Right after our big assembly performance at the end of February, we celebrated Karneval along with the rest of the school. Thanks to the PTA for helping the staff with this event. A week later, the German students in Grade 2 joined Grade 1 and visited Miele in Sannomiya to do some baking!
Culture and Book Week
Last week was Culture and Book week. Each morning we had the chance to learn a new cultural dance from a different country. Special activities were organized throughout the week as well, such as the Cultural Museum set up by parents from different countries in the entrance area, a Pajama Party morning with stories, and lullabies by parents and teachers in various languages, a special visit from the author of "My Awesome Japan Adventure" Ms. Rebecca Otawa, and finally Character Day last Friday!
Forces Unit
On top of all that was going on, we did manage to get some work done and finished up our Forces Unit.
On Thursday, March 14th, Grades 1 and 2 build working sailboats with Mr. Komine and some other volunteers from the Rokko Island Community. We will have a chance to sail the sailboats in the Rokko Island River/ Canal in a couple weeks!
We also had a surprise visit from Ralph, who joined the Grade 2 students while they were experimenting with Lego racers to see what features would make a car travel further down a ramp. Some of the variables they considered were wheel size, car size and weight.
Continuing our research into forces, we experimented with different material to see which had the most and least amount of friction and learnt about the Scientific Method in the process.
For the end of the unit, the students needed to use their new knowledge of forces, materials and simple machines to create their own Rube Goldberg Machines, or as they are better known as in Japanese Pythagora Switch! This was a challenging task for most of the students as it really required students to think ahead and make a plan, as well as the ability to cooperate and communicate with others in their groups. With a bit of guidance and patience from some teachers, most groups were able to get their machines working. You can see these, and some highlights from the other forces experiments in the video below!
During our Sharing the Planet unit, the students became aware of a need to do something about the massive amounts of plastic being wasted in our world and filling up the oceans. To deal with this, they suggested several different types of action that they could take to reduce, reuse and recycle.
One way was to hold a Flea Market so that people could find new homes for items that they no longer needed. Another was to create a poster and ask other students for their ideas. A final group decided to put together their ideas and worked on writing a story to share with others. Over the course of the last few weeks, the students were busy rehearsing and creating different props for use in their assembly performance last week.
If you were unable to attend or were hoping to watch it again, then here's your chance!
Over the last few weeks, we have been busy splitting our unit time between exploring forces and taking action in regards to saving the planet.
Exploring Forces
Along with unpacking our central idea and lines of inquiry for the unit, the students took on a bridge building challenge. Using only two sheets of paper and no other building materials, the students worked with a partner to build a 10cm wide bridge that could cross a 15cm gap. The bridge also had to be able to withstand the weight of some ceramic tiles.
To test the strength of their bridges, the students added ceramic tiles until their bridges collapsed.
They tried several different designs, and in the end, it was Aira and Richard's arch bridge with a pillar for support that proved to be the strongest!
Taking Action to Save the Earth
Reusing some of the waste materials that they had collected throughout the last unit, the Grade 2 students finally completed their Trash Collage Posters to share a message about something they learnt in the unit. Please check these out before or after our assembly on Wednesday.
In preparation for our assembly on the 27th, the students have been hard at work rehearsing their roles. Please join us at 3pm in the Multipurpose Room.
Special Visitors from Terracycle Sustainability
On Friday, February 22nd we had two special visitors who came to talk to us about the importance of recycling and taking action to do our part in reducing plastic waste. The hour-long session was exactly in line with our previous unit and both Ms. Asami Katayama and her colleague were very impressed with the prior knowledge that the Grade 2 students had on the topic.
The premise behind Terracycle Sustainability is that everything can be recycled. They brought with them several samples of materials that had been recycled, such as potato chip bags, and baby diapers, as well as some of the products that they have been made into such as frisbees, wallets and safety reflectors. Let's all continue to do more to reduce plastic waste. To find out what you can do about it, come enjoy our assembly this Wednesday at 3:00. Hope to see you there!
Over the last two weeks, the students have been busy at work on preparations for our Flea Market which will open tomorrow, Monday, February 11th during snack - recess, lunch recess and after school from 3:30 until 3:45, and again on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Our goal is to help people find new homes for some of the things that they no longer need, by donating them to our Flea Market so that we can try to sell it and raise money for charity. If you have any further donations, please send them in as soon as possible.
Grade 2 Assembly
We've also been spending some time preparing for our upcoming assembly on Wednesday, February 27th at 3:00 in the school's Multi-Purpose Room. Inspired by our previous unit on limited natural resources, the students have decided to take action by working on four separate, but related projects.
Hiro and Aruto worked with Ms. Rose to sort the items for the Flea Market, they grouped the similar items, then decided on prices for each item. Using a colour coded sticker pricing system, they made a legend to clearly show how much each item is.
For their action, Aira and Brandon worked on creating a poster with the question, "How do you reduce plastic?" Along with the poster, they included blank answer slips for students to write down their answers/ suggestions.
After collecting the student responses, Aira and Brandon will choose some to read out at the assembly!
Ryann and Riku put on their creative thinking caps and began writing a plan for a short dramatic performance that will focus on the problem of plastic pollution.
Meanwhile, Tiago and Richard also put their creative minds together and began making some of props for the dramatic performance, reusing some of the materials that we brought in from home to use for crafting!
Our 4th Unit of Inquiry: Forces and Materials
Although we have been very busy taking action to prepare for out upcoming assembly and our Flea Market this week, we also took some time to start our 4th Unit of the Year about Forces and Materials!
To see what the students knew about forces, we took a walk to the park to look for things that use a Push, or a Pull! The students also got the chance to show me just how hard they could pull, as we had a little Tug-of-War match in the class, with the students versus me! Our final, forces related activity for the week was creating "Hopper Poppers" with cardboard and elastic bands to see how high they could make them jump. Enjoy all of the forces action in the short video below!
On Thursday, January 31st, Grades 1 and 2 visited the Higashi Clean Center to learn about what happens to all the garbage in Kobe.
Our visit began with a video presentation that explained how the garbage is picked up, dropped off, sorted, incinerated and finally disposed of.
Our guide, Mr. Kawanami then took us for a tour around the facility, starting all the way at the top! Many of the students (and teachers) were huffing and puffing as we walked up the 5 floors to the top of the garbage pit.
There at the top, we could see the giant claw-like crane which could pick up eight garbage truck loads of garbage at one time! That was only a small bit compared to the 17-meter high pit full of trash!
Next, we watched as the crane dropped the garbage down the incinerator chute!
After that, we went down to another viewing platform where we could observe the garbage trucks pulling in to drop off truckload after truckload of trash into the garbage pit.
Then we moved to the other side of the facility to see where the ash from the incinerator came out and was then picked up by another crane and dropped into another truck. These truckloads of ash are then taken over to Phoenix Island, that's a new manmade island just south of Rokko Island. Check it out on the satellite view from Google Maps and you can see just how all our garbage is being put to use building new islands!
Then we had a bit of time to explore the hands-on area and learn more about how the facility generates its own electricity by burning the trash. The students even got to try a wind-powered electrical generator.
Or try to answer some of the questions about how the garbage is disposed of.
It was a great trip and really made us realize just how much garbage is thrown away in Kobe.
Back at school, the students decided to take some action. In order to help reduce the number of things that become waste, they decided that we need to recycle and reuse more things. To do so, Grades 1 and 2 will hold a Flea Market from Monday, February 11th until Wednesday, the 13th during recess time and after school from 3:30 until 3:45.
Next week, Grades 1 and 2 students will bring in things from home that are no longer needed and can be reused such as books, CDs, DVDs, games, clothes, and toys.
They will sort and gather these items and then prepare to sell them the following week. The money raised will go towards improving the school and any items that are not sold will be donated to an NGO called Shaplaneer which is running a campaign, "Don't throw it away" to help people in Bangladesh and Nepal.
Please support our efforts by sending in any used items, such as those listed above next week.
The students worked hard at creating posters to advertise this event. Let's all try to help create less trash by making donations.
Remember, one person's trash can be someone else's treasure!
Come treasure hunting at our Reuse It Flea Market!
