Newsletter - December 17th - 20th

Dear all,

Term 2 is over. It was a long, but fruitful term. During this term we had a lot of activities and events. Students enjoyed the activities and had a lot of fun. The list of the most interesting and memorable ones includes Spocha Round 1, demonstration of our experiment to Preschool B, pizza party and Talent Show. Now students are ready to have 3 week break!

On Thursday, during morning meeting we opened the donation box. Students helped me count the amount of money. The total is 8847 yen. We are going to donate this money to organizations working for/with refugees. I will let you know as soon as the transfer will be complete.

UoI: 

Students focused on forms of governments. The inquiry is still in progress and we will continue to learn more next term. We know the terms like 

• dictatorship
• democracy
• monarchy
• oligarchy

We did compare dictatorship with democracy. 

On Wednesday, we played kahoot about forms of government. It was fun and informative.

Talent Show:

Congratulations, Hyeri! She is the Talent Show winner for Primary.

Good job, Ahmet and Daniel! Thank you very much for being a risk-taker!

Math: 

We finalized our inquiry into types of triangles and their classification according angles and sides. Students did measure, cut, draw, construct angles and triangles. Now students know the following terms

• obtuse angles
• acute angles
• right angles
• obtuse triangles
• acute triangles
• right triangles
• obtuse isosceles triangles
• obtuse scalene triangles
• right isosceles triangles
• right scalene triangles
• acute isosceles triangles
• acute scalene triangles.

Thank you very much!

Please enjoy your winter break!

P.S. Homework assignments are online. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Newsletter December 10th - 14th

Hello,
We have only one week left till the end of the Term 2. Next week is going to be really fun and full of activities. We have Talent show on Thursday morning and Pizza/Movie party on Thursday afternoon. 

• Talent Show
• Thursday, December 20th morning 
• Please send to Ms. Dana the link of the video if your kid is a participant.
• It should be at most 4 minutes long.
• Please send an email to dconn@abroadschools.jp with your child's name in the subject line and the link needed for the talent show performance. 

• Pizza Party and Movie
• Thursday, December 20th afternoon 
• Here is the link to the permission form
• Pizzas are from Domino's pizza
• Flavors are 
• Margherita
• American
• Plain
• If you need more information about the pizza please don't hesitate to contact me.
• Student allergy and food restrictions were checked and taken into account.
• Movie is 
• Emoji. (絵文字の国のジーン.) It is rated as PG by MPAA. Here is the link to the Parental Guide.

UoI:

We continued to focus on the first line of inquiry " Why we need governments/laws". Students responses were almost the same. It will be a chaos if there is no law or government. It is amazing how they feel the need for an organization which will support order. At the beginning, students were confused by the second meaning of the word "order" which mean clarity. peace, organization. Almost all of the students used the other meaning, which is authoritative command or instruction. Next week we will focus on the second line of inquiry "Types of governments". 

Math:

This week students learned how to draw and measure angles. At the same time we eased into drawing triangles with given angle measures. On Thursday, we had the final test. It contained 10 questions from topics like

• Fractions and operations on them
• Decimals and operations on them
• Angles and triangles
• Percentages
• Word problems
• Probability

There were 5 bonus questions. They were easy but tricky. Here is one of them. Please take your time and try to solve if you are interested.

Art:

Students tried to follow a youtube video which taught how to draw manga characters

• girls
• Dragon Ball Z - Goku

Thank you very much.

Newsletter December 3rd - 7th

Hello,

The term is almost over. We have only two weeks left until the end of the term and will do our best to make the best of it.

UoI: We started our next unit. Transdisciplinary unit "How We Organize Ourselves". This unit is about an inquiry into the

• interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities;
• the structure and function of organizations;
• societal decision making;
• economic activities and their impact on humankind and the environment.

We will be focusing on

1. structure and function of organizations
2. societal decision making.

Our central idea is "Humans have developed governments to establish order"

Concepts: Causation, Form, Responsibility


Lines of inquiry are given below.

• Why we have laws/governments
• Different type of  governments.
• Expectations from  governments

Transdisciplinary skills

• Social
• Adopting a variety of group roles
• Self - management
• Codes of behavior
• Informed choices
• Thinking 
• Metacognition

Math:
On Monday, we had a restest. For rhe rest of the week, we continued to learn more about angles, types of angles and how to draw them.

Important Dates:
1) December 20th - Last day of 2nd term.
2) December 20th - Talent show
3) December 13th - Last day for talent show sign up.

Newsletter November 26th - 30th

Hello,
We are only three weeks away from the end of the term. At the same time we did finalize our current unit `Sharing The Planet - Sharing What We Have Improves The Quality Of Life`. Moreover, we had Science Week and the activities were fun and informative.

UoI: Students worked hard to complete their Summative Assessment Forms. During the week I commented on each paper and students improved their works. Due to Science Week Activities, we could not meet with other students. I believe that we will complete the assignment next week.
Next week we will start new theme `How We Organize Ourselves`. The Central idea is `Humans have developed governments to establish order.`

Math: We continued to explore the types of triangles. Students know the following terms

• Equilateral
• Isosceles
• Scalene

and the definitions. 

On Thursday, we had a test. Retest is on Monday. Questions are similar to the previous test`s questions. 

Art: We did prepare for Science Week Experiment presentation. Our visitors were Preschool B class students. We had 4 experiments to be show. Unfortunately, 3 of them did not work during the presentation, despite the fact that they all worked on Monday trial. Well, it did not affect the students and we were happy with the presents from preschoolers. 

Thank you very much!

Newsletter November 19th - 22nd

Dear parents,
Thank you very much for giving a chance to students enjoy 90 minutes at Spocha amusement center. I am sure kids enjoyed playing games, roller skating and ice-cream. We strengthened our class spirit and friendship for sure. I could see all class playing together and having fun.
Here are the activities we had during the week.
UoI:
Our unit is almost over. We are still focusing on the last line of inquiry "Global Imbalances and Opportunities". We watched a video about food waste in America and how it can be solved. It is interesting to read student's responses and comments on this issue. One of the student's comment was to make a box for paper, paper trash and re-usable paper. It was an awesome idea. Now, I am planning to organize this next wee.
Summative assessment documents, rubrics and forms have been already shared with students. I will be checking my inbox all weekend. Due date is Sunday, November 24th, 21:00
Math:
We started a new topic. Triangles and classification according to side length and interior angles. Students measured, cut, glued given triangles and tried to come up with their own classification. Everyone came up with the same groups of triangles. The names reflected how the grouping was accomplished. Next week we will continue to deepen our knowledge about triangles.
Art:
We were focusing on Science week experiments and the students were eager to show what they have done. However, on Monday, food coloring substance was spilled and no one wanted to admit it. Students were given a choice to accept or don't have a chance to work on experiment. After long discussion, all experiments were cancelled. On Thursday, we worked on displays only.

Thank you very much!