Harvest Hill Field Trip

This week 4th grade headed all the way out to Sakai for our field trip to Harvest Hill. We enjoyed learning new things and acquiring new resources that can help us in our life! It was a great trip, and a great chance to take a break from studying, and to get some hands on learning!

To get there we had to take a loooooooong bus ride to the far end of Sakai. We spent most of the time talking and playing, and part of the time sleeping.

Once we got to the park we had our first learning activity - Archery!

After Archery we had about an hour and a half to have some free time and eat lunch.

At around 13:00 we went to make bread and butter. It was great!

 

Finally, we made our way back to school. It was a great day!

Precious Outside Time

Spending Time Outside

As we get closer and closer to winter, grade 4 is trying to spend as much time outside before we can't do it anymore. Every Monday we share what we did that weekend, and we are encouraged to spend a little time outside too! It's important for us to enjoy some fresh air, run around, and let ourselves be free!

Park Time

Every day the it is not raining, too cold, or too hot, we go outside for some park time!

PSPE

On Monday and Friday we have PSPE - Personal, Social, Physical Education - and we try to go to the park where we can play an organized game with students in grade 5, 6, 7 and 8!

Special Activities

Sometimes we get to go outside for special activities. This can be a walk to the library or, like this week, it can be going to the park to practice our observation and drawing skills!

Sharing the Planet Debate

Sharing the Planet Debate

This  week 4th grade had it's first official debate. The topic was simple; which of the 3 types of resources is the best? Students prepared by reflecting on the topic the night before, and having a quick review session before splitting into groups. 

The Debate format was simple:

1 minute speeches from each team explaining their reasoning

preparation time

1 minute speeches attacking the other teams ideas

preparation time 

1 minute closing speech (aka most important point)

A group discussion 

You can watch a condensed version of the debate here!

A Day in 4th Grade

Where We are In Place and Time

As of last week we finished our unit on Where We are In Place and Time! It was a really fun unit, where we learned about human movement throughout our planet. Here was our focus:

Central Idea: Human migration is a response to challenges, risks, and opportunities.

Lines of Inquiry:

Causation - Causes for movement/migration

Perspective - Effects of movement/migration on communities 

Connection - Connection between new and old lives of migrants.

To start we focused on the differences between migrants, immigrants, and refugees. It took a lot of research to help us understand the differences, but it was very important that we understand the differences, in order to help us with our final project. In the end we created a venn diagram to categorize and understand.

Once we had a basic understanding of the differences, we made KWL charts in our notebooks to help us think about what to research next.

Using what we put in our W's, we decided on a question we wanted to research, and we spent a few days looking it up, and learning something new, just for ourselves.Some of us did this with a partner, but most of us did it by ourselves. Once we had all finished researching, we made a poster, a drawing, or some google slides to present what we found to the class. In this way, we could all share and learn more, while also exploring our particular interest! After everyone presented, we put all our thinking onto the wall so we could remember what we had learned.

After our midway presentations, we started to read a book about two people - Nya and Salva - and their experiences living in Sudan and later South Sudan in 1985 and 2008. The book, called "A Long Walk to Water" and written by Linda Sue Park, is based on the real life story of Salva Dut, one of the many "Lost Boys" from Sudan's civil war in the late 80's and early 90's. We are actually still reading this story, because while it has taught us about migrants and refugees, and why they have to move as they do, it has also taught us about water and food as resources - something strongly connected to our next unit!

Finally, after all this preparation, we were ready to create our final assessment. For this final assessment we were given a lot of agency, as well as a lot of guidance. We were allowed to choose our own groups, and decide what our final product would look like. But we had to follow a long process and show what we were doing each step of the way, to make sure that we did not get too excited and not finish!

First, we had to brainstorm what we would make, and we had to make sure that it checked off each of the boxes on our checklist. For many of us, we had to do this several times before Ms. Hannah approved and said we could start to draft our final project. Side note - drafting is our word of the month! We are learning all about drafting...that may be a post for the future. Once we had finished the brainstorming, we drew pictures and wrote notes about everything we were going to do, so when we closed our eyes we could see EXACTLY what our final project would look like. Finally, after that was checked and approved, we could get down to work.

It took us about two weeks to put together our final assessments. Some of us finished sooner than others, and when that happened we worked with other groups to help them out. Here is a list of what all the groups made throughout their final assessments...

• 
  

  videos in English, Japanese, Korean, Tag-a-log, and Mandarin
• Interviews in English, Urdu, and Hindi
• Pamphlets with information on charities and organizations that help Refugees
• Books with common questions and answers that new immigrants to Japan may have
• Google Slide presentations with information on immigrants, refugees, and migrants
• A collection of google videos to help us learn about our new unit
• and more!

Finally, after all our hard work, we presented to our classmates, as we had during our initial inquiry. We tried - and succeeded - in doing better presentations than our last time!

We had a great time, and learned lots, and we're all excited for our next unit - Sharing the Planet!

Sport's Day

Last week was Sport's Day. Many parents got to come and see us perform, but not all our friends and family did. Also, no one but the teachers go to see all the practicing we did! So, let's look at all that we did.

First, for a few weeks, we prepared. Some of us worked with older students to create poems for the blue team and the orange team. Everyone was going to recite these poems on Sport's Day, so we tried hard to think of something good. We came up with the following...

Oranges are orange,

Blueberries are blue,

Sports day is fun and you know it’s true !

(haiku)

It’s time to have fun

Cheer for orange team and blue

Enjoy mom or dad

There are so many shades of blue

Different tones and different hues

The ocean is blue and the sky is too

Brides carry something blue when they say “I do”

What sort of blue are you?

 We also had to learn a karate sequence, that we would perform with our team for points! We spent a lot of time during morning meeting, PSPE, and P.E. practicing, as well as some special assemblies where we practiced with the whole school.

It was a lot of practice, but that's because it was very confusing...Some of us probably still didn't do it right even at the end, but we tried our best. At AIS Osaka, we think it's more important to try our best than to be right all the time! 

Finally, last Friday, we had sports day. We were divided into two teams - blue and orange - and we got a nice t-shirt in that color. This really made us look like a team!

Our first activity was the warm-up. Everyone warmed up all together with Mr. Soydan. It was really fun!

Then, we split into groups and showed everyone our brain and brawn - that is, we said our poem, and demonstrated our excellent Karate skills!

After this we took a short break while grades 1-3 did their event. Except for the relay, we always did things in grades 4-8. For us this was really exciting because it meant that we were not some of the big kids. As we like to say, we're half an adult now!

Our first event was the group jump rope. This is hard for anyone, but it was harder for us because we are new to it! The older kids went very fast, and sometimes we tried to, too! But for some of us this was too hard, so we decided to go slow and focus instead. In the end all of us were able to do it at sport's day, even if when we couldn't do it during practice. How awesome!

After the jump rope we had a race with our parents. It is called a 3-legged-race, and we each tied our ankle to our parents and hopped, ran, or walked to the edge of the gym and back. It was a relay race, so we tried to go as fast as we could so the next person could go. Even Ms. Hannah joined this!








The small race was fun, but it's the big race that we were most excited for. We practiced the relay race so hard! Sometimes we even decided to practice by ourselves during park time! The first race has Ms. Hannah and Alex in it, as well as Mr. Aider and Ms. Katherine. They ran SO FAST. But the best part is that Alex beat all of them! Alex beat all the adults!!

After that mostly students ran, and sometimes teachers too. It was really close, and everyone was cheering hard for everyone. In the end the teams tied! How crazy! All our practicing really worked.

After the relay we had a tug-a-war. First, all the students went. Then, all the teachers and parents went. Finally, everyone tried. It was CRAZY HARD. The rope was so strong and it burned our hands a little. But we did our best, just like we did in all the other games.




At the end, after all the events, we got together with out teams and listened to Mr. Ulu announce the winner. It was CLOSE 63 to 66. But the winner was....ORANGE TEAM. 

Orange team was so excited, but also knew that blue team was disappointed. So after celebrating we went over and shook hands, telling them what a good job they had done. It is important to remember sportsmanship, even when you win. Maybe ESPECIALLY when you win.

Thanks to all the parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts,uncles, and friends who came to watch us! Because of you all we did our best, and had a great time! 

Some New Systems

At this point we have been back to school for almost 1 month, believe it or not, and we are adjusting well to the new teacher. Each week we are trying new things and challenging ourselves to become older, more principled students. This week we introduced a few new systems into our classroom.

2 new systems, our new calendar, and birthday list!

The first system, seen on the left, are our class jobs. Every 2 days we change jobs so we can share the responsibilities with our classmates. Some of our jobs include things like paper or supplies managers, technology or library assistant, line leader, and more! The hope is that we can learn to be more principled and caring about our classroom, school, friends, and ourselves with these jobs. 

The second system, on the left, is one that not only Ms. Hannah, but also other teachers like MR. Aidar or Ms. Azusa can use! If you have ever gotten the chance to be in our classroom when we are all here, or been outside with us, or maybe even just by ourselves at home, you will know that we LOVE to ask questions. We do it all the time - even when the teacher is trying to tell us something important! The fact that we are such great inquirers is wonderful, but sometimes we inquire too much, and we don't know what we are supposed to do, because we are too busy thinking of questions! This system helps us better remember what we are supposed to be doing. 

Silence - means we are sitting in our seats quietly, listening to the teachers instructions and explanation, and waiting to see if she or he answers our questions before we ask.

On Topic Only - Means we can ask questions about the task at hand, or general questions about the subject or topic we are studying.

Ask Away! - means we can ask our teacher and our friends any question that comes to mind! 

With our new system, hopefully we can still be inquirers, but also be able to follow directions! 

Another thing we have in our class is our new and improved essential agreement. In case you don't know, the essential agreement are the rules we as a class have decided to follow. We know with these rules that if we break one, we risk getting clipped down on our behavior chart. We now each have our own list on our desk, so we can always remind ourselves if we need. 

***

Additionally, this semester our main goal is to be more organized. As 4th graders, we are no longer considered the younger kids of the school, and we need to take increasing responsibility for ourselves and our things. But, this can be really hard! Especially at first, when we are still used to being told things. So, Ms. Hannah has a few things in places to help us. 

1. The work corner. Each morning we put our homework here, and can see what our morning work is. At the end of the day, our homework is written here so we can remember it for ourselves. This system helps us, and Ms. Hannah. 

2. We keep our desks clean. Mr. Ugur did not like us to keep anything in our desk, and Ms. Hannah is not much different. The only things we can have in our desks are our pencil cases, reading books, and files. Everything else must go in our cubby, or our subject baskets. 

3. Speaking of files, this weekend we have been given the homework to get the files! Files were on the supplies list at the start of the year, so many of us already have files, but we have taken them home or misplaced them because we were not using them in an organized way. But now, we are going to be organized. We need to have a file - or a pocket in a big file - for each of our main subjects - Math, English, UOI, Japanese and also for our morning work. We also have to have a seperate folder for homework. This is the folder we will carry with us to and from school each day, with the homework inside, so we are less likely to lose it on the way. 

Hopefully, with all these new systems, we will be able to be more organized, and continue to grow and become principled kids!

(P.S. If you did not get to see our ICF Argentina room, we are currently displaying some of it outside our classroom! Come take a look!)

Outside our class

the room with cameo by Mr. James

ICF (International Children's Festival) Prep!

This week we spent much of our time preparing for the international children's festival next week! On Tuesday we met with out Preschool buddies and helped them paint a "cave painting." Our PreSchool buddies couldn't blow the paint themselves, so we helped them, and then we did our best to caring and principled, and helped them clean up!

 On Friday we went back and WE became the teachers and taught our buddies what they can do to help us prepare. It was definitely a lesson in how hard it is to get students to listen!

Also this week, we went to the local library together. The local library has a large collection of books that are not just in Japanese, but also English, Korean, and Chinese! A kind librarian took us on a tour so we could see where the books we want are. It was a fun trip, worth the long walk in the hot sun!

Finally, the police came!! But not because of us. They came to teach us about stranger danger, and how to safely walk from home to school. The policeman was very nice, and very funny. And we now have our own stranger danger whistles!