How we organize ourselves

During this unit we learned all about how people organize their space based on different factors.

We explored all of our personal preferences on spaces,  the connection between the need of communities and organization of spaces and how communities use shared spaces.

How the world works!

Pre-kindergarten A has a great time in this unit learning all about how the world works and gaining knowledge on the topic that living things go through many changes throughout a lifecycle.

We started discovering about living and nonliving things as well as how to identify the differences between the two. 

We moved on to learning about the life cycles of some different kinds of living things such as frogs, cicadas, pumpkins and tomatoes.

The class planted their own selected plants and took them home to continue their education and nurture their own experiment.

For our assessment we created posters of our favorite animals or plants going through their life cycles. It was a lot of fun for us to be creative and to show our knowledge of science at the same time! 

Finally we enjoyed a trip to the Osaka Natural History Museum in Nagai park. We spent the morning learning about nature, insects, extinct and endangered animals.

We also learned about the effects that humans can have on the local environment. In the afternoon we played in the botanical gardens and enjoyed exploring the different environments that can be found there.

For our next unit we will be learning about ‘How we organize ourselves’ and seeing why people organize our space based on different factors.

 Who we are

Hello parents and friends!

We had such a great time learning all about ourselves and our fellow classmates, I wanted to share with you a little of what we did and learned about.

The first step we did in this unit was to discover information that is important to us and our friends.

Important numbers

• our age
• our birthday date
• number of letters in our name
• number of family members

Where are we from?

• Japan
• Hong Kong
• Taiwan
• China
• United Kingdom
• Australia

What do we like?

• Pizza
• Ice-cream

What don't we like?

• Sand 
• Loud noises

What can we do?

What can't we do?

Once we learned all this important information about us and our classmates we then moved on to showing more about ourselves.

We made self portraits trying to copy a photo of ourselves, it was a little tricky for a few of us but we had tons of fun!

Finally we looked at different learner profiles to see if we are principled, caring and if we are risktakers.

We had an amazing first term and learned so much together! I can't wait to see what we are able to learn and accomplish in our next unit! 

Term 2 - How the world works

Hello everyone!

At the start of the term we began our second unit, How The World Works. Our central idea was "Peoples actions affect living things" 

Our lines of inquiry were:

Lines of inquiry

• Form - Differences between living and non-livings things

• Change - Living things change in time

• Causation- Living things change for different reasons

The first thing we discussed was what are living things and what are not living things? Words like living things and non-living things were new words to most of the class but they were able to quickly get the idea of what the lesson was about. We had a ton of picture examples of living and non-living things and we put them into their respective categories.

We then took a look at plants. It came as a shock to some students that plants were, indeed, living things! And we looked at how plants grow, and what they need to grow. We then took that same idea and applied it to other living things. "What does a frog need to live?" "What does a bear eat?" The students of Pre-K surprised me with their knowledge so far in this unit.

Our next step was to learn about the habitats and biomes of the world, and I appreciate all the effort parents put in to help their children learn it as it was during our time away from the school. Big round of applause for the parents during this time!

When we got back to the classroom we reviewed everything and then got to work on our summative assessment. Planting! The students had a lot of fun painting their flower pot and then planting seeds. The best part about all this was getting pictures from home as the plant started growing. The goal of this unit was to show students how we affect living things. To take care of a plant is a pretty difficult task and I was happy with seeing how far students went in order to care for their plants.

We are now underway with our next unit which is "Sharing The Planet". Our goal for this unit is to learn about resources and how sharing them helps us.

Here are some other pictures of our time in the classroom.

painted her hands!

fantastic at making vehicles.

made himself a helmet.

Pre - K Term 1 - 2021 - 2022

 Hey there! I am Mr. James the homeroom teacher of the Pre-Kinder class. Term 1 has been an interesting time getting to know all the new faces. Every year I teach and get to know some really unique kids and this year is no different. 

During this term the focus has been to master the basics and fundamentals of English. Students have been practicing their knowledge of the alphabet in both phonics recognition and writing and they are improving a lot! Everyday students practice writing out the alphabet and numbers on mini whiteboards and I am impressed by their development. They are doing so well that they have begun putting the sounds together to make a word by using their head.

Our Unit of Inquiry this term is all about Who we are. The differences and similarities in each other and learning to respect those differences and similarities. During Golden Week the students made amazing collages about themselves. Shout out to all the parents that put in the time and effort to help them.

We have covered several topics in our unit of inquiry from learning about different people from different countries, how different people can look, and how cultures use certain foods differently.

Here is a window into our Inquiry wall at school.

We are close to the end of term 1. Stay tuned for another update!

- James

Term 3 is a go

Hope everyone had a great New Years holiday!

Term 3 has started and our focus for this term is expressing ourselves through art. And with that comes preparation for our year-end performance (YEP) 

Tuesday we got right into the swing of things, the students didn't miss a beat and got back into the routine without any problems. In the morning we learned and practiced blended phonics sounds, we started off easy and I was really impressed with how much knowledge they retained over the holidays. We also did some group reading where everyone had a turn or two to read passages from Raz-Kids books.

We started off our unit of inquiry learning about the words express and expression and how we express our feelings in different ways. The students learned that "Express yourself means to show people how you feel"

Wednesday we read a book called "The Dot" it is about a girl that feels like she can't draw and be an artist but ends up drawing wonderful pieces of art based off dots. It's a book to show the students that even if they like they are not good artists, that art can be inspired by a simple idea like making a dot. For language focus we practiced sight words, for the rest of the term I will be testing students individually on their ability to read sight words so please encourage them to practice at home! (Red cards and blue cards)

On Thursday the students learned about the basics of color theory. Color theory teaches us that we feel certain feelings based on the colors we see. For example the color red conveys strong feelings like love, or anger, while yellow can convey feelings of happiness, or nervousness. We then took what we learned and created some watercolor paintings of our names.

Friday the students were taught about distance. We learned about centimeters and meters. To make it more fun the students were taught how to make paper airplanes in order to measure the distance of how far the students can throw it. Learning the concept of distance is difficult, and we will be revisiting it several times over the course of term 3. Kids loved throwing airplanes inside the gym though!

Before the students move onto kinder I will be testing the students reading, writing and math comprehension each week. Reinforcing their reading and writing at home will go a long way to help them develop their skills for kinder. When a student gets positive reinforcement at home it definitely shows in the classroom!

Until next week, 

- James  Barbosa

Term 2

 Hey everyone, 

I hope you're enjoying the fall season. It's starting to get chilly but it's a welcome change from the crazy heat we had in the summer! Term 2 is going well, here is an update on how the class is going. 

Our Unit of Inquiry for the first half of term 2 is How the world works. In this unit we are talking about how living things go through many changes. I am impressed with how well they understood the unit and vocabulary. They have learned about what living things are, and what makes something a living thing and the changes they go through. From a human baby to an adult, to a tadpole turning into a frog, the students grasped the concept easily. 

Towards the end of the unit the students have planted their own seeds and are taking responsibility for caring of their plant. Some have even started to grow! 

As for our adventures in math we have been practicing addition a lot in order to work on calculating big numbers! So if you can challenge them at home to practice their addition skills that would go a long way in their understanding of math. This term a lot of our math focus is on patterning. Patterning is everywhere, in the sounds we hear, in the clothes we wear, and in what we see. Students are working on their understanding of patterns. In the pictures you seem the students had to make their own patterns out of colors. 

Patterning will be an on-going thing throughout the year from here on out, if you are bored at home try making up some patterns to help them learn the concept!

As it got colder we had some great opportunities to go to the park and have fun. One such day we were able to spend a lot more time at the park and even ate our snack there. 

Hopefully before it gets too cold we will be able to have another picnic in the park.

We will beginning our new unit soon. This unit will focus on Organizing ourselves and our things around us. Stay tuned to find out more. 

- Mr. James