Weekly News - Finishing January

Hello everyone! It's nice to be back in the familiarity of the classroom and see how everyone is doing. Ms. Chico held down the fort while I was away and  the class was in tip top shape when I came back Wednesday. Here are some of the highlights...

UOI

During our unit time on Wednesday we did a fun little activity with the "key toys." Each student made something, abstract or real, and then passed it around as peers stated what they thought it was from their perspective. It was an insightful activity and after each student received the feedback they amended their original creation.

Grandparents Day

Thursday was the annual Grandparent's Day. This year we tried something different. Students picked parts in the Momotaro legend and performed the play. It was a difficult activity but I thought we did extremely well considering. Thanks again to all those who were able to make it!

Earthquake Drill

Staying ready is important during any type of emergency situation. This week we practiced what we need to do if that emergency is an earthquake. Students knew exactly what to do and were responsive to the drill.

Others

Stay warm and have a lovely weekend!

-Mr. Justin

Upcoming week and IB visit

First off I will be out of town for the next five school days for a family matter so I wanted to give you all some highlights before I head out. This week we had an important visit from some fine folks at the IB. They came to see our lesson and asked a few questions to the students and teachers. Overall I think it went well and there was a lot of positive feedback.

Monday we had a visit from the IB team. They came to observe the center time we did based around each line of inquiry. Students choose a famous work of art that inspired them and tried to recreate it or make something similar, they took various pictures and decided if they were or were not art (and why), and at our final center teams created something using LEGO blocks or clay, the following teams could only add to the original creation. 

 We were not able to finish our inspired drawings on Monday so we took some time to finish them today.

Staying active is an important part of school and learning. Monday we do not have any park or gym time so we do yoga to finish out the day. This time we mixed it up with a faster game-based yoga time. The students really enjoyed the faster paced and competitive aspects of it. Today we did get to go out to the park. Lately we have been warming up each park visit with a few laps around the center circle and a running race.

Weekly News - Week 2 - Term 3

This week was a short one, and especially short for those who got sick (me included). We still packed in some fun and learning and I hope we are all able to stay healthy in the future. Here are some of the highlights of the week....

U.O.I.

This week we covered several of our lines of inquiry. We delved into what makes art art, what forms it comes in, if we've used those forms, and we took a look back at some of our past works to see what we liked about our work and what we would like to change or grow at.

Birthday Party

Only a few more of these left this year! This week we got to celebrate another five-year-old as Tao has a birthday this month. 

Math

I know it looks like a magic show but this week we used playing cards in a after/before game of around the world. We are introducing subtraction through number before (just like we did with number after and addition). Students are already improving their skills.

Others

During our P.E. time we did some more obstacle course work using the skills Uehara Sensei taught us. We also made snakes with Ms. Chico.

Have a great weekend and stay healthy!

-Mr. Justin and Ms. Chico

Weekly News - Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! It's nice to be back and we were off and running to start term 3! Here are some highlights:

Music

We got to officially welcome Kyoko Sensei as our official Music teacher. We spent out first lesson together singing and making some arrangements for the YEP Music Concert. Next Monday is a holiday so we will get to see her again on the 21st! Make sure you have your pianica in class by then.

UOI

Our final unit of Pre-K is appropriately focusing on reflection and perspective in Art. This week we took a look at some of our older works and said which ways we have grown and which ways we would like to grow.

YEP

The year end performance is right around the corner and this year the student's are heavily involved in the planning and choosing of our performance. We spent time this week formulating a plan.

P.E.

In addition to our new music teacher we also welcomed our new P.E. teachers, Coach Justin. Many of the students are familiar with him already! ;) During our lesson we did an old Inada Sensei program of the ever-changing-obstacle course. We also held a monkey hang contest to finish the period.

Here are some addition picture highlights of the week.

-Have a lovely three-day weekend and see you all on Tuesday!

-Mr. Justin and Ms. Chico