Undokai fun and sweat

You'll know it's the week of Undokai because everyone is wearing their PE uniform, the schedule changes daily, and energy and excitement fill the corridors and classrooms.

Sule, Miray, and Suheda are honored to be this year's English language announcers.

It's important that we be well prepared, so a good amount of time is devoted to practicing marching and standing to ensure that the ceremonies go smoothly.

This year's musical numbers have been the best I've heard!

We have been blessed with lovely warm weather for exercising outside.

We still manage to squeeze academics into our hectic schedule. The students truly developed their capacity for assessments and examinations, skills that will serve them well as they move on to middle school and beyond!

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Finished ISA!

I was very proud of the Grade 5/6 'Uniters' efforts on the International Schools Assessment. For several hours on Monday and Wednesday, they applied great concentration and thinking to the test and I hope that their results reflect their commitment.

They have also been very committed leaders! During Japanese Culture Day, they hosted the school assembly and taught new Japanese games to the younger students.

I was impressed by their confidence and tolerance while working with younger students!

Miray volunteered to help with a special project for Edcamp Tokyo, a conference of teachers being hosted at JIES.

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Feeling connected and building independence

While it was a fun and important learning experience to create and send peace cranes, it is somehow more fun to receive them! Recently, large packages arrived from Arizona and Hawaii packed with origami cranes.

The students are busy creating beautiful posters to remember this inspiring project.

We also connected with other sixth graders by using Skype. Several weeks ago, Japanese language students at the Mid Pacific Institute asked us our complaints about living in Tokyo. This week, they presented their design ideas to try to solve our problems.

Their ideas included litter cleaning robot dogs and indoor aquaponic gardens!

This week, the Uniters have also been reflecting on their previous inquiry. Each student has an Inquiry Task Organizer which they use to document their learning. This is an important tool to learn data and self management skills that will be critical for their Exhibition.

I look forward to sharing and discussing them with parents on Monday! Below are my slides for the Coffee Time presentation. I look forward to seeing you there!

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Literacy Week and Celebration of Learning

This was the busiest week of the year so far. The students had many inquiry tasks to finish, Literacy Week activities, and the Celebration of Learning on Friday.

Bushra showed outstanding creativity and courage by making her Cleopatra costume and then walking up Takeshitadori to the Harajuku library in her costume! We were very proud of her winning the costume competition.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we all worked frantically to prepare for the Celebration of Learning. A productive planning meeting and materials was all we needed to show off our learning, and I was happy to see everyone applying time to their serious inquiry learning as well as the fun carnival.

Please visit their Summative Assessment Task blog posts by clicking on their names below:

Bushra | IT'S NOT FAIR!

Miray | Everybody's Rights

Suheda | Go Equal Rights!

Sule | The Belief of Religion

It would be ideal if you would leave a comment as a guest on your child's post.

 

Each one of the 'Uniters' had a major role in hosting the Celebration of Learning. They did an excellent job. I look forward to seeing how they all grow and thrive as public speakers this year.

Finally, on Friday, we partied! The Celebration of Learning was a huge success and the younger students loved playing our carnival games.

I wish everyone a lovely midterm break. See you in November!

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