Parents' Day

It was fun to see you at Parents' Day! The Grade 5/6 'Uniters' were thrilled to share their stop motion animation video, Save the Water, with our school community. Please enjoy watching it, too!

I was happy that the Parents' Day visit happened during Independent Inquiry. It was a fantastic chance for parents to see the students pursuing their own interests and collaborating on each others' projects.

Sule enjoyed participating in Bushra's 'make up' project while listening to music. Bushra also recruited her mother to illustrate her sense of beauty and fashion!

Suheda and her mother brainstormed ideas for the PYP Exhibition. Even though their heads were 'empty', they worked together to make many ideas!

Miray used some of her time to master mathematics facts. It's great to see the students improving their time management and taking responsibility for balance in their learning.

I can't believe that next week is the end of the term! We will decide and schedule our Exhibition 'kick off' trip and begin gathering ideas so that the students can start inquiring during Spring Break.

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Science & Numeracy Week

This was a busy and productive week. We started by rearranging the furniture in the classroom. We were all happy with the new arrangement.

Inspired by an activity at Edcamp Tokyo, the students wanted to to try a challenge. They tied ribbon to their wrists so that two people would be stuck together. It is possible to escape, but it takes creativity and cooperation.

Bushra and Suheda even tried staying tied together until they solved the puzzle, but it was a bit too inconvenient.

The Science & Numeracy Week activities were a hit as usual. I was working in the 'volcano balloon' room and captured pictures of Miray and Safiye working together on a fun chemistry experiment.

On Thursday, our class schedule cooperated with the weather, and we took our field trip to Yoyogi Park to conduct the students' Fashion Perception Survey. If you have a few minutes, please complete the survey!

It was inspiring to see all of the students acting with great confidence and enthusiasm! We published the survey online and were excited to see that Julia, from last year's grade 6 class, had responded!

In the next weeks, we will be completing all of our inquiry tasks so that we can 'kick off' the Exhibition. Please visit our Exhibition website for details!

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Keeping busy!

This was a week of milestones. In addition to having our 100th day of the school year, Grade 3 hosted a speech contest. Although the contestants prepared mostly by themselves, we did take some time in the Performing Arts Studio to practice presence, poise, and engagement in public speaking.

I recorded a video of the activity which you may view on our class blog on Kidblog. The students were noticeably nervous for the contest, but persevered to deliver excellent speeches. We are very proud of Suheda and Miray for their special recognition. 

Please click each child's name, Miray, Sule, Suheda, and Bushra, to see a video of their speech! Please note that the videos are 'unlisted', which means that they can only be seen by clicking on the links.

Another milestone was the first Friday on which the students had five different tests: Spelling, Reading, Writing, Mathematics, and Japanese! It was a perfect warm up for the ISA next week.

We introduced a new piece of technology, although it is probably not what you'd expect. The class is very excited to use a Post-It Easel for making their discussions and collaboration visible.

This will be a valuable tool when preparing their Exhibition.

Thank you for your participation in planning our Exhibition Meeting for students, parents, and teachers. We're waiting to hear from a few more parents before scheduling the meeting.

If it is too difficult for everyone to attend, I will try to find time to record my presentation and conduct a question and answer session online.

Finally, here is a reminder about being prepared for the ISA which was sent in an email last week:

Please help to ensure that students have slept well, eaten a healthy breakfast, and arrive to school on time.

Grade 5/6 students may also bring a healthy 'brain food' snack to eat during the tests to help with concentration. These snacks should be low in processed sugar and oil, and high in natural sugars and protein.

Salt free nuts, whole grains, and fresh fruit are particularly recommended. As usual, chocolate and other sweets will not be allowed during the tests.

Thanks!

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'How we express ourselves' Celebration of Learning

Finally, we finished our Paper or Plastic? art exhibit. I was impressed with the students' idea to include 'messages in bottles' about the environment and our responsibilities.

We found a lovely spot near the front door along with the other JIES art. I even shot a photo of a parent of a Jinsho student reading one of our messages about paper consumption.

This week, I've been talking more and more about Exhibition and the importance of time management and planning. I can see the message sinking in as the students often work quietly on their tasks after planning together.

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Projects and collaboration

The Art Exhibition with Jinsho has been an inspiring way to motivate ourselves to collaborate on creative projects. Working together toward a goal and with a deadline quickly approaching has tested our time management and organizational skills, as well as the abilities of our project managers.

Suheda is the project manager for our stop motion animation video about global water issues. She did an outstanding job synthesizing each of the student's 'chapters' into a meaningful story. Everyone was excited to see how she tied their stories together.

Miray is in charge of the art exhibit. She enjoyed holding project meetings to discuss our plans and has been open to all of the team members' suggestions.

I've enjoyed seeing the students' concentration this week. After reflecting together on our progress and some stern assessments by their teacher, they seemed to realize the urgency of the projects and were extremely productive at the end of the week.

Most interesting to me were the inquiries required to create their art. For example, Miray and Sule read books from our school library about paper and plastic to learn about how they are made, where they come from, and their consequences.

Today's 'warm up': Open the window and watch the snow fall.

A video posted by Bart Miller (@botofotos) on Jan 29, 2015 at 3:39pm PST

Finally, on Friday, it snowed. The whole class spent the morning meeting time with the window open, quietly enjoying the falling snow and the unique thoughts and feelings that it brings.

We look forward to sharing our learning with you at the Celebration of Learning on Friday, 6 February.

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Art takes over!

One of my favorite aspects of the International Baccalaureate Organization Primary Years Program is its integration. That means that when we are learning mathematics, we are also learning science and visual arts; when we are learning music, we are also learning language and history. The possibilities for deep, meaningful learning are endless!

This week, it has been the visual arts finding their way into all of our learning.

I noticed that Suheda using her graphic design skills to enhance her writing.

Miray and Bushra applied technology and research strategies to support themselves drawing storyboards for our stop motion animation movie.

 

Sule's art skills are helping her to draw models in mathematics which are more accurate and useful.

We will be applying our skills as much as possible as we prepare our exhibit for the big Jinsho/JIES Art Exhibition on 5-6 February.

On Friday, all the students together assembled and raised the colorful roof flags for the exhibit.

It is hard to believe that this inquiry is halfway finished! I've been very impressed with the Uniters' growing independence and confidence. They will need those attitudes and more to be successful in their PYP Exhibition.

We will be having an Exhibition Parents and Community meeting in February. I will send an email when the exact date and time are scheduled.

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Getting creative

In our current theme, 'How we express ourselves', creativity is center stage. After many weeks of practicing essential mathematical skills, for example, I challenged Miray and Sule to write a word problem that would use parentheses to solve.

It seems to be just the challenge they need and a great way to inquire into concepts and mechanics of mathematics.

Ms Ak has been helping the class to learn stop motion animation. For practice, they wrote an adaptation of The Cat in the Hat and recruited Kindergarten students to play 'things'.

 

The process of shooting was fascinating. It's exciting to see the students practicing so many important social skills like resolving conflicts, verbal and nonverbal communication, and adopting a variety of roles.

Regrettably, we learned a difficult lesson about technology when our director, excited to preview the film, accidentally deleted it from the camera memory!

However, seeing how well the class works together and with their little actors, I'm sure they will have no problem shooting the movie again when we have extra time.

This month, we are also emphasizing reading comprehension, formal writing, and mathematics in order to best prepare for the International Schools' Assessment in February.

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Identify yourself!

Happy New Year!

As the students organize and present their personal history research findings, we are also starting a unit in the theme of 'How we express ourselves' called Identify Yourself!. The central idea for this unit of inquiry is 'Identity is expressed through daily choices.' On the first day of the term, students wrote their initial impressions of this statement.

I was particularly impressed with the different strategies used. It's exciting to see everyone thinking in original and creative ways, something that will be extremely important when they prepare their PYP Exhibition!

Another important element of the Exhibition is engaging with the school community. We have been including the other students at school in our learning by sharing our work in the corridor.

 

Younger students have enjoyed changing their perspective with Suheda's periscope.

Sule tried to explain how to play a new game to a Kindergartener, but discovered that it may have been too difficult and complicated for him to understand and enjoy.

It's also exciting to see students taking more responsibility for themselves and our classroom.

Miray noticed that a box that had been used weeks earlier was simply sitting around doing nothing. She decided to take action. She emptied the box, sorted the rubber bands and straws she found inside, then returned them to the art supply room.

(The information below was also sent in an email to families' school email addresses.)

Our class wiki contains much information and many links related to our learning, including our daily warm ups, homework chart, and weekly schedule. Please visit!

Please continue to enjoy the weekly posts on the JIES Grade 5/6 Blog.

Kidblog is where we publish and share our learning with you and the world. Please follow our posts and add your comments!

Please join the 'Uniters' Grade 5/6 Google+ Community using your JIES email. It will be a convenient place for us all to share our learning and inspire each other. We also have a G+ Community for Performing Arts at JIES if you would like to join, as well.

Be sure to check your child's gradesheet regularly to stay updated on her progress and achievement in Reading, Spelling, Mathematics, and Homework. View the gradesheet in Google Sheets to leave comments or ask questions.

Thanks for reading!

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