SIS Elementary Picture Book Contest 2016

We would like to congratulate all the girls who submitted manuscripts (story writing and pictures) for this contest and announce the winner.

Grade 2 winner
Book Title: The Bee from Provence

Grade 2 Winner ft. The Bee from Provence

 Excerpt
The little bee was terrified when she noticed she was trapped.









As soon as the books are published a copy will be available for checkout from the ES Media Centre.

Semester Two Learning Outcomes

As a whole Elementary School goal we are aiming to provide parents with more insight into the teaching and learning across different subject areas.  As well as keeping you informed on recent events and classroom learning engagements through regular updates on grade-level blogs, we would like parents to access the curriculum learning outcomes for all areas.  You can download these learning outcomes for Grade Two by clicking on the link below.  Alternatively, you can download the learning outcomes from all grade levels from our website here.

Grade 2 Semester 2 Learning Outcomes

In PE learning about Blood Movement throughout the body in our HealthRelated Fitness unit!

Thinking, Talking, Exploring

As we began to tackle our new unit, the grade two girls tuned-in with a pre-assessment task. 

This activity directed their background knowledge and to began to challenge their understanding of what exactly is the form and function of a transportation system. 



Working in their table groups, each group had several cards with various objects on them. The students were asked to decide if each card was part of transportation system or not. Some were quite obvious, but others were more difficult to discern. As they discussed in their groups, conversations developed about the nature of transportation systems.

What is a transportation system? What is not?

Some girls speculated a transportation system had wheels, others disagreed. Some said that transportation systems carried objects, while others stated that transportation systems are things that move.

If they were unsure of a card, they were encouraged to post their questions on the wonderwall.

                         

                         

TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS

                What do people need to consider when using transportation systems?

                How do transportation systems meet the needs of different communities?

                Why do transportation systems change over time?

                How are transportation systems around the world alike and different?

As a community embedded in the heart of Tokyo, a city with one of the largest metro systems in the world, this unit is particularly relevant in our second graders' lives.

Building on our background knowledge of the system in Japan, we have been unpacking how and why communities make efforts to create transportation systems that meet their needs (central idea).

After we have investigated features of transportation systems, we will be discussing the various factors that guide our decisions involved in using transportation systems. Throughout our unit we will be making global connections by comparing & contrasting our own systems to the those of other communities. Finally, we will further develop our understanding by inquiring how transportation systems respond to changing needs (lines of inquiry).

WAYS TO HELP AT HOME

• Visit transportation related centers such as the Railway Museum (Omiya), The Mitsubishi Industrial Museum (Yokohama), or the Museum of Maritime Science (Odaiba)
• Encourage your daughter in planning a family outing and discuss the benefits of one mode of transportation over another
• cost, speed, distance, safety, or environmental impact
• In your mother tongue, expose your daughter to some of the terminology associated with transportation systems (please see below)

                                 VOCABULARY

New Unit: How We Organise Ourselves

Grade 2 has launched their new unit under the transdisciplinary theme of 'How We Organise Ourselves.' We will focus on transportation and let the students' growing inquiries guide the unit. Students brought in items connected to the central idea like ticket stubs, plane tickets, travel diaries and models of different modes of transportation. We have added all of these items to our Inquiry Table. 

Last week, students had their mother tongue books on display. The girls were excited to celebrate the many languages spoken in our class.