Japanese Class with Seisen Nagano Students

We had lots of fun with Seisen Nagano students!

Grade 2 Japanese Advanced Class
くじらぐも Kujiragumo
Imagine how it would be on the Whale Cloud!

Elementary School Art Exhibition

All girls in Elementary contributed work for an Art Exhibition as part of Student-led Conference Day. The work was displayed in the brand new Drama room above the new grade 6 classrooms by the North gate. The Grand Finale Art Exhibition (in case you missed it) will be in the Gym on April 12 and will encompass Kindergarten through grade 12.

Our Next Unit of Inquiry -- Sharing the Planet

Central Idea: Maintaining clean and healthy seas and oceans can help sustain marine life.

Lines of Inquiry:

Identifying and classifying marine plants and animals

How seas and ocean environments support life (plants and animals)

People's efforts to conserve seas and oceans

Night Zoo Keeper - 2B is 15th in the World!

Congratulations, 2B! We have written 11,277 words (and counting) on Night Zoo Keeper. We would also like to congratulate fellow Seisen class, 1A on achieving 5th place worldwide! 

Feedback for Everyone:

What worked well:

You have read my feedback online to make improvements to your writing. You have all been published on the class' writing blog.

Next steps:

Continue writing to reach 25,000 words!

Individual Feedback:

Check on Night Zoo Keeper!

Lucy and Yuri thinking about ways they can go further in their writing.

Alyssa, Clara and Seo Yoon describing their animals.

Ai shows Moma how to see her feedback. Ane adds adjectives
to her character descriptions.

Yumi is following the objectives of her current writing assignment.

Grade 2 Writing Skills have been featured in the Seisen Post.
Interviewed: Olivia E. & Yumi L.

Pick up your copy today!

Dress for Japan Day and Grade 5 Reading Buddies

Seisen students participated in Dress for Japan Day. We had a moment of silence for those who were injured or killed as a result of the Tohoku earthquake on March 11, 2011. Each student donated ¥300 to go towards the re-building efforts and those still impacted by the disaster.

On the same day, 2B met with their Grade 5 reading buddies. We meet with them every Day 7 after recess! Ask your daughter about the books they like to read to their buddy.

2B girls in their lovely yukatas and Japanese colors 

Kaho and Yuri love reading with their buddy!

Clearly, Sara is very excited about her book!

Seo Yoon reads to her buddy.

2B Writing on Night Zoo Keeper

The students are enjoying bringing the Night Zoo animals to life with their illustrations and written descriptions!

Objectives help guide students writing. Teachers can send feedback for students to make further improvements.

2B students are receiving feedback from teachers in the USA and the UK!

How We Organise Ourselves Summative Assessment

Central Idea: Communities make efforts to create transportation systems that meet their needs (Form, Function, Change)

Learning Intention: I am learning to be a town/city planner. I will design different transportation systems to meet the needs of people in my community.

Success Criteria:

This SOLO taxonomy rubric:

The rubric used for the summative

We are very fortunate to live in a city like Tokyo where we have incredible transportation systems surrounding us. Throughout this unit, students brought in subway maps from Tokyo, Google Map print outs of their neighbourhoods and pictures and maps of transportation systems in other countries, like Bangladesh, Norway and the USA.

Each Grade 2 student has designed her own map of a community. All students have included many transportation systems in these communities, and have shown where and how they connect.

Many students have gone further by planning a journey for someone and have explained how the transportation systems in their community meet people's needs.

2B students showing commitment to their maps and planned journeys

Students used BrainPopJr to find out how to create an effective map key/legend

Students using SOLO Taxonomy to guide their map and journey

Seisen's Grade 2 students are very excited to share these maps and journey plans at the student-led conferences on Monday, March 21.

- Ciara Shaughnessy

Exploring Transportation Systems at Haneda Airport

 How do airport systems meet the needs our our community?

Here are some pictures from our field trip on Tuesday, to ANA's aircraft maintenance center and Terminal 2 at Haneda Airport. Thank you very much to our chaperones as well as our guest photographer!

   Some highlights:

• When pulling up to Haneda in the bus we saw ANA's new R2-D2 787 (Star Wars) taking off with Tokyo Skytree in the background. We weren't able to snap a photo, but here's what it looks like

• We also saw EVA airlines' Hello Kitty airplane taking off too!

  

• Standing right next to the giant-sized tires for the landing gear of jumbo jets (767, 777, 787, etc).

1. How much do you think one of these tires weigh?

(see below for the answers!)

                          About the weight of an elephant? 

                                                          - 2B student

• Standing right in front of the engine on a 737. It rotates 50 times per second in flight!

2. Do you remember why there is a swirl mark on the jet engine? 

           (hint: pilot's use it when they're checking the airplane)

 

•  Seeing the inside of the 737's nose cone while ANA's maintenance team did repairs. We were told this is a rare sight to see the workers fixing it! 

      3. Do you know what is inside the cone? (hint: it's not ice cream) 

Watching planes land and take off from the hanger with a clear view of Mt. Fuji in the background.

• Picnic lunch and "recess" at Haneda's flight observation deck. 
• Click here for a google album with all of the pictures! Thank you again, guest photographer!

1. 100kg - about the weight of a sumo wrestler!
2. When the pilots check the airplane before take-off, it helps them see if the jet engines are turning properly.
3. We learned that it's a satellite receiver that can show the pilots weather systems that are up to 500km away!

International Women's Day

To celebrate International Women's Day, we had two musicians performing for us on Tuesday, March 8th.

Ayako Ito, an accomplished pianist, has been giving performances for us at Seisen for many years. She also performs children's concerts around Japan. This year's performance included a guest violinist. Their performance focused on music from around the world and the process of preparing for a performance.

Grade 2 Students with Ms. Ayako

Grade 2 Students with Guest Violinist

For more information on Ayako Ito (in Japanese):

http://www.ayako-ito.com/

Grade 2 Investigates Geometry

Grade 2 explores transportation systems and their connections to geometry

Learning Intention: I am learning to construct pyramids and cones with my table partners.

Success Criteria:

• work cooperatively 
• construct a cone using twist ties (pipe cleaners) 
• construct a pyramid using twist ties 

Each student worked cooperatively with their table partners as they constructed different shapes with twist ties. They focused their learning on how many faces, edges, and vertices each shape has. How can we find out... How many faces? How many edges? How many vertices?

Ask your daughter! 

What is the difference between a pyramid (triangular prism) and a cone?

Hint: Think about the bottom or base of the shape
(One difference: Pyramids or triangular prisms - base is a triangle Cones - base is a circle)

Visit  Brain Pop Jr for more information on constructing solid shapes.

For username and password details ask your homeroom teacher.

Students also became "Shape Detectives" in their own homes! Students learned how to identify shapes they found in magazines and newspapers. They added their evidence to our Math Thinking Wall.