Grade 5s perform at the Kanto Plain ES Choral Festival

The Seisen Grade 5 students performed at the Kanto Plain Elementary Choir festival at the International School of the Sacred Heart last week. The girls closed the festival with 'Sesere Eeye', a traditional song and dance from the Torres Strait islands. Saya N and Emi N accompanied the choir on djembe and shaker. For the second piece, 'Inscription of Hope', Sonal M and Abby H announced the following statement:

The composer of 'Inscription of Hope', Z.Randall Stroope, has asked that the following be announced before its performance. The Holocaust is a stunning reminder of the tragic result of prejudice and hatred to other people. But it is also a reminder that hope held firmly will reign victorious over the greatest of odds.

The following words (Inscription of Hope lyrics) were inscribed on the walls of a cellar in Cologne, Germany where Jews were hiding out from Nazis during World War II. Hope was all they had to hold on to. And hope was their only bridge for a brighter tomorrow. We'd like to dedicate this performance to the people surviving after the recent earthquakes in Kyushu.

Grade 5 Shampoo Commercials

Grade 5 groups created an advertising campaign commercial for their shampoo product with the special ingredient of cactus oil.

View the following videos below. Post a comment with your rating for each video.

On a scale 1~10, how effective is each commercial?  Please explain your rating.


5A -  Group 1-   Stop motion Animation

5A -  Group 2

   

5A - Group 3

5A -   Group 4

5A -  Group 5    (Group 5 experienced technical difficulties with the green screen effect. Please rate on the effectiveness of the commercial and if they were able to persuade you to buy their shampoo.)

Desert Bubble

Celestia

Golden Cactus Essence 

Sahara Wave

Cactifina

Tone Chimes, Collaboration

The 5A students have been working with tone chimes. Each student plays one note of the ensemble, so collaboration is essential for making beautiful music! In the first video, you'll hear students work on organising themselves until they have the whole class playing together.

In the second video, the 5A soprano staff students have just rolled a dice and are moving to a new part. The challenge of reading another part and playing a different sized tone chime helps make these students well rounded musicians.

Grade 5 Table Talk of the Week

Grade 5 Table Talk of the Week

Want to know what your daughter is learning in class? Why not turn this into a shared discussion. Try to share your knowledge and experiences with your daughter and invite her to share thoughts and knowledge. This would be a great opportunity to build her knowledge. Best time to have your discussions would be during breakfast, tea time, or dinner.

Topic to discuss:

1.   What makes Tokyo a successful and functioning society?

2.   What is your favorite  ancient civilization and why?

Great Happenings In Grade 5A

Unit of Inquiry

As previously posted, we started our new PYP- Unit of Inquiry on Ancient Civilizations.

Students wrote on sticky notes what they previously knew about civilizations and ancient civilizations. The major question we had was "what is civilization?"

Sonal:   I think civilization is a group of living things which live together.

Maya:   Civilization is a place to live.  Examples:   cities, houses, neighbourhood, country.

Sudiksha:   I think that ancient civlization is about ancient times or about people from before.

We then rewrote the central idea to our understanding. 

Before we rewrote the central idea, we needed to find and define the key words. 

Original Central Idea:   Evidence of past civilizations can be used to make connections to present-day societies. 

Samples from our rewritten central idea:

 Most of us are new to learning about ancient civilizations. We took the next step to investigate our vocabulary words. Not only did we define the vocabulary words, but we also drew its meaning.

We decided to get some exposure to various ancient civilizations from free reading various books. Some of us took the extra step to take notes from our learning.

Book Club

As we are starting the unit of inquiry, ancient civilization, we are focusing on the myths reading genre and develop our inferring skills by drawing conclusions from text. 

We took a period to read the Greek myth, The Boy Who Flew Too High, outside under our school's sakura tee. 

More to come next week!

Where We Are in Place and Time

Students in grade 5 have started a new unit of inquiry, Where We Are in Place and Time. As a tuning-in activity, students were given 10 big events in human history and had to place them on a continuum from oldest to most recent. 

First, students did this individually, allowing time for each student to develop her own ideas and form connections amongst events.  After some time, students were paired up to share their thinking and discuss their continuums, justifying and explaining their reasoning for each choice. 

Finally, each partnership was given an event to research. After researching, we organised the events into a more accurate class continuum.

After completing the timeline, students were asked to rank the most important milestones from human history.  A lively debate ensued as students defended their choices and challenged their classmates to go deeper in their thoughts and reasoning.

Two students discuss and debate their ranking.

 Here is one student's ranking and defence of her choice.

After getting a better understanding of the time period we are inquiring into, students investigated some of the key vocabulary words and concepts connected to the unit. Students showcased their understanding of these words in a variety of ways. One is through a "concept character." Students created a fictitious character that exemplifies the concept or word being studied.

 

Fertile Girl shoots seeds and roots from her hand. Of course, her favorite color is green.

Mr. Curious represents archaeology. His head is a magnifying glass to better examine details.

As a next step, students will explore some of the complex systems that characterize early civilizations and investigate how these systems impacted the civilizations and our modern world.

Click HERE to visit the 2017 Where We Are in Place and Time unit.

      

Great Happenings in Grade 5A

Great Happenings in Grade 5A

Student-led Conferences

Thank you to all parents for showing your support for your daughters. The students were thrilled to present to you their learning and progress throughout the school year. 

Persuasive Writing

Students wrote persuasive topic of their choice; made a claim and gave several relevant reasons. We used library and online resources to find evidence that supported reasons.  After completion, students were divided into category groups that relates to their topic. Each student read her persuasive piece to the class, and the class evaluated the effectiveness. 

PSA (Public Service Announcement Group)

Anna:    Do you text while driving? Do you know it is wrong? It can danger not only your life, but also the others' lives. It is illegal, and it gives a negative influence on younger generation, especially teens or young adult who are about to or just got their license. In this piece of writing, I will talk about why I strongly criticise texting while driving. 

Sudiksha:   Ever wondered what some celebrities died from? It all ended badly. It is a good chance at making you closer to death. It also destroys your organs and you will loose a lot of money. It will get worse unless you say no to drugs. 

Sales Group

Sonal (Sales Group):    Have you ever wanted a life long companion, or have you ever wanted a stuffed animal with your color and personality? If yes a Care Bear is what you need! They are cute and cuddly, a great buddy, intelligent, fantastic gifts for everyone to enjoy, and as well as come in various colors, sizes, and personalities. 

Activity Group

Lisa:   Are you one of those people who find swimming too hard, boring and pointless? Well, you couldn't be anymore wrong! Swimming literally is used just when you are paddling at the beach!I'm not saying swimming is not hard thought, it can actually be tough and stressful. But once you hit the water, you forget all that stress while you glide through the water with the water brushing past. So to the people out there who look down on swimming, get ready to be convinced!

Cat and Dog Group

Tanaya (Dog Group:  Are you searching for a perfect dog for you? Well maybe you would like a French Bulldog! If you like easy going and clownish cute dog, then you should definitely get a French Bulldog! French Bulldogs adapt to their family and houses very quickly, they have good temperament, they teach you responsibility, they are playful and fun to have and they come in amazing colours!

Karen (Dog Group):  Did you ever think that you want a dog, but most of it will not listen to you or make you happy? Well, you should get the Irish Setter. It listens to you, is super easy to train, and will make you always happy and more. So if you are interested in getting an Irish Setter, read more interesting facts about it. 

Additional Group

Azumi:   Should cell phones be banned in the late night for children and teens?  Yes, cell phone n the night would make them stress and make their brains wake up. Many children would wake up in the late night and play games and watch videos secretly. Parents should have responsibility on this too. The choice is:  To hide it from the child or ban it for a week. This problem might make them sleep while in class and get expelled Children should note use their phones in the late night.

More happenings coming soon!!

Grade 5 try out potential Data Bases

Grade 5 have been exploring databases in the Library/MC.

There are two 'Trial Databases' for you to explore at home as you work through your new UOI on Ancient Civilisations...They will expire in about 2 weeks so use them before we lose them. Please reflect on how useful they are as you explore them.

Please use the following form to let me know which you think is best and why?

Vote here: bit.ly/1oAhZgv 

Info Base and World Book Online

Don't forget that we have more databases on our main web school page.

Happy researching!