Week in Review

Readers’ Workshop

Students in 5B have a begun reading a class novel, Esperanza Rising. Although all students are reading the same book, we have broken up into smaller groups to work on different skills and strategies while we read and respond to what we read.  After reading, students are responsible for completing one of the following tasks: analyzing Esperanza’s character, creating high quality discussion questions in regards to the chapter, visualizing an important event, writing a summary, finding an important quote from the chapter, and researching the historical event from the chapter. In addition, using clues from the texts, everyone records their predictions on what they think will happen later in the story.

Students working on the various tasks after reading

Some students read along to an audiobook, some read orally in a group, some read in pairs, and one reads individually

Our working board. Students translated key proverbs from the story into their native languages. Can you recognise any of these languages or sayings?

Mathematics

Central Idea:

Patterns can often be generalized using algebraic expressions, equations or functions.

Students started with a tuning in game to help construct meaning around this idea. Students were given 7 two-sided chips. The goal is to flip all the chips so the other colour is showing. However, you must flip exactly 3 chips at a time.  What is the least number of rounds it takes to have all chips flipped? 

Students experiment with finding patterns

After experimenting and playing with possibilities, students came to the conclusion that 3 rounds was the least possible number of rounds.  Students then continued this challenge with 8 chips, 9 chips, etc...  Students began to record their results in a function table and were asked to look for patterns and try to predict what is the least number of rounds needed for 16 chips? 100 chips?

Students begin to organise their results in a function table which will help to see the pattern

Students use the function table to see and explain the pattern. The next step is to express the pattern mathematically-in an algebraic equation

Unit of Inquiry

How we Organize Ourselves is coming to an end and students are applying their learning and going further in their inquires. 

As a class we played a game to investigate our second line of inquiry, food production and distribution. Specifically, we looked at the challenges subsistence farmers face as they try to grow enough food for their families as well produce a small surplus to sell. 

Students were organized into small groups of farming families.  Each season, students must produce enough corn for their families’ to eat. Any surplus food could be sold to the global market for a small price. In addition, farmers can choose to harvest coffee fruit. However, to sell coffee to the global market farmers must first process the fruit and package it, and purchase an expensive export license. 

Students work hard to harvest their crops and sell the surplus so they can buy fertilisers or possible an export license

After this activity, students reflected where on the SOLO Taxonomy this fit. Some students classified it as a level 4 Connecting Ideas activity. They noted that they were comparing different strategies and explaining the effects of their actions.  Some thought it was a level 5 Going Further activity as they were planning a strategy, reflecting on its success and revising and improving on it in later rounds.

Students highlighted the thinking skills they used during the activity

Mei and Jeong Yeon take action to Go Further in their learning by designing an experiment to test organic and conventional fruit. They were curious to know if their was any difference in taste or quality. The results were surprising! They will write up a full lab report over the weekend and share it with the class next week. We are all looking forward to it.

Students perform a test to see if they can taste the difference between an organic banana and a conventional banana.
What is your hypothesis?

Making a Difference Through Dance

Where is my home?  Where are my friends?  Where is my school?  What happened to everything I loved? How would I feel if I were a refugee?

Learning Objectives:

Students in Gr. 5 have been reflecting upon these questions through dance and drama in an effort to create an integrated Drama/ Dance piece. 

Learning Engagements:

Dance students responded to various videos, including those reflecting the life of Syrian refugee children.  They watched dance videos for inspiration, including work by choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Through improvisational activities, dance students began by exploring feelings of suffering and injustice.  To tell the story of a refugee child's life, students began by imagining a refugee's life before the war began. Working in pairs and small groups, dance students created joyful dances of childhood.  Then students imagined how a refugee child's life changed.  They connected to feelings of fear, anger, sadness, helplessness, and exclusion.  They created still poses to convey these ideas.  In small groups, students used three poses to create a short dance sequence about leaving a place. Students wanted to show feelings of being trapped and confused.  They brainstormed dance movements to capture these feelings.

The Drama students created characters and lists of words to set the mood of each section.  Dance students reacted to this, and developed their remaining choreography.

Students continued to revise their piece and practice as an entire fifth grade class.  The collaboration between drama and dance became a seamless piece of art.

When students arrived at St. Mary's International School, they encountered a change in the performing space.  They revised their dance to be performed on four different levels. They worked with limited rehearsal using the sound, lighting, and space.

Their performance for Refugees International Japan charity concert captured the essence of the theme "Light Up The Light of a Refugee Child."

We are proud to announce that the concert raised over one million yen to benefit refugee children.

Gr. 5 Dance/ Drama RIJ Performance 2016 "Origins"

November, Already!

Wow! Time is flying. Two months have passed and grade 5 keeps moving along in their learning. With that said, we have one more week of the Unit of Inquiry Unit, Global Food Production before moving on to our third unit of Growth and Development. This week, Grade 5 focused on inquiring sustainable practices in good food production, consumption, and waste.

Unit 2 - Unit of Inquiry

How We Organize Ourselves

Global Food Production

Central Idea: People have developed systems for producing and distributing food around the world

Lines of Inquiry:
Sustainable practice in food production
Sustainable Practices and Non-sustainable Practices

Success Criteria: 

List sustainable and unsustainable practices in agriculture methods.

After learning about sustainable practices, groups discussed and listed practices that are sustainable practices and unsustainable practices. Some students compared the practices to their groupś agriculture method of focus.

Agriculture Method Presentations

Success Criteria:

Using the SOLO Taxonomy, groups present their agriculture method to the class.

Groups spent two weeks investigating their chosen agriculture method. Together, they were able to make connections to other agriculture methods, and evaluate the pros and cons. Groups organized Google Slide presentations to educate their audience.

Sustainable Practices in Food Consumption and Waste

Success Criteria:

Research and collect data on the possible issue of food waste in the cafeteria

Question on the issue of Seisenś cafeteria food waste

Draw a conclusion and reflect on the amount of food waste in cafeteria

Plan an action to spread awareness of the issue on food waste

Grade 5 developed a curiosity of the amount of food wasted in the cafeteria after lunch period. Students used a Science Lab Report handout to organize their two-day research and data collection. Before the research, they estimated that the cafeteria collected 7kg~21 kg of food waste.

After two days of data collecting, students discovered that grades 1 to high school has thrown away a total of 17.5 kilograms of food in the garbage. We were shocked by the amount of food that is wasted.

Students wondered and guessed possible reasons why students would throw away the food. Each student listed possible reasons for wasting food, and interviewed Seisen students. We learned that the most common reasons students would throw away the food are: feeling full, wants to go to recess, or they did not like the food.

In our class discussions, students posted their wonders and questions as a response to the reasons.

Each student used menti.com to post their brainstorm of the possible action plan to spread the awareness of food wasting.

Science in the PYP

Grade 5 have spent the past few weeks investigating the different ways food is produced around the world. After learning about the key characteristics of each mode of production, students shifted their focus to issues of sustainability. Although students had a general idea of what sustainable meant, we pushed our understanding to include what is known as the 3 pillars of sustainability- the economic, social, and environmental impact. The following 2 images were used to help unpack this idea.       

                           

Students were then given 16 characteristics of food production that were previously investigated and asked to place them on a continuum from very sustainable to non-sustainable. Students worked in pairs to share their ideas and build their continuum. A lot of interesting discussions took place around the idea of balancing social justice, economic prosperity and environmental damage. 

We came together as a class to discuss where on the continuum the prompt "Using fertiliser to increase yields" should be placed. Once again, a lively debate ensued with students pointing out the social and economic benefit of increased yields, especially for struggling populations, but at the same time, noting the environmental damage caused by fertiliser. Here are a few students discussing this topic.


This led to the question, 

" Does fertiliser damage the environment?
If so, how"

It was the perfect time to bring science into our inquiry. 

Students were shown the following image and were told the red dots represented Dead Zones. These are places were fish cannot live. We used this as a provocation and a starting point of our investigation. With the help of Se-Eun's explanation, the class looked at the Mississippi river network in the United States and the surrounding farmland. Students noted that applying fertiliser to big farms by crop-dusters, or erosion from rainfall can lead to fertiliser ending up in the river network and eventually draining into the sea. 

The red circles are places that experience Dead Zones-area with low oxygen levels that can't support marine life. As you can see they are in costal regions with dense populations. What causes these Dead Zones? Students will investigate.

An experiment was set up to see what might happen to coastal regions if excessive fertiliser entered the water, and how dead zones form.

For our experiment, 3 beakers were set up per group. One was a control with regular tap water in it, one had lake water, and one had lake water with fertiliser added to it. Each day students will observe the jars and measure the amount of oxygen in the water using a Vernier Dissolved Oxygen Probe.

Unfortunately, the fertilizer we used was blue. I hope we can still see any algae growth that might happen.

Using the probe to measure the amount of oxygen in the water.

Stayed tuned to see the results of this experiment. We think it will take about 2 weeks for the fertiliser to cause an algae bloom, the bloom to die, and the decomposition process to use up all the oxygen in the water.  What was once the lovely water of Senzoku Ike will become a hypoxic dead zone, incapable of supporting marine life. In the meantime, enjoy a nice photo of Senzoku Ike at sundown, before its demise.

       Students grapple with the very real question of how do we feed our growing population, protect the beauty of our planet, and provide a fair, equitable life for all?

It's Sakura season ...but its winter?

The Sakura Medal program brings together students from the international schools across Japan each year to vote for their favourite books. Each year, librarians from various international schools meet and select 10-20 books in each of the Sakura Medal categories. Only students are eligible to vote for this prestigious award, but they need to read the minimum number of books to vote.

                                         

Our aim is not only to encourage students to read a variety of high quality books but to give a real life opportunity to set a meaningful goal.  The program will run from November to April. Students will decide how many books they realistically hope to read. This forms the basis of their Sakura reading goal.  An important part of goal setting is to think about how to achieve a goal. Students are required to write down two things that they can do to achieve this goal. They had some good ideas:

"Try not to buy new books." --Student in 4B

"I will stop by the library every morning before class and look for Sakura Medal books." --Student in 4A

Equally important is considering what 'road blocks' might get in the way of success. Students had many idea:

"I forget to take the books home to read."

" I don't check out Sakura books."

"I don't have time with all my other homework."

"Other people have the books I want to read."

Both homeroom teacher and parents must sign the goal setting sheet. Please look out for this over the next few days. Forms are already being returned. Once the form has been returned they will be able to start the exciting process of checking out the books and reading them to achieve their goal.

Here are some of the girls in Grade 4 setting their goals for this year. They have reflected on last years experience and are setting realistic and achievable goals.