Getting Started in Where We Are in Place and Time

Students in grade 5 started their new unit under the theme of Where We Are in Place in Time.

As a getting started activity, students browsed through a variety of books on ancient civilisations and made a note of any questions or wonderings.  In small groups we sorted our questions into 3 categories: inquiry questions, thin questions, or somewhere in between the two.  Students brainstormed characteristics of each type of question.

We decided that inquiry questions are:
Debatable, have many possible answers, are good topics for discussions, and you must synthesize a lot of information when answering them.

Here is a preliminary list of sorted questions.

After browsing more books and watching a short video on the rise of civilisations, students added to their list of questions and looked at the questions from the lens of our key concepts and lines of inquiry. Students decided which concept best matched their question and which line of inquiry it would help to explore.

Among other things, students began to investigate the local features that aided a civilisation's growth.
In conjunction with our earlier book browse, students also made note of important places they uncovered and added them to a class list. Using Google Earth, we took a virtual tour (first stopping at our own houses) of a variety of ancient ruins and locations.


Students ended the week with a field trip to the Yokohama History Museum.  This site was being developed for residential housing in the 1980s when scientists discovered the remains of a community dating back over 2000 years. This marks the transition in Japanese history to a more sedentary and agriculturally based society.  It was a great opportunity for students to see replica dwellings and actual tools that were used during this time. Students also got to witness the huge change in lifestyle that came with the advent of agriculture.

Here are a few photos from the day.

Parent Sharing Session

For 2 hours on Tuesday, January 24 the fifth grade classrooms and drama room were filled with parents actively participating with their daughters in a range of learning activities. The session was split into 2 parts, the first focusing on mathematics and the second focusing on changes that occur during adolescence.  A bit more on the mathematics session:

Students broke into groups of 2 or 3 to demonstrate a mathematics concept studied in the first semester. Students led parents through an inquiry activity, stopping along the way to explain relevant concepts, algorithms, strategies, and tips to help develop the tools necessary to solve the problems. Here are a few of the inquiries students led parents through.

Here are some photos of parents and students in action

After the mathematics session wrapped up, we switched our focus to explore changes that occur during adolescence. A main goal of this session was for parents and daughters to have fun and work together to develop some strategies that could be used to maintain healthy relationships with each other during the changing years of adolescence.

Firstly, a list of 10 changes was given to each group. We asked groups to rank these changes in terms of most important, concerning, biggest, surprising, etc... Parents and daughters were able to share their perspectives with each other and talk through the changes in more detail.


Next, we role-played a few scenarios to help promote dialogue between parents and daughters. To add a bit of perspective, we had everyone switch roles; parents played the part of daughters, and daughters played the part of parents.



We finished with parents and daughters offering each others bits of advice to remember moving forward.

We want to thank everyone for taking the time to come out and share in these activities with us.  It was clear that everyone learned something and enjoyed themselves.

We look forward to our next session on March 2 when we share our science investigations with parents.

Welcome Back to School

After a whirlwind first few days of seeing old friends and classmates, meeting new ones, exploring the new additions to the building, settling in to new classes and routines, and building a sense of excitement for the year to come, students have settled down to the business of learning.

This week, students have been working with the Seisen Learner Profile to help set expectations, establish goals, and view the profile in a larger, global context.

Firstly, students spent time familiarising themselves with the profile. Students worked individually, in groups and in pairs to define each of the profile's meaning and gather any related words. In addition, students created characters to help bring the profile to life. Have a look at the description below each character.

Reflector-san's clock runs backwards because he is always thinking about his past actions.

Pencils for limbs, a notebook for a body and a computer for a head, Mr. Investigate is certainly an inquirer.

His head is a speaker so he can speak loudly and clearly, his arms are traffic lights to communicate nonverbally, and his ears are large to help him listen intently, an important attribute of a good communicator.

Mr Thinker needs all that hair to cover his large brain. His hands are a notebook and pencil to help him organize all his thoughts.

Students also began tuning in to their first Unit of Inquiry, under the theme of Sharing the Planet.

Students were shown images and quotes relating to peace and conflict and were asked to have a silent conversation about the images. Images were posted around the room and students wandered from image to image adding their thoughts and responding to classmates thoughts.

Here are the images students responded to.  What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.  

              

                 Students begin to respond to the images.

The first student bravely adds her thoughts.

A student reads other people's thoughts before adding her own.

Students contemplating the image.

One waits while the other adds her thoughts.

            What the conversation looked like when finished.

Students notice the blue UN logo and debate the plight of refugees.

This image is a bit harder to decipher. One student comments that "She must be brave!"  I agree.

From one thought came many.
 Besides expressing shock and sadness, students wonder who did this and why was it done to a child. 

As a follow up activity and a way of connecting the learner profile to our current unit of inquiry, students were asked to choose which profile characteristics should be a focus for this unit. Communicators, Collaborators, and Balanced were among the ones chosen. See the student discussions below.

Ask your daughter which profile characteristic she chose.