We had a busy week learning about our unit of inquiry, celebrations! First we discussed whether or not certain celebrations help strengthen human relationships. Everyone had really great insight and gave their opinions. The most disputed celebration was about funerals. Some groups said “yes” because funerals are important to honor people’s lives, while some said “no” because funerals make people sad.
Second we conducted research projects about celebrations from around the world. We read books in pairs about Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Day of the Dead, Easter or Mexican Independence Day and wrote essays about them. Then we watched short videos to better understand the celebrations.
We also talked about reasons people celebrate. We came up categories like “family and friends” “entertainment” and “religion.” Understanding why people celebrate will help us to decide what kind of celebration we want to do at ISN. On Friday, May 24th from 9:15 am – 10:15 am we will put on our own celebration. All ISN staff, families and students are invited!
This week we had two extracurricular activities. We went to a local shrine and painted cherry blossoms. In Japan, there are many seasonal celebrations about cherry blossoms and many religious celebrations about shrines. Students painted the beautiful scenery of Nagano while thinking about these kinds of Japanese celebrations.
We also had a mini piano concert! Robert is a study abroad student from America. He is in 6th grade and is studying with us at International School of Nagano for one week. He is a pianist and played a beautiful song for us! Robert’s passion for playing piano and traveling around the world inspired us. In future we hope we too can follow our dreams like Robert!
Every afternoon we continued working on our contract tasks. Ms. Ellen was very impressed with our essays, videos and book reviews! We studied the difference between common and proper nouns and learned how to improve our book reviews. We also talked a lot about respect and treating others the way we want to be treated. These are important life skills that will help us learn, grow and feel safe.
We did a really great job with cleaning and lunch preparation this week!
Japanese class and library time were really fun!
We hope everyone has a fun and safe Golden Week! We are looking forward to preparing for our own class celebration when we get back! Thank you for reading!
