We had a great start to our unit of inquiry! Unit One’s interdisciplinary theme, Who We Are, will focus on celebrations. To understand what celebrations are, we completed a variety of activities. We discussed what celebrations mean to us and captured our ideas using quad charts. Working in groups, we created celebration objects. We also discussed different kinds of celebrations and whether or not we think they help strengthen human relationships.
Every morning we participated in guided reading. Guided reading helps improve our fluency. The book we read this week, called St. Patrick’s Day, is about an Irish celebration. We also practiced comprehension and learned some phonics and new vocabulary.
Every afternoon we worked individually on our contract tasks. We are each responsible for completing all our tasks by Friday, but we can decide, on our own, what order to work on them. This will help us build good self-management skills during our contract task time. This week’s tasks focused on improving our math, reading, writing and speaking skills.
We also focused on two important skills this week — giving and accepting feedback and staying organized. We read a book called Thank You for the Feedback. It talked about how feedback is information that can help us grow. Feedback is important, but it is not always constructive. Working in groups, we selected quotes from the book and decided whether the statement was a “compliment” or “feedback.” Then we practiced giving and receiving constructive feedback by performing skits.
The other classroom skill we focused on was keeping organized. It is important to be organized so that we can be productive and independent learners.
Our other classes included P.E., Japanese, math and music class. We also went to the library every day to not only read books but to learn about conducting Internet research and writing essays.
We saw Matsumoto’s beautiful nature while running — cherry blossoms, mountains and a river.
At International School of Nagano’s library, children can choose from many English books!
We are excited for next week when we will continue to gain a deeper understanding of celebrations and how they help strengthen human relationships!
探究の単元の幸先良いスタートを切ることができました。ユニット1の教科の域を超えたテーマ「Who we are」でセレブレーションを重点的に学んでいきます。セレブレーションとは何かを理解するために、いくつかアクティビティを行いました。私たちにとってセレブレーションとは何かを話しあい、クワッドチャートを使って自分達のアイディアをとらえました。グループ作業を行い、お祝いの物を作りました。そのほかにも、様々なお祝いや、お祝いが人間関係を良くするかどうかについても話し合いました。
また、2つの大切なスキル、フィードバックを与える・受け入れる、整理整頓についても重点的に学びました。Thank you for your feedbackという本を読みました。フィードバックは、私たちの成長を助けてくれる情報であることについて話しました。フィードバックは重要ですが、いつも建設的とは限りません。グループ作業では、本から引用文を選び、褒め言葉かフィードバックかを考えました。それから、短い簡単な劇をして建設的なフィードバックを与えたり、受けたりする練習をしました。
