Shitakiri Suzume and Kasa Jizou

This week, Kindergarten enjoyed 2 Japanese traditional stories, Shitakiri Suzume and Kasa Jizou.
I have been telling students that learning new language is like a big guessing game and Kindergartners are enjoying this game so much.

Where We Are in Place and Time- Week 11

This week we continued our inquiry on personal history by discussing our personal differences. The children reflected on their own personal differences after listening to the book, It's Okay to Be Different, by Todd Parr.The book served as a provocation into all the ways a person can be different.
The children then began to list and illustrate ways they were different or special. The students generated many wonderful examples of what makes them unique. Having freckles, missing teeth and being an excellent skier were some of the attributes the students seemed proud of.

This week we continued our inquiry on pattern by creating a lot of different art pieces that involved pattern. For one piece the students created their own patterns with found objects. The students also enjoyed creating a fall wreath with intricate colored patterns. Patterns were also incorporated in music this week as the children looked for and identified different patterns in their favorite songs. Once the students understood the concept of patterns in song they were invited to create their own songs. The results were amazing.

Finally, most of the students ended the week by participating in PikaPikaKayaki at Jinsho. The students went down to Omotesando and collected garbage and cleaned up the sidewalks for an entire hour. They felt proud to take care of their community.

Have a great weekend!!!!

Alphabet domino cards.

Alphabet bingo!!

Awarded for  representing the learner profile attribute of caring!

Where We Are in Place and Time- Week 10

What a busy week in Kindergarten!

We had two big events this week. The first was our field trip the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Museum. Our current central idea is, Where we are in place and time. Some of the leading questions that guide this inquiry are: Who am I? Where do I live? Who came before me? We took the children to this particular museum in order to provide them with a provocation that allowed them to view what Japan was like in the past. The children really enjoyed viewing all of the different Japanese houses, old onsens, general stores and old transportation systems. Back at school the children shared their favorite parts of the day. The children even began to reflect and inquire on how their home countries were different in the past with many of the children asking to see pictures of what their native countries looked like 100 years ago. 

The students also enjoyed going to the Shibuya Community Center this week. The students were able to watch a performance put on by other schools from Tokyo. There were a lot of  really exciting performances and all of the children seemed to have a great time. The children even had their own chance to perform. We had been practicing two songs for the last few weeks. The students bravely performed their rendition of  the Alphabet song and Twinkle Twinkle in front of more than 100 other school children and their teachers. It was amazing. We hope to post of a video of it soon!

Have a great weekend!

This week the students discussed the IB learner attitude empathy. Here you can see the children role-playing what it means to be empathetic. 

A little rain couldn't stop us from bowling during PMP.

Kindergarten takes the stage!