Monday, January 22, 2018

Genius Hour Part 1



Over the past few months, we have been spending one period a week to work on our very own passion projects. We call this time, "Genius Hour". 

To celebrate our learning, we spent some time presenting in front of our classmates. 

Click on the videos to see us in action!










Stay tuned for part 2 😎

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Vehicle Race!



Last week, we began our new unit with the central idea: 
Energy production and its effects on the environment.

On Thursday during a combined lesson with the Grade 3 class, 
we worked in small groups to build vehicles powered by a chosen form of energy. 




Some groups chose to power their vehicle with wind energy...




...while other groups worked with magnetic and other forms of energy. 




On Friday afternoon, we lined up our vehicles at the starting line for our much-anticipated race. 




Watch the video below to find out which team was the first to cross the finish line! 




Saturday, January 13, 2018

Christmas Market



A Belated Happy New Year!

In December, we worked with the Grade 3 class to set up booths at the school Christmas Market which took place on December 15th. 

This project served as the summative assessment task for our Unit of Inquiry with following central idea: People share their responsibilities in communities through offering goods and services in marketplaces.

After some brainstorming and decision making at the start of the month, we pitched our ideas in front of a panel of all-star judges in order to receive feedback. 









Then, we demonstrated independence and commitment by setting up daily plans using a weekly schedule to make sure we would be ready by the date of the market. 







We were such busy bees!







In the weeks leading up to the Christmas Market, we applied our social skills in order to make various decisions within our groups with the goal of making a profit. 







We needed to make sure that our visitors enjoyed our services and were satisfied with our products. 









The day finally arrived and we were ready to go!




Some of us provided services by designing different games for the customers...




...while others sold products such as ornaments and different kinds of hot chocolate!




After the winter holidays, we applied our addition and subtraction skills in order to calculate the profit made by each group. 










We needed to take into account the total amount we had at the end of the market, the change we borrowed from the school office, and the list of expenses. 

We found out that between the two classes, a grand total of 16,000 yen was made which was donated to the Kansai Food Bank! 

What an accomplishment! 😎