The Reasons Humans Explore Space

 

Last week, our fourth unit of inquiry about the solar system, stars, and galaxies came to an end. 

We used our research skills to find out the reasons humans explore space and showcased our findings by creating one-pagers. 

Take a look at our creations below!

Our unit display space below also documents our learning throughout each unit. 

We tend to start around the edge of the display space and work toward the middle where we make connections to figure out the central idea. 

We are often able to get our versions quite close to the teacher-created one, as you might be able to see on the blue sticky notes. 

This skill of creating central ideas on our own will be very useful and important during our exhibition. 

Have a great weekend!

Making Sense of the Central Idea

This week, the central idea of our first unit was revealed: 

Our mindsets and understanding of the process of learning enable us to build skills and habits to reach our goals.  

We looked at different chunks of the central idea and considered what the words meant, made connections, and drew illustrations of our visualizations. 

Once we made sense of the four sections of the central idea, we got together in groups to rewrite it in our own words. Check out what Miles' group came up with! You can see the rewritten central ideas by the other groups on the pink slips on the photo above. 

We also used a visible thinking routine called 3, 2, 1 Bridge to reflect on how our understanding of the word "learning" changed before and after watching the video below. 

Our understanding of learning changed as we found out that our brains are malleable, meaning that they can stretch and grow like muscles! 

This realization led to our research about the concept of a growth mindset using our newly learned skill of sketchnoting. 

This visual note-taking strategy helps us as the dual-coding theory suggests that our brains process information more effectively when both verbal associations and visual imagery are being used.

Take a look at how we processed our learning in different ways by making various connections! 

We watched this video and this video as well as other resources we found through our own investigation. 

 

Theatre Genres

This week, we have been exploring genres in theatre as a part of our year-long drama unit. 

First, we watched a video in which the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was edited in seven different genres. 

Afterwards, we discussed what watching the video made us notice and think. Instead of having an oral discussion, we used a visible thinking routine called Chalk Talk in which we had a silent discussion by writing and responding to each other on sticky notes. 

We responded to our classmates' opinions and ideas using symbols such as a star to agree, a question mark to ask for clarification, and an arrow for responding in other ways, such as connecting, paraphrasing, and disagreeing. 

Using this visible thinking routine enabled all learners to have an equal voice which especially empowered some of us who tend to be shy during oral discussions. 

 Later on, we found out about the three main genres of theater: tragedy, comedy, and tragicomedy. 

The elements of each genre can be seen below. 

In order to increase our understanding, we decided to recreate the story of the Three Little Pigs in the following genres: tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy-horror!

Below are the success criteria we built together as well as a detailed description of our project. 

We have been working in teams to film and edit our videos. 

Stay tuned to watch the completed projects!

We are also starting a new Unit of Inquiry under the transdisciplinary theme:  

How we Organise Ourselves. 

Above is a photo of our unit wall. 

What do you think this unit will be about? 

You might get a big hint on Monday!

Thinking Moves

For the past week, we have been learning about thinking moves. 

Thinking moves, coined by educational researchers at Harvard Graduate School of Education, are thinking dispositions which directly support the development of understanding. 

Becoming aware of how we think and learn helps us plan the types of learning engagements necessary to progress in our units of inquiry. This understanding is important in PYP schools since learners play an active role in shaping the direction of the unit.

In order to help us understand how the thinking moves work, we discussed units of inquiry from the past few years and identified specific learning engagements in which we used each thinking move. 

For example, over the past two years in the Grade 4 class, the book club discussions were centered around questions posed by the learners (thinking move: wondering and asking questions). During such discussions, we often looked at the plot from the lenses of various characters (thinking move: considering different viewpoints). 

This process of reflecting on past lessons and experiences involved a thinking move as well: making connections!

Here are all of the connections we were able to come up with in relation to the eight thinking moves. 

We will continue to add to the list throughout the year!

We also visited an art exhibit at Kobe Fashion Museum where we continued to practice using the thinking moves to appreciate the artwork. 

This year, our electronic portfolio using the Seesaw platform will be organised by thinking moves. 

We are very excited to further develop our thinking skills throughout various areas of the curriculum!

Learning about Culture

Our third unit of the year has the following central idea: 

Our culture and our origin are expressed in different ways.

Over the past few weeks, we have been using our research skills to find out about different cultures. 

As a first step, we went to the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka as investigators!

It was exciting to find out that depending on the culture, people live in different homes...

wear different clothes...

have different beliefs...

make different kinds of art...

and also use different things to live. 

At school, we continued our research using computers. 

 With the help of a graphic organizer, we searched for important information to record so that we could share our findings with our classmates. 

We also looked at pictures of children from different cultures. 

We used a visible thinking routine called see, think, wonder to help us sharpen our observation skills, connect to what we already know, and pose wonders. 

We also learned that celebrations are important parts of cultures! 

After watching a video about Chinese New Year, 

we decided to create large dragons with the grade one learners! 

Here, we are using our social skills to work together so that we can plan out the pattern for the scales. 

Who knows? You may be seeing the dragons at school sometime...!

Have a great weekend!