A Celebration of Celebration Food

A big thanks to everyone who attended our special celebration luncheon
on Friday, January 29th. It was a truly delightful and delicious event.

We are very grateful to Ms. Kampa for all the wonderful 

music and dance she brought to our celebration luncheon.

Learning from the Seisen Community

Over the last few days, the students in Grade 1 have taken part in some very interesting and exciting discussions about celebrations and traditions, with members of the Seisen community.

Last Thursday, students learned about St. Patrick's Day 

from Head of School, Mrs. Rogers. 

This past Monday, Ms. Watanabe (Ms. Mai's Mother) came in 

to discuss the origins of different Japanese New Year traditions. 

On Tuesday Ms. Jaya and Dr. Mico, from Seisen's Middle/High school, 

shared the symbols and traditions that were part of their recent wedding, 

in their home country of Mauritius. 

We greatly appreciate all the time our guest speakers gave up to come in and speak with us, and we want them to know that we really enjoyed their presentations and learned a lot from them.

If you would like to come in and share a celebration or tradition with the students in Grade 1, please be sure to contact Ms. Meyers or Mr. Brigham.

Come Celebrate With Us

New Friends

Today, the students in grade 1 discussed celebrations 

with their new friends in Pakistan, via skype.

Celebration Clothes

For the past few days, we have been investigating 

what people wear during celebrations.

Today we created stop motion videos to present our findings.

To view our creations, or to share what you wear during celebrations, 

please log on to our padlet: http://padlet.com/dtowse/celebrations

Taking a Closer Look at Japanese Celebrations

This past week, Class 1A welcomed new student, Erryssya, from Malaysia. To help Erryssya learn more about Japan, and to answer Erryssya's inquiry question: What do people in Japan celebrate?, the girls in 1A worked together to plan and prepare a video presentation about Japanese celebrations.

Himeka, Rika, Rina, On and Katlego prepare a script for their video on Setsubun.

Rio, Kaede, Erryssya, Saadatu, and Hanna brainstorm ideas for their video about Children's Day.

Mio, Sae, Shrisha, Ellen, and Jian Kim create a storyboard for their video about Girl's Day.

Erica, Mirai, Tejal, Karen, and Jueun discuss ideas for their video on Shichi-Go-San.

After a long week of prepping, planning, and practising, the girls in 1A have produced an amazing video that is both entertaining and informative. 

To follow our How We Express Ourselves inquiry please log on to our project padlet: http://padlet.com/dtowse/celebrations

Created with Padlet

Asking Questions & Seeking Answers

After looking through numerous books, and having several discussions about celebrations and traditions, the students in 1A have come up with a list of questions they would like to try and answer.

If you can help us answer any of our burning questions, then please leave us a comment below, post on our project padlet, or stop by our classroom.

New Years Celebrations - Connecting with Parents

As part of our unit How we Express Ourselves (Celebrations), we have been using Japanese New Years as a focus for all three lines of inquiry: Features of celebrations, symbols and why people celebrate.

One of our parents - Mrs Yamaoka - very kindly sent in a Mochi making kit that consisted of mochi (pounded rice), soy sauce, flour, a knife and nori (a kind of seaweed).

We warmed the mochi up in the microwave and then before we ate it, we said thank you to the gods in the shrine. The girls pulled pieces of the mochi off and then wrapped it up in nori and then dipped it in soy sauce - delicious!!!!!!!!

The Kagamimochi means mirror rice cake. We are learning about what the symbols represent:

The orange on the top is a symbol for the fruit  "daidai", whose name means "generations". This symbolises the passing from generation to generation.