Finding Balance Through Yoga

Have your Grade One daughters shared any yoga poses with you? We are beginning to learn various yoga poses and ways to connect them in a yoga flow sequence. We are also learning how to calm and center ourselves using our breath and resting poses. The first poses we learned came from the book "My Dad Is a Pretzel" by Baron Baptiste. The yoga poses are connected to various professions.

•  Gardener→tree pose
•  Vet→dog pose 
•  Architect→triangle pose
•  Pilot → airplane pose 

 The next poses we learned are connected to the Sun Salutation. These include mountain, plank, up dog, and warrior poses. Our summative task will be to choose some of our favorite poses and connect them in our very own "yoga flow sequence." If you're doing these at home, be sure to clear the space around you. It's great to practice yoga in natural light.

Which is your favorite pose? Triangle? Dog? Tree? Airplane?

Students take initiative to suggest ways to improve our poses. 

 

Sakura Book and Art Voting

Congratulations to all the girls who have read from our selection of English  and Japanese picture books. Thanks also to those who entered a piece of art in the Sakura Art Competition.

This week is VOTING week. Students from all over Japan, including SIS, are voting for their favourite book in each of the Sakura book categories and also for student art work.

Many girls showed commitment,  perseverance and integrity during the months we held the event. Congratulations to all those who achieved or surpassed their reading goal.

For those who did not reach their goal there will be another opportunity in the new school year when we will have a new set of great books, selected by the school librarians of Japan.

Division With Sharing and Grouping

Grade 1 has been working hard on learning division. We have been using our previous knowledge of multiplication to wrap our heads around this new concept.

In 1A, students have been working collaboratively in groups to solve various division problems. They have demonstrated cooperation and creativity, and have really enjoyed sharing ideas and exploring different strategies.

In 1B, the girls started by making 2 groups. They had 16 girls in the class, so they made 2 groups of 8 people. They gave advice to each other and organized themselves so that they weren't making 'groups of 2s' instead of '2 groups'!

Next, the girls in 1B moved on to make groups of 2s and 4s.

They had an easier time doing this. They were able to get into the proper groups without too much hassle! As soon as they were told to get into 'groups of 2s', they were able to make the groups in a matter of seconds! Through this exercise, the girls were able to experience dividing through physical movement and not just through counters!

The 1B girls seem to have a much smoother time understanding the concept of 'making X number of groups' compared to 'making groups of X numbers'. What are your experiences with this? Do you feel that you're more comfortable working with 'making X number of groups' instead of 'making groups of X numbers'?

We would love to find out more about how you learned to divide!

World Creative Writing Month Winners Pizza Party

1A celebrated their World Creative Writing Month win, on Friday, April 8th with a pizza party. Many thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Mishra for providing the pizza.

Grade One's Got Talent

Our talented first graders entertained and amazed everyone today with their Dancing Through History performance at the SPA Spring Luncheon. Additionally, Class 1A did a spectacular job of singing, Don't Forget Your Friends, at both the SPA Luncheon and the Talent Show. Don't Forget Your Friends was written by Class 1A's very own Rina Ogawa, and the music was composed by Grade 12 student, Seira McCarthy.

Many thanks to Ms. Kampa and Seira McCarthy for helping us with our performances, and a big thanks to Mr. Lewis for recording them.