Sharing about our family history in our summative assessment

This week was our last week learning and investigating in our "Where We Are in Place and Time" unit.

We were very grateful to have several parents come and visit the grade 1 students and share about their family history and the reasons why have chosen an international education at Seisen for their daughters.  

 

Here is Mirai's Dad sharing talking to the grade 1 students about his time in Perth Australia and how this time spent abroad has now influenced his family in the future. 

Special thanks to Mirai's Dad, Emi Plackman's Mum, Nina Fuji's Mum, Riana's Mum and Dad and Jian's Mum for generously sharing their family stories with both classes. 

To demonstrate the learning that has taken place over the unit, the students completed a summative assessment this week where they made a book documenting important events from their family history (before they were born) and important events from their own lives.  They then shared these along with their family trees/mind maps and photos with their grade 1 peers.

Below is a copy of the SOLO rubric the students used when creating their family history booklet and before presenting to the other grade 1 class. 

Below are some of pages out of students' history books where they identified important events from the past. 

Sara K explains an important event from her life. 

Emi P explains an important event from her family's history before she was born. 

This is an important event to Emi because her "dad was a teenager and he was learning to talk Japanese and he met my mum."

Juri explains an important event from her life, when her uncle passed away. 

The grade 1 girls did a great job confidently sharing what they knew and had learnt about their family history over this unit.  

Our new unit of inquiry is Sharing the Planet where we will be learning about Living Things. 

Looking at Toys from the Past at the Toy Museum

On Tuesday this week the Grade 1 students went on a field trip to visit Tokyo's Toy Museum. The purpose of our trip was to look and play with some toys from the past and inquire into how and why these toys are different to those we have today.

We began the day by participating in a craft session where the girls made a simple "jack in the box" out of materials that most homes would have, such as; cups, straws, plastic bags and markers. The girls had a great time making these and I am sure you enjoyed seeing them Tuesday afternoon.

The girls then had a chance to play and look at many toys from the past and participated in a mini lecture from one of the educators at the Toy Museum.

During our stay at the Tokyo Toy Museum we found out that the building used to be an old school and there were many photos of what the building and the school used to be like.  We used these photos later this week as a source of investigation into how school life has changed over time.  The girls have all expressed that school seems like much more fun now than in the past! 

Exploring the Tokyo Toy Museum

On Friday, March 18, the Tokyo Toy Museum was abuzz with excitement and curiosity as our first graders embarked on their very first field trip. The students had an amazing time exploring both old and new toys and reflecting on how toys have changed over time.

 

Many thanks to all the moms who gave up their time to help chaperone

Developing an Understanding of Time

To better understand Where We Are in Place and Time, the students in Grade 1 have been learning about different units of time and how to tell time on an analog clock.

The One Minute Challenge

To put the length of one minute in perspective, students predicted how many times they could complete different tasks in one minute. They then took turns timing each other to test their predictions.

Learning to Tell Time on an Analog Clock

Next, we learned how to tell time on an analog clock. The display outside 1B explains the most important steps in our learning journey.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Finally, to practice everything we learned, 

we completed a bunch of fun games and activities.

From the Minuet to the Macarena

Grade One students have been inquiring into dances of long ago.  They started learning dances from different periods of history to see if they could see how dance has changed.  One of the first dances students learned was the minuet.  Can you imagine going to the palace with a beautiful dress and wig?  The king has asked G.F. Handel to write some special music for a celebration.

We've been working on the waltz, a dance that became popular in Vienna.  We can do a waltz by counting 1-2-3.  We can make it a little more difficult by doing the "Box Waltz." Here's a close-up of how to move your feet.  How will you practice it to get better?

Do you know the Macarena?  This dance was popular in the 90's.  Perhaps some moms and dads, or maybe even Grandmas and Grandpas know this dance.  We've just started learning it.  How do you think dancing has changed from the minuet?

Do you have a dance that you can share with us?  

Please contact Ms. Kampa, Ms. Meyers, or Mr. Brigham. 

New Unit of Inquiry: Where We Are in Place and Time

We are in our second week of our new unit Where we Are in Place and Time.  This unit has a historical focus with the following central idea: 

Learning about previous generations can help us understand 

the relationships between past and present.

Our three lines of inquiry are:

• Ways of Finding out about the past
• How the past influences our lives now
• Why some practices have changed over time

You can see the different learning outcomes in this grid:

At the start of the unit, students completed a pre-assessment task so they and the teachers can see what they already know about the past, a sense of chronology and what they understand about significant events (events that mean a lot to them).

Pre-assessment tasks such as this are important as they allow students to revisit their initial ideas later in the unit and reflect on how their thinking has changed.  They also help to get students thinking about the central idea and start to formulate their own questions.

We asked the students to sort the images below. Why not have a go yourself and discuss how you would sort them and compare your answers with your daughter! 

To better understand the central idea, students worked 

together to look up and explain some of the key words.

In 1B the learners looked at the central idea to see what they already knew and what they needed to find out. The learners looked up unknown words in a dictionary and added that to the paper. During the unit and at the middle of the unit, they will revisit the central idea to see how their understandings of the concepts have changed.