Week 16: December 17-20th

We have made it! Term 2 is "in the books"!!! 

We have only scratched the surface of our new unit of inquiry. This week we have focused on "turning in" in order to learn what the students know.

Activity we worked on this week was having students identify the transdisciplinary skills and learner profile attributes that connect with each task we are working on that day.

Here you see June and Kaku taking their turns sharing with the class.

                   

Throughout the week, students added to our compass points from last week as they were thinking of more they needed to know and suggestions for the unit.  

Akito adding a suggestion: "We need more government clubs."

Kaku adds something he needs to know: "Do governments start a war?" 

June and Sally adding to the compass points as Akito looks on

Akito

 Also throughout out the week, students wanted to add more thoughts to our deconstruction of our lines of inquiry. They began using this activity as a "Chalk Talk," which is a discussion they have with one another but only on paper: no talking!

 I absolutely LOVE how curious all G5 students are!!! This week they read one another's questions and reflected, and some questions inspired others!

 The students decide which pictures are posted to show their learning on our inquiry wall as well as in their Seesaw portfolio.

Also students created visuals of our lines of inquiry, 

so we remain focused in our inquiry.                          

Tasneem: Recording what she knows right now! 

Relaxing? Or researching governments in RAZ Kids' books? 

We had a wonderful 1st Annual AIS Talent Show organized by Abroad Student Council. Here are some of the pictures:

I hope you all have a wonderful winter break, and I look forward to seeing you all in January! :) 

Week 15: December 10-14th

How We Organize Ourselves

Akito: deconstructing the theme

This week all the students worked to deconstruct the transdiciplinary theme for our new unit of inquiry, and they are excited that our new unit connects so easily to our last! 

June: deconstructing the theme

Students wrote Compass Points for me to better 

grasp their prior knowledge of the unit. 

N = need to know about the unit

S = suggestions for the unit

E = excited about for the unit

W = worried about for the unit. 

Tasneem: Compass Points

Kaku: Compass Points

Akito: Compass Points

Sally: Compass Points

June and Emre: Compass Points

June and Emre use the dictionary to help them deconstruct the lines of inquiry. 

Also this week, students worked with a partner to deconstruct the lines of inquiry. 

Akito and Tasneem deconstructing the lines of inquiry

                                                                 

Sally and Kaku deconstructing the lines of inquiry: Here they are looking up a Japanese word to explain in English.

Throughout the week in English class, we worked on our communications skills: listening, reading, writing, and speaking.

Emre and June: Listening Center (RAZ Kids)

Akito and Kaku: Reading to a friend and practicing their summary skills

Some of our inquiries from week 1

Week 14

Week of December 3rd-8th: Only 2 more weeks remaining in the term!!!!

Some Reminders:
AIS Talent Show will be Thursday, December 20th!

The last day to sign up for the talent show is Wednesday, December 12th!

Send your song or link to Ms. Dana ASAP. 

We had a great week as we make the easy transition between our transdisciplinary themes of  Sharing the Planet to How We Organize Ourselves. The students are still working on their Public Service Announcement video to spread the word of being open-minded, principled inquirers. To date, we have recorded 3 videos, and the students are reflecting and thinking about how to make their point more concise so that everyone who watches can question their own views and possibly change their perspective of how they think or treat people. 

The students have been taking ownership of their Seesaw portfolio by reflecting on activities from class to improve their work. 

Edited from the longer video: Being Open-Minded Can Change the World

Edited from the longer video: It Starts from Us

Earlier this week, students reflected on the unit, making a list of ALL the people/groups they (independently) inquired into. Each student has automatically connected our learner profile attributes to these people, making mention of those who exemplified those attributes as well as those who, conversely, needed more of a given learner profile attribute. It was actually the students' idea to label a learner profile "puzzle" with all the lessons they learned during this unit.

This week in English we analyzed the story, "Terrible Things" by Eve Bunting.

Also this week in English, we are worked on a list of vocabulary words that will be helpful for our new unit as well as in their own reading:  represent    defend organized   evidence except confirm   obvious previous detail threaten   

With these words, we have looked into how their prefixes and suffixes can help us learn their meaning as well as how they are used in context.

On Seesaw this week, I shared three videos with the students from the YouTube page: Kids Meet...

The students had the choice to watch the video from a refugee, Holocaust survivor, or a survivor of the Japanese American Internment Camp. Overwhelmingly, the students chose to watch and comment on all three videos. Here is an example of some of their comments: 

Students also posted their individual Code of Ethics: 

 

 
 
      

 

 On Friday the students volunteered their time to learn a skill that G4 students shared with them.

Aleyna taught Tasneem Turkish. 

Momiru taught Emre how to improve his play in Clash Royale. 

Eri taught Akito Korean. 

Chiharu shares her knowledge of Cookie Run (game) with Kaku. 

Fatima teaches Sally how to write in cursive.

Taira explains to June how to make a YouTube video.