A very big THANK YOU!!! to all of our parents and grandparents that came along on the day. We would not have been able to go if it weren’t for you all coming along, so thank you! We really appreciate it and hope that you enjoyed the day out with your children and other families, as well. Below are an assortment of pictures from the day.

Putting our aprons and bandannas on as we prepare to make butter and ice cream

Shaking up fresh cream to make butter

Shake, shake, shake...

Waiting to make ice cream

Adding fresh milk and fresh cream to our egg and sugar mix

A younger sibling lends a helping hand

It was so yummy, we had to enjoy every last drop of our ice cream!

We learned how to milk a cow

Finally, we got to feed the cows!

Today, TIP students experienced the process of rice planting, first hand. Mrs Hiromi, our resident expert on rice farming, taught us how to plant our own rice bucket, and now each student will be responsible for checking their rice each day when they come to school, ensuring it has plenty of water to grow into a nice rice plant.

Children took their buckets to gather some dirt from Mrs. Kano's garden

First step, was to half fill our buckets with dirt

After adding some fertiliser, we used our muscles to carry the buckets back to TIP

After adding some water, we had to stir our mud mix a lot

Rice seedlings!

Finally, we planted our rice seedlings

A P3 student and P1 student get comfortable sharing a story

“What did you have for breakfast?”, asked Ms. Skye one Monday morning. “Bread”, says the students. The next question was directed to our class…”Where does bread come from?”. “Kasumi!”, “Ito Yokado”, “The supermarket!” replied the children in enthusiastic voices. “Of course it does, but what about before the supermarket?”. Silence. 

Unit of Inquiry

This month, P2 & P3 students began a new unit of inquiry into Sharing Our Planet. To find out what children already knew and weren’t sure of, they sorted food into 4 groups; food from animals, food from plants, food from plants and animals, other, and unsure. We have shared many stories from our Unit book corner, such as “Pancakes, pancakes”, by Eric Carle, to get us thinking about what food is and where it all comes from. We even made pancakes with our class! Students are currently working cooperatively to build a farm corner in our classroom that will allow us to explore the importance of farms and how they provide for us. So far we have a plower, tractor, hen house, chickens, fluffy sheep, pigs, cows, sun, clouds, rain and lots of seeds. We also have some picture cards and words to act out “Old McDonald had a farm”, as well as some farm-to-table food mini puzzles.

Some students collaboratively making a barn, which they decided was necessary for our farm corner

Each student has also brought in some seeds from food they have eaten at home, such as lemons, grapes, paprika, avocado and bean seeds. They used their sketching skills to sketch the seed, and as a homework task discovered what the adult tree would look like, and sketched it also. We have planted some of these seeds and are learning to take care of them each day.

Students were also introduced to the concept of life cycles, through one of our favourite stories, “The very hungry caterpillar”. We have learned that many things have life cycles, and through shared reading of books such as “How a seed grows”, “The tiny seed” by Eric Carle and the “The little flower seed” from Clifford’s little reader series. Children have begun to think about life cycles of different plants and animals, and have been able to draw these during learning centre time. They have also thought about how to grow seeds and what we need to help plants to grow. We have just planted some radish sprouts, and after Golden week we plan to grow some small radishes in the garden, and rice, in buckets. We will also explore composting.

Some students match animal picture cads with the sounds that they make

At home, parents can support your child’s learning by talking about where the food you are eating comes from. Is it a plant? What would the tree look like? What is in the cake they are eating? Where would those ingredients come from? Read the labels on food packaging to discover what ingredients are in food. Maybe you could also have your children help you to plant some seeds and watch them grow over time. Why not give your child the responsibility of caring for the growing plants, by watering them each day and making sure they get adequate sunlight.

There is also an interesting game on the BBC website that parents can try at home with children to help with their developing knowledge of what farms look like and what they provide for us:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/come-outside/games/come-outside-downonthefarm

Movement and Music

In Monday afternoon movement classes with Ms. Skye, children have been practising animal and plant yoga poses. We also learned the song “Old McDonald has a farm”, anad have practised the sounds and movements which go along with each animal.

Literacy

P2 & P3 students are working well on their weekly journal entries as they continue to reflect on their own experiences and ideas, and working at their own pace on drawing, writing (initial letter sounds, inventive spelling and recalling sight words), and speaking out loud to share their ideas and retell their stories. Some P3 students are also working on editing, by reading their sentence and going back to make corrections where they think they have misspelled something or left out a word. P3 have also been working towards developing their recognition of some of the most common (‘sight’) words which appear in our reading.

To develop student knowledge and interest in our current UOI, we have a selection of farm, plant, garden and animal related books in our farm corner that children have been using as a reference, and also reading independently and with friends. We have also made our own mini books, “From farm to me” which have a catchy, repetitive song about the processes that plants go through from the dirt being prepared for planting, to them being purchased at the supermarket.

P3 have learned how to read and write and have made sentences with the sight words: like, and, the, this, that, I, what.

Next month, children will work at using their knowledge of phonics to write labels for things in our farm.

Inquiry through the language of Math (P2 & P3)

P2 & P3 reviewed 2D shapes that children know, and cut various shapes from coloured construction paper to start off our farm bulletin board in our farm corner. We were then introduced to the concept of 3D shapes and have looked at faces, sides, and whether they will stand, roll, slide, or both of these. Children brainstormed things that we could make from 3D shapes for our farm corner, such as a hen house for the chickens to lay the eggs, and tractor to plow the seeds, and have been using items such as tissue boxes and toilet rolls to construct.

P1 with Mrs. Hiromi

P1 have also begun to do a weekly entry in their journals! They are working hard at developing a good crayon/pencil grip, expressing their experiences, and being able to talk about the pictures they have drawn. P1 students also continue to review letter sounds that they have learned and making things by cutting, tearing, pasting and folding.

P1 students can also recognise their own names, and have begun the first stages of “name writing” and developing an understanding the direction of English text. This involves recognizing and finding the letters of their names on coloured stickers, and placing them in the correct order on a piece of lined paper, from left to right. This week, they also began ‘rainbow’ name writing.

When the weather has allowed them to, P1 have enjoyed being active explorers and exploring the forest for signs of spring.

P1 students make pancakes from clay after sharing the story ancakes, Pancakes", by Eric Carle

Art Inquiry

Free painting with watercolours

All of our TIP students developed painting skills with water colours this month. We even tried blowing water colour paint across our paper to make ‘branches’ for a cherry blossom art activity.

Sakura art with watercolours

We also reviewed sketching on a cloudy spring day, when we watched the clouds and used our imagination to talk about what we saw in the clouds. We then sketched these things with white crayon on dark paper.

Finding shapes in the clouds and sketching them with chalk

“Mini Worlds”

This month, we added a new option to our Thursday afternoon learning centres, “Mini worlds”. Within a tissue box, are a number of things ranging from paper clips to coloured paper, toilet rolls and buttons. Children are to use their imagination and creativity to make something from the limited supplies given, with the addition of tape, glue, scissors and marker.Children are then encouraged to tell their teacher about what they have made.

What one student made with his "Mini World" materials this month

Japanese with Mrs. Hiromi

During the month of April, TIP students made koinobori (flying carp) from Japanese paper, in preparation for boys day. Boys day is a traditional holiday which is celebrated in Japan on May 5th.

TIP students were lucky to visit TIS, and watch the grade one students perform a Japanese skit. The grade one students created the script with Ms. Akane Kono. It was a wonderful show and we all enjoyed it very much!

Music with Mrs. Jennifer Sadler

This month we have been focusing on loud and quiet sounds found within music and the world around us. We followed up our movement to music as caterpillars changing into butterflies from last month by learning a song called “There’s a Quiet Caterpillar On a Leaf”. As we sing this song in a whispered voice, we use different hand actions to show the changes a tiny caterpillar makes as it becomes a butterfly. The children listened to a chant called “Caterpillar, caterpillar” and noticed that each line of the chant got louder and louder. We all said the words as we used our bodies to move to the different actions mentioned in the chant. The children learned how match their movements to the action words. If the actions words of the song were quiet, they could make their movements quiet as well.

The students learned how to use everyday objects to make music. We scraped corrugated cardboard with a pencil to get a very interesting sound that described the grasshopper in the folk song “Rillaby Rill”. We used these homemade  instruments to accompany our singing of “Tingaleyo”.

As we read through Robert Munsch’s story “Love You Forever”, we sang along to the lullaby as it came up in the story. We imitated the rocking of a mother holding her baby by rocking our bodies each time it came up in the story. The children talked about different songs that are sung in their home and I sang a song my mother made and sang to me each night when I was a child.

We are learning the song “Down By the Bay” and listening for words that rhyme.

Violin with Mr. Craig Coleman (P2 & P3)

 

This month in violin class we continued to practice our position exercises using the tune of when the ants go marching in. The class also began the song “Boil ‘em Cabbage Down” practicing with different rhythms to understand that the bow can be divided into big bow (whole bow) and little bow ( half bow). These patterns were practiced on all four strings, placing the bow in the middle between the fingerboard and bridge so that there is a good sound. Looking forward to seeing the class again in May. Keep up the good work.

P2 & P3 students now follow this routine independently to prepare for violin class

Waiting nicely for violin class to begin

Looking forward…

- “Show & Tell” topics for next month, with weeks starting on the dates below, are:

• May 7th – My Golden Week holiday
• May 14th – My favourite farm animal
• May 21st – Free choice
• May 28th – My friends
• June 4th – My favourite school memory
• June 11th – No “show & tell” this week
• June 18th – No “show & tell” this week

Children explore our new sand table during afternoon centre time

Important dates

- April 28th to May 6th – Golden Week holiday

- Thursday May 10th – TIP Family Field trip to Ibaraki Prefectural Livestock Research Centre

- May 12th-13th – Tsukuba International Assosiation’s International Exchange Fair

- Thursday May 17th – Open School Day, TIS Grade 5 PYP Exhibition

- May 19th-20th – Relay for Life Ibaraki 2012

- Thursday May 31st – TIS/TIP Sports Day

- Thursday June 21st – TIP Graduation

- Friday June 22nd – Last day of school for students

Mrs. Emma helps a P1 student add to the top of a tower during free play time.

TIS & TIP students, teachers and families gather on our school lawn during our Life Celebration event

It was with great pleasure that TIP students and teachers attended the first annual, TIS Life celebration event, held on March 13th. The event coincided with the one year anniversary of the earthquake, and also the one year anniversary of the passing of a great man, our former Principal who established TIP, Mr. Kano. It was decided that the Life celebration event should be a day when our school community could come together and remember the past, as well as celebrating our lives, and what we love doing.  TIP students had a lot of fun, as they tried hoola hooping, origami, signed a TIS sign, ‘cooked’ marshmallows in the ‘campfire’ in Grade 1′s reading tent, danced, enjoyed Mr. Coleman’s yummy BBQ, and much, much more. Following this,  we enjoyed a school-wide picnic lunch on the lawn, and gathered together to make a heart shape around Mr, Kano’s tree.

Toasting a 'marshmallow' by the campfire in grade 1's reading tent, at the TIS Life celebration event

Playing duck, duck, goose

 

Literacy

P2 & P3 students are now in the habit of doing their journals on Monday mornings. They are thinking carefully about something they have done and would like to write about. P2 have been working towards thinking of beginning sounds and labeling their pictures, with some students sounding out their full words. P3 students are currently working towards forming sentences, using finger spaces, and periods, as well ass thinking about when we us upper and lower case letters. Some P3 students have also begun to write 2 sentences to accompany their drawings.

P3 have learned all 5 vowel sounds, and a song to help them remember.

P2 and P3 have again this month been working on building stamina in independent literacy choice time, and after each session reflect on their choices and how well they have worked by “checking in”. This is something you could have children do at home, reflecting on how well they did something. Please ask your child to demonstrate how we do this at TIP. During this time, children can choose between reading by themselves, reading with a friend, a storytelling activity (puppet shows, felt storyboards, journals, making story books), or practicing numbers, letters and words (whiteboard writing, trace and wipe words, making words with beads or alphabet blocks, card games, and so on.

Our P1 class continued to review our alphabet phonics sounds with our Letterland storybook. They also did some art and craft, making things that start with reviewed letter sounds, using scissors, glue and origami paper.

Art Inquiry

During Art time this month, we looked at how Picasso expressed himself in his rose and blue periods, and produced our own picasso esque artworks. We also read a story about Aboriginal art and looked at some symbols that were used in early rock paintings. Students brought in a rock and did their own rock symbol paintings.

P2 & P3 also learned how to sketch, and have been adding to their sketch books weekly. It’s really helped some children to relax and concentrate on drawing skills.

Sketching in the forest

Towards the end of the month, TIP students all learned about watercolour paints, and have been starting to experiment with them. We look forward to doing some spring art work with them soon.

Learning how to use watercolour paints

Fun with numbers (P2 & P3)

During March, students continued to build their number skills, and P2 made a number train for display in our classroom. P2 & P3 also made their own clocks, and learned how to tell the time on the hour. P3 also learned about digital time and matched digital and analogue times. We compared day and night times by drawing pictures of what we do during each, and also played “What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?”.

Japanese with Mrs. Hiromi

In our P1-P3 Japanese culture class, we made camellias with origami paper, by ripping carefully and sticking on paper we call, “Chigiri-e”(ちぎり絵). We also started making a TIP “Spring garden”, which students will add to weekly as they make spring themed items with origami paper.

Japanese with Ms. Akane Kono (P3)

This month, Ms. Akane has really noticed how much our P3 students have grown up, as they are consistently demonstrating positive attitudes a strong skills. There were three P3 Japanese classes this month, and in each class we read books, memorized hiragana with puzzle activities, and practiced how to write and read hiragana.

The books we read this month were “a lot of people”(にんげんがいっぱい), “Pele’s new clothes”(ペレのあたらしいふく), “aiueo-king”(あいうえおうさま).
We learned about how to count in Japanese, what words include each hiragana like “aiueo”, and how to be caring to each other, especially if we help someone, we will be helped by someone. Students could focus on listening to stories, even if they were a little long, and could think about characteristics of the stories such as the characters, letters, words and so on.

When we did puzzles, students said “aiueo” by themselves using their own initiative. They helped and cooperated with each other, and are beginning to thnk of words that begin with the characters, rather than thinking about the characters in isolation. For example, “「めがね」の「め」”.

Students had learned how to write all of the hiragana by the beginning of the month, then we practiced to use them. We tried to confirm each hiragana with coloring pictures.

PE with Mr. David Onuoha (P2 & P3)

We have been learning about movement that has to with space while performing specific manipulative movement skills, such as kicking a stationary object during soccer and hand-ball.  We also  did games that had to do with body-balancing  and locomotion, For example balancing on a ball with or without aid, running, racing and  fun walks. All students were willing to work co-operatively with others during physical activity by taking turns and encouraging others.

Looking forward…

- “Show & Tell” topics for next month, with weeks starting on the dates below, are:

• April 2nd – Free choice
• April 9th – Spring
• April 16th – Gardens
• April 23rd – My favourite food/drink
• May 7th – My Golden Week holiday
• May 14th – My favourite farm animal
• May 21st – Free choice
• May 28th – My friends
• June 4th – My favourite school memory
• June 11th – No “show & tell” this week
• June 18th – No “show & tell” this week

Look! I made a seesaw!

Important dates

- Friday April 6th – Scholastic Book Order due

- Friday April 14th – TIP Student Portfolios are due back

- Wednesday April 18th – Open School Day (pm), Parent Circle

- Monday April 23rd – Earth Day, Parent Volunteer Day

- Friday April 27th – Shoes home day

- April 28th to May 6th – Golden Week holiday

- Thursday May 17th – Open School Day, TIS Grade 5 PYP Exhibition

- Thursday May 31st – TIS/TIP Sports Day

- Thursday June 21st – TIP Graduation

- Friday June 22nd – Last day of school for students

P1 exploring during recess time on the TIS field

Setting up for our picnic lunch at Sakura Athletics Park, Tsukuba

On February 16th, TIP took their first field trip of school year. One of the big highlights for children apparent by their reflections, was taking the “big school bus with friends!”. All 17 students from P1-P3, along with 3 teachers and 2 parent volunteers, ventured into Tsukuba Central Post Office for a tour, and posted some letters we had made. We followed it up with a picnic lunch and play at Sakura Athletic Park. It was a wonderful and fun day out, despite some cold temperatures, and the children all behaved beautifully. We are looking forward to planning another field trip to coincide with local cherry blossom viewing.

Children watch enthusiastically as letters are sorted at high speed by a machine

Using the date stamp

Posting our letters

Unit of Inquiry

This month, P2 and P3 continued learning about giving messages to people, through our unit of inquiry into How we express ourselves. We each wrote a letter to somebody special, and visited Tsukuba Central Post Office. We posted our letters, and learned what happens after we put a stamp on the envelope, as we toured the inside of the post office. Back at school, we also played some communications games such as whispers, and imaginary play with telephones. Some students have begun to make telephone calls to special friends and family members, and we will continue to do this after the spring break.

This month we also revisited our brainstorm “How we give messages”, and some children added skype and emails to our list! So, children have also begun to learn basic computer skills, such as how to turn it on and off, locating keys on the keyboard, and for P3 students, understanding how to make a capital letter and  space. Please encourage your children to have a go on your computer at home over the winter break. We will all have a chance to email somebody and talk on skype.

Literacy

This month we have shared lots of Eric Carle books. Students have also answered lots of comprehension questions and retold some of our favourites in sequential order. Building familiarity with this author and recognising his signature on each of his books, has encouraged children to take ownership of their own work, making sure they write their name on everything.

Friends working together to retell the story or "A very hungry caterpillar" with large picture cards

In phonics, we have now finished all our single letter sounds focus, though we continue to build on our phonics in everyday activities, especially when doing the calender and shared writing activities. P3 and some P2 students, have begun learning about vowels, through the Mr Men characters in Letterland. So far we have looked at a, e, i and o. A fun way to recognise letter sounds that we have begun at school, and can also be done at home, or in the car, is “Eye spy with my little eye, something beginning with s (for example)“. For a more advanced version, you can use ending sounds. P1 enjoy this game using colours, rather than letter sounds.

P2 & P3 students also learned about word families with a book containing lots of “og” words. Our students had fun building word familiarity using a spinning wheel which changed the first letter of the words.

Children have also continued writing letters to friends and family members. At TIP, we do shared writing activities to scaffold student learning, and collectively add words to our word wall, but each child is encouraged to develop their writing at their own pace. The most important thing we have been focusing on in writing activities (such as in our post office play), is that the children take the risk of independently sounding out words and writing the letters on paper. This month, we have had some P2 students take their first plunge into labeling pictures with starting sounds on their own! P3 students also took some risks as they learned more about simple sentences, and attempted to write two sentences on a field trip reflection.

Students develop confidence in speaking in front of their class each week during "Show & Tell" time

Art Inquiry

As we read many of Eric Carle’s books, we learned about how he made his pictures, and watched a short video of him doing so for “The Very hungry caterpillar”. Then, we too painted big sheets of paper with various utensils and made markings in the wet paint. When it dried, we cut them to pieces and made our own beautiful pictures with collage, just as Eric Carle does.

Preparing large sheets of paper to use in our collages

P1 students also enjoy the sensory experience of experimenting with paint, as we prepare our collage material

Making a collage

Some of our collage work on display in our library corner

Next month in art, we will look at some different ways famous artists and other cultures express themselves through art. As more signs of spring begin to pop up around us, we will also start our next art unit on sketching.

Caring and sharing (P2 & P3)

During February, P2 & P3 students reviewed what it means to be caring, and applied this during our ‘class clay party’. Each students made some party foods from clay, and shared them evenly between a number of their classmates. Through this activity we learned about equal parts. You can highlight the importance of sharing fairly and practise this at home by encouraging children to cut a sandwich or piece of cake into equal parts, for the same number of people in your family. For P1 and P2 students, perhaps have them share out some rice crackers or other snacks evenly between the number of family members.

Fun with numbers (P2 & P3)

February 13th marked our 100th day of school at TIP for this school year, and a nice opportunity to think about numbers. We celebrated by comparing sets of 100 things that students had brought in, and talked about why some looked like more than others. We also decorated cookies with chocolate pens, writing the number 100, and made some paper clip, rubber band, and paper chains with 100 pieces of each! We compared the length of each and hung them in our classroom.  Children also estimated how many cookies were in a jar. Were there 100, less than, or more than? At the end of the day, some children sorted into groups of 10 and counted them to see if there were in fact more than 100, and there were!

Sorting a jar of cookies into groups of ten, to count the total number

Japanese with Mrs. Hiromi

During February, TIP students continued to experience Japanese language and culture through activities. On February3rd, we did bean throwing for Setsubun-no-hi. Students also made a kite this month, and really enjoyed drawing their own designs on each of their kites. We hope that your children enjoy playing with them at home over the spring break.

Students have fun designing their own kites in Japanese class

All of our students have also made some lovely Hina Dolls for Hina Matsuri, or, girl’s festival, which is celebrated in Japan on March 3rd. It is a day to pray and hope for good health and happiness for young girls, and many families with girls display special dolls in their homes during this time.

Hina dolls that our students made, displayed in the entrance to our school

Japanese with Ms. Akane Kono (P3)

In each Japanese class this month, we read a book, and practised reading, recognising and writing some hiragana characters. The books that we read tis month were a little longer, such as “zou- no- baba-ru (ゾウのババール)”, which helped us focus on learning some verbs and adjectives.

In February, P3 students continued to memorize Japanese hiragana characters by completing hiragana puzzles in small groups. This month, students cooperated extremely well, and showed a great deal of interest and improvement in their abilities to read and think about each character, not just concentrate on putting the puzzle together.

This month the students have been learning that music is made up of long and short sounds.  As we sang the song “Some Sounds Are Short, Some Sounds Are Long”, the children took turns performing long and short sounds in response to symbols.  By singing songs such as “Tingalayo” and “Dipidu”, the children learned how to combine long and short sounds to fit in with a steady beat.  We clapped the rhythm of the words as we read and listened to the book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” by Eric Carle.  We discovered that that some phrases had the same rhythm  and other phases always had a different rhythm.  We listened to a song called “Who is In the Forest?” and how music that is fast and slow or high and low can sound like different animals.  The children took turns pretending to move like an animal to music and the other children guessed which animal was being represented.  The children continued to explore the Noisy Box game by taking turns sharing a familiar song from our classes for everyone to copy.  We all enjoyed the song “Sleeping Bunnies” as the children lay very still for the first part of the song and then suddenly had to jump around the room after they woke up in the second part of the song.  The children came up with many new ideas for different animals that could be sleeping such as monkeys, cats and birds, and how they would move once they woke up.

Violin with Mr. Craig Coleman (P2 & P3)

P2 & P3 students during violin class

In February the TIP violin class moved to the bigger classroom on the first floor. This gave us much more space to practice in and because we are now using our bows at every class time the extra space helps the class to be especially careful not to hurt anyone with their bows. We practiced on all four strings with our bow. Making a beautiful sound is good. If we watch the position of the bow and keep in the middle our tone will be beautiful. The gollywogs are always waiting to grab our bow and pull it away from the middle. They want us to make an ugly sound which is not good. The class really understood this image and everyone improved holding the bow with the help of  captain thumb and his four sailors.

PE with Mr. David Onuoha (P2 & P3)

We have been learning about movement that has to with space while maintaining control. For example walking in a circle in the same direction and tag. Students have improved their  technique for performing specific manipulative movement skills, such as kicking a stationary object during soccer and hand-ball. They also practiced dance steps and choreographed their own steps. We practiced with Shakira’s song “WAKA-WAKA”.  Each student learnt the song and the order in which the choreography was done, but more importantly, each child created their own version of the dance-steps. All students were willing to work co-operatively with others during physical activity by taking turns and encouraging others.

Practising dance in the TIS lunch room

Making moves to the "Waka-waka"

Looking forward…

- TIP will joining TIS for the life celebration and picnic, so we would like to encourage our families to also come along and join in

- Please remember to send back your child’s indoor shoes, toothbrush, plastic cup, paint shirt, blankets and so on that came home on the last day before spring break, on the first day back. Thank you!

- Student-led conferences will be held after school at teh end of March, so please look out for further information about making appointments in your inbox in the next couple of weeks.

- “Show & Tell” topics for next month, with weeks starting on the dates below, are:

• March 5th – My Spring break
• March 12th – Sharing my feelings (an experience which made me feel happy/sad/exciting/funny/proud)
• March 19th – No “show & tell” this week
• March 26th – No “show & tell” this week
• April 2nd – Free choice

- In April, we will start a new unit of inquiry into sharing the planet. Our central idea will be “Farms provide us with many of the necessities of life”. We will have a parent-child-teacher field trip as part of this unit, which will take place in May. All students must be accompanied by a parent/carer/grandparent on this day. More information will be sent home about this in April.

Important dates

- February 25 to March 4th – Spring Break

- Monday March 5th – Back to School

- Tuesday March 13th – Open School Day (9-10:30am), Parent Circle (10:30-11:30am),  Life Celebration event and picnic at TIS

- Wednesday March 14th – School Tours (for prospective families)

- Tuesday March 20th – School Holiday (National Holiday)

- Thursday March 22nd – Second Term Ends, Student Portfolios go home, shoes go home, emergency supplies go Home

- TIS Musical Performance, 3:30-4:30pm

- Friday March 23rd – Professional Development Day for Teachers (School Holiday)

- Monday March 26th – Third Term Begins

- March 26th to March 30th – Student-led Conferences

- Wednesday April 18th – Open School Day (pm)

- Monday April 23rd – Earth Day, Parent Volunteer Day

- April 28th to May 6th – Golden Week holiday

Unit of Inquiry

This month P2 and P3 have started a new inquiry into How We Express Ourselves. We have looked at post offices from around the world and used these to help us design our very own “Everyone’s Rainbow Post Office”. Students made a post box, and have started to get busy as they experiment with letter writing. We have brainstormed important words that we use in letters, and talked about what kind of messages we put in letters. Children enjoyed reading “The Jolly Postman” and “Bedtime in the forest”.

We have also looked at pictures of telephones throughout time, and tried ordering them from oldest to newest. Children have practised pressing number buttons on the iPhone in preparation for their phone call to somebody special. We also made paper cup phones and played telephone games. We will continue to brainstorm messages we want to share with people and other ways we can do so.

Art Inquiry

During Art time in January, we did a series of lessons on portraits. We used our knowledge of mixing colours to make skin colours, and lines and shapes, to produce some beautiful self-portraits. We also learned who Pablo Picasso was, looked at some of his portraits and talked about how he had painted them. Then, we too, drew and painted a portrait Picasso style, with lots of fun shapes and colours. We did our best to paint each space or shape we had created with a  nice bright colour.

Next month, we will learn about collage and have fun creating our own!

Using a template when making a self-portrait

Painting a self-portrait

Literacy

P2 and P3 students are now comfortable with journal writing and making their own picture/storybooks. After the winter break, each student (P1-P3) chose one of these, to draw and write about their winter holiday. Students then shared their stories with the class.

This month, all TIP students have learned the phonetic sounds of the letters y, e, f, z, and j, and practised writing the letters. P2 and P3 students enjoy brainstorming words that begin with these sounds, and also looking at the shape and size of our focus letters. Are they tall like a giraffe (t, k, l, etc.)? Small like a dog (a, e, m, n, etc.)? or do they have a tail like a cat (y, j, p, etc)? P3 students are encouraged to stretch out and write words that start with our focus letter sounds, on lined paper and have learned a story to help them remember how to read ‘sh’ and ‘th’ blends in words. P2 students have been practising their name writing using bubble writing and writing between the lines. P1 have made lots of interesting things using their developing paper folding, cutting and pasting skills that start with our focus letter sounds.

Next month, we will begin an Eric Carle author study.

Inquiry through the language of maths (P2 & P3)

P2 & P3 continued to focus on numbers this month, using them in our daily language and activities as much as possible. P2 continued to play recognition games with numbers 0-10, tracing and writing the numbers, and drawing objects to match numbers. P2 students should now all be able to count and recognise numbers 1-10. P3, as well as some P2 students who have challenged themselves, have been looking at number words, (zero to ten). They have played games with these, ordered and matched them, and practised their tracing and writing of these words. Student’s knowledge of numbers will help with our unit on How we express ourselves.

P1 have also been practising to count objects out loud.

P1 students practise counting and number recognition as they put togeher a hopscotch game

Last week, Ms. Skye’s class reviewed 2D shapes and children were introduced to symmetry. Students have folded origami paper in half and cut shapes from it, then opened the paper up to see symmetry. We also looked at some pictures of butterflies and learned that they have symmetry. We put some blobs of paint on paper, folded it in half and opened it up to see our own beautiful symmetrical butterflies. Can your children find things around your home that have symmetry?

Japanese with Mrs. Hiromi

In January, all TIP students enjoyed making shishimai with origami paper and fukuwarai, in Japanese class. On February 3rd, we will recognise setsubun-no-hi and partake in some bean throwing to start Spring.

Getting ready for "Setsubun-no-hi"

Japanese with Ms. Akane Kono (P3)

P3 students had just two Japanese classes with Ms. Akane Kono in January.  They shared the following books:

- “かおかおどんなかお(different face with different feelings)”- Students learned adjective words, for example, angry, happy, sad and so on.

- “こわがりうさぎホッペル(rabbit who is always scared)”- Students learned about some feeling words (onomatopoeia), for example, しくしく、ぷるぷる and so on. They also thought about what a risk-taker is with this story, an thought about what ‘brave’ is.

Almost all of the P3 children are now able to recognise hiragana characters, and are getting better at cooperating each lesson when we work as a group to do a hiragana puzzle. Students also learned how to write the following hiragana characters in January, which are some of the easiest ones to write: し, つ,く, て, い, こ, へ, り, か, お, ま and た.

Cooperating with classmates to do a hiragana puzzle during P3 Japanese class

Violin with Mr. Craig Coleman (P2 & P3)

Everyone can now look back and review the songs we learned last year (Hot Cross Buns, Mary had a Little Lamb) except now we can use our bow instead of pizzicato. Keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing everyone at our next violin class

In January, TIP students began to look at how they express themselves with their voice, tying in with our UOI, How we express ourselves.  The children were introduced to a new song called “I’ve Got A Voice!” which gives each student an opportunity to lead with an idea by inventing sounds (singing sounds) for everyone to copy. We passed around a whispering tube to explore how to control our voices.  By whispering a short phrase to their neighbour, the children learned how it felt to focus on using the voice in a very specific way.   We further explored the use of our voices by passing around a “Noisy Box”.  Each child took a turn in using their imagination to make up a new sound for everyone to copy.  The children pretend to take out a new vocal sound as the Noisy box is passed around the circle. We also explored the instruments of the orchestra by listening to their sounds on a CD and by looking at the similarities and differences in a book with photos. I brought my flute to the class and the children were able to hear the sound it makes as well as how a flute is played. We have also started learning the song “Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun”.

Ms. Jennifer's "noisy box"

Looking forward…

-We will have 2 new students join us on Wednesday February 1st. Please make them feel nice and welcome if you see tham about TIP.

- “Show & Tell” topics for next month, with weeks starting on the dates below, are:

• February 6th – My favourite Letterland character
• February 13th – free choice
• February 20th – free choice
• March 5th – My Spring break

- Our TIP Graduation ceremony this year will be held on Thursday June 21st. Please mark this date on your calender and we will forward more information to families as it gets closer

P1 students cooking in the kitchen play area

Important dates

- Friday February 3rd – Baking activity

- Monday February 6th – Open School Day (1-2pm), Parent Circle (2-3pm)

- Monday February 6th – TIS Fund Raiser (Greek cooking class and lunch), 9am-1pm

- Wednesday February 8th – School tours (for potential TIP families)

- Thursday February 9th – Possible field trip (please keep an eye out for further details in an email to parents in coming weeks)

- Monday February 13th – 100th day of school!

- Wednesday February 15th – Soccer coaching (during PE class)

- Thursday February 16th – TIP Field Trip & picnic lunch

- Friday February 24th – Shoes Home

- February 25 to March 4th – Spring Break

- Monday March 5th – Back to School

- Tuesday March 13th – Open School Day (9-10:30am), Parent Circle (10:30-11:30am)

- Tuesday March 20th – School Holiday (National Holiday)

- Thursday March 22nd – Second Term Ends, Student Portfolios go Home, Shoes go Home, emergency supplies go Home

- Friday March 23rd – Professional Development Day (School Holiday)

- Monday March 26th – Third Term Begins

- March 26th to March 30th – Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences

December was a very short month at school, and we spent quite some time preparing for our winter performance. Children developed confidence to stand up in front of a big audience and sing nicely, along with using their sign language. They also thought about what the dog “Bingo” might look like, and painted some dog ears in the colour of their choice, to wear on our performance day. Our older students were also a great help, ensuring everybody came on and off the stage smoothly. Thank you to all of the parents that were able to come along and watch the children perform! Please find a short descriptor of other things we got up to at TIP in December.

We will also continue to have the wonderful help of Ms. Meirav when we go back to school on Tuesday afternoons (P1-P3) and a small block of time on Thursdays (P2 & P3).

Art Inquiry

In the spirit of winter, children learned how to make colourful snowflakes by folding origami paper and cutting it creatively. We used these to decorate large message cards for two of our former classmates, who are now living in Singapore. Children shared a winter story and also looked at some pictures of snowmen. After this, children practised good pencil grip, drawing and cutting skills, in designing their own snowman on paper, cutting it out, pasting on coloured construction paper, and using their paintbrush in a different way to add falling snow and frost with paint. In addition, children made some snowman from oil clay, using small clay tools to cut and carve, and mould the cold, hard clay with their little hands. If you have some clay or play dough at home, this is an excellent resource to help children build strength in their fingers and hands, as well as being a fun sensory experience for them.

TIP students also made a seasonal wreath from kiwi vine which we took from the garden, and participated in making Christmas tree decorations for the TIS IIAS Christmas tree.

Literacy

Some of our favourite shared reading stories during December were “Clifford’s first Christmas” and “Clifford’s first snow day”. During shared reading time we have been focusing on main characters, empathising with characters, and relating stories to our own world (family, celebrations, etc.). We also began reading the Oxford Reading tree series, first with a large flip book, where children were encouraged to read the pictures, and listen and check their understandings. We also became familiar with some of the characters, such as Floppy, Chip and Biff. Each week we are reading one large book during shared reading time, and some P3 students have begun small focused reading groups with this series

During literacy workshop time, there has been a notable increase in children are continually choosing to make picture books, with almost all P2 & P3 students know independently making their own books. Children have been encouraged not to rush these, and are taking their time to continually go back and work on them each literacy session.

Inquiry through the language of maths (P2 & P3)

During December, P2 and P3 children practised preposition words while playing our blindfold “stick the nose on the snowman” game. We also started number exploration and learned the rhymes “5 little ducks went out to play”, “5 little monkeys jumping on the bed”, and “10 little teddy bears lying on the bed”. P2 Students have been recognising, tracing and writing numbers 1-5 with different materials, as well as drawing numbers of items to match numbers, matching picture and numeral cards, and ordering number cards 1-10. P3 students, with the addition of some P2 students, have been ordering number cards 1-10, tracing and writing numbers 1-12 (and higher) using different materials, and matching numeral and picture cards, 1-10. Next, P3 will start to look at number words, and P2 will continue their number recognition, ordering and writing through various activities and games.

Ordering numbers

Here are some ideas of how you can help your children’s number skills grow, at home or when you are out and about, no matter what stage they are at:

• Say the numbers on a car’s license plate
• Practise your home telephone number
• Count how many items are in your supermarket basket
• Read the numbers on the price tag of something at the convenience store
• Ask your child to help set the dinner table, and have them tell you how many of each plate, chopsticks, etc they will need
• Sort their toys into groups by colour, type, or some other rule. How many are in each group? Which has more? Which has less?

During December, we practised “Chime In”, which we sang beautifully with Grade 1, 2 and 3 students from TIS, at the Winter Performance.

Looking forward…

- Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in taking care of all of the things we sent home before the winter break. This is just a reminder list of the things that children will need to bring back to school on January 5th, 2012:

• Emergency supplies in a ziplock bag (no bigger than A4 size)
• Indoor shoes, hats (winter hats are OK!), Paint shirt
• Cup, toothbrush, pillow and blanket (if your child usually has these items at school)

- Please bring along a small box (such as a tissue box) by January 6th, for your child to make a post box from, for our upcoming Unit of Inquiry focusing on communications

- Also, please keep an eye out for a letter in your child’s message bag regarding contact information of people we can get in touch with during our Communications inquiry

- “Show & Tell” topics for next month, with weeks starting on the dates below, are:

• January 9th – No “Show & Tell”
• January 16th – My Winter holidays (Students who are scheduled for Monday may bring on Tuesday or Wednesday)
• January 23rd – My favourite book (if possible, a reasonable length picture book that we can share with the class)
• January 30th – Something special about my home country(ies)
• February 6th – My favourite Letterland character

Important dates

Thursday January 5th – Back to School

Monday January 9th- National and School Holiday (Coming-of-age Day)

Wednesday January 11th- School tours, 9am

Friday January 13th – Open school Day 9:00-10:30am, Parent circle, 10:30-11:30

Lunch recess

During November, TIP students enjoyed the changes of season with some regular walks in the forest, admiring the changing colours of the leaves. We had a few more holidays than usual, due to two national holiday days, as well as some Staff Professional Development days. Ms. Skye and Mrs. Hiromi have lots of new ideas after participating in an in-school PYP workshop, a PYP Early Years Job-alike at Tokyo International School, and a day observing Montessori Kindergarten classes at Seisen International School.

TIP Students also had a health check done this month, the results of which Parents should have received already.

Now that it’s getting quite cool, please ensure your children wear plenty of warm clothes along to school, as we still have outdoor play time and PE classes during the winter months. Stay warm and take care!

"T is for Tiger" - Show and Tell time

Unit of Inquiry

Some of the sensory experiences we enjoyed this month included making & tasting lemonade, picking kiwi fruits from our tree, feeling, smelling and tasting kiwi fruits, and exploring our school and toys with magnifying glasses and coloured lenses. This has been one of our favourite centres this month! We also began to think about differences in peoples sensory abilities, and how deaf and blind people can communicate. We played games such as “Blindman’s Buff”, and learned some sign language. We have also brainstormed some ways that we can take care of each other at school in regards to our senses.

We have learned a sign language song for the winter festival, and have been practising and teaching our younger classmates the actions.

Art Inquiry

We continued mixing colours his month, and observing colour changes in our environment. We made some nice autumn trees by mixing paints on our hands, and painting trees that reflected what we saw in our nearby forest. We also experienced texture through leaf rubbings, of different sized shapes we found in the forest.

We were also very lucky to have a guest Teacher early in November, that taught us how to make some very lovely bead rings for our Mummies or sisters. Thank you, Mrs. Nerve!

Literacy

This month in P2 and P3 literacy, we have started to focus more on making stories. We have looked at beginning, middle and endings of stories, and made a class book. P2 and P3 children now choose between journals, making story books, or making stories on the felt story boards during literacy workshops, and work on these independently. We have quite the confident and creative little authors on our hands! Students are then invited to share their stories they have made with the class, and peers listen in with enthusiasm and ask questions. This has led to early editing practises, where children are adding more detail to stories based on questions and comments from the class. I am very proud of the way they listen and share ideas openly and with confidence, yet in a caring and respectful manner. They always sign their books too, just like Eric Carle! Keep up the great work, TIP!!

In reading, P2 & P3 have continued to build stamina and learned the EEKK (elbow, elbow, knee, knee) position for sharing books and reading nicely with a partner.

Phonics sounds that we have learned and practised this month are Ll, Hh, Tt, Ii, Rr, Pp, Bb and Uu. One of the students favourite activities for early finishers this month has been Pictionary, where children focus on the letter sounds of the week, and have to guess what the picture is their friend draws.

P1 students have shown lots of progress in using their fine motor skills this month. With each phonics letter sound explored, children made something from origami paper that began with the focus letter sound. They have also concentrated on colouring neatly our Letterland work pages.

Strengthen our little hands with some oil clay activities

Inquiry through the language of maths (P2 & P3)

During maths inquiry this month, students learned about different kinds of simple and growing patterns. They chose activities during centre time that included beading, stamping, shape boards, blocks, cutting & pasting, drawing and colouring, as they extended and made new patterns.

Making patterns with shapes

We also practised left and right through songs such as “hokey pokey”, and made a left and write paper hand to put on our desks as a remonder of which is which. Next month we will look at other preposition and direction words.

PE 

During Monday PE classes this month, we warmed up with some yoga stretches and various full body movements such as hopping, jogging, jumping, and so on. We then rotated around three PE centres each week, in which children practised some gross motor activiies. Students were also encouraged to work cooperatively within their group, helping younger students when neceassary, and leading the group from one centre to the next. Focus activities, (modified for different age groups slightly), in each PE centre this month were:

- throwing up and catching a large ball

- throwing and catching a large ball with a partner

- bouncing a large ball on a hard surface and catching it

- individual jump rope

- hopscotch

- kicking a soft ball into a goal

Japanese with Mrs. Hiromi

During November, all of our TIP students practised their paper dying, cutting and folding paper (origami) skills, while learning about two important cultural events. The first, Shichi-go-san, is a day that parents wish for a long and healthy life for their children. These days, children are given chitose ame, a long, thin candy that symbolises longevity and healthy growth. TIP students each made a candy bag for their chitose ame.

Candy bags that students made for "Shichi-go-san"

The second day we learned about was Kinroh-kansha-no-hi, a day for giving thanks to people. TIP students made a thank you card for the staff of TIS, and also for our bus drivers, to thank them for all their hard work and taking care of us. The children talked about why theses people are important to us, and after making the cards, presented them in person.

Japanese with Ms. Akane Kono (P3)

P3 students had three Japanese classes with Ms. Akane Kono this month. Each lesson, Akane shares a Japanese children’s story and uses these as a basis for developing students listening comprehension as well as vocabulary building. The stories and vocabulary that were focussed on this month are:

- どうすればいいのかな? (How should we do it?) → We learned lots of clothing words such as “shirt”, “hats”, “shoes” as well as how we say “wear”, depending on which part of our body we wear it. We also learned about tools around us after this story, such as “clock”, and “oven”.
- ぐりとぐらのあいうえお (Aiueo with Guri and Gura) → This book uses words that start with each hiragana character,  a, i ,u ,e  and o.
- あすはきっと(Surely tomorrow) → This book uses expressions of time such as “today”, ” yesterday”, “tomorrow”, “morning” and “evening”, as well as greeting words such “good morning”, “good night”, and so on.

Students have also continued hiragana recognition activities with picture cards and worked cooperatively in teams to put together puzzles. We began pre-writing activties, such as following instructions to draw different kinds of lines that will help us with writing hiragana characters. Students have also begun to recognise and think of beginning hiragana sounds of words, in particular, ones that our classmates’ names begin with.

Violin with Mr. Craig Coleman (P2 & P3)

In November for violin class, we continued practicing correct posture for holding the violin. The music from Tchaikovsky’s Ballet music “Nutcracker” was choreographed using the violin to understand what each part of the body does to hold the violin in it’s correct position. Several chants were reviewed, such as Hot Cross Buns, Mary had a Little Lamb and Old Macdonald, to practice our finger birdies 1 & 2.

This past month we have been exploring the area of “Our Senses” through music in a variety of ways.  We listened to sounds associated with the seaside and continued to learn and sing the song “What Can you See/Hear/Smell/Feel and Taste”.  We performed actions to accompany the song and talked about the different sounds that we hear all around us inside the classroom and when we go outside.  We listened to a recording called “Sounds” and the children were asked to describe what each of the sounds in the music was being made by.

The children have continued to enjoy moving and dancing with scarves to music.  This month they drew pictures, shapes and lines to describe what they heard in two contrasting pieces of music by Edvard Grieg: “Hall of the Mountain King” and “Morning”.

To prepare for the Winter Festival, we have begun practicing the song “Chime In” and have also used hand bells to accompany our singing.

Our classroom helper leads us for "Roley Poley" before we eat our snacks

Looking forward…

- As it’s starting to get quite cold now, please ensure your children come along to school with warm clothing, especially a coat for when we go outdoors. Also, please feel free to send in a winter hat for your children to wear during outdoor recess time.

- Please refer to Mrs. Handa’s email regarding the winter performance and complete it to say whether or not you will be attending

- For our winter performance, we will not have any special costume. Although, we do ask that children think about what colour a dog might be, and try and wear this colour clothing on the day. Please ensre that it is something that children feel comfortable in, as for many it will be the first time to stand in front of an audience and perform.

- There will be no “Show & Tell” in December

- Children will have quite a lot to carry home on the last day of school for this year. Please send an extra bag along with your children to carry these things in. This is particularly important for children commuting by school bus and train.

Walking the catwalk during dressup time

Important dates

Thursday December 8th – Open school day & Parent circle (pm)

Monday December 12th – TIP Student Portfolios due back

Wednesday December 14th – Volunteer day (AM), Winter festival (PM)

Friday December 16th – Indoor shoes, hats, cups, toothbrushes, blankets & emergency supplies go home

Friday December 17th to January 4th – Winter Break

Thursday January 5th – Back to School

It feels rough and bumpy

P2 & P3 students explored their senses while making old fashioned lemonade. We thought about which senses we were using duirng the process, from start to end. Students used their oral language, gestures and body language to express their thoughts, ideas and feelings. Below are some photos, and a copy of the recipe we used.

Squeeze and twist!

Stir, stir, stir

Smell and taste

Ingredients:

6 lemons (we substituted with yuzu)

1L of bottled water

1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Juice the lemons to make approximately 1 cup of juice. To make your labor easier, FIRMLY roll the lemons between your hand and counter top before cutting in half and juicing.
2. In a bowl or jug, combine lemon juice, sugar, and cold water. Stir. Adjust water to taste. Chill and serve over ice.

During maths time, we graphed the results of who did and didn’t like the lemonade.

Do you like lemonade?