Seisen International School elementary students wish our friends in our Seisen sister school, St. Raphaela's, Naga City, the Philippines a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year.
St. Raphaela's Elementary School is located about 270 km or a 12 hour bus ride from Manila. 400 students from kindergarten to grade 6 attend the school.
Both schools have much in common; students learn through English, love to play, to learn, to be with their friends. Students in both schools are hardworking and dream of a bright future.
We reach out to develop a spirit of collaboration, friendship and support between our two schools. In the spirit and words of St. Raphaela Maria we hope to be united like the fingers on a hand.
Thank you to Mize (Grade 6) and Mr. Towse for organising the Christmas message, below. Why not sit back, play the video in full screen mode and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate! Merry Christmas everybody!
Over the past week the students from Grades 1-6 have been entertaining crowds with their wonderful voices! On Friday we held our annual Christmas Carol Night where the students wowed the audience with their festive singing and dancing. Then on Wednesday students from the SASA dance clubs and the Grade 5/6 Choir visited Trust Garden residential home to bring some festive cheer to the elderly residents there. Thank you to the House Captains for presenting and MC'ing the events, and to the Music Department for preparing the girls! Merry Christmas to all our families!
Today we were lucky enough to have the Tokyo Police Band visit us and play some music to get us in the mood for Christmas. After talking to the students about Stranger Danger they played a variety of hits for us including:
A Christmas Medley
Glenn Miller's In the Mood and Moonlight Serenade
When The Saints Go Marching In
I Saw Mother Kissing Santa Claus
Happy Christmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon
A Disney Medley
Jingle Bells in SwingC
A Piece organised by our very own Grade 12 student Sarah McCarthy
What a way to get us in the mood for our very own Christmas Concert on Friday evening - see you all there!
The Tokyo Police Band
We witnessed some impressive flag waving and tossing!
On Wednesday 18th November we hosted our second PYP Coffee Morning of the school year. We were able to share with parents some of the applications students can use at home to help support the learning that happens in the classroom. Mr Towse talked about how the Elementary School is now using blogs to share the learning that's happening in classrooms with parents this year and Ms. Carnright shared her own blog, giving information on how students can deal with emotional and social issues.
Our next PYP Coffee Morning will be held on Thursday February 11th, where we will be talking about assessment and the IOWA standardised assessments.
On Thursday 12th November all students took part in a Stage 2 Earthquake drill. Mrs Rogers announced the drill over the PA system and all students took cover under desks. Shortly afterwards students and faculty started to calmly evacuate the building and made their way to the evacuation point on the Tennis Courts. It was a quick and calm evacuation, showing that students are aware of the procedure should there be an earthquake during the school day.
Would you know what to do during an earthquake? You can download the Setagaya Ward's Earthquake Survival Manual by clicking here. Click on the images, below, to enlarge.
On Wednesday 11th November students came to school wearing their house shirts. Rather than sitting to eat lunch with their grade levels, as usual, students sat with their house teams (Iwaki, Ontake, Asama, Chokai) to mix and talk with each other. The Grade 4-6 students were also joined by High School and Middle School students and spent some time playing on the Jungle Gym and Tennis courts with each other. We will be making this a regular event this year, hosting House Lunches on every second Wednesday of each month. The next one will be held on Wednesday 9th December. Click on the images, below, to enlarge.
Iwaki enjoy their house lunch
Ontake students catching up over lunch
Miss Jury eats lunch with Asama
Chokai students enjoying each other's company
Chokain and Iwaki playing together on the Jungle Gym
Ontake and Asama mixing together on the Tennis Courts
Thank you to all the room parents who organised the Halloween parties this year.
Although we were late with the parties, due to the IOWA assessments last week, the students (and teachers!) enthusiastically dressed up and enjoyed the festive activities and games!
Teachers from the Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle and High School spent the half day set aside for professional development being trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). We learned valuable techniques to use in emergency situations in which someone's breathing or heart beat has stopped. We'd like to say a big thank you to the Tamagawa Fire Department for sharing their knowledge and skills. As well as teaching us how to administer CPR and use an AED, they taught us how to respond if somebody had a constricted airway (for example, when choking) and talked about how to effectively prepare for emergencies such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Do you know what to do do in such circumstances? You can view an English copy of the Setagaya ward's Earthquake Survival Guide here to help you prepare. Click on the images below to enlarge.
We had glorious weather for our second Seisen K-12 House Day on Tuesday 20th October. The House Captains did a wonderful job of organising indoor and outdoor events for their teams. All 48 teams spent half the day at school competing in fun activities to earn house points for their team. They designed house mascots (winners to be announced soon!); played Charades and Pictionary and competed against other houses in some competitive races in the Gym. At Kinuta Park, teams worked together to get to know each other and build team spirit from K-12. The day finished with a paper crane making competition where each house had 30 minutes to make as many coloured paper cranes as possible. Stand by for the House Points results to be announced soon...
All grades (1-6) are inquiring into How The World Works over the next five to six weeks. During these units students will be developing their scientific inquiry skills and knowledge and will investigate how society uses scientific principles and understandings. Below are the learning outcomes for each of these units. You can take your own copy of these documents from the SOLO Taxonomy display board next to the Cafeteria. You can also access all the learning outcomes for the first semester (for all subject areas) by visiting our PYP curriculum page on Seisen's official website here. Click on the images below to enlarge.
Grade 1:
Sound and Light can be produced by different sources and can be changed
Grade 2:
Changes in the earth's physical features can impact the way people live their lives
Grade 3:
People apply their knowledge of forces and energy to create practical applications
Grade 4:
Scientific processes can be used to investigate how forms of energy are stored and transformed
Grade 5:
People use their knowledge of properties of matter to suit specific needs
Grade 6:
The design of buildings and structures is dependent upon environmental factors, human ingenuity and available materials
Most of our grade one students came from our own Kindergarten where they had spent three years and relationships between students, teachers and parents were strong. We wanted to continue to build on these relationships so decided that we would dedicate our first PYP Coffee Morning to grade 1 parents. The objective of the informal meeting was for parents to get a glimpse or a snapshot of what learning looks like in grade 1, to talk about the learning process together and to explore some electronic resources that can be used at home to help support student learning.
We started off by asking parents to reflect on what they thought there should be more or less emphasis on in a grade 1 classroom. As the session progressed, we asked that parents reflected on their initial thoughts.
What do you think there should be more / less emphasis on in a grade 1 classroom?
Parents discussing their beliefs on what should be emphasised in a grade 1 classroom
Next we watched a short video of a typical day in Grade 1 to see how learning was organised.
After this we listened to Naomi from 1B talk about the learning process and how we start by gathering one idea and many ideas, before connecting these ideas and going further (see the post on the SOLO Taxonomy). We looked together at the learning outcomes for the next unit.
After we had discussed the different resources we use with students, we then gave parents an opportunity to explore the electronic resources that can support learning at home. These included Mathletics, Tumblebooks and Brainpop Junior. You can find our school's login details for these sites in your daughter's agenda books.
Finally, we finished by reflecting on the decreased / increased emphasis chart parents had used at the beginning of the session. We displayed our own view (and that of the PYP) and discussed our philosophy of learning. We would like to thank all the parents who took time to join us this morning and look forward to continuing to build relationships with all parents over the coming year.
Our own and the PYP's opinion on what there should be more / less emphasis on in a grade 1 classroom
