Snow Invades DSKI

 It seldom snows in Kobe and usually when it does, it is just for a few moments and then it is done. But this year, snow had been pretty heavy. Strong enough that it left a blanket of ice everywhere. As this is a once in a blue moon experience, Grade 1s took the opportunity to create fun memories with their snow encounter here in the school. 

Wizard of Oz

 This week, the Grade 1s completed their short story narration where they showed their creativity on sound and light.

They started 2 weeks ago with coming up with sound effects to enhance the narration of the story The Wizard of Oz. They used common materials found in the classroom like cardboard, plastic wrapper, ruler, and others to create the sound effects. They finished off their work by adding light effects.

They came up with a simple product of their hard work and they are all proud of it.

Exploring Light

Grade 1s encountered new terms in the unit: opaque, transluscent and transparent. They brought their exploration to action by finding out on their own what these words mean. They worked in pairs and got a torch. They looked at different materials in the classroom and find the ones that block the light, the ones that allow light to pass through it and the ones that allow some light to go through them.

Magic or Science?

 This week, we started exploring light and its properties. The Grade 1s did an experiment on light. They were amazed to see the 'magic' happened in front of their eyes.

After the experiments, we did a short reflection. When asked about the reason behind the results of the experiments, nobody said anything. So to ignite discussion, a statement was repeatedly uttered after every title of the experiment... 'It's MAGIC!'

A big 'NO' from the students followed. What really is the reason behind every result of the experiment? Let's see if they will remember and share with their parents and siblings at home.

Creating Sound Effects Using Simple Materials

 In Unit, we are now exploring how we can make use of sound to express ourselves creatively.

We followed a short workshop in Mystery Science where they used their fingers, palms and feet to create the sound effects of rain and wind.

Going further, the Grade 1s worked in pairs and looked for materials readily available in the classroom to create sound effects of rain and wind. Videos of this activity are posted on seesaw. 

Then a challenge was given to them. They took other materials and created other sound effects they could think of.

How We Express Ourselves in Performing Arts

Dance is a performing art composed of a set of sequenced movements that follow a musical rhythm. 

For the first few weeks of the unit, Grade 1s showed their grace and creativity in movements when they danced to the tune of 'Waka Waka'.

Now the challenge is for them to come up with their own original steps decided collaboratively with their team members.

Each team was assigned a part of the song. Like a jigsaw puzzle, we will put the 'dance pieces' together and dance the whole song as a class🤩

We are excited to share with you the final work which we will hopefully complete in a week's time.

For now, take a look at some pictures in the blog and videos on seesaw for a sneak preview of our class masterpiece. 🎉