How We Express Ourselves

On Friday, February 5th, the 3rd grade kicked off their "How We Express Ourselves" unit of inquiry by watching some teacher and student performances. We spent the morning in the Drama Room to provoke students' thinking about their central idea - The performing arts are a tool for creativity, expression and enjoyment in different cultures.  

Some of the performances were:

• Mr. Ed (storytelling)
• Rosa from 4B (ballet)
• Ms. Hashimoto (piano)
• Ms. Yukawa and Ms. Kampa (Tai-chi)
• Mr. O'Shea and Mr. Lewis (fiddle and guitar)
• Christian (Ms. Kampa's son) (singing)
• Ms. Kampa (tap dance)

Throughout the unit we will be using the SOLO Taxonomy with students to look for evidence of learning in relation to each line of inquiry.  As we inquire further, the students will track their own progress as they move to the deeper levels of understanding.

Click on the image, below, to enlarge.

After watching the opening performances students completed a pre-assessment during which they discussed a number of activities (see slideshow below) and decided which of them should be considered performing arts. 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. 

What do you think?  Which activities from the slideshow do you not consider performing arts?  What is your criteria for what makes a performing art?  Leave a comment below and let us know! 

Nakamachi

On Thursday, February 4th, the Seisen 3rd graders visited Nakamachi Elementary School as part of a neighborhood exchange. It was an exciting morning:

The students made chopstick holders, took a tour of the school, played traditional Japanese games, and sang songs.

Production and Consumption dances

Making connections is an important part of our PYP program.  Students in Grade Three made pizzas in their homeroom to learn about production and consumption.  Then they expressed their knowledge of production and consumption through a dance--a pizza dance!  Students used their knowledge of dance concepts (axial/locomotor movements, energy concepts including delicate/powerful, smooth/tight, quick/unhurried) to share their knowledge through a new medium.

See if you can figure out the various steps in each pizza dance.

Vocabulary Videos

Third graders started the year using vocabulary videos to learn new words, but students in both classes have recently created their own videos to teach other students around the world. Check out these examples:

For a full list of vocabulary videos, check out our Seisen dictionary, or keep an eye on this YouTube channel.

Music research

Grade 3 students have been gathering music from home countries, host countries and places they've visited and sharing it in music class. Today, the girls used classroom texts to find songs from other countries that they'd like to know more about. Here's a snapshot story of how 3A gathered and sorted their choices. Congratulations to the team who went further and learned how to find and play the song choices from 9 different CDs!

Carol Night Performances

We've had a busy start to 2016 and will soon post several updates about what's been happening in 3rd grade. In the meantime, let's go back in time by one month and check out the 3rd grade Carol Night performances. The first video is a behind-the-scenes look at Carol Night, followed by performances of "Winter Fantasy / Jingle Bells" and "Deck the Halls":

Kamishibai Visit from Sakai-Sensei

Kuniaki Sakai visited Seisen from Niigata prefecture to share his original kamishibai story. His lesson will be useful for the 3rd graders as they look toward their next unit on How We Express Ourselves (February).