Grade 1 students are going to the Abio Farm on Thursday, May 20th for a science field trip focusing on plants and animals. We will leave UST at 8:45 a.m. and return to school between 2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
During this field trip, students will search for insects and pick vegetables. Please send a bug container to school for students to keep their insects in during the school day. They will be asked to take the vegetables and insects home with them at the end of the day. Thank you!
Field Trip cost per student - ¥1000
This price includes your child's admission fee to the farm and the highway fees for the vehicles we will be using to get to the field trip site. Please send your child's field trip money to school in an envelope with their name on it by Wednesday, May 19th.
Are you ready for the field trip?
Please label all items with your child's name.
- Orange UST shirt (P.E. shirt)
- Long pants - due to bugs *especially after a heavy rain
- Long sleeve top - due to bugs *especially after a heavy rain
- Shoes that cover ankles (such as rain boots)
- Gardening gloves
- Bug spray
- Hat (protection from the sun)
- Sunscreen
- Picnic blanket
- Lunch (no yogurts or messy foods please) + cutlery - Please cancel LucaDeli lunch orders on this day.
- Snack (no yogurts or messy foods please) + cutlery
- Restroom towel
- Water bottle
- At least 2 extra masks
- Insect case, bug catching net, containers with lids, shovel
*We will eat snack and lunch at the site. Please help your child eat a large breakfast before school on this day. Snack may not be until 10:30 a.m. which is later than our normal snack time. Thank you!
Grade 1 Information
Dear G1 Parents,
This year’s Science Fair is on the horizon and we are now getting the children ready to begin their individual projects.
This year the science fair will be digital. Students do not need to create a backdrop or bring their experiment to school. Instead, students will be asked to record and upload a short video on Flipgrid showcasing the results of an experiment conducted at home and explaining the underlying science in their own words.
We have tried to streamline the process a little bit and support the students as much as possible at school, but they will need help at home too. We will be doing our best at school to keep the students on track with their planning.
Thinking about the science topics we have studied this year (e.g. air, weather) we have selected 5 projects from Sciencebuddies.org we hope Grade 1 students will enjoy (listed below):
Choice 1: Which soil has the most bugs (micro-invertebrates) in it?
Sciencebuddies.org - Search: Are There Bugs Under Your Feet?
Choice 2: What amount of air makes a hovercraft move the most?
Sciencebuddies.org - Search: How Does a Hovercraft Work?
Choice 3: How can we use an anemometer to measure wind speed?
Sciencebuddies.org - Search: How Does a Wind Meter Work?
Choice 4: What is the best method for flying a kite?
Sciencebuddies.org - Search: Let's Go Fly a Kite!
Choice 5: Which solution makes the strongest bubbles?
Sciencebuddies.org - Search: Bubble-ology
Please find other information below regarding the science fair this year:
How will it work?
- The science fair project will be part of your child’s weekly homework.
- Science fair work needs to be done at home.
- The children will have a task each week. They need to complete that task and bring it in to be checked by their teacher on the assigned due date.
- Each week, Seesaw will be updated with all the necessary information regarding the task your child has been sent and what is required.
- Please help your child complete the required activities on time.
What students will do:
- Go home and talk about the G1 Science Fair choices with their parents
- Choose one project, write the question, and explain why they chose it
- Write a ‘What do you think will happen?’ and hypothesis statement
- Collect/buy all the necessary materials
- Write a procedure (at least 5 sentences)
- Do the project (Follow the procedure and make sure they are recording the results properly. Take lots of photos/videos of their procedure AND results to include in their Flipgrid presentation. If in doubt, more video is better than less!)
- Collect all results and explain what happened (conclusions)
- Practice their presentation
- Record and edit their videos and photos into a video presentation. If you need an idea of what the video should look like, you can watch an example created by Mr. Yoon: https://youtu.be/ZfFf0LiTlzY
Who does the project?
- Students should be doing MOST of the work involved in the science fair project (unless adult supervision or assistance is required).
- Parents should be a guide and a support for them.
- All work including writing or typing should be done by them.
- We would rather the presentation NOT be perfect, but 100% their work.
- Please encourage your children to stick to the procedure and record their results properly so that they can answer the question in THEIR OWN WORDS.
Please take a moment to check your child's homework folder for their Science Fair tasks (see activity pages below).
If you have any questions about the science fair or any part of the project, please let us know and we will get back to you as soon as possible with additional information.
Best regards,
Mr. Hassey & Ms. Allison
United School of Tokyo
Grade 1 Teachers
[email protected]
[email protected]
Good morning amazing UST parents,
I am happy to announce today that the first ever UST Spelling Bee is on its way!
This year as it is our first event, the Bee will be in a simplified format, turning into a full blown Spelling Bee next year. It will involve students from K3 all the way up to Grade 6!
The format this year will be as follows:
- This week - Please discuss the Bee with your children and add your child's name to the sign up sheet if they wish to participate.
- Next Friday (14th May) - Children who have signed up will be given a list of 100 words to begin practicing. These words are all age appropriate and at different levels of challenge depending on your child's age group. The words will also be posted on the School Council Weebly page for easy access.
- The children will then have 3 weeks to practice these spellings in preparation for the first round.
- Week beginning 7th June - at some point during this week, your child's Homeroom teacher will 'Test' the participants in their class on 20 randomly chosen words from the list. These will then be marked, and the top 2 spellers from each class will go through to the finals.
- Finalists will be announced before the end of school on Friday 11th, so that participants have the maximum time to prepare.
- All participants will receive a certificate of participation - which certificate (Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum) will depend on how many spellings they got correct!
- The Grand Final will be held during the day on Friday 18th June.
There is no obligation for the children to enter, it is purely voluntary, but the winner will have the very grand honour of being the first ever UST Spelling Bee Champion!
If you have any questions, please do let me know,
Happy spelling!
Mrs. D.
UST Grade 3A Homeroom Teacher
School Council Lead
United School of Tokyo
Science readers build up a base of knowledge on a topic by reading deeply about the topic.
This week students met with their book club group to help them begin researching and studying one animal topic that they chose.
Animal Groups:
- butterfly
- shark
- penguin
- elephant
- lion
- koala
- owl
At the beginning of the week, students talked with their groups about what they would like to learn about their animal, then wrote questions about their animal (e.g. What do elephants eat? Where do elephants live?).
After writing their questions, they started reading and looking for information in their group's nonfiction books to help answer their questions. We learned that readers support their answers by finding evidence in the text, so they included the title of the book(s) they read and the page number(s) to show where they found the information that helped them answer their question(s).
Report Writing
Report Writing - When you write a report, you share factual information. You share what you have learned about a topic.
This week our class was introduced to our next writing unit. During reading time, students are reading nonfiction books about an animal topic they chose. Students will be using the facts and information from reading to help them plan and write their animal reports during writing class next week.
Example of an animal report:
Length and Weight
During math students practiced using a start line to compare length, then measured the length of different objects in the classroom using math links and counters. Our class was also introduced to the term units.
We started to learn about weight and began comparing weight by using words such as heavy, heavier, heaviest, light, lighter, and lightest.
What groups do we belong to?
What makes my family special?
During social studies we asked the question, "What groups do we belong to?" Students practiced identifying family, school, and community groups. Each table worked together to sort photos into these three groups. Students also applied their knowledge about groups to their own lives, telling their classmates about the groups they're a part of.
This week we learned more about families. Our question was, "How are families special?" I asked the students what the word family means to them. We focused on family members, family homes, and family activities. Students created their own book all about their family.
- Family Members: mom, dad, brother, sister, son, daughter, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, cousin
- Family Homes: apartments, houses, mobile homes, etc.
- Family Activities: biking, gardening, movies, picnics, hiking, playing games, etc.
- Ms. Allison