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August 02, 2006
Session 2 field trips
July 24
This is Mika Fukutomi. I returned from a two-week trip to the U.S. and was very pleased to come back to GKA, full of happy children. It is a lively week with many returning students as well as new students.
This week, Nao Karita is leading the effort to get children to think about Endangered Species on our planet, supported by Ikuko and Rina. The children have been researching about animals such as the Pink Dolphin, the Giant Panda and Golden Monkeys. Some of our older children (Katya, Rena, Ryotaro and Joe) are exploring beyond the animal kingdom and rising to the challenge of inventing new products that are good for the environment. (By the way, projects by GKA children were once again featured in the Weekender’s writing competition. We will tell you more about that in our next newsletter.)
This week, our field trip involves going to see the movie “White Planet”. Tomorrow, we will go to Roppongi Hills’ Toho Virgin Cinemas. We expect that the children will find the movie very relevant because of the work they have done throughout this week.
One thing I learned from attending the Project Zero workshop in the U.S. is that children are very capable of deep thinking and understanding. We look forward to sharing with you the thinking and understanding that the children are doing this week.
August 2
There will be two teams going on different field trips. One team will go to the Winnie the Pooh event at Shin Takanawa Prince Hotel to explore the Hundred Acre Woods. The other team will go to the Disney Art Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo 東京都現代美術館.
The theme we are exploring this week is the world of Disney. While fun and familiar for everyone, the Disney theme also offers children a perspective of history, literature and the production techniques behind creating animated movies. The older children started the week finding out about the “evolution” of Mickey since Mr. Walt Disney created him in 1928. The children (as well as I) were fascinated to find out how Mickey changed over the years. They have created a timeline to show the developments. The children viewed the classic film Alice in Wonderland and have created a wonderful original board game. The younger children are studying about the characters of Winnie the Pooh while older ones are making a map of the Hundred Acre Woods.
Posted by mika at August 2, 2006 11:46 AM
