Thank you to all our parents, friends and teachers who have followed us from around the world.

It has been a wonderful year in Grade 4 and we are very proud of our learning.

To finish the year, we’d like to share our very own music video, “Big Green World”.

(Read more about our environmental project in this previous post)

While preparing this environmental message, we learned a lot about persuasive language, filming techniques and digital editing. We were inspired by Joni Mitchell’s original classic “Big Yellow Taxi”.

We hope you are inspired to save the trees!

Today, special guests from  RISE  Tsinghua University visited to teach us how to keep water safe and make it clean. They have invented a special filter called a bio-sand filter. It uses sand to trap the germs in water. They travel around China, teaching communities how to protect their water and make it cleaner.

After watching their presentation, we went outside to make our own filters!  We were in 4 teams for “The Cleanest Water Competition”. We prepared bottles, stones, sand and dirty water. In this order, we added water, large stones, smaller stones and then sand to the bottles. At last, each group’s filter was ready!

We took turns to pour dirty water into our filters. Then we looked at the water coming out  and it was very clean! The University student chose the winner by judging which team had the clearest colour. Benedict, Joshua, Jack and Geon Woo’s team were the winners!

We had a great lesson with RISE  Tsinghua University students. We learned a lot about water pollution and ways to clean water. We think their work is very important in China.

By:  Geon Woo & Hyun Seo

Why is water so precious as a resource?

How can you conserve water in your own life?

How can you conserve other finite resources in your life?

Then we began to collect our own data. We audited energy use in our homes and at BISS, and oh dear, what a shock! We are wasting resources every day! We found lights on in unoccupied classrooms, air-conditioners set below 18 degrees, electrical devices drawing power when not in use and even leaky taps.

But the thing that upset us most was that many classrooms in our school didn’t have paper recycling systems. So we are going to change that! We made new recycling bins, then taught a lesson to each class about how to separate their trash and why recycling is important. It was tricky to talk to the youngest students in Pre-K, but now they are our best recyclers!

Each day, we are collecting the recyclable paper & card from the classrooms and storing it. We are noticing less waste and better sorting in the younger classes. In a few weeks, we will take all the materials to a recycling plant. This will save trees, electricity, water, chemicals and a lot of pollution.

Why is it important to save trees?

Why is recycling a helpful solution?

How can people reduce paper use?

Did you know that some of our best learning experiences didn’t even happen in the classroom? Beijing is a wonderful city for museums, parks and experts.

If you have been following our blog, you have seen some of these photos and comments before.

As we reach the final month of Grade 4, here’s a quick recap of some of our happiest learning moments!

What was your favorite field trip? Why?

How do field experiences help you learn?

We have been practicing persuasive techniques such as repetition, rhetorical questions, exaggeration, inclusive phrases and emotive words. We are learning to balance this language with factual evidence. We always try to give a point, reason, evidence or examples, then re-state our point (PREP).

Together, we wrote this memo to Ms O’Dwyer. We tried to make it really emotional and convincing.

And guess what? It worked! She has agreed to give us a 1-week homework holiday, on account of our excellent persuasive writing. Read our work below:

Cancel our Homework! Cancel our Stress!

Grade 4 students are terribly stressed. Every night we are trapped under a mountain of homework. We work hard all day and then at night we work like slaves to finish our homework. Is this how you want us to live?

We are certain that Grade 4 should not have homework because we have many other commitments. For example, most of us have at least 3 hours per night of academy homework. Others have extra homework given by our parents. On top of that, we still have chores to do, such as clearing the table, washing dishes and laundry. On other days, we have religious festivals and family celebrations. If visitors come to our house, we also have to help prepare food and play with their children. How are we expected to fit in our homework? It is impossible for us to manage all these commitments.

In addition, homework interrupts our sleep and causes stress. Imagine sitting at your desk night after night until after 9pm. Our parents won’t let us go to bed until all our work is done. This causes arguments, fights and stress in our lives. Experts say that children need at least 8 hours of sleep each night in order to concentrate and have enough energy for the next day. Don’t you want students who are sharp, alert and ready to learn? Homework only makes us more sleepy and stressed each day.

Finally, Grade 4 needs less homework and more free time. Everyone knows that children need time to play with friends, exercise and enjoy hobbies. This is essential for stress release, health and social skills. Do you want us to be narrow-minded students, who only know about spelling, grammar and times tables? Or do you want us to be balanced, caring people who have many interests and skills?

So, please don’t let homework ruin our lives. We trust that you want students who are well-rested and happy. Cancel the worksheets. Cancel the spelling list. Cancel the stress!

By Grade 4

Task Description:
This text was constructed jointly with the students and teacher. Each student brainstormed ideas and these were combined into 3 key reasons. Then, each student wrote individual paragraphs and conferenced with the teacher. Finally, the students combined their ideas and sentences into a class text. The focus was on teaching persuasive language techniques, such as rhetoric, repetition and exaggeration to convince an audience.

Stay tuned to read our environmental essays!

Today, Grade 4 had a sweet morning! We made 3D shapes with marshmallows!

We used toothpicks to represent the edges and the marshmallows to represent the vertices. Ms.O’Dwyer gave us clues and we had to work out which object to make. Then we had to record its name, as well as how many faces, edges and vertices that shape had.

Sometimes it was difficult to work out whether to build a prism or a pyramid. The hardest shape was the one with 24 edges, which turned out to be an octagonal prism. It was also tricky because the shape was always unsteady. The best thing was that after we finished making and recording, we got to eat the marshmallows! It was a very yummy lesson.

By Kota & Hanson

When we reached the school, we went to look at their basketball court and running track. We noticed that their running track was much bigger than ours. Then the principal came to give us a tour. We walked throughout the building and looked at their hallways. The building was a 4-storey red-brick structure, just like ours. In the hallways, they had displays of historic figures with information about them and paintings of many kinds. We saw many similarities in areas of study, such as ancient civilisations.

Next, we went into the 7th grade classroom to see what their classroom looked like. The desks were single like ours, but they were set up in rows, not groups for a different style of learning. The classes were also larger, with about 25 students in each. The students told us which subjects they have, such as: English, Chinese, Math, History, Geography, Music, Chemistry and Computer Class. After that, we joined an 8th Grade to do eye exercises. In the music room, we noticed many pianos (but not other instruments) and the library was filled with Chinese books (but not books in other languages). After that, we went to the art room to learn paper cutting with the 7th grade. We learned how to fold the paper and cut it. After cutting, we made designs of different shapes and sizes. They were amazing!

After the art lesson, it was time to give out our friendship cards and say good bye to our new friends. At last, it was time to return to BISS. It was a great visit! We identified many similarities between our learning communities and also a few differences. Look at our Venn diagrams to see more!

By Benedict & Geon Woo

What was the most interesting difference you noticed between our schools?
What impact would this difference have on a student’s experience at school?

The first event was 100m dash. Everyone was getting nervous and finally the wistle blew. I sped around the corner and crossed the finish line. I was in two races and got 3rd place on the first run and 1st place on the second run! I was very very proud of myself.

The next event was long jump. Every competitor got a warm-up jump. When I warmed up, I thought about the positioning of the yellow line. Every school could have 2 kids in this event. BISS chose Joshua and me from Grade 4. After all the warm-ups, it was my turn to jump. I ran as fast as I could and jumped as far as I could. I got 1st place! I was very happy and I sprinted over to get my ribbon.

At long last, it was the race I had been waiting for. It was the relay. In my relay team were Kazuki, Geon Woo, Jack and me. However, Kazuki was badly injured so Syakir replaced him. First Syakir ran and gave the baton to Jack. Then Jack ran and passed it to Geon Woo. Geon Woo ran towards me and as I got the baton I was suddenly very nervous. I took off and ran as fast as I could. But we were losing. I tried my best and started to take over. In the end, I beat them! My team won the relay! We were celebrating with joy! I couldn’t believe it!

Overall, I was very proud of all my events. I feel like this was the best day of the year. I think I really improved in running and jumping because in one day, I ran 2 x 100m, 3 x 50m, plus a relay. I got a lot of exercise and had a lot of fun. The highlight was the exact moment that I crossed the finish line in the relay. It was the best day.

By Kota
Grade 4

What was your highlight from Sports Day?
How did you show sportsmanship?
Did you make any new friends?

We did!

Last week, we enjoyed an investigation into area and perimeter. We were challenged to make two shapes with the same area of exactly 1 square meter but different perimeters. All our shapes looked different: triangles, hexagons, octagons and even an icosagon (20-sided polygon)! In each case, when we changed the form of the shape, the perimeter increased.

At the end of the task, we recorded our understanding in a mathematical reflection. Take a look at Kazuki’s excellent explanation of the task below.

Great mathematical thinking, Grade 4! It is wonderful to see you talking to each other, asking questions, checking measurements and solving problems!

So far, we have submitted a class handshake, to let the other schools guess where we are located. We have also posted individual handshakes, using pizap photo editing, to introduce ourselves to our teams.

Now we are chatting in Edmodo about our commonalities, our differences and our topic. We have learned some important rules for participating in an online community. We have also learned about other types of communities, such as interest, cultural, language, professional or action. We are making concept maps to represent our identity through community membership.

This is a busy and exciting unit! Stay tuned to see our final projects, which will be VoiceThreads made by students from all over the world!

What are the benefits of belonging to a community?
Why is the Flat Classroom Project fun and important?
What are you learning about yourself and others?