GP - December Newsletter

This month we finished up two more units, one on independent learning skills and the other on communication skills. The students worked on activities to help them practice these skills. When we get back from winter break, students will begin their independent research paper. There are eight topics that the students can choose from when writing their individual paper: belief systems, biodiversity and ecosystem loss, changing communities, digital world, family, humans and other species, sustainable living, and trade and aid. Once students choose a topic they will then focus on a specific research question that will allow them to research and write a 1500-2000 word paper. Please check out the syllabus for the class for more specific information on the paper requirements.

G9 Chemistry December Newsletter

This month students will learn about Air and Water

This unit builds on ideas from Units 1 and 2. The concepts of this unit will be revisited in Units 6 and 10.

This unit begins by looking at the way in which we can test for water and its treatment. Learners could compare methods of treatment in their country and the UK. The composition of the air is covered next and linked to this are the important topics of carbon dioxide production and links to the environment. The unit also includes a consideration of the rusting of iron and its prevention. In this unit students will perform water test in the lab. Students will continue learning about periodic table as well

These are the main topics we will cover for IGCSE combined science

·        Describe a chemical test for water

·        Describe and explain, in outline, the purification of the water supply by filtration and chlorination

·        Describe the composition of clean air as being a mixture of 78 % nitrogen, 21 % oxygen and small quantities of noble gases, water vapour and carbon dioxide

·        Noble gases Describe the noble gases as being unreactive

·        Describe the formation of carbon dioxide

·        Explain why the proportion of carbon dioxide in the air is increasing and why this is important

·        Describe the rusting of iron in terms of a reaction involving air and water, and simple methods of

rust prevention

Russian December Newsletter

Dear Parents,

This month we were learning all about school subjects, weekly schedule, months of the year and seasons of the year. The students worked really hard and prepared their very own weekly schedule in Russian. Starting from September they have learnt a lot. They practised the dialogues with the students who speak Russian in our school. It was a nice activity to find the students from Russia and work on the dialogues we have learnt so far. After that, they learnt the seasons of the year, watched a video about the seasons and sang along to it. Finally they had an Autumn Term Test and they did a pretty good job.

Thank you.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

G9 JNL newsletter

Dear G9 Parents,

JNL news letter of December

By Mr. Higa

The students studied the topics below until the end of Autumn term.

"The interesting article and presentation"
During mid term break, they read a Japanese book. After the break, they created article of book which they like, and they presented books. The reviews are showed in a Japanese classroom. So, when you come to school, please enjoy to read them.

"Media"
This topic is about how to use many media. They were thinking and analyzing the feature of media.

"Japanese words, Chinese words, Foreign words which are used in Japanese"
They studied these topics, and made their own worksheet. This study gave them more vocabularies and bring them to Japanese language history.

"Short poem"
This short poem is called Haiku, which was started to make more than 1000 years ago. They studied many types of Haiku, then they enjoyed to make their creative Haiku.

"Critical words"
They studied the critical words, how to analyze and how they can improve their critical thinking skills.

"Takase boat"
This is a short story which was written almost 100 years ago. The topic of story is Life and Death. They compared characters' and students' values of Life and Death.

In January, we will study 2 short stories according to the text book, and "Comparing newspaper articles"
And I am also planning to have a mid-term test on the start of February.
I will let them know about the details in January.
During winter break, they have a homework which is to write "Book review".
They can write it about any Japanese books but not comic one.

I appreciate you for the big cooperation and we could make this term great.

If you have any concerns or question, please feel free to ask me.
来年もよろしくお願いいたします。

Dear parents of JAL,

Gr. 9 students had this term examination last Friday and now they have been relieved from all the stressful working and are just enjoying learning individually in a relaxed atmosphere with fun.  Since each student has different Japanese level, I will continue to do my best to differentiate the approach of learning for him/her next term as well.

I wish you all the warm and restful winter holidays and a Happy New Year!!

Monthly Musical Update (with pictures)

Dear parents,

It’s hard to believe that term one is already coming to a close, the past few months have really flown by.  This past weekend, we put on our first Celebration of Learning.  The students put months of hard work and effort into what turned out to be a successful show.  They had a lot of fun singing, dancing and acting. Thank you very much for your continued support.

Have a wonderful and safe winter break, and see you next year!

Musically yours,

Ms. Shay

Note About French Term Test

Regarding the French Term Test, please review these topics: 

• the verbs to have and to be in French,
• how to introduce oneself and somebody else (name, job, age, languages, nationality); 
• the expressions "il / elle est + adjective" and "c'est + un / une + noun"; 
• the colors;
• the feminine and plural of adjectives, 
• the negative sentences and the vocabulary 
• expressions to describe somebody.

LA December Newsletter

Dear parents and students,

In the month of December we will be doing the following things:
- Podcast project finish up
- Term test
- Unit #3 (descriptive writing) start

As usual, please refer to my website for additional information on any of these tasks and more.


Mr. Chris

HW GP due Monday 12/5

•3.12

•Reflection questions on pg 66 – using one of the strategies discussed on how to reflect

•Reflection questions on pg 73 – using one of the strategies discussed on how to reflect

•Activity 4 – part 1 draw a spider diagram or map diagram for your letter , answer all of part 2 except letter f – you must provide examples and evidence in your answers

•Activity 3  on pg 67 only (due next Friday December 9th)

 

HW due 12/2

•Ted Talk - Take notes on video below using any of the strategies that we discussed today.

http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_bavelier_your_brain_on_video_games

•Annotate the article provided

GP homework due 11/ 28

•Watch the following video on TED talks - Behind the great firewall of China- Michael Anti        

•http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_anti_behind_the_great_firewall_of_china

•Take notes on the video using any strategy you choose that we discussed today

•Activity 3.07

•Read a news article of your choice (at least 200 words) and take notes using the 5 things strategy

Monthly Musical Update

Dear Parents,

This year’s Winter Performance, “A Celebration of Learning,” will take place on December 10^th from 10:30AM at Terao Elementary School.  The students have been working hard to prepare a showcase of what they’ve been learning this term.  There will be singing, dancing, drama and a whole lot of fun. Grade 9 students are performing a funk classic ‘September’ by Earth Wind and Fire.  Students are asked to wear their school uniforms for the concert.

A more detailed performance schedule will be sent out soon, so please keep an eye on your school email inbox.

Musically yours,

Ms. Shay

Russian November Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall weather.

We started the new month by reviewing and practicing the dialogues we have learnt so far and we added some more new words to them.

We worked hard and the students prepared interesting presentations such as: Russian Tea, Russian Music, Russian Army and Russian Poems.

The students were happy and excited to learn the days of the week and we watched a funny video about it.

This week`s theme was school subjects and it was fun to learn the names of the subjects in Russian such as Maths- Matematika, Physics- Phizika, Chemistry- Himiya, Biology- Biyologiya etc.

We will also cover the topics below:

• -          Weekly schedule
• -          Months of the year
• -          Seasons of the year

Thank you and have a nice weekend!

Physics Newsletter

Dear parents,

I hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed the nice weather.
Our physics class has been learning about the second IGCSE topic; "Matter and Forces"
We completed the main portion of this unit including mass and weight, newton's laws, force diagrams and density. They have recently worked on both regular and irregular shaped objects density and investigated the density of water.
The final stop will be the effect of the forces. Students will be learning about the Hook's law and run an investigation to find out how the load effect the extension of a spring.
We are planning to complete this unit by the end of this week.
Students will be taking the unit test next week.
I suggest them to review what they have studied so far and look for some additional practice questions online.

As always please feel free to get in touch with me at any time.

Regards

information about test GP

•I will make it shorter than last time and it will fallow a similar structure to the one you will take at the end of next year.

•It will have 4 sources that you will need to answer about 10 questions on.  I will give you the point values for each question on the test.

•The more points it is the more writing you should do.

HW due Monday 11/14

•2.4:

–Activity 1 (2),

–Activity 2 (1 d, e),

–Activity 3 (2, 3)

–Reflection questions

–

–Answer in complete sentences and give me two actions

GP newsletter - November

This month students will be working on finishing up chapter 2 - critical thinking skills. In this chapter we have been covering topics such as reasoning, evidence, claims, drawing conclusions, being biased, how to set up and dissect an argument as well as practice our problem solving skills. We have had a lot of class discussion on these various topics as well as started mini researching and writing assignments. Next month students will focus on their independent learning skills. These skills will help with both the individual and group projects the students will be working on in second term.

GP HW due 11/ 11

•2.29    

•2.3 :

–Activity 1 b – all and rewrite the whole sentence

–Activity 2 A(your dot only), B, C

–Activity 3 (1)

–Activity 5

GP HW due 11/7

´2.1 –4, reflection questions

´2.2 – 1 explain your reasoning as to why they are issues, 2 ( choose any two a-d) and draw diagrams, 3 (1(choose 1 letter), 2, 6) 

ICT Newsletter

Grade 9 has completed studying storage devices and media. We explored the storage devices in three categories i.e. magnetic storage, optical media and solid state memory.
Students can distinguish between magnetic tapes and magnetic hard disks which are used for backup and secondary storage. Comparing and contrasting optical devices such as CD/DVD-R, CD/DVD-RW and CD/DVD-ROM allowed students to understand different uses of them such as copying files, burning audio discs, installing software, running video game and watching movies.We also checked various types of solid state memory like pen drive, flash memory and sim cards.

English - November Newsletter

Dear students and parents,

     This month in LA we will be covering our second unit of the year - Directed Writing: Diaries, Letters, and Podcasts. In this unit, students will learn how to consider audience, purpose, style, and register when writing. These skills will be used to read, analyze, and write diaries and letters (formal and informal). The project at the end of this month will ask students to use these skills to work in groups to create podcasts.

     We will also be working collaboratively with Ms. Shay's music class to create a music video for their Celebration of Learning performance on December 10.

Mr. Chris

GP HW due 11/4

´Activity 2.26

´Activity 2.24

´Activity 2.25

´Activity 2.22 – tell my why it is a fact or why it is an opinion

´Activity 4 (1)- activity book 3.4

Monthly Musical Update

Dear Parents,

This has been another exciting month in music class!  This month, the Grade 9 students continued our study of music history, progressing through the ‘Age of Invention’.  We also began preparing for this year’s Winter Performance, “A Celebration of Learning,” which will showcase many of the different things that Horizon students have learned and studied over the course of this term. We are really looking forward to this new, exciting format for the performance!

Musically yours,

Ms. Shay

G9 JNL News Letter

Dear G9 Parents,

JNL news letter of October

By Mr. Higa

In October, the students studied the topics below

-"The efficient speech"
They presented according to some situation. They chose efficient ways to explain in the situations. The topic was something related with their roots.

-"The origin of Moon"
This academic topic is how to inquire logically. They studied how to think logically through "the origin of moon".

-"Media"
Students are studying this topic now. They study many types of media and their points, especially think about social media (SNS).


In November, we will study "Attractive book review", "Japanese language form in many context", "Japanese poetry".
As you may know, the parents' morning  will be coming on 9th November.
I am planning to have a book review activity with their presentations.
So they will read a book which they chose, during mid-term break.
If you have available time, please join the their activity.

I appreciate for your cooperation.

If you have any concerns or question, please feel free to ask me.

JAL News Letter

Dear parents of Grade 9 JAL class,

First of all, please forgive me for not having introduced myself much earlier.

My name is Sonoko Shiratori, and I am in charge of  JAL class this school year.

I am happy as the students in this class have very positive learning attitude, and I hope that they will improve their language skills with fun and curiosity.

The students are divided into three groups depending on their Japanese skills.

Group 1 (one student) is learning Unit 14 of “Genki 2”, through which she has practiced how to express “possibilities” in various context.

Group 2 (two students) are learning Unit 1 of “Intermidiate Japanese”, where they are practicing various Japanese commonly used phrases with grammatical explanations. They are reading the selected Japanese text called ‘Is Radish a big root?’, which is originally for JNL grade 7 class.

Group 3 (two students) are learning with Japanese learning Web site called ‘Erin’s Challenge’, which encourage both of them to learn the language with lots of fun, even with plenty of listening and speaking exercises.

All the students have Kanji test every Monday.

Biology Newsletter / October

Our second topic in Biology is ''Cells and cell processes'' This unit provides an introduction to the Biology course. The unit considers the special features that make living things different from non-living objects. The structure and functions of animal and plant cells is studied. Some particular examples of specialized cells are then considered, which introduces the idea of structural adaptations for particular functions. Movement of substances within, and into living organisms by diffusion is studied. The basic nature and properties of enzymes are considered, including effects of temperature and pH on enzyme action.

This unit covers fundamental topics that will be drawn on in all the units that follow. The basic structure of cells provides essential basic knowledge which will be used and developed in future units. Knowledge of diffusion provides the foundation for understanding transport, digestion and gaseous exchange. Knowledge of enzymes and their action is required before digestion is covered in the next unit.

Special note: I will be available on Mondays after school until 4:30 and on Saturdays to offer extra help in science.

Grade 9 students prepare solutions to carry out Benedict's test.

Students use Iodine to identify starch in a food sample.

Grade 9 students practice lighting the Bunsen burner.

Rian and Omer extract chlorophyll from leaves with alcohol to test the leaf fro starch. 

GP hw - due Friday the 21st

•Activity Book Activities-

–Activity 1 (your groups letter only)

–Activity 2 (your groups letter only)

–Activity 3 (your groups letter only)

–Activity 4 (your groups letter only) read page 56-57

–Activity 5 

–Reflection questions pg. 57

Chemistry October News letter

This month students will learn about Particles, atomic structure, chemical bonding and the Periodic Table

The unit covers many essential fundamental topics, which will be revisited and used in later units (and in Cambridge IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences (Physics). The unit begins by looking at the particle model of matter and leads onto the structure of the atom. This is then extended to include ions, leading onto ionic bonding (to link up with Group 1). The basic ideas of shared electrons pairs in covalent bonds are then covered. The layout of the Periodic Table can be introduced (opportunity for learners, in groups, to research trends within groups or across periods) and the chemistry and properties of the Group 1 metals. This unit is cross-referenced to assessment objectives A1–5, B1–6, C1–4.

These are the main topics we will cover for IGCSE combined science

• ·        Atoms, elements and compounds mixtures
• ·        Demonstrate understanding of the concepts of element, compound and mixture
• ·        Energy changes in chemical reactions
• ·        Demonstrate understanding that exothermic and endothermic changes relate to the        transformation of chemical energy to heat (thermal energy), and vice versa
• ·        Define proton number and nucleon number
•   Describe the build-up of electrons in ‘shells’ and understand the significance of the noble gas electronic structures and of valence electrons

Russian October Newsletter

Dear  Parents,

I`m Ms. Aida and I`m very happy and excited to teach Russian as Additional Language in our school.

In September, G9 students started to learn the Russian Alphabet (Cyrillic Alphabet) and did a great job. They have learnt the things in the classroom (like pen, pencil, eraser etc.) some of the sight words (like A is for apple, B is for banana) and counting numbers up to 100. The students liked to challenge themselves and tried really hard to read and write in Russian.  They also were curious about Russia and prepared interesting presentations.  It was amazing how students participated in dialog practices and all discussions about Russia.

In October, we`ll continue to explore topics such as:

• Introducing yourself
• Days of the week
• Months of the year

Please do not hesitate to contact me at saida@horizon.ac.jp if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you and have a nice day!

October Math Newsletter-2016

Dear parents of Grade 9,

We have very good pace to cover topics with grade 9 students. I hope we will finish most of the topics this year if we keep the same speed.

Last month, we have covered angles, perimeter-area, Pythagoras' theorem,  data and line geometry.

This  pace is much better than last year.

Now, I am planning to teach them speed-distance-time, similarity and loci in October.

Thanks

News Letter of G9 JNL

Dear G9 Parents,

JNL news letter of September

By Mr. Higa

Hello. I'm Tetsuya Higa.

As you may be heard by your child, I teach Japanese native class in this year.
I'm glad to have the Japanese classes with your child at Horizon.

The first month of 2016 - 2017 academic year, G9 students learnt some topics according to a text book.

The text book is published by Mitsumura which is a famous and popular Japanese language company.

The topics which they learnt, were
-"Haruni" of a poem
-"Akushu" of a short story
-"Rongo" of a historical Chinese story.

They made second series of the poem, read and understood "Akushu", and translated Chinese sentences to Japanese sentences in "Rongo"

In October, they are studying "efficient speech", "The origin of Moon" and "Media".

In my class, they have a Kanji test according to Mitsumura company textbook every Monday.

And every Thursday, they bring their Kanji homework for next test on Monday.

Last of all, I appreciate for your cooperation.

If you have any concerns or question, please feel free to ask me.

PE Newsletter

Hello everyone!

As you know we will have Sports Day on October 15th, I hope we have good weather. We've been focusing on Sports Day preparations. We have been practicing the games we will play at the event; i.e. hurdle race, tic tac toe race, relay race, tug of war, and so forth. Both the Gray and Red Teams are so ambitious about the games. We are looking forward to having another fun and active Sports Day! And also, we will have 3 games for the parents this year, too. Please come prepared!

LA October Newsletter

Hello everyone,

This month we will be continuing to read Of Mice and Men.

At the end of the class novel, we will be having a test based upon the novel, as well as vocabulary words from the novel.

Afterwards we will be completing a book report regarding the novel.

Please email me if you have any questions regarding this activities! Thanks!


Mr. Chris

GP HW due Friday 14

šActivity 2.13 - textbook 

š3.1 -Activity 3 (just the letter assigned to you),  5 (3), Activity  7, read pages 44-45 – answer discussion question

3.2 Activity 6

Monthly Musical Update

We've had a great start to the year in Music Class.

In Grade 9 music this month we’ve began our unit on music history, and have covered from prehistoric times through the 1600’s.  We’ve talked about how the function of music has changed drastically since early civilization, and how historical events and advances in technology have impacted music as well.  We also reviewed some musical techniques in preparation of choosing music for Winter Performance, which we will decide in October.

Musically yours,

Ms. Shay

ICT Newsletter

Grade 9 has completed studying Types and Components of Computers. We have discussed the uses and differences of mainframe computers, desktop computers, laptops, PDAs and smartphones. The ways CPU and the main memories, RAM and ROM, function were challenging for students. They can distinguish between RAM and ROM in terms of being volatile, permanent and random.
Operating systems were explored in Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Command Line Interface (CLI) forms. Computer software was detailed further to application software such as word processing, presentation authoring, image editing, database and graphical modelling.
Moreover, input devices were studied in ICT class. The types of input devices explored are:

• Pointing devices: joystick, mouse, tracker-ball, touchpad
• Typing devices: keyboard, numeric pad, touchscreen
• Sensors: light, pressure, temperature, proximity, motion
• Readers/Scanners: bar code reader, optical character recognition, optical mark recognition, chip reader, magnetic strip reader
• Audio/Visual: microphone, webcam

Uses of optical mark recognition on exam papers, joystick in video games, tracker-ball by disabled people, microphone in digital music editing and sensors in shopping malls are discussed in class.

GP test information

—You will have a chapter test next Friday

—What will be on the test-

—All the vocabulary from the first chapter is fair game

—You will have to identify perspectives, issues, causes, consequences in a passage

—You will need to know about questions asked in surveys

—Questioning – what type of question(s) needed for what type of information you want

—What is a suitable question for an Individual Report ( need to be able to identify it)

—Questioning diagram – be able to create a question diagram (like the ones we did in class and you did for HW)

—You will need the FULL two periods so please be on time! Also you will need to write in complete sentences, using RAPPER!!

—

Unit test - Physics

Hi all,

There will be unit test on Tuesday, Sep 27.
Study hard.

Good luck!

HW for GP

•Section 1.3 – read and do activities :

•1 (1b), 2 (1), 3, 4 (1), 5 (1 choose 1 topic), 6 ( one that is assigned to you) 

•For Activity 4 (1) – where it says look on pg 9, it means pg13

•For Activity 5 (1) – List of questions should answer the questions from the box above it.

Physics September Newsletter

Dear parents and students,

This is Mr. Doymaz, physics teacher.
As you know the grade 9 students started the IGCSE program this year. This will be a bit more challenging than the middle school program.
At the end of the 2 years they will be sitting for the exams.
We offer combined science program where students will take a combine exam for the physics, chemistry and biology classes. With the other two science teacher we will work together to make sure that they are ready to get high scores at the end of this program.

Our aim is to complete the physics topic by the end of this year so that students can find some time to revise the units and practice the past papers at the beginning of next year.
Here are the topics we will cover this year.

Physics
P1. Motion
P2. Matter and forces
P3. Energy, work and power
P4. Simple kinetic molecular model of matter
P5. Matter and thermal properties
P6. Transfer of thermal energy
P7. Waves
P8. Light
P9. Electromagnetic spectrum
P10. Sound
P11. Electricity
P12. Electric circuits

Please note that we may not go in this order and some topics.
Assessment:
During the physics classes students will be given homework assignments and take quizzes. At the end of each unit they will take unit test. There will be some investigations and class activities which will be considered as class work.
Here is the categories and weights.
Classwork - 10%
Homework - 20%
Quiz - 30%
Tests - 40%

As you might already noticed that students are given assignments on our first topic called Motion.
It is recommended for all the students to review daily.
I am looking forward to having a great year.
Please feel free to get in touch at any time.

Best regards

Grade 9 Family Picnic Reminder

Hello Grade 9 parents,

The HJIS Family Picnic will be taking place on Thursday September 22nd. If you would like to attend, please fill in the RSVP form by tomorrow (Wednesday September 14).

Thank you!


Mr. Chris

LA Newsletter - September

This month in LA, we have completed (and will complete):

- Skim reading and reading for detail
- Selecting points for summary
- Making notes using paraphrasing
- Looking at writers' language choices
- Start reading 'Of Mice and Men'

Thank you! Feel free to email me at chepburn@horizon.ac.jp, or check my Google Site, if you have any questions.


Mr. Chris

GP HW

•Section 1.1 – read and do activities :

•1, 3 (1-2),4(1a,b, 2, 3) Reflection Questions on pg. 8

•For Activity 3 – part 1- also tell me what information you can find on each of those websites listed.

• Section 1.2 – read and do activities :

3 either 1 or 2

You will need at least 5 sentences for causes and 5 sentences for consequences 

GP Newsletter

Welcome to GP Grade 9!!!!

 I am very excited to be able to teach the grade 9 students again this year! This class loves to debate and discuss so I am hoping we will have a lot of fruitful discussions! The students will spend the year reading, researching, writing and do activities related to global topics. We will spend most of this year practicing and honing our skills so that next year, the paper writing and projects will be a piece of cake! Please ask your student to see the syllabus (Cambridge one) for more specific information on what they will be doing over the course of the next two years.

GP Homework

The interview ppt is uploaded to the General Information folder on Google docs. Your homework is to finish copying down the two question mistakes we didn't get to. This should be put in your notebook.

The interview should be put in a google document in your shared folder (the folder shared between you and I only). Please title/label the document Interview (with the date you did the interview on). Ex: Interview 9/10

Biology Newsletter/September

Our first topic in Biology is ''Food Tests'' The molecules that make up the bodies of living things are introduced in this topic, and will be referred to in all of the subsequent units.

This unit starts by considering the molecules from which living organisms are made, and then looks at food sources for animals and their necessity to build up the structure of their bodies, and also to supply energy.

This unit also provides opportunity for students to improve their practical skills. Practical work  in this unit includes :

• Extraction of chlorophyll from leaves
• Starch test
• Benedict's test
• Lipid test
• Protein test

Scientific Enquiry work focuses on:

• use techniques, apparatus and materials (including the following of a sequence of instructions where appropriate)
• make and record observations, measurements and estimates
• interpret and evaluate experimental observations and data

Chemistry Newsletter

Dear parents I hope this year will be full of joy and education.

     We started to learn about Particles and experimental techniques

The concepts and practical skills introduced in this unit will be revisited in future topics.

This unit contains a considerable amount of practical work and introduces a variety of practical techniques that future units will build on. The unit starts by focusing on the variety of purification techniques available to chemists.

These are the core topics that students will learn:

-        -   Properties of solid liquid gas

-        -   Changing phases

-        -   Physical changes and chemical changes

-        -   Methods of separation

Simple distillation

Fractional distillation

Filtering

Crystallization

Paper chromatography

At the end of this unit, students will have Basic knowledge on particle theory.