CGK Times

Welcome to Sky Class! The new school year has begun, and our new Sky students are excited about the challenges ahead. This year, we will inquire more deeply into How We Express Ourselves, Where We Are in Place and Time, How the World Works, and Who We Are.

At CGK, we place great importance on children's agency—their ability to shape and take ownership of their learning—and this becomes increasingly visible in Sky Class. Although they are still young, the children are beginning to develop their own interests, preferences, and ways of learning. The Sky teachers will work with the children to build an inclusive classroom culture where everyone feels welcome and where children's ideas can lead lessons in engaging new directions.

This month, we made a wonderful start by sharing ideas, thinking together about how our class should work, and enjoying time with one another. Let us continue learning and growing together throughout the year!

Mr. Blake

The children's final preschool year has begun—a year that promises tremendous growth. Sky Class has started with a mixture of nervousness and excitement, and we look forward to seeing the children's emotional, physical, and intellectual development flourish over the coming year.

In our unit of inquiry (UOI), under the transdisciplinary theme How We Express Ourselves, the children enjoyed using a Color Monster activity to express their feelings through color. As they visualized emotions with colors and shapes, they naturally began looking inward and trying to share the stories behind why they felt a certain way. Experiencing the joy of self-expression gradually broadened their interest in how friends express themselves, prompting questions such as, "How might they be feeling?" and "Why do they feel that way?"

Moving forward, Sky Class will inquire into what we can do to help both ourselves and those around us feel comfortable in different situations—with friends, in groups, and as a whole class. We will continue building a community in which every child's feelings and ideas are valued and everyone grows together.

Ms. Nahoko

Welcome to Jungle A! The new school year has brought together both returning children and new friends, marking the beginning of an exciting adventure for everyone.

This term's unit of inquiry (UOI) is How We Organize Ourselves. We have begun exploring the routines, systems, and responsibilities that help the children thrive as members of Jungle Class. At the start of the year, our learning focused on how to organize personal belongings, understand and express feelings, and navigate challenging situations. Together, we are learning not only how to care for our classroom, but also how to care for the world around us.

This term also coincided with Earth Day, a global event that encourages people to think about environmental protection and sustainability. The children observed photos and videos of polluted rivers and began asking why they had become that way and what we could do to prevent it. These discussions led to hands-on activities such as collecting and sorting litter and cleaning muddy classroom toys.

Our learning then became real action during a special visit to Ogimachi Park. Wearing gloves, the children worked diligently to collect litter in a meaningful effort to care for their local environment. It was not an easy task, but the pride and sense of accomplishment on every child's face when they finished were unmistakable.

Thank you, Jungle Class, for showing care and responsibility—from cleaning our classroom toys to helping keep our community clean!

Ms. Megan

...where there is so much fun to be had! Our new Jungle children are settling beautifully into their new roles within the CGK community. Those who moved up from Ocean Class have embraced the change positively and are adapting to their new routines with curiosity. Children who are new to CGK have also joined the group so naturally that it feels as though they moved up from Ocean together, and they are already enjoying class activities.

Trusting in the children's abilities, we immediately invited them to take on new experiences, including personal, social and physical education (PSPE) lessons and park outings by bus. Everyone's cooperation helped us make a remarkably smooth start, and the teachers are already extremely proud of every child.

To mark Earth Day, we also cleaned a nearby park and began learning about our responsibilities as members of the community. It was a wonderful opportunity for authentic, hands-on learning—and after the work was done, we also enjoyed time to play.

We are truly excited about the year ahead and cannot wait to share many more experiences with everyone!

Jungle B Teachers

A new year has begun! Our classes include both returning and newly enrolled children. At first, some children cried or missed home because they felt uncertain in their new environment. As they watched what was happening around them and gradually joined activities, however, they began—slowly but surely—to feel at home in school life.

The children are progressively understanding their morning preparations and the flow of the day, and the number of things they can do independently continues to grow. Returning students are drawing on habits they developed in Ocean Class last year, while new students are using skills acquired in their previous environments. Together, they are adapting smoothly to Jungle Class's new surroundings and routines. We have also seen children proactively help teachers and friends, not only taking care of themselves. Their confident declarations of "I can do it!" and "I'll help!" never fail to impress us.

The children are also becoming increasingly aware of their friends. Every day, they invite one another to play and create wonderfully imaginative games together. At times, things do not go as planned and a child may look disappointed, but these moments are an essential part of learning how to relate to others and deepen friendships. The ability to listen, understand, and find solutions will have a profound influence on their future growth.

Although it has only been a short time since the children moved up or enrolled, they are gradually becoming able to communicate their preferences, feelings, and ideas with confidence and clarity. Verbal communication is becoming increasingly lively. We hear questions such as, "Why?" and "How do we do that?" and see the children respond thoughtfully in their own words when teachers ask, "What do you think?" or "What could we do?"

Moving forward, we will build on the children's existing skills, knowledge, and spirit of inquiry as they notice similarities and differences between themselves and others and learn to live together with mutual respect. By doing what they can independently and using words such as "Please help me" when something is difficult, we hope to make this a year in which everyone grows together through considerate and comfortable communication.

Ms. Chieko

Each year, CGK continues to expand the opportunities for students to present music. Our most substantial performance setting is the Celebration of Learning (COL). I am immensely proud of the music the students created themselves and shared with their families and peers this year. Each class expressed its voice and ideas in an engaging and distinctive way. The form of the performances changes every year, reflecting the learning unique to that group of students. Our aim is for students to perform music they feel passionate about, deepen their understanding of the discipline, and create music that is engaging for listeners. Achieving this requires a balance among three elements: genuine interest in the music selected, opportunities to explore instruments that spark curiosity, and repertoire or compositions suited to the students' current abilities.

Grade 1 students learn the pianica (keyboard harmonica) to develop keyboard technique and their understanding of solfège. This year, both Grade 1A and Grade 1B performed the pianica on stage, but in different ways. Grade 1A used melodies created in class to provide live background music for their play, with each small group performing its own piece. Grade 1B created a powerful class anthem and performed it together. Although both classes shared the same broad task, their projects took different forms. Grade 1B worked particularly well as a full team, so they composed collectively, while Grade 1A flourished in smaller groups and practiced accordingly. Performing music they had created themselves gave the students a greater sense of ownership and responsibility and helped them connect more deeply with their work.

Grades 2A and 2B collaborated to write lyrics for a round about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the actions individuals can take to keep our planet clean. They also performed an algorithm-inspired march to a recording of their own voices. To conclude, they sang an energetic, child-friendly version of "The Wellerman," a song about pirates at sea, and especially enjoyed delivering a powerful "boom." This was the first COL music performance in which multiple classes worked together. The students chose to sing the final song as one group, and that decision heightened their enthusiasm for the performance.

Grade 3 students often take the lead in directing their own learning, and CGK values an environment where that agency can be expressed flexibly. At the beginning of the year, the teacher offered them the opportunity to tackle "Rainbow Connection," a challenging song with a complex melody and a key change near the end. The students realized that they could sing it well and decided early on to perform it at COL. Whether by happy coincidence or through carefully connected learning, the song also aligned beautifully with the performance theme the students had selected. It would have been substantial enough to stand alone as their year's musical presentation, but the students wanted to go further. During the final six weeks, they formed a band and created background music for their COL play. The story presented two possible futures—one desirable and one undesirable—connected by a portal, and the students sought to represent those ideas through music. Drawing on major and minor tonality and the concept of improvisation explored in Term 2, they composed one piece expressing sadness and another with a more hopeful atmosphere. The results were thoughtful and expressive, demonstrating how student-led learning can generate music with genuine personal meaning.

Grade 4 had a markedly different experience from the other grades, becoming CGK's first multi-instrument performance ensemble. Combining xylophones, bucket drums, recorders, and voices, the students created their own version of "Eye of the Tiger." This year's unit had two goals: first, to understand what makes an anthem a powerful form of expression; and second, to bring different instruments together as one ensemble. The second goal was particularly important as this class, which generally prefers instruments to singing, prepares to move into the next school year. Their strength as an ensemble not only reflected the direction of their musical learning to date, but also offered insight into how that learning may continue to develop.

For many classes, the teacher provides a provocation to initiate inquiry into a musical direction. Grade 5, however, developed that starting point into the ambitious idea of creating an original musical with two songs. One group took the lead in composing a melody for lyrics they had written themselves. Another wanted to create a rap battle centered on conflict—an ideal fit for the students' idea of portraying a disagreement at the United Nations.

The melody group first needed support in creating an accompaniment. After discussing the options, the students chose GarageBand as an accessible way to begin. Starting with drums, they added chords, bass, and synthesizer to shape a complete piece. The central learning lay in understanding how chords and melody work together to give music direction and movement.

The rap group, meanwhile, did an excellent job writing lyrics and fitting them to the beat. The wider theme of conflict at the United Nations worked particularly well for a battle-rap scene. The teacher supported the students with performance stance, rhythmic emphasis, and the expressive style associated with hip-hop. Stomping, clapping, and cheering evolved into one-handed gestures, nodding to the beat, and addressing an opponent directly.

The students performed their musical with tremendous passion and clearly relished presenting a genre they genuinely enjoyed.

The first year of music in the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the IB programme for secondary education, produced significant achievements. In Term 1, students selected their own instruments, performed chosen pieces, and considered how they might notate the sounds they created. At the same time, the breadth of their ideas sometimes made it difficult to reach a shared decision and sustain strong motivation for a single repertoire choice.

By Term 3, the students decided to undertake a project titled "Music Through the Decades." This was a considerable challenge for students with less than a year of instrumental experience. Because they selected music they sincerely wanted to perform, however, they practiced diligently both individually and in groups toward the goal of presenting a three-song mini-concert. One group listened closely to recordings and consulted a range of tutorials to cover a song from the 1980s. The other two groups used a "minus-one" approach: they separated the parts they needed from the original tracks and performed along with an accompaniment missing particular elements, such as bass or vocals, so that their own instruments could fill those roles.

This year's performances differed greatly from last year's, yet the foundation of our curriculum remains consistent. To express themselves authentically, students need meaningful room to make choices and take ownership of their learning. They engage with inquiry questions such as: "Why am I choosing this instrument?", "Why does it matter that I choose how to perform?", and "Which piece should I practice?" By developing a personal connection to what they perform, students come to understand that they can engage more deeply, bring greater passion to their work, and learn more through music.

Students in the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the IB programme for primary education, and the MYP continue to develop their performance skills. Even while still growing as musicians, they presented music that was genuinely engaging to hear. Every performance was impressive and rewarding. The key to that success was the balance among genuine interest in the chosen music, opportunities to explore instruments that appealed to the students, and repertoire or compositions suited to their present abilities. This year, the students repeatedly exceeded expectations and showed that sincere expression can move an audience more powerfully than technical perfection alone.

Mr. Matt