The summer school that the children had been looking forward to has begun. This week was Course A, where we learned about science and environmental issues. On the first day, we learned about “waste that returns to nature and waste that does not.” We actually made buckets of soil with plastic in them and buckets of soil with vegetable peels and other materials in them, and experimented to see which one would return to the soil. On the second day, to find out “whether water and oil mix,” we put colored water and oil in bottles and enjoyed watching the water and oil move. On the third day, we thought about “how magnets work” and learned by actually trying out what kinds of things stick to magnets. Also, on the fourth day, we learned about “how sound works,” and made toys with string and paper cups to make sounds, learning that sound is produced by vibration. On the final day, to learn about “things that let water through and things that don’t,” we used candles to draw pictures on paper, painted them, and enjoyed watching how the water repelled. The two-year-old children also seemed to enjoy themselves, watching science videos and participating in activities designed for the two-year-old class together with the three- to five-year-old classes.

In addition, every afternoon, they worked on programming. The three-year-old class controlled robots, while the four- to five-year-old class used Sovigo to create programs that repeated adventures and movements.

We hope that they will apply what they experienced and learned during the summer school to their daily lives and use it to further their learning in the future.