Zen Gardens

Today, as a part of our Japan topic, we learned about Buddhism. We found out about shrines, shrine rooms and Zen Gardens.

After learning about the importance of Zen Gardens in Japan and when and why they would be used, we designed and made some miniature Zen Gardens of our own!

Here they are:

Marvellous Manga!

For three weeks, we have been working hard to plan, write, practise and create our own Manga stories.

Here are the wonderful final pieces:

Earthquake!

This week, we have been learning about the earthquakes that often strike in Japan. We found out why earthquakes occur and what people can do to prepare for them.

This video helped us to understand plate tectonics:

We learned about the 'Drop! Cover! Hold!' routine that children are taught in schools in earthquake-prone areas and found out about the best ways to be prepared for an earthquake.

Using our new knowledge, we designed these helpful information posters:

Finally, we learned about how buildings can be constructed to be as safe as possible in an earthquake.

We used spaghetti and marshmallows to create our own buildings, then tested them to see how they withstood an 'earthquake'! Some were much more successful than others!