7 months on

October 11th will mark 7 months since the giant earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Tohoku area. On this day Saint Maur students are encouraged to wear their PRAY FOR JAPAN t-shirts to show support for the people who are still homeless and for the children who have lost brothers, sisters, mums & dads.

Jasmine Richards Song for Japan

Singer Jasmine Richards has written a song for Japan and some of our students appear in the video. You can listen to the song and see the video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8PkO9QmMoo

Still Praying for Japan

Beijing International School raises money for our fund

Well done and thank you to students and staff at BISS for raising money for our fund through their auction.

The Montessori “Walk of Coins” Fundraising Efforts

The Montessori children’s fundraising event called the “Walk of Coins”, was a staggering success with the amount of ¥51,560 collected by the children. The Walk of Coins is a charity walk thus the children needed sponsors to help them earn the distance for walking. They asked parents and supporters to sponsor them by bringing in as many ¥10 and ¥100 coins as possible to fill up the map of Japan which was made on the floor.  Some children brought in money from their allowance and/or earned the money at home by doing specific chores and/or doing various acts of kindness. 

The ¥100 coins outlined and filled in the areas which were affected by the earthquake and tsunami. The remaining areas of Japan were outlined and filled in with ¥10 coins.  It was both an exciting visual and hands–on learning experience, which also lends itself to a Montessori math activity by counting ten ¥10 coins in exchange for one ¥100 coin, and ten ¥100 coins in exchange for one ¥1000 note.  The focus for this project was in two parts—collecting and walking. Apart from helping the people of Tohoku, another incentive was to collect enough money to walk to a local park and play there for a certain amount of time, which depended on how much we raised. We hope you would agree the children’s efforts with this fun project have allowed them a much deserved playtime!

HOT OFF THE PRESS! The Montessori T-shirts arrived on Thursday, June 2! One of our all-time favorite songs in our Montessori classrooms is “The Alphabet Song”. As fun way of capturing the children’s joy for singing it each day, a T-shirt was designed with the pictures of each letter and below it the children wrote their name according to the beginning sound in their name.  It’s a catchy song and the t-shirt itself is bound to be a winner, too!   

Both fundraising events together brought the grand total to: ¥70,230!!!!

Peace Boat rep. visits Saint Maur

On Monday Meme Madoka Watanable visited the school to talk to staff, parents and students about Peaceboat's activities in Tohoku, and to accept a cheque for Y100,000. She said that the organisation desperately needs more adult volunteers, so if anyone is available and willing to help over the summer you can contact Meme at relief@peaceboat.gr.jp



T-shirt Day Monday 6th June

Don't forget to wear your "PRAY FOR JAPAN" T-shirt next Monday!