1997

2012

The Comet

The New sletter of K. International School Tokyo

Celebrating 15 years

Volume 16 | Issue 2 | December 2012

In this issue...
KISTival 2012…p. 2

Spotlight on Clubs…p. 12

Elementary School News…p. 4

Library News…p. 14

Grade 4 Advertisements…p. 7

Volleyball Success…p. 14

Secondary School News…p. 9

Field Day…p. 16

Middle School Drama Festival…p. 10

Transitions...p. 18

Grade 6 Camp Report…p. 11

Cross Country Fever…p. 19

From the Head of School“Intelli—tha gence plustc
educa is the goal haracterof trution.”
e—Ma
rtin L
uther
King,
Jr.

DATES TO REMEMBERFirst, I have a notice in regards to student health and safety at the school. Dr Mark
Kobayashi, father of K1 student Ami, has been contributing his services to KIST in
the capacity of school doctor since October. Working every Thursday on an
entirely voluntary basis in the Nurse’s Room from 8:30 to 3:25, Dr Kobayashi is a
specialist in internal, emergency and psychosomatic medicine, and is also a
trained therapist.
As a school, I am delighted that we are able to offer direct, professional medical
assistance, which is both reliable and safe, through Dr Kobayashi’s support. I
understand that he has already treated a number of our students (and in one
instance was able to offer swift treatment to a student with a dislocated shoulder)and I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to Dr Kobayashi for his
generosity and kindness.
In addition, in regards to our search for a bilingual school nurse we currently are in
the process of carrying out interviews with various candidates and will make adecision in the upcoming days. Thank you for your patience.
Over the past two years, we have been conducting a review of our school mission
and educational philosophy with the aim of more clearly articulating the school’s
founding principles in order to ensure there is as little change as possible to theschool’s operation in these volatile times, while also allowing us to move forwardand develop facilities and services necessary for the future. I am pleased toannounce that our new guiding statements have been finalized and approved by
the Board of Directors, and may be viewed on the school website (About Us >>Mission >> Guiding Statements). We believe that the guiding statements, which
include the revised mission and 16-point educational philosophy, are now much
more precise and explicit.
Finally, as mentioned on the homepage of the school website, our ultimate goal at
KIST is for students to achieve high scores in the Diploma Programme throughtheir learning experiences in the elementary and secondary schools. We believethat students can acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to enable
them to become “competent and moral individuals who make meaningful
contributions to the global community”. We are constantly working towards our aimof building a school strong in language and mathematics, which are vital toachieving success at all levels of the IB, and to helping our students reach theirhighest potential.
Early in the new year, we are planning to hold an information session for parents
to explain about the school’s future direction and to listen to your thoughts. I hopeas many of you as possible will be able to attend.
Yoshishige Komaki
Head of School

KIST Learning for Life KIST Learning for Life KIST Learning for Life

December 2012
7 (G1-G12) Clubs program ends
8 (G9-G12) MUN conference
12 Winter concert
15-Jan 6 Winter vacation
17-18 Office open

January 2013
4 Office open
7 School resumes
11 2013-2014 enrollment
applications close
14 School day
14 (G1-G12) Clubs program
resumes17 (G10) IB DP information evening
2013-201521-23 (G9-G11/EIC) Semester 1
examinations
31-Feb 5 2013-2014 enrollment
interviews

February 2013
1 (K1-K3) No school for students
4 Semester 2 commences
8 (W) Free dress day
8 (S/EIC) SRC dance
11 School holiday
12-19 (G12) DP mock examinations
12 (E/S/EIC) Semester 1 reports
issued13 (G6-G10) Brain Bowl
18 2013-2014 enrollment results
distributed
20 (G5) PYP exhibition explanation
evening
21 International mother language
day celebration

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KISTival 2012
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to thewhole school community for your support at KISTival
2012! We were blessed with great weather rightthrough the festival period from preparation day, to the
day of the event, and the cleanup the following day.
The festival was a huge success and we sincerely
appreciate the efforts of all those who gave up theirtime or contributed in any way.
Each year, through the courtesy of KIST parents, we
invite special guests to participate in the stage show.
This year, we were pleased to have Japaneseentertainer Sugi-chan join us and his presence helped
to increase visitor numbers to more than 4,000. We
also received many kind donations which enabled us tooffer more prizes and attract a large number ofparticipants in the raffle, and also to keep classexpenditure to a minimum. Finally, the festival’s
success was due to the selfless volunteers who worked
effortlessly and professionally in their operation of thevarious booths. Thank you for all your hard work.
Please see the table below for a more detailed
breakdown of the profits raised this year, all of which
will be put towards the future development of a newschool gymnasium. Next year, we hope to build on thisyear’s success and provide an even better event. If you
have any other ideas or suggestions to improve thefestival, please e-mail your comments toinfo@kist.ed.jp.

“ T h e C o m et ”

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Elementary School NewsAn eventful year!
As 2012 comes to a close I have been reflecting on
the first few months of this school year. There havebeen many wonderful school events such as KISTival
and the DEAR Costume Parade. We have had classfield trips like the Grade 4 excursion to the Tokyo
Advertising Museum and the Grade 2 trip to Aoyama
Children’s Castle. Guest speakers like the Japan
Association for Refugees have visited us to share theirknowledge and guest teachers like the Kalima Hula
Dancers have come to share their unique skills. In
order to get a better idea of the experiences that havebeen most memorable to our community members, I
went out and asked around. I hope you enjoy reading
what they had to say.
As we move towards 2013, I encourage all of you totake a minute and reflect on all the amazing
experiences we have had in 2012! I wish you all thebest in the New Year!
Kevin Yoshihara
Elementary School Principal
Ruby (G1A):“KISTival was myfavoritebecause I liked the costumes
and I could play wi
th myfriends!”

Mrs Lupone (G3B):“When I met my students on
the first day ofschool is mymost memorab
le moment!”

Sato (G4A):“My favorite expe
rience was
our field trip to theTokyo
Advertising Museumbecause I had never seenother pictures of Fu
kuzawaYukichi!”Haru (K2):“My favori
tetime is lun

ch time!”3B):
Hanna (G y best and ran amdie“As I trt hasorite even y!”v
faylot, mntr
uoCross C
been the3B):
Mrs Okubo (Kt memorable
os
m
e
th
“For methe DEAR
event has beenade. The
Character Par
ed to really
students seem
acters and itarget into the ch
to promote
is a great way
reading.”

5B):
d Aryan (GJoshua andeGemory is ra“Our best m se we triedcau
5 Camp bew
and had nes
new thinglling!”eppras likeexperience(G3A):Mr Bradleys my most“KISTival wa nt. It isveeI
memorabler me becausefolememorabething allenjoyed see
ng ownershipkitats
studeneing theirover it and se
enjoyment.”

Eanya (G2A):
d the Cross“I really enjoye I like to run!”eCountry becaus

Mr Matsui (Japan“As a part of ou ese):r unit on “MyHistory” with G
5 students, w
e
had an activity
for thestudents to as
k th
the meaning be eir parents
hind theirgiven names.
From thepresentation,
I felt and was
moved by theties
the students an between
d their parentsfrom the presentations.”

3

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PYP News

Grade 4 Advertisements

Information sessions and coffee mornings

Grade 4s had the exciting opportunity to participate ina presentation about advertising for their unit ofinquiry, ‘How we express ourselves’. Nori Okayasu, aTrans Cosmos advertising executive and G4 parent,and his team, delivered a detailed presentation on
how creating advertisements works. He explained thethree main roles on an advertising team: strategy
planner, art designer and copy writer. The G4s divided
up into five different teams and each student took on adifferent role. Mr Okayasu gave them the task ofdesigning two advertisements for KIST with the
purpose of attracting potential parents and students toour school. Students busily worked for one week on
this project. They were all required to use at least oneof the strategies of persuasion learned in their unit.
Their final products will be posted on the website,
MeetMe, from December 17 to January 16. Take alook at some of their work!

This autumn, many parents attended the information
sessions and coffee mornings. The first information
session was an introduction to the Primary Years
Programme for parents new to KIST and the PYP.
The different components of the programme werecovered including the written curriculum and thelearner profile. The second information session
presented the assessed curriculum. It gave a brief
overview of inquiry practices with examples from
KIST’s own classrooms. Parents were introduced toassessment at KIST and were shown what it looks likein the classroom.
Another way to learn about the PYP and Elementary
program is coffee mornings. These are an informal
opportunity to discuss a variety of topics with the
Elementary School Principal and PYP Coordinatorand to get to know other parents. Thank you toeveryone who has participated so far. We look forward
to seeing you at the next coffee morning.
Elizabeth HeardPYP Coordinator

ESRC Free Dress Day
The ESRC organized the Free Dress Day on
Wednesday, November 28. The ESRC helped decide
what the theme was going to be. There were fourchoices: Pajama Day, Super Hero Day, Sports Day or
regular Free Dress Day. The class reps took all of thestudents’ votes. We brought all of the votes to the
ESRC and we counted them. The choice with themost votes was for regular free dress. We shared ourideas on what the money could be used for. The
ESRC decided to use the money for new books in ourclassrooms. Our goal was to give each classroom 50
new books. We made posters and reminded everyone
to bring their money and wear their free dress. Lots ofkids brought in their donations, some even gave morethan 200 yen! We collected money from the whole
school. We raised about 95,167 yen! We thank people
for wearing free dress and for being generous andbringing the money. We are excited to buy new books
for the classrooms.
Shridhar (G5B), Katherine (G5B), Ethan (G1A),
Haruto (G1B), Sophia (K3A), Renzo (K3B)

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Secondary School News
Secondary mid-year update
The winter holiday is right aroundthe corner. At this time in the year
it is good to reflect on the firstquarter of the academic year, butalso keep an eye on the rest of theyear. Planning for the Secondary
winter concert is well underway
which is scheduled for
Wednesday, December 12
beginning at 6:00 p.m. Our
students are very happy toorganize performances andshowcase a wide array of talent
truly making KIST students wellrounded and a joy to work with. I
do hope many families will attend,even if your son or daughter is not
performing. Winter concerts will be
performed by each section of theschool.
The school year started with arather large influx of personal
laptops being added to the school
network as we ushered in ourGrades 10-12 one-to-one laptop
program. We did experience a few
hiccups which included finding out
about the use of BitTorrent
software use sometimes
unintentionally by students. Finding
this out was useful not only toensure appropriate access to
educational resources, but wewere also able to alert families to apotentially larger issue that could
be in violation of the updated andmore stringent digital software
downloading laws. If you havequestions about this topic, pleasecontact our IT Department directly.
Additionally, the new laptop
training/set up we used at the
beginning of the year will be inplace next year as well. This has
proven helpful as we were able tointroduce a K. OneNote organizer
to help students manage school
work in a digital environment andbetter advise students on safer andmore productive use of laptops ingeneral. We will be seeking
student feedback and making
adjustments for next year.
As in past years, KIST students
were able to participate in the
Middle and High School Drama
Festivals with other Kanto Plainsschools. These events are fun andpractical ways to sharpen
language skills while engaging
students in the art of drama withlocal experts working in community
theater.
Two of the three grade levelexcursions went off very well with
Grade 6 visiting Nikko and Grade 8
most recently visiting Chichibu.
Excursions of this type are linked
to developing better collaborativeskills and providing students
increased responsibility helping
them further grow socially. The
Grade 10s will embark on their
excursion from March 6-8 whichcontains a transition piece
designed to help MYP students
migrate more easily to the Diploma
Programme. More details will beforthcoming as we get closer.
The school is currently getting
ready to host the Near East Model
United Nations Scrimmage on
Saturday, December 8. We shouldhave over 100 students from 10
different schools including our own
representatives. This year’s
keynote speakers are from the US
Embassy and will offer a panel
discussion designed to enlighten
students in attendance on the artof diplomacy with a focus on realworld contemporary events
furthering efforts to promoteleadership skills and theimportance of effective diplomacy
to help solve our world problems
through peaceful measures.
Academically, students in Grades
9-11, including the English
Intensive Course, will be taking
semester 1 exams from January
21-23. Grade 12 students will be
participating in Diploma mockexaminations beginning February
12-19. The mock exams will not bereflected in the semester 1 reports

as a result of time constraints. We
are planning on making the results
available via PowerSchool througha secure parent/student portal.
Plans to make this available earlier
in the year for Grades 6-12 havebeen delayed, but we hope to trial
this with Grade 12 initially. It is also
hoped that all Secondary parents
will have similar access later in theschool year. We are still in theprocess of customizing options.
When available this will allow
parents and students to viewprogress as teachers enter
updates in their respective grade
books. This will include individualclass attendance as well.
We clearly have greater
partnership with our Parent
Teacher Association (PTA) which
continues to contribute creativeideas such as the college
information evening theysponsored along with generous
financial and logistical support
throughout the school year. I
especially want to thank the PTA
for purchasing new musicalinstruments for our Secondary
music program.
Please accept my warm wishes fora pleasant winter holiday andhealthy and prosperous New Year.
I am looking forward to welcoming
everyone back as we begin 2013.
Stephen Rothkopf
Secondary School Principal

Forthcoming Secondary Events:
 Near East MUN Scrimmage – December 8
 Winter Concert – December 12
 IB Diploma Information Evening (G10 parents/students) – January 18
 Japanese New Year Celebration – February 6
 Semester 1 Report Cards Issued – February 1256

V ol u me 16 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 12“The Comet”

MYP News
One of the educational standards promoted by the
Middle Years Programme and required for every
developed international school is to contribute to thelife of the local community and to utilize the resourcesand expertise of the community to enhance learning
within the programme.
With this standard in mind, this year KIST has alreadyorganized numerous events for the school and local
community – from parent information workshops and
PTA events, to broader events such as the explanation
day for prospective parents and KISTival for the local
community.
One of the actions initiated by Grade 6 visual art
students and teachers has opened our school to thecommunity in quite a new way. The first Grade 6 visual
art unit of inquiry has engaged students in researching
the elements of art through an example of a very
specific art form, the mandala. Students researched thecultural and social aspect of mandala and designed
individual mandalas in collage and water color
techniques.

The inquiry has opened ways to develop this art form
even further. Students spent one whole lesson
designing their group mandalas in the nearby Kiyosumi
Park using materials they found in the environment.
As mandalas started to shape up, more and morepassersby stopped and looked at the developing art
works; and even asked questions! It was an amazing
experience for students to realize how their art
provoked different reactions in the community andinfluenced the everyday life of the people passing by.
Another successful event was the visit to the world
famous exhibition “Tutankhamun and the golden age ofthe pharaohs” at the Ueno Royal Museum last month.
Grade 6 and 7 students visited the exhibition
accompanied by teachers and numerous parents inorder to deepen their understanding of the Ancient
Egyptian culture which has been addressed byhumanities and visual art units of inquiry.
On November 9, the regular MYP information session
was held for all MYP parents with a special emphasis
on assessment in the MYP and personal project for
grade 10 parents. Attending workshop-style MYP
information sessions is highly recommended for allparents interested in various aspects of the
programme.

I wish a happy and warm winter holidays to allmembers of our school community!
Vedrana Pavletic
MYP Coordinator“ T h e C o m et ”

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Secondary SRC Update
The first part of the year has been a busy one in the
SRC! Ever since we began meeting as a whole SRC
with representatives from each homeroom (shortly after
the homeroom representative elections), we have been
meeting on average once a week with the whole SRC
and then for a follow-up executive meeting separately.
We’ve collected suggestions from students from all
homerooms which we have gone through and areworking to meet them to the best of our abilities(though we realize that it’s not within our power tochange some aspects of the school such as uniform
policy rules).
We hosted the Pumpkin Party, our first SRC dance ofthe year on Friday, November 2. More than 140 people(more than we ever expected!) attended and based on
their responses and a survey we sent out afterwards,
we think the dance was a big success! In between the
dancing, we had many activities including ‘Gangnam
Style’ and ‘One Direction’ dance competitions alongwith a limbo game which were led by our MCs, Chaiand Nekki from Grade 12.

We rented party lights from a lighting company for the
first time which changed the atmosphere in the gym
and received many positive responses from thestudents. We plan to continue to do this for our next
dance scheduled for February 8. Even though weweren’t aiming to fundraise, but rather just host a fun
event for Secondary students and break even withregard to costs of the lights and food, we managed toraise 17,000 yen, which we’ll put towards future SRC
projects for the Secondary School.
We’ve found it useful, especially for the dance
preparation, to form smaller committees within the
SRC, in which we could specialize and divide tasks into
smaller groups thus achieving more in the sameamount of time. We are using this approach with otherprojects as well, including our plans to launch a student
newspaper and host the second KIST League
tournament. We’re also currently working on otherproposals to enhance student life, which we canhopefully announce very soon!
Secondary SRC

Some serious limbo talent!

Mr Leroy helping the dance activities

78

V ol u me 16 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 12“The Comet”

Middle School Drama Festival
On November 8, the Middle School Drama Festival
was held at the Yoyogi National Olympic YouthCentre. International schools from all over Tokyo
participated in this event. This year’s theme was“Monsters”. The stories we focused on were: “Urban
legends”, “Vampires”, “Zombies”, “Werewolves”,“Frankenstein”, “Japanese ghosts” and Edgar AllanPoe.
We gathered in the performing hall and split into
seven groups. We then followed our group leaders
into our rehearsing rooms. The first hour was mainly
taking our time to introduce ourselves and get toknow each other. Some groups were given scripts tofollow, and others had to make up their own stories
as they went along.
After we had our 15-minute break, groups went backto their rehearsal rooms. Some groups were still
making their scripts, and some were nearly finished.
It was mainly memorizing lines/moves and making
adjustments. We had one hour break for lunch andcame back to finalize our skits. At 2:30 we allgathered again in the hall and performed our skits toeveryone.
The Middle School Drama Festival was an amazing
experience. It was an opportunity to meet students
from other schools we don’t usually interact with. We
learned many new skills and hope that next year
more students from KIST will participate in this great
event!
Sara, Rachel, Natalie (G7A)

Sara“ The Drama Festival was anextremely fun day! I was in a groupfocusing on “Zombies”. I loved how ourmain idea was to make our skit
melodramatic. Everyone had a very
good time and I can’t wait to come backnext year!

”
RachelThe Middle School“ DramaFestival enabled us to

The Drama Festival was a great“ experience
for me. Mixing with othermake new friends outside ofschool. My group was focusing
on “Frankenstein” —we acted
out rejoining body parts, acted
to die etc. It was very
interesting! I hope I canparticipate in this event again!

”

Natalieschools and forming something up was
really fun! I was in the group working on the“Werewolves”. The best part was when we allfinished the skit. The funniest part was theending scene when we danced in a gangnam
style with Michael Jackson’s music. I had agreat time and I hope to come back next year!

”V o l u me 1 6 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 2“ T h e C o m et ”

9Grade 6 Camp Report
Sixth grade students happily headed out to Nikko on
Thursday, November 7. After a 2-hour train ride thestudents filled up on spicy curry lunch at a local
restaurant. They headed to Rinnoji Temple, where they
did a guided tour and climbed many stairs to view the
temples on the top of the mountain. They asked manyquestions and toured the temple of Dragon Tears. The
building design allows for sounds to travel from one
certain spot, ringing and making a painting of a dragonthat seems to cry.
Students were able to see ancient paintings and buy
small tokens to remember their visit. They boarded abus for the hour drive farther up the mountain to thehotel. Our guide had a kanji game to play with students
as they rounded each steep curve, they shouted out
words that were associated with that particular kanji.
They enjoyed the views and steep mountain roads,
many took pictures out the bus windows.
At the hotel that night the students enjoyed a buffetdinner and then some quiet reflection time. They
played team building games, put on an impromptu
talent show and had a lot of laughs together. Students
had time for onsen and then went to sleep. They woke
up early and were treated to a mountain hike. This was
the highlight of the trip! We saw monkeys in the trees
as we drove up to the hiking start point. The students
were free to run and explore, as well as learn about the
habitat from our knowledgeable guides. They saw

some deer and plenty of animal droppings, and learned
about the way the water system works in Japan to be
sure that all citizens have access to clean water.
Students took many pictures on this day and walked
through the mountain on wooden paths and bridges.
They had an opportunity to taste tree bark, and foundout quickly that it is very bitter and not something they
will want to eat ever again. We were hiking behind Mt.
Nantai and this activity took up most of the day! Afterthe hike we visited Nikko Nature Museum for a shortfilm about the changing seasons and the natural habitatthat they had just explored. We ended the day with avisit to Kegon Falls and the 3-floor observation deck.
All students were responsible for their own belongingsand behavior and really enjoyed the opportunity tointeract with their teachers in a more personal setting.
It was a wonderful experience for all involved.

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Spotlight on Clubs

Congratulations Mai

Digital Storytelling Club: Integrating
Literacy and Technology That’s FunThis year, a group of four students from KIST, Mariko(G2A), Rei (G3A), Saki (G4A) and Mai (G5B)
participated in the National Book Essay Contest for
Young Readers. This was the very first time a group of
KIST students had participated in the contest, and outof 270,000 book reviews written by elementary
students in Tokyo, Mai’s review was one of 539 thatreceived a special certificate of merit.

This year Grade 2 and 3 club students have the chance
to use the Web 2.0 application called Storybird to writeand share original stories. Students are truly enjoying
not just creative writing, but reading each other’s
Storybirds too!
This user-friendly
software tool
allows students tochoose from a vast
database ofthemed picturesand paintings
made by aspiring
artists. Students
chose a sequenceof similar picturesfrom one artist,and then write
their own text next to each artistic piece, thus creating a
Storybird or “storybook”.
In Digital Storytelling Club, students practice reading
and writing along with computer and keyboard skills. It’sa unique opportunity to integrate literacy andtechnology!

Knitting Club

Kibera slum, located in Nairobi, is the second largest
urban slum in Africa. There are many orphaned children
and destitute mothers in this area. As the Tohoku
region now has enough donated items, the knitting clubhas been working hard this term to help the children of
Kibera by creating blankets. Students from grades 4 to
9 have been working together in a combined
elementary and secondary club to knit squares whichhave been sewn together into two blankets, although
we hope to have a third finished by the end of the term.
Our knitting team has been getting more and morecreative as their skills have improved and there is agreat variety of pattern in the blankets, from garter stitch
to lacing, stocking stitch to cabling.
Knitting club will take a break in the second term but wewill be back in the third term ready to knit more squares
andhopefully
some morechallenging
pieces suchas babybooties andhats. Whynot come
and join us?

Members of the knitting club showing their blankets
and creative squares

PS – Any donations towards the cost of sending theblankets to Nairobi would be gratefully received!

Mai said after hearing about her achievement: “I was
surprised that I received this recognition. I love reading
and writing stories. When I have time, I like to read
English and Japanese books. Whenever I start to write
an essay about the books I read, I first write a shortsummary of what I read and then write a review. I
challenge other students to try this!”
Mai’s Japaneseteacher, Matsuisensei said of her
achievement:“Congratulations to
Mai on receiving thisaward. Mai moved to
Okinawa after the
Tohoku Earthquake
last year but
returned to KIST thisAugust. From her
experiences, I
assume she found an emotional connection to the book‘Koko-ga watashi-no o-uchi desu’ (This is where I live)
which when writing her essay enabled her to express
her thoughts on the story, clearly and with more
realism. In particular, her conclusion in which she
wrote: ‘I’d like to place all of my precious memories
away into a place in my mind, and take them out
occasionally’, was excellent.”
Mai’s work is available for viewing on the Elementary
Library Moodle page. We hope that other students will
also be inspired to make their own book essays.
The National Book Essay Contest for Young Readers
is held annually during the summer vacation. An essay
contest held in conjunction with the Sakura Medal
program is also planned for February. Details will beannounced in the New Year.
More information on the contest may be viewed at thelink below.
http://www.dokusyokansoubun.jp

V o l u me 1 6 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 2Grade 5 Camp Report
A great adventure!
On October 3, Grade 5 set off for an adventurein the mountains. We went on a 3-day/2-night
camp in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture. For many
students, this was their first time away fromhome alone, and more than a few were a bit
nervous as the bus trip began. Once we got tothe camp site, we were made welcome by the
English Adventure counselors, Jeff, Toshi,
Kozue and Ryan. After orientation, we had atreasure hunt in the woods. Soon, it was time toprepare our own dinner, cooked in Dutch ovens
over open fires. The evening finished with songs
around the campfire and delicious s’mores.
The next day we played team-building games
and made friendship bracelets, but the most
exciting challenge was learning to rappel. All thestudents were able to overcome their fear andmany even took the ‘Jeff Challenge’ of dropping
backwards and allowing the rope to catch them!
That evening, students presented hilarious skits
inspired by the items they found during thetreasure hunt.
On our third day, we hiked down the mountainand stopped to play on the longest slide any ofus had ever seen! We got back to school on
Friday afternoon, tired but exhilarated, withmemories that will last a lifetime.

Grade 8 Camp Report
Excursion in the picturesque mountainsof Saitama
On September 26-28, the Grade 8 students were
provided with the opportunity to attend an overnight
excursion which took place in Chichibu, Saitama
Prefecture. This excursion provided valuable
memories and nature experiences for students notpossible within our immediate school location. The
trip involved traveling to Chichibu, Saitama
Prefecture by train and then by bus.
Students participated in team-building activities
which included rappelling, capture the flag, Dutch
oven cooking and an array of other fun activities
which linked nicely to building an even greater effortof team collaboration designed to enhance learning.
This year’s event, as in previous years, proved very
popular with the students and staff that
accompanied them. The rappelling inparticular allowed students to challengethemselves in a safe yet exciting way.
Benjamen Fishman“ T h e C o m et ”

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V ol u me 16 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 12“The Comet”

Library News
What’s been happening at KIST Libraries?
The Hungry ReadersParticipating G6 and G7 students had a great time during
the first Hungry Readers Reading Program! Thanks to
the PTA for sponsoring the Pizza Party on this initiative toencourage reading. This November, Hungry Readers
launched in the Japanese department as well, and is open
to all Grade 6, 7 and 8 students including EIC students.
Be sure to fill out your booklet as you read each exciting
new title!

Drop Everything And Read

In November, wecelebrated theDEAR Reading
Programthroughout thewhole school.
Everyone enjoyed
the opportunity tostop what they
were doing and
get into a goodbook. The Book
Character Costume Parade was very popular with
Elementary students—and many of their teachers too!
This year we noticed that students created a greater
connection with their characters by bringing the book toschool to share.
In the Secondary School, many students helped us
promote this reading program through DEAR posters
displayed around the main building. Our appreciation goesto the SRC Executives and students from the Science,
Music and PE departments for their support in this reading
initiative. Also, thank you to all teachers and students forsharing their ideas and reflections on the importance ofreading on our DEAR Wall, especially to Ms Christian and
Mrs Hall for motivating their students. The Dear Wall isdisplayed at the top of the stairs near the LMC and is still
open to accept your thoughts about reading.

Sakura Medal Books and Art Contest

New Books at KIST Libraries: Sakura Medal Books. These
will be sought after titles, so make sure you get in and seethem, or make a reserve using Destiny Quest.
The Sakura Medal is presented by the International
School Librarians of Japan to an author of a bookpublished within the last two years. There are categories
for Elementary, Middle School and High School, in both
English and Japanese. Many international schools inJapan participate in Sakura Medal reading programs.
KIST students from G2 to G12 can participate by reading
the books and by creating an art work for the Art Contest.
You may visit the Elementary and LMC Moodle Pages tofor more details about the Sakura Medal Books and the
Art Contest.
Who chooses the books to read?
The librarians from international schools around Japan
read and nominate books to the award.
Who chooses the winners?
Students will read the books and vote for their favorites.
The results from all schools will be added together todecide the winners of each category.
How do I vote?
For one vote you must read (5 books, 4 books and 3
books for Elementary, Grade 6 to 8 and Grade 9 to 12
students respectively) and complete your Sakura Reading
Log (Elementary) or Hungry Readers Booklet (Secondary)
entries for each title.
All students who vote are also entered in a raffle to win abook token kindly provided by the PTA Library Committee.

Anything else?

Japanese Essay – write a review of a Japanese Sakura
Book
Japanese Book Trailer Contest – make a video ‘trailer’ forone of the books
Please ask library staff for more information.

Upcoming events

The next library event will be the International Mother
Language Day on February 21, in collaboration with the
PTA Cultural Connections and PTA Library committees
and the Arts Department. Activities will include national
costume parade, parent storytelling, MPR exhibition
including artworks, multimedia, embassy displays, andadditions to the World Languages collection.
In connection to this, we also encourage parents to lend
paintings, figures, artifacts or miniature displays for theexhibit or donate books to add to our World Languages
collection. Please contact us in the library for more
information.

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V o l u me 1 6 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 2

Staff 10!
In this month’s Staff 10!,
we are pleased topresent Chee Lee whojoined KIST in 2011 as
the PE Subject Area
Coordinator.
 Tell us something
Mr Lee posing with last year’s KIST
interesting about
U18 volleyball team, winners of the
your hometown.
ISTAA championship.
Well...I was born inPetaling Jaya, Malaysia...left when I was 16 to go to
the United States...finished high school throughgraduate school in Alabama...then moved to South
Carolina for work from 1996 through 2011...then to
Tokyo. I know I am not answering the question directly,
but by far the most interesting place for me thus far in
my life is Tokyo which I consider home for the moment.
 What is your favorite place in the world?
Right now it is Rovinj, Croatia. In Rovinj, there is asalsa festival that I have been attending since its
inception. It was originally a small festival, but over theyears has grown to become a very international event.
So, imagine going to workshops for salsa in theafternoon, watching performances in the evening, salsa
parties with live bands till after midnight, andinternational DJs spinning till 4 a.m. Then the after
party till six in the morning! I`d go to my favorite Burek
place (Croatian specialty) for breakfast; back to theapartment to sleep; fresh seafood for lunch; then thesame schedule for an entire week. Of course, I don’t
last till the after party every day, but it is there if
needed!
 Who would you like to meet if you had the chance
and why?
Anyone from my father’s side of the family. He left his
hometown in China as a child and I have never had
any contact with him since.
 Do you have any special skills or talents?
I don’t think they are anything special...I like to do
simple things well—eat, cook, play, rest, dance,
travel…
 Please share a little known fact about yourself.
I played American College Football for JacksonvilleState University as a Place Kicker.
 What is your most prized possession?
Perhaps my passport. I gave away all my possessions
before I left the States for this job.
 What words would you use to describe yourself?
I like keeping things simple, organized and balanced.
 If you could live your life again, would you doanything differently?
Yes, teach abroad earlier in life and even before that,be a foreign exchange student.
 Is there anything you are trying to learn/improveabout yourself at the moment?
At the moment, learning to comply with International
Baccalaureate standards and learning the Japanese
language.
 Do you have any special message for your fans?
I have been teaching physical education for 20 years
now. As far as students go, KIST has been top notch. I
want to thank everyone for the experience.

13

Announcement
Mrs Komaki, joint founder of KIST
together with Mr Komaki, hasserved as a member of the Boardof Directors in the capacity of
Deputy School Director since theschool’s founding. She is also amember of the Ministry of
Education’s National Institute for Educational Policy
Research’s “Building the School of Tomorrow”
committee where she acts as an advisor. As her duties
at KIST are quite varied, it was felt that it wasnecessary to clarify her role. To this end, in relation to
her position within the school, with the approval of theBoard, she has assumed the title of “Associate Head of
School”.

Office Updates
School fees due
The deadline for payment of the 3rd installment ofschool fees for 2012-2013 is Monday, December 17.
Please check your annual invoice for details. Please be
reminded that invoices are distributed once only perschool year with details for the whole year. If you havemisplaced your invoice or require further information on
payment, methods please contact the office bytelephone or e-mail prior to the due date. A late fee will
apply to payments not received by the due date.
Jewelry
Families are reminded that students are not permitted
to wear jewelry of any kind to school—with the
exception of a small watch. This includes clear earring
posts. Students who wish to pierce their ears should do
so only at the beginning of a long vacation period andmust remove earrings and earring posts when they
return to school.
School uniform
As the weather gets colder, it’s timeto get your woolly hats, gloves,
scarves, neck warmers and otherwinter gear out of the wardrobe.
During winter, all accessories worn toschool must be plain black with nostripes, patterns or brands visible. If your child iscurrently wearing items that are not black, please
ensure that these are replaced. Winter items areavailable to purchase at a low cost from the school
shop.
Furthermore, we have noticed in recent weeks that a
number of students have been coming to school in non-KIST coats and jackets.
Please be reminded that the official school uniform
must be worn. Boots are also not to be worn at school.
On cold days, please stay warm by wearing heat-techundergarments, vests and tights.

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V ol u me 16 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 12“The Comet”

Volleyball Success

KIST U18 SWEEP ISTAA VOLLEYBALL!

On Saturday, November 17, the U18 girls
won their second ISTAA volleyballchampionship in a row. KIST beat CanadianInternational School in the championshipgame 2-1. Then on Sunday, November 18,
the U18 boys won their first ever ISTAA
volleyball championship. The boys defeatedfirst ranked The British School in Tokyo withscores of 17-25, 26-24, and 16-14.
Congratulations to all our players andcoaches—Mr Lee, Mr Hori, Ms Haines andMr Jay for a great under 18 season.
Our U14 teams, most of whom have neverplayed volleyball before this year, made hugeprogress this year. The girls ended theirseason with a winning record but came up alittle short in the final tournament. The boys
played a close final game vs BST at the U14
ISTAA tournament but unfortunately lost in
the final set.

K I S T C o m et s U 1 8 B oy s I S TA A
V ol l ey b al l C ha m pi o ns 201 2

WELL DONE to all our KIST Comet volleyball
players.
Jay Leroy
Athletics Director

K I S T C o m et s U 1 8 G i r l s
I S T A A V ol l ey b al l C h am pi o ns
2 01 2
C el eb rat i n g o ur v i c t o ri es

Field Day
A variety of activities were held during the second annual KIST Field Day
organized by the Physical Education Department on Tuesday, September 18.
Although only two years running so far; this event is proving to be very popularamongst the students. Field Day is purposely held early in the school year tobring students together and help foster an even friendlier atmosphere between
students across grade levels.
Students represented their various house colors in groups spanning gradelevels while participating in friendly sports events including volleyball,
baseball, lacrosse, dodge ball and basketball oriented games. For theSecondary School, members of the Blue House were victorious over the restwith only a small margin of 3 points. Congratulations to Team Blue!!!
The PE Department would like to thank all involved in making this event a
success. A special note of thanks should be given to those that helped us fill
1,200 water balloons that were used for the event.
Unfortunately, the weather prevented the Elementary School from participating
this year. Although elementary students missed out on the day, Mr Jay
arranged for students to complete all of the activities within their regularlyscheduled PE class time. Special thanks to Mr Aaron Ross for leading thechildren through these games and recording their scores. In the Elementary
School, Green House were the winners this year. Both House teams have thehonor of sharing bragging rights for the 2012-13 House Team trophy displayedin the front lobby directly across from reception.
The combined effort raised 46,470 yen which will help subsidize the purchaseof new outdoor basketball hoops. Congratulations!

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V o l u me 1 6 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 2Transitions
It is essential that families have a plan for theinevitable transitions their child will experience eachyear. A successful start and developing positive
momentum early on in the school year will enhanceself-confidence, establish healthy routines, and aid in
the transition process that some children may findchallenging. Every child is unique and special;listening to your child and devising a plan together will
acknowledge your child’s feelings and better help
parents understand what type of support is necessary.
KIST offers transition assistance for new students,
students moving between divisions, students
transitioning to a different school or country. Being in
an international school environment means that someof the families in the school are here for a while andare then transferred to another country or back to theirhome country. Leaving friends and familiar places canbe very difficult. While there is always an edge of
excitement at the thought of a new place with new
friends, the transition between leaving a place andgoing to a new place is important and can potentiallybe a very stressful time.
Mr Fishman can help deal with future fears of “whatwill be” and “what if’s” as well as deal with finding
closure and saying goodbye in a time that is filled withunknowns. Similarly, being at an international school
also means that friends come and go, and even if youor your child are not the one leaving, your child may
also be affected by those close friends leaving. They
have finally found a good friend, and now they are
moving away again. Making new friends over andover, as well as keeping in touch with friends over long
distances, can be time and energy consuming. Dealing
with this separation and abandonment must be taken
seriously as it can affect academic success.
The key to success is to accurately understand yourchild’s temperament when it comes to transitions.
Children do not act in similar ways to the process ofchange. How your child reacts will depends on theirtemperament, personality-style, and how they canacclimate.
For example, if you have a child who goes throughchange easily, you will have noticed early on that they
seem fairly adaptive during the endless transitions ofchildhood. If they move from grade levels easily,
chances are this kind of child will require little extra
preparation, beyond common sense, before entering a
new school. Try not to be alarmed by all the hyperegarding the inevitable difficulty of transition. Just use
your basic instinct as a parent, and you’ll probably see
things through easily.
On the other hand, if your child has shown difficultywith transitions before, you need to put in a bit of extra
effort.
Here are a few tips:
 Do not assume everything will be just fine and aplan for transition is not needed.
 Be inquisitive; ask questions about issues toconsider; for example, culture shock, making
friends, getting situated, etc.
 Prepare and plan.
 Seek assistance as needed (i.e. school counselorat your present school and the counselor at yourchild’s new school.
 Keep your expectations realistic.
 Be open.
 Accept changes.
 Use and share your newly acquired skills andknowledge.
Benjamen Fishman
Student Welfare Counselor

Doctor in the HouseAs mentioned in Mr Komaki’s message on page 1, KIST is
pleased to welcome Dr Mark Kobayashi to the KIST family.
Dr Kobayashi has agreed to volunteer as our school doctor
and will be present in the Nurse’s Room on Thursdays.
Dr Kobayashi said: “Hello! I am Dr Mark Kobayashi who isvolunteering in the nurse’s room every Thursday. I am an ER
surgeon and a psychiatrist. I am also the parentof a K1 student.
Please feel free to drop by the nurse’s room if you have any problems,
want to say hello to me. Or would like to consult with me about how
to be a doctor in your future!!”Clinical hours are 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. on Thursdays.

Special message to
Dr Kobayashi
We would like to express
our sincere thanks to Dr
Mark Kobayashi. We are
not always in the best ofhealth; there are times
when we injure ourselves
or get sick. But we feelsafe that you are helping
us by volunteering in thesick room. Thank you foryour kindness.
From the PTA on behalf of
KIST parents

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V ol u me 16 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 12“The Comet”

What Do We Know About First Grade
What educators say about first graders
I have taught many different grades, subjects andstudents, but I have found that one of my favourite
grades to teach has been first grade. Teaching first
grade is demanding and at the same time aprofessionally rewarding experience. Demanding interms of preparation and providing for individual
student needs in the classroom but rewarding to
see the individual child learn and develop the mostimportant skills that will determine their academic
success in the school and later in life. To see the
Aha!! in their eyes when they understand a concept
and the joy in their faces when they are able to reada word or a sentence.
Parents always ask me about the importance of thisgrade level and what their children will learn in thisyear. Here are some answers to these questions:First grade is the first year of primary education –the first school year after Kindergarten. Students willbe 6 to 7 years old in this grade level. The older thechild is the better chance he/she will have to learn
faster and more easily. This will help to develop his/her self-confidence.
First graders are taught the fundamentals ofliteracy, including reading sentences, writing very
simple statements and mastery of the alphabet,building on what the students have learned inkindergarten. In mathematics, students learn about
addition and subtraction, measurement, basic
geometry, clock and calendar and graphing are also
introduced.
First grade natural science usually involves thediscussion of matter and earth natural resources.
Social Science involves science as inquiry aboutsocial relationship and dependency of each memberof a community. Students are encouraged toobserve the world around them and begin asking
questions about things they notice. As they become
more comfortable investigating the world aroundthem, students will also begin asking more complex
questions and making more advanced predictions.
As a child begins first grade, his/her ability to learn
and process information is expanding rapidly. He/
she is much more able to make connections
between the things he/she knows and the things
she/he sees in the world. Some of these newly
acquired cognitive skills are very important for first
grade learning.
It is important for the development of a healthy childthat parents remember not to push the child further
than his/her emotional, social, physical andcognitive developmental age. The child needs toenjoy his/her age as a developing person: to playoutside, to play with friends/have play dates, tohave a day out with the family, to go to bed early, tolearn something new as a challenge to be enjoyed
not as a tedious work activity.

No two students are exactly alike, but it helps to have ageneral idea of which cognitive skills your child should
acquire at this grade level.
Cognitive Skills Important for 1st Grade(Amanda Morin. Child developmental stages)
Skill: Is able to see both the similarities and differences
between objects and, to a very basic extent, people aswell.
Why it’s important: One of the things your child willlearn in first grade is how to compare and contrast
objects, ideas and people. It’s a fundamental building
block of mathematics and, among other things, helps toteach students how sort by various characteristics,
create and identify complex patterns and gather andgraph information.
Skill: Should be able to use the more complicatedspeech sounds of “v”, “j”, “r”, “l”, “s”, as well as blends
like “sh”, “ch,” “th” and “str.”
Why it’s important: By the beginning of first grade,most children should be able to produce these more
complicated speech sounds. If your child isn’t able to,check in with a speech therapist, but don’t be tooconcerned. Being able to hear and produce thesesounds make learning to read and write much easier.
It’s hard to learn to spell and read words that you aren’t
able to pronounce or hear correctly.
Skill: Will understand the concept of today, tomorrowand yesterday.
Why it’s important: In most first grade classrooms,
calendar time is an important daily learning experience.
Here your child will not only learn the sequence of thedays of the week and the months of the year, but begin
to put together how they relate to one another. For
example, your child may have already known that thefirst day of the school week is Monday, but now he’ll bechallenged to answer what day yesterday was, what
tomorrow will be and to know which day is, for example,
Wednesday’s tomorrow.
Skill: Is capable of problem solving basic sums.
Why it’s important: First grade math focuses a lot on
addition and subtraction, specifically facts like doubles(for example, 8+8) and doubles plus one (9+8). Thesetypes of facts can be memorized, but also rely on yourchild’s ability to understand the patterns among them.
Skill: Can answer who, what, where and why questions.
Why it’s important: At this age, your child might still
have difficulty providing this information spontaneously
and will need some prompting to add the who, what,
where and why. Though your child’s answers may not
be as detailed as you would like or contain the same
information as another student who was part of thesame experience, the ability to add more detail helps
your child become a more creative writer and storyteller.
Morena Christian
Grade 1 TeacherV o l u me 1 6 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 2

Cross Country Fever
A big thank you to all the staff and parent volunteers whohelped make this year’s Inter-School Cross Country
tournament a success. And congratulations to thestudents listed below who went on to compete at
the ISTAA inter-school championship on Friday,
November 30.

Inter-school Cross Country(November 16, 2012)
Boys
Grade 1
1) Daiki (G1B)
2) Kaito (G1B)
3) Zoran (G1A)
Grade 2
1) Keanu (G2B)
2) Harunosuke (G2A)
3) Shin (G2A)
Grade 3
1) Kaiser (G3B)
2) Kishore (G3B)
3) Ross (G3A)
Grade 4
1) Samuel (G4A)
2) Den (G4B)
3) Jun (G4B)
Grade 5
1) Nimit (G5A)
2) Kenzo (G5A)
3) Michael (G5B)
Grade 6
1) Keina (G6A)
2) Shin (G6A)
3) Keigo (G6A)
Grade 71) Ke Yi (I7A)
2) Taisei (G7B)
3) Hikaru (G7B)
Grade 81) Hee-Jun (G8B)
2) Haruto (G8A)
3) Akira (G8A)
Grade 91) Tyson (G9A)
2) Michael (G9A)
3) Jisang (G9A)
Grade 101) Salam (G10A)
2) Taymur (G10A)
3) Roshana (G10A)
Grade 111) Adam (G11B)
2) Sashank (G11B)
3) Abhinav (G11B)
Grade 121) Alakhsa (G12A)
2) Ashutosh (G12B)
3) Haruka (G12A)

Girls1) Rio (G1B)
2) Homare (G1A)
3) Nicol (G1A)
1) Sola (G2B)
2) Elena (G2A)
3) Serena (G2A)
1) Zoe (G3B)
2) Rina F. (G3A)
3) Rina N. (G3B)
1) Maki (G4B)
2) Saki (G4A)
3) Sato (G4A)
1) Emily (G5B)
2) Karen (G5A)
3) Reina (G5A)
1) Emiri (G6A)
2) Ayumi (G6B)
3) Ruiran (G6A)
1) Seina (G7A)
2) Riko (G7A)
3) Amina (G7B)
1) Lin (G8A)
2) Moana (G8A)
3) Enna (I8A)
1) Nino (G9B)
2) Sara (G9A)
3) Ayaka (G9B)
1) Keerti (G10A)
2) Rei (G10A)
3) Tamami (G10B)
1) Akiko (G11A)
2) Miku (G11B)
3) Rio (G11A)
1) Monica (G12A)
2) Marie (G12B)
3) Shifa (G12A)“ T h e C o m et ”

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V ol u me 16 | I s s ue 2 | D ec em b er 20 12“The Comet”

College Guidance NewsThe “Holiday Season” is coming!! This means thebusiest season of the year has come to the KIST
College Guidance Office. Most of the current Grade 12
students are sending their applications to universities
in the US, UK, Japan and Asia during December or
early January. Mr Johnson and Mrs Okude have beenworking to facilitate the college application process byhelping students and parents with college selections,reading and revising college essays and asking
teachers for letters of recommendation. The guidance
office also works to upload student reports andevaluations through online application systems such as
UCAS for UK universities and the Common Application
for US universities. Further, the guidance office helps
to prepare official grade documents for colleges anduniversities. We wish all students success in theircollege and career choices and look forward to anothersuccessful year at KIST!

Mrs Okude visits the US east coast

During the summer, Mrs Okude traveled the US east
coast twice to visit Yale University, Columbia
University, Pratt Institute, Boston University,
Northeastern University and her alma mater the
George Washington University. She met withadmissions officers at each university and exchanged
information with them. She also visited the IB Americas
office and five IB World Schools in Washington, DC asa member of a research project for the Japanese
Ministry of Education and Science.

Alumnus NewsThe first KIST alumni gathering in Boston

The KIST Alumni Dinner with Mrs Okude was held on a
Saturday evening in September at an Italian restaurant
in Boston and three KIST graduates, Aditya Dhara(Class of 2010), Matthew Peoples (Class of 2011) and
Shreya Deshmukh (Class of 2011) attended thisevent. Aditya is in his third year at Northeastern
University majoring in mathematics and is currently
working at a local insurance company as an actuarial
intern as a part of the Northeastern CO-OP program.
Matthew is in his second year at Northeastern U, andShreya is also in the second year at Boston U. It was awonderful moment to see our graduates enjoying theircollege lives there.

Vice president, Carmina

Carmina Mancenon (Class of 2010) was electedvice president of Princeton University’s Student
Government (USG).
Congratulations, Carmina! This news was published in
the Daily Princetonian.
http://
www.dailyprincetonian.com/2012/11/24/31913/
Carmina is also featured on the top page of Princeton
University’s website in the “Three Students” video
segment.
http://www.princeton.edu/main/

The newly elected Vice President Carmina with Display at Rockville High School, Rockville, MD
new President (photo from Princeton website)

The George Washington Uni., Washington, DC

Rare book collections in Yale University
Library

Richard Montgomery High School,
Rockville, MD inside the building

Lunch Room at George Mason High School,
Falls Church, VA

IB Americas office in Bethesda, MD

Aditya, Shreya and Matt in Boston

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V o l u me 1 6 | I s s u e 2 | D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 2

Memories of
KISTival 201219