Newsletter October 22nd - 25th

Dear parents,

It was really nice to see you at ICF. I hope you enjoyed this year's decorations and games prepared by teachers and students. Grade 4 worked hard to decorate the class. As you may know, out country was France. Now visitors know that France was the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food.

Math:
The topic is percentages. Students had a deeper understanding of finding fractional part of a shapes and numbers. Students were introduced two different ways of solving: math way and shape way. This transition made it easier to understand the fact that 2% is the same as 2 out of 100. Now, students want to solve more using math way rather than shape way.
Some students were eager to solve challenging problems of Grade 6-7 level and they succeeded. Merits and extra points were awarded for efforts.

UoI:
We continued an inquiry into the idea of sharing the planet, sharing what we have and the quality of life. We explored what makes our life better and what makes it worse in class level and country level. It is interesting to see the kids talking about safety and how this safety could be improved.

Art:
We decorated our class for ICF.

Thank you very much!

Newsletter October 15th- 19th

Dear parents,
The main focus of this week is ICF and Food Drive organized by students. It is wonderful to see the students bring food to donate. Let's see who donates the most and wins a "surprise".

UoI:
We completed our "Where We Are In Place and Time" unit this Tuesday. Students worked hard and presented their booklets to the class on Monday and Tuesday. The booklets were in 2 languages. Everyone worked hard and showed his/her best.
On Wednesday, we started our next unit, "Sharing The Planet". The Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry are not introduced yet. I want the students to brainstorm more about the meaning of sharing and the things that can be shared. It was really interesting to hear students mention the concepts like culture, knowledge.
Next week we will focus on Central Idea and start the first line of inquiry.

Math:
We worked on fractions, improper fractions, proper fractions, mixed numbers and addition/subtraction. Students learned how to convert improper fraction to mixed numbers and vice versa. Two different ways were introduced how to convert, add and subtract: using mathematical way and shape way. I was amazed today when the students said that mathematical way was easier than shape way, while it was the other way at the beginning of the week. Now I have no concerns about this and I am sure this topic is clear.

Art:
We continued to work on ICF project. The posters are almost ready. All of us will see them on Friday, next week.

 

Thank you very much.

New schedule from October 14th, 2018

Dear parents,
Please find below the new schedule starting from October 14th, 2018

Newsletter October 9th-12th

Dear parents,
Here are the activities we did this week during UoI, Art and Math.

UoI:
This week we focused on our final summative assessment. Students are supposed to prepare a booklet for refugees/immigrants in 2 languages to help them adapt to a new country. The booklet should include 4-5 items and should be easy to use. Starting from last week Saturday, I have been commenting on their work daily to guide them show their best. The standards were introduced to students and can be found below.
I am going to check final draft this Saturday at 11:00 and comment. Please check the comments by 13:00 and finalize by Monday 8:00. I am going to print the final version of the booklet on Monday and grade them.

Math:
Students had a test last week and the results were announced on Tuesday. everyone had a chance to upgrade the score and make it better. The questions were very similar. Moreover, the test had bonus part to make sure that every kid has a chance to have more than 100%. Bonus questions are easy to challenging levels, at the same time tricky. Some of them require analytical thinking. Most of the students were able to solve at least 1 bonus question, which is awesome.

Art:
Our ICF country is France. We are preparing the class for ICF. Decorations, posters about country, games, crafts, etc.

Thanks

Newsletter October 2nd - 5th

Dear parents,

This week we had a primary assembly on Tuesday and merit winners got their certificates. The students with 0 or more merits in September had a chance to have free uniform day on Friday, October 5th. It was very nice to see students cheering and clapping when his/her name was on the list. The hard work to keep behavior log safe should be appreciated.

UoI: We are finalizing our unit, Where We Are In Place And Time. We were exploring Human migration and the causes/effects of it. We listened, read, watched and tried to get information from different sources. It is important to see it in different perspectives.
Grade 5 visited our class during Art-UoI time and helped to paint/color the decorations.
The final assessment project is to prepare a booklet for migrants(refugees/immigrants) to help them in a new country/place. It should be at least 10 pages long and contain 4-5 items. The due date is October 12th. This date is flexible though.

Math: Students had a test on Tuesday and got the results the next day. Some of them were happy, some sad. Students should have a chance to upgrade the scores and see that it is possible to be better. The retest was scheduled on Friday, October 5th. The results can be checked via Jupiter.
Tests include bonus questions, which are interesting, different, challenging, and attractive. Here is an example of it.

Art: ICF is around the corner and we are decorating our class together with Preschool B and Toddlers classes. Our choice to France. Students started to work on paintings, posters during Art time,

Please let me know if you have any questions.