Our Class Blogs



IPC Super Humans Exit Point, Lower-Primary - Ms Julieta

Super Humans, Super Class!

Welcome to Lower Primary 1 with Ms. Julieta!

We're thrilled to welcome you all to our very first blog post of the school year! It's been an incredible start, and I am genuinely looking forward to this enriching learning journey with your wonderful children.

After a refreshing summer break, our students seamlessly transitioned into their new routines and environment. Their adaptability and enthusiasm have truly made us proud.

To kick off the year, we emphasized the importance of playing and learning together. In Lower Primary, we follow eight "golden rules": Be a friend, Listen, Share, Help clean up, Wait for your turn, Raise your hand, Walk (don't run), and Keep your hands to yourself.

During our initial week, we revisited essential numeracy and literacy concepts while honing our reading skills. Additionally, we delved into the fascinating world of brain development. Understanding how our brain forms new connections when tackling challenges, we introduced the concepts of fixed and growth mindsets. Our goal is to cultivate a growth mindset throughout the year, and we're dedicated to achieving this...Read the full article


Upper Pre-Primary - Ms Corine

Houses and Homes

1 Independence & interdependence

The beginning of the schoolyear requires learners to get used to, and gradually also take part in, the routines of the class and the school. In addition they need to respect the rules (such as we keep our hands and feet to ourself) and carry out their responsibilities (tidy up, sort their work in their drawers, pack their belongings, help friends or the teacher, etc.) We emphasised acceptable behaviour, our personal value respect and taking responsibility for your own actions when learning and playing alongside or with others.
Within our IPC unit we looked at houses and homes in our vicinity as well as across cultures and time. We also celebrated our diversity by looking at buildings learners have visited across the globe as well as world landmarks. Our visit to our friend’s home as well as to homes from the past made everything more concrete.

2 Communication

Our learning was represented in different forms. Many children made their own book about the 3 little pigs, some made collages about the rooms in the house...Read the full article


Lower Pre-Primary - Ms Erin

Houses and Homes

During our first week of school we took the time to get to know our new friends and feel comfortable in the classroom. Our first IPC unit was houses and homes, we started this unit with our entry point, which was a walk around the neighborhood. During our walk we saw different kinds of houses, house numbers and building materials. After this we built houses in many different ways, we built with Lego, blocks, cylinder rolls, rings, milk cartons… We also crafted our own house and put our family pictures inside.

The second week we built walls for the classroom and discovered that if you use the zigzag brick pattern, your walls are way stronger. We also learned about different rooms in the house and the furniture inside. We crafted our own house together with different rooms.

The third week we read a story about an architect and we designed our dreamhouse and tried to build it. This week, we focused on the houses in our home countries. We looked at the pictures and discussed the similarities and differences. This was very interesting, later we made the pictures into a bingo game to play.

The...Read the full article


Upper Primary - Mr Jamie

From Elephants on the Thames to Classroom Verses: A Term in Poetry with Natalia

Exploring the World of Poetry in Upper Primary 2: A Reflection from our Intern, Natalia

Welcome back to another blog post from ISG! This term is a special one for us, as we have the pleasure of hosting Natalia, our intern from Greece. Natalia has been a wonderful addition to our Upper Primary classrooms, and this term’s blog post reflects on the rich experiences we've had while diving into our Literacy unit on the anthology "Poems from a Green and Blue Planet" and the subsequent ‘writer’s workshops.’

The Journey Begins with an Elephant on the Thames

Our literary exploration began with a fascinating poem titled "The Elephant is Walking on the River Thames” by Imtiaz Dharker. Natalia observed that while the students were initially reserved, their interest piqued as they delved deeper into the poem. "During the lesson, I've seen that they are trying to understand the poem and they were paying attention," she shared. Through a mix of creative projects, focused exercises, and interactive games, we were able to captivate our students’ attention.

Writing Their Own...Read the full article


Upper-Primary - Ms Kelsey

Upper Primary 1 – Taking A Walk on the Wild Side

 

 

Welcome to the first Upper Primary 1 blog for the year! And what a fantastic start to the year it has been. The students have been on two field trips, learnt about each other, the natural world and have made new friends.

In September we were able to explore a bit of Gent city together on a scavenger hunt – learning more about the city and sharing the knowledge that they already had. In October, the students brought the new IPC unit into focus with a trip to the Antwerp Zoo – discovering animals they hadn’t seen before and marveling at those that they always wanted to see. Special highlights were the penguins, sharks, lions and small primates.

The students have carried this interest into their IPC unit ‘Existing, endangered, extinct’, as they delve deeper into studying biomes, animal classification, invertebrates and vertebrates and the 7 characteristics of living things.

In literacy they have been exploring poetry based on works from a book called “Poems from a green and blue planet”. They have been studying poetry about Snow Leopards, Elephants on the River Thames and the ocean and it’s...Read the full article


Lower-Primary - Ms Elspeth

Superhumans!

Dear friends and families,

It’s been a great start to the school year I have loved getting to know all the children and can’t wait to continue to learn more about them each day. I have loved how the children settled in quickly this year and have already formed a cohesive and inclusive group. It has been exciting to watch their learning this half term and I cannot wait to see where their creativity, resolve and interests take us this year.

Our IPC unit this term "Superhumans" was all about our amazing bodies and how they work. The unit sparked so much curiosity and lead the children to ask all sorts of wonderful questions such as "What's inside our ears?" and "What happens to our food?". They then took the lead in exploring these questions and discovering  about the inner wonders of our bodies. It has been an absolute delight to watch their interest and knowledge grow over the course of the unit.

In our literacy, we plunged headfirst into the magical world of Roald Dahl and his weird and wonderful stories. We've read about the mischievous Enormous Crocodile and the terrible Twits who play revolting tricks on...Read the full article