Have you seen an Akisaurus before?

Upper Primary pupils have wrapped up their tasks and are now getting ready for Autumn holidays. It has been busy times in class and pupils have finished off many tasks and they have all worked really hard. It was a fun treat to wrap up this last week with both a birthday party and Halloween party on the same day! Happy birthday, Phoevos! It was a bit odd to have cake amongst clowns, wizards, skeletons, vampires and other characters - but great fun! If you look carefully, you will see an Akisaurus in the photos!

Since the last blog, some Upper Primary pupils have played recorder during Assembly, and a group of pupils also surprised their teacher by putting Miss Jenny's name in the golden box! She thanked them by letting them join her performing 'Yesterday' in front of everybody. Some pupils found it hilarious, others found it extremely embarrassing. Pupils in the Bilingual programme also taught their friends some words in Dutch and showed them that they have learnt a lot since they started the school year!

Parents have gotten an insight in the Upper Primary classroom world during Parent-Teacher meetings. Miss Jenny has enjoyed meeting them all and getting a chance to explain all the things we have worked with so far this autumn.

It is time for Upper Primary pupils to say good-bye to this first IPC unit, Express yourself. They have spent the last few weeks working on playground designs (Technology task) and emotion collages (Art task). Pupils visited an exhibition at St Pieter’s Abbey here in Ghent, and as part of their Art learning goals, they looked at art from three different perspectives – the artist’s, the subject’s and their own. They have also looked more deeply into the world of adverts and how different techniques make us want to buy certain things. They know what the acronym AIDA stands for and can explain it to anyone who is interested.

During Literacy lessons, they have finished off and published their friendly letters and we are ready to send our first letters to our unknown friends at Serendipity School in California, USA. Their writing samples will be kept in their Assessment portfolios as well.

Numeracy lessons bring different topics into focus here in class and Upper Primary pupils have spent the last week measuring angles (year 5) and calculating area, volume and perimeter of different shapes (year 6). Miss Jenny is very happy to talk about her dear friends, Katy Perimeter, Area Grande and Volumemort, to help the pupils remember how to calculate these different measurements!

Pupils in the bilingual program are showing good progress and are now trying to speak only Dutch in the classroom. They are continuing to learn with their book “Instroom” and are now able to introduce themselves in various ways. As part of the IPC-program, pupils have made the castle of IPC-values and have practised related vocabulary. Students have also started making homework in Dutch and taking a small test on Mondays, with good results. Finally, they have played several interactive games, of which the “weerwolven” game was probably the most popular. Goed zo!

Now it is time to wish you all a lovely week of holidays! Enjoy beautiful autumn days and see you in November!