Upper-Primary - Ms Kelsey

Travelling through space and time... AD 900

During the previous IPC-unit ‘Weather and climate’, Upper Primary pupils made many connections between their ongoing learning and the world around them. They are now more aware of how their behaviour, habits and attitude affect the world around them – as well as the people around them. They know that everybody has the responsibility for his or her actions. They understand that choices they make affect others.

The Big Clean Up was a successful Exit Point for that unit. Fully prepared with garbage sticks, gloves and garbage bags from Ivago, pupils were ready to make a difference here in Ghent. Passers-by gave Upper Primary pupils a thumbs up or supporting comments.

Before this Exit Point, pupils had spent a lot of time programming, creating their own online quizzes using Scratch, and it was fantastic to see how they helped each other through this activity. There was a lot of frustration involved in this activity, some pupils even, by mistake, pressed the wrong button and deleted a lot of work – but they were supportive and resilient and they helped each other through the challenges.

Science is great fun! Before the Easter holidays, pupils visited International School Leuven to participate in this year’s Battle of the Scientists. Upper Primary also had lots of visitors during these weeks. Scientists from Wetenschap op stap came and showed pupils how to extract and investigate DNA from bananas! Pupils got to try out exciting experiments and were inspired to learn more. Dental Hygienist students from Artevelde Hogeschool came here to give pupils a workshop on how to take care of their teeth. Pupils understood that our Healthy Habits and our Water Only rule here at ISG actually is a good thing for their teeth and their health.

Pupils have enjoyed Word Adventure Week - where the focus was on reading lots of different books, listening to others reading books to you, reading to others, reading poetry, writing poetry and learning poetry by heart. Books are amazing!

Pupils have said goodbye to Miss Hilde after her traineeship in Upper Primary. What a great teacher trainee she was! It was a sad moment, but we are looking forward to Miss Hilde visiting us here at ISG!

Pupils have celebrated birthdays - Happy Birthday, Yumiri, Rita and Jood!

Our new IPC-unit is called ‘AD 900’ and it has taken us back in time. Pupils are now learning more about lost civilisations and they are impressed with the artefacts we can still see today. The first civilisation they visit is the Maya people and pupils already know about the lost city-states, the hierarchy in the Maya society and lots of fun extra information. Did you, for example, know that the Mayas pricked naughty children with a cactus? Or that they thought that cross-eyed people were the most beautiful people? There are so many fun things to learn! Now, pupils will look into the cool way of writing and counting that the intelligent Maya people came up with. And there are still other civilisations to visit before the Exit Point, so even though the summer holiday is coming closer, there are still a lot of things for us to research and learn more about. Our Personal Goal in April and May is Enquiry – and pupils really get to use their enquiring minds during this IPC-unit.

Now we are preparing for the International Festival here at ISG, and after that, we will continue continue learning about glyphs and symbols and art and… Learning is fun here at ISG!

 

There is no planet B!

Upper Primary pupils are learning and experiencing many things during the new IPC unit “Weather and climate”. One of the most impressive events was when they participated in a climate march here in Ghent. Pupils didn’t know what to expect and before the march some of them were excited and a bit nervous, but afterwards they were amazed and shared how it felt to come together with lots of other people for a cause. After the march, they tried to capture their emotions in a personal drawing – and their drawings reflect so many aspects of the climate march. They show how it felt slowly moving through the city together with 3000 other people. They show lots of banners and posters, instruments and rhythms. They show people shouting slogans in Dutch and English. Pupils were happy, but exhausted, when they returned to school.

During IPC lessons, pupils for example learn correct scientific and geographic vocabulary to describe and interpret their surroundings. During Assembly, Upper Primary pupils shared facts about clouds and how cloud names themselves give us lots of information about how high up the sky they are and what type of weather they bring. Pupils have also learnt more about appropriate vocabulary for weather forecasts and they have written their own forecasts and drawn maps showing  this information. They start to know how to use words like isobars, air pressure, precipitation, isotherms etc. Pupils have also just started preparing their programming and coding task in IPC. One of the many things they will do during this unit, is to publish an online quiz using Scratch.

Pupils are working with persuasive texts in Literacy, they look at model texts and look at how to use both connectives and conjunctions, as well as persuasive words and phrases to improve their own texts. Different pupils in the class have different challenges during Literacy lessons, and all pupils work on a level that is appropriate for them.

In Numeracy, focus have been to both revisit topics to make sure pupils remember strategies and methods, and to introduce new topics as well. Year 6 pupils have learnt how to draw pie-charts and how to read and handle data in different ways. Year 5 pupils have started looking at how to convert Metric units to Imperial units when measuring, as well as multiplying fractions. Pupils discuss how some learning is something we can learn by heart (knowledge) and some learning we need to practise to improve (skills) and how we show understanding when all our learning comes together.

Upper Primary pupils celebrated Lujain’s birthday in December, before the Christmas holidays. They welcomed both Ally from Mongolia and Aarshi from India. Now in February, they also made Ms Jenny feel welcome back after her sick leave and Ms Hilde, Upper Primary teacher trainee, feel welcome in Upper Primary and at ISG!

During February, the Personal Value in focus is Thoughtfulness. Upper Primary pupils are thinking about how to show this value in action and they try to remember to link it to the other values we have worked with throughout the school year, Respect, Resilience, Co-operation and Morality. They show International Mindedness when learning more about eahc other's cultures, religions and traditions, like for example when Jood brought traditional Saudi Arabian clothes for her show-and-tell. By using all these values in interaction with others, pupils learn solve problems and choose the right behaviour in different situations. Pupils are aware of the fact that no-one is perfect and that we all can improve in different ways – and that helping each other making right decisions is one way of showing values learnt.

The last day before the Mid-term holidays, Friday 1st March, is World Compliment Day, a perfect day to say something kind to each other. Let's spread thoughtfulness and kindness around us now! We end the blog with some photos from our Carnival party.

They see the world like this

There has been a lot happening in Upper Primary over the last few weeks; missing Miss Jenny, studying a new IPC unit, welcoming new students and saying goodbye to others.
We said good-bye to Martina and wished her and her family an exciting, new start back in Spain. The students were very happy to have Vitor and Matheus return from Brazil and we welcome Ally from Mongolia and had a visit from Maria who will join us in January. We’re so happy to have you join our class, welcome!

The students have been really enjoying our new IPC unit, exploring the world from different perspectives, learning about what it means to be an artist, how to use and boost our creativity and how different famous artists have seen and do see the world.

We started our unit with a short tour of the local area, recording our impressions of sights, smells and sounds with photos, videos, drawings and notes.

The students were then able to communicate their impressions of the local area (and our host country Belgium!) through an art form of their choice. Year 2 and 4 particularly enjoyed the music, drama, dance, sculpture and painting presentations!

In Numeracy, Year 5 are busy finishing off learning about types of angles and comparing fractions and decimals, while Year 6 have been working on mixed number fractions and finding perimeter, area and volume.

The students are continuing to work on commas, clauses and adverbial phrases with their grammar and their 50 Word Stories are ready to be submitted to the short story competition. There have been some very creative and interesting pieces! We wish them all the best with their entries.

Over the last few weeks, Upper Primary have also been working on being responsible for fostering respect in the playground. They are doing this by using our ‘Wheel of Choices’ to help each other solve problems and communicate effectively.

Although we miss Miss Jenny, we are still having fun and learning a lot in Upper Primary while she is gone and we are looking forward to her returning to us soon!

 

Make the world a better place

Upper Primary pupils enjoyed the Exit Point of our IPC unit ‘Going global’. After learning more about sweat shops, child labour and other horrible work conditions, pupils focused on how to make the world a better place. They researched charities and learned more about Fair Trade. Our Personal value Respect has been alive in the classroom since the start of the school year – and one way to show respect is to treat others fairly. Our golden rule is to treat others the way we want to be treated, so Fair Trade makes sense to all of us. Pupils designed a new Fair Trade logo and decorated their t-shirts with wonderful designs. Their first question was if they were allowed to wear their t-shirts whenever they wanted – and, yes, of course, we want to spread the word, so if you see a young member of the global community wearing a beautiful t-shirt with a unique Fair Trade logo on it, please comment on it!

Pupils have now wrapped up a writing assignment, where research about Trading in the past was linked to an adventure story. This writing task was a long process, starting with thinking through the plot and making a plan, writing a first draft, improving on the text and then publishing it. Exciting adventure stories about trading in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Sumer and the Mayan civilization are now ready to be shared with others. Now pupils are excited by a different writing challenge, where the ones who want can join a 50-word story competition. Some Upper Primary pupils have taken on the challenge. It is trickier than it sounds to write a whole story using maximum 50 words. Now it is all about making clever word choices and keeping a clear plan for the plot. We keep our fingers crossed for the ones who enter the competition.

Numeracy lessons have been filled with angles, protractors, compasses, rulers, perimeter, area and volume. Careful measuring is important and pupils are learning good skills and strategies. Upper Primary pupils have also had a chance to have a one-on-one maths discussion with a teacher, looking carefully at their mid-term tests. This is an excellent way to learn more – even making a mistake can be good for future learning! Our new Personal Value is Resilience – the ability to bounce back up again when we face challenges or trouble, to try and try again and never give up.

We have celebrated birthdays – Happy birthday to Luka, Vitor and Matheus - and we have also had a fun Halloween party! It is important to have fun together! Enjoy the photos of pupils and staff wearing fun costumes!

Next week pupils will start a new IPC unit, a very interesting one, and they are very curious about what new learning will take place! Ms Narissa is already making exciting plans for them!

 

Going Global

Upper Primary pupils have started up the new school year in a great way. New pupils have joined us and we welcome Matheus and Vitor from Brazil, Aki from Japan, Kavya from India, Martina from Spain and Ariadne from Greece to ISG. Upper Primary pupils are eager to welcome even more pupils to our class, so we look forward to the ones joining us later this year. Upper Primary pupils spent the first school week getting to know each other, with lots of team building activities, and art activities and class room discussions where they got a chance to express who they are. Miss Suparna from India is helping out in Upper Primary a few days per week, and she is already part of the Upper Primary team as well. Pupils decided on what Classroom rules we should have in our class and made a beautiful display on our classroom wall. They have also started incorporating the first Personal Goal, respect, in our different activities and discussions. This year is all about team work, co-operation and good communication = respect!

September is a busy birthday month in Upper Primary. We have already celebrated Ariadne’s birthday, and soon it is time to celebrate Kavya, Diya and Hanna as well! Happy birthday, dear Upper Primary pupils!

Pupils really like the first IPC-unit this school year, ‘Going Global’, and they have already started researching different countries’ export and import, global trading and how to transport commodities around the world. They discuss the pros and cons with global trading – how it affects a country’s economy and how it affects the environment. During an excursion to the city centre they observed and researched our local community, looking specifically at small locally owned and operated shops versus the bigger retail chain stores. They start to see why it is important to buy locally produced items and buy food that grows during a specific season.

They have also looked more into what it means to be a responsible member of a smaller community – like our school community – and bigger communities – like being a citizen in a country or even part of the global community. To sum up the classroom discussion, pupils agreed that we share responsibilities, we have to take care of each other and our planet. Now, pupils have started looking into tourism and how it affects a country. They can see both positive and negative effects.

Pupils are working on grammar, vocabulary and writing skills during Literacy lessons. These first weeks, they review previous grammar learning by working their way through the different word classes. Why are adjectives useful? Will extended noun phrases make a text to specific? Is it important to stay in the same verb tense when writing? They will need these skills when writing independently. During reading sessions, pupils also work on their language skills – pupils add words to their vocabulary, work on correct pronunciation and discuss the meaning of different types of texts.

During Numeracy lessons, pupils are now revisiting basic number facts, like place value and good strategies for adding and subtracting numbers. Some methods are easier to use than others, but it is good to have an array of methods to choose from when starting to work with more complex questions.  

Upper Primary pupils are in for a great year together! School has just started, and they are already busy learning and sharing their knowledge, skills and understanding!

The Great, The Bold and The Brave

Upper Primary's last IPC unit of work for the year involved learning some of the myths from Ancient Greece – and they loved it! Reading these fantastic stories was a great Entry Point to all the great learning that took place after that. King Midas, The Wooden Horse and Hercules and all the other stories we read – we just loved these amazing myths!

Year 4 pupils joined Upper Primary during Literacy and IPC lessons during these last weeks of school, it has been great getting to know each other - and all year 4 pupils now know that Upper Primary is also a fun place to be. Starting up next school year will be so much easier now that they know that it is not such a big step to move to the next class.

Pupils have really liked this unit, even though they sometimes found some of the things they learnt sad, upsetting or weird. Now they know more about life in Ancient Rome and the Roman Empire. They know about everyday life, houses and homes, Greek gods, some famous Greek philosophers, schooling, architecture, theatres, entertainment, armies, invasions, political systems and leaders. Learning about Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus was fascinating! Learning about all the slaves and how they were treated was sad and upsetting! Learning about theatres and art, including mosaics, was fun and pupils thought it was great to also make their own art in the classroom! Visiting the Art and History museum in Brussels was exciting! Upper Primary pupils could have continued learning about Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire for quite some time – and it was sad to wrap up the unit this last week of school. And one Upper Primary pupil concluded that maybe the people of these old civilisations would have been better off if they hadn’t aimed for more riches and power the whole time.

We've also done other fun activities these last weeks of school. All pupils in year 3-6 went on a fantastic Active Sports Day in Harelbeke. They paddled giant canoes, built rafts and catapults, climbed a 8 metre high wall and were involved in a team building activity. We also had a 'Good Cook healthy snack workshop' here in class (yummy!) and learnt more about fruits and veggies that are both local and seasonal. Pupils have celebrated birthdays and all ISG teachers were spoiled during Teacher Appreciation Day.

We had a session together to summarise our learning in both Literacy and Numeracy. Pupils concluded that these subjects can be quite fun, sometimes even super fun! The more the pupils learn, the more they see that new learning turns into Knowledge, Skills and Understanding! What used to be tricky when they started off, is all of a sudden easy to do. Creative writing classes with Miss Ana led to a fantastic end product – a book! Pupils are so proud of the result, some of them read the whole book the same day they got it!

Pupils are now saying good-bye to dear friends. Our Personal Goal in June was Adaptability – how to learn to deal with changes in life, and our adaptability is now tested! Shawn returns to India, Štefan to Slovakia, Allison to America – and Yashika still doesn’t know where she will end up and when she will move. Anyhow, we all wish our dear friends the best of luck with their next steps in life. And we will miss them dearly!

Next school year, new friends will join our class and we are already looking forward to meeting them, but first we will all enjoy our well-deserved summer holidays! See you in September, both returning pupils and new pupils joining Upper Primary! Enjoy the sunshine!

Ms Jenny

 

Investigators!

Science Fair

It's been all about science in Upper Primary the last few weeks. Upper Primary pupils were invited to the Erasmusatheneum in De Pinte, where the students there had prepared a wonderful and exciting afternoon, filled with science experiments. Pupils were fascinated by bouncy eggs, eggs that could disappear into glass bottles, static electricity, DC motors, dancing raisins, slime, lava lamps and lots of other interesting experiments. The students explained everything in English, so that our pupils could understand the science behind the magic. It was a great visit and it also gave Upper Primary pupils an idea on how useful science is.

Battle of the Scientists

Back at school, all primary pupils prepared for another big science event. Together with International School Leuven, ISG pupils hosted a big science event on Friday 9th March. Together with Mr Hans from "The floor is yours", pupils were able to start up the big process and prepare for the Battle of the Scientists! Five scientists were chosen to come and present their research and pupils were then to choose the one scientist they found gave the best explanation about his or her research. It was an exciting day! Primary pupils were jury members, journalists, sound technicians, time keepers, voting team members, hosts, organizers, decorators, trophy makers and performers. Wow! What a success it was - it was great fun to host such an event! Pupils had a fantastic day together with the scientists. Scientist Yixing Sui won the battle - his research about Magic Powder really captured the pupils imagination and he won the first prize - a beautiful trophy! All participating scientists of course got a trophy, they all did a good job. They also got lots of drawings from the pupils. After the battle, Upper Primary pupils interviewed the five scientists and then wrote newspaper articles about the event. Pupils learnt a lot - and the Battle of the Scientists made them think even more about science.

IPC-unit 'Investigators'

In our Upper Primary classroom, a crime - a possible murder - forced Upper Primary pupils to use science themselves to solve the mystery. Of course they first had to learn a lot about Forensic Science. They were trainees for quite some time, before the police trusted them with the exhibits found on the crime scene. Upper Primary pupils had to learn about facts vs opinions, the not always clear line between true and false, fair testing and good questioning. They discussed how to make tests fair - by repeating a test several times and trying to eliminate factors that made the test unfair. They learnt about the importance of only changing one factor when testing. They learnt how to write a hypothesis and an explanation about a test before they started their testing, and how to write both the result and the conclusion. This all means that Upper Primary pupils now know how to write science reports. Once the pupils were fully trained, they could actually start solving the crime. They used evidence to make sure they didn't jump to conclusions. They had many good ideas and showed that they had learnt a lot during the training course. By testing the mysterious liquid found next to the body, the ripped note under the body, the blisters and bruises on the victim's body, they got a pretty good idea of what actually had happened in our classroom. They found a main suspect, and also a plausible chain of events that lead to the death of our poor victim - a scientists researching about children and their learning - but not enough evidence to actually arrest the potential criminal. Even though they wanted to... 

Creative writing

Upper Primary pupils have learnt many good skills for how to write good stories, and one of their challenges was to write a story that took place in a real setting. Many of them also got inspired to write suspense stories, with mysterious crimes and sly criminals. Miss Ana is now helping Upper Primary pupils gather their stories in what will eventually become a whole story book. There is also a lovely challenge ahead, a story writing competition in Cambridge, UK. Many pupils feel inspired to send in a story to that competition, so we are all looking forward to that.

Personal Goals

During the science units, it made sense to learn about the Personal Goal Enquiry, the skill to ask good questions and to use different methods to learn more about something interesting. Pupils have also focused on the Personal Goal Communication - to remember how to communicate in a good way. Communication is about talking and listening, about reading and writing. about body language and eye contact. We also talked about how to communicate online, since that is a big part of communication in our modern world. Pupils agreed that communication helps a group to feel good together, to have fun and feel safe together. Laughter is good for both our bodies and our brains. No-one should feel left out or feel that others make fun of him or her.

Our class

Pupils have really tried hard to focus on all our Personal Goals, since this has been a month where Upper Primary pupils have said goodbye to two classmates. Kihachi has moved back to Japan and Chinmay back to India. Pupils really did their best to make sure our two leaving boys felt good during their last weeks here at ISG, so that they have many good memories from us and our school. We wish them both the best of luck now that they face a new situation when they start school again - far away from us in one way, but very much remembered and dearly missed! Luckily we have also had lots of fun together, Pyjama Day, celebrating Stefan's birthday, dance practice for 'Sid's shuffle', our lovely International Festival with a great show and delicious food from around the world, Easter basket art, Easter egg hunt and lots of other things that have made us laugh and feel good together. It has been a good term, and now it is time for Easter holidays! After a cosy Friday morning, with tidying up our classroom, choosing time and Egg hunt, it is time to wish each other a lovely holiday! See you in two weeks time!

Fascinating forces

Who doesn’t like a fun tug-of-war game? This was our Entry Point for our new IPC-unit, Fascinating forces. During this IPC-unit, Upper Primary pupils have learnt a lot about different types of forces. They investigate different types of forces, they read about forces, they discuss forces and, of course, they experiment to see if the information they learn is trustworthy.

Now, they confidently talk about the difference between mass and weight. They talk about gravity and density. They talk about air resistance, water resistance, upthrust, buoyancy, drag, thrust etc. They know that there is less gravity on the Moon and more gravity on the Sun. They mention Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, the Wright brothers and Archimedes when they want to explain what they mean. They start up a new experiment with great enthusiasm, they first write a hypothesis and then they carry out the experiment and write down the result. It is fun to learn by doing!

We are now wrapping up this unit with a Technology task, testing Archimedes’ principle, designing boats and testing them. Lots of fun, but also tricky at times!

At the end of January, Primary pupils in year 3-6 had a chance to participate in the big MOVE2 concert at BOZAR in Brussels. It was a fun morning, with both beatboxing and classical music. It was a huge event to hear the National Orchestra of Belgium playing. Music is a shared interest in Upper Primary.

After the holidays, Upper Primary pupils will visit a Science Fair at a secondary school here in Ghent. That will be a great warm-up for the Battle of the Scientists here at ISG in March! Pupils are preparing for this big event in different ways. Lots of tasks will be shared amongst our Primary pupils and it will be a great chance to learn how to take responsibility for hosting a big event.

By looking at different types of interview questions, and by interviewing pupils in Year 4, Upper Primary pupils are preparing for their tasks as reporters during the Battle. They now know how to turn an interview into a newspaper article.

During the last day of school before the Mid-term holidays, ISG pupils come dressed in costumes. The school day ends with a Carnival party! This is a fun way to wrap up weeks of learning before the holidays. Enjoy the holidays and see you in one week’s time!

Boom-chicka-holiday!

After a few busy weeks, the tempo in the Upper Primay classroom now starts to slow down a bit. This last week before the holidays, Upper Primary pupils are finishing off a few tasks, but they also have time to help Miss Maija deliver ISG Christmas cards to all the neighbours here at De Pintelaan, sing songs, listen to our very exciting class book 'No talking' and do arts and crafts to surprise near and dear ones.

Upper Primary pupils have wrapped up their IPC-unit 'Being human - human being'. They showed their learning in different ways - by writing questions and answers about the brain, the lungs, the skeleton and the heart, by writing a non-fiction text (a non-chronological report about a certain body part) and also by sharing their learning and knowledge in classroom discussions. Upper Primary pupils really loved this unit, they asked if we couldn't continue the unit the whole year and learn everything about the whole human body. Unfortunately, we don't have the time to do that... so I suggested that the ones interested in learning more should continue their enquiry independently! It has been a great joy to see how eager pupils have been to learn more. They now know and understand many of the scientific terms that describe the different parts of the body and the complicated systems that make sure a human being stays alive! And after the Christmas holidays, Upper Primary pupils will start with a new exciting IPC-unit...

Together with Miss Ana, Upper Primary pupils have written comics. The stories about the lonely robot are just lovely - and the whole process of learning how to use our LEGO Education kit to make a digital version of these comics was frustrating, interesting, creative, hard - and lots of fun!

The end-of-term fun, a trip to the ice-skating rink in the city centre, was great fun - and turned in to a big adventure when it started snowing heavily! The children had a great time on the ice and also had a very cosy afternoon when we all were back at school again!

We also had a fantastic Christmas show. The children sang and danced and made everyone feel the holiday spirit. The recorder group showed their progress, the Primary choir sounded lovely, pupils played instruments and showed their capacity to perform in front of an audience - and Upper Primary pupils were super nervous, but managed to overwin their stage fright and sing Boom-Chicka-Boom! The audience, families and friends, were impressed and really enjoyed our show! Afterwards, pupils were tired, but very happy!

In March, ISG Primary pupils will participate in a big happening here in Belgium - The Battle of the Scientists! Pupils have voted and we now have our five finalists. There is still a lot of work to do before the actual battle. When we return to school after the holidays, different work groups will start working with their different tasks. It is a big thing, hosting a big event like this, and this will be an fantastic opportunity for Primary pupils to show their independence and capacity to take responsibility for different tasks.

Upper Primary had a lovely surprise one day in November when Miss Teja came to visit us! It was lovely seeing her and we hope she will come and visit us soon again! Kaaru came back to visit us again one day this week, and she happily joined our art class. We also hope that Romeo will come and visit us soon and let us know what his life is like in France, now that he has moved back there! We always miss the ones leaving us, and we always look forward to new students who will join our class. Tomorrow we will wish everybody in Upper Primary, and everybody at ISG, a lovely Christmas holiday! Relax, have fun, play, rest and come back to school in January, fully charged with lots of energy to learn and have fun! During our last school day 2017, we celebrated Kihachi's birthday and we ended our Autumn term with a delicious treat!

Season's greetings from all of us to all of you! See you next year!

 

 

 

All about Planet Earth

Planet Earth in focus for Upper Primary pupils

Save our planet! Be the change you want to see!

During this IPC-unit, Upper Primary pupils have learnt a lot about why people move from one country to another. They have also understood how these movements affect planet Earth.

News report by Miss Jenny

During the first two months of the new school year, Upper Primay pupils have studied the differences between travelling, moving and migrating. Pupils have learnt about this important topic and understand that we live in a constantly changing world. Different events — like natural disasters or conflicts — force some people to leave their home countries. Others choose to leave their home country to study, work or start an important project in a different part of the world.

Štefan, Kihachi, Hanna, Shawn, Mohammed, Rita, Mohammed and Roméo have all been able to express thoughts, ideas and new learning during this unit.

With all these people travelling, moving and migrating, pupils know that almost any type of journey pollutes the air. Pupils also know that climate change is affecting our planet and they know that global warming is causing problems. Instead of giving up, pupils have been trying to think out of the box and find creative solutions to this problem. By inventing an imaginary eco-friendly hotel on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, pupils have tested new ways of thinking.

If everybody tried to think as hard about saving the planet as these pupils have done, there is hope for our planet. The time to change our behavior is now! What are you waiting for?

 

 

As you might have understood, Upper Primay pupils have learnt more about writing newspaper articles. This has been a great way to link Literacy to this ongoing IPC-project. Pupils write other text types as well. During Wednesday mornings, pupils have Creative Writing sessions together with Miss Ana. This time their texts are based on scenes created with LEGO from the LEGO Education boxes. You can see the scenes here in the blog, but if you want to read the actual stories, you have to come and visit us.

We have had fun and exciting times here in our class during the last few weeks. We enjoyed Kaaru's visit here in class, it was great to see her again and to hear about her new school. We have celebrated Hanna's birthday and we have shared Rita's joy for receiving the headmaster award. Pupils have presented facts from our IPC-unit during an Assembly and have also performed playing instruments. Upper Primary pupils did a great job!

Time flies and pupils are amazed that it is already the end of October and time for the Autumn holidays. Pupils have learnt many new strategies in Numeracy, as well as important Numeracy vocabulary. They have had their first maths test, the mid-term test, and have discussed these with their teacher. By implementing the Growth Mindset, pupils have been able to see these maths discussions as great ways to learn from any mistakes. All pupils know that they can learn new things - they all try to keep a positive attitude and believe in themselves - and they try to challenge their brains to move new information from the short-term memory to the long-term memory.

As part of our goal to learn more about each other's countries and cultures (International Mindedness), pupils have learnt a bit about the Day of the Dead, a Mexican tradition. Pupils enjoyed this art activity!

After the holidays, Upper Primary pupils will meet again and continue learning new exciting things! Now, we will all just enjoy an autumnal week off!