Middle Primary - Ms Cristi

Wonderlands

Dear families, 

Since our last blog Year 2 have settled down to new learning. In numeracy we have been learning to use ordinal numbers, understanding place value using 10p and 1p coins, adding and subtracting 10, 20 and 30 from 2 digits, telling the time to the hour and half past, giving directions and learning to measure using Metres, Centimetres and Decimetres. Measurement is tricky so we have focused on objects in the classroom and around the school to find out the best method of measuring. We also made a height chart, which we will look at again next June to see how much the children have grown.

In literacy we have been focusing on punctuation, sentence structure, proper nouns and adjectives. The children have started to write longer and more descriptive recounts, which are quite entertaining. 

Our project has brought us to three different continents, where we visited Japan, Brazil and Spain. Lucia showed us different items from Japan, Hugo gave a presentation on Brazil as he lived there for a couple of years, and Jaime, Ulma, Lucia and Zahra each spoke about Spain and brought different Spanish items to class to share. Zahra also performed a Flamenco dance, what a little gem she is. We have also been writing about these countries and the different cultural elements, so do not be surprised if your child is eager to visit any of these countries!!!

As autumn is a wonder season with so many beautiful colours we took the opportunity to go for walks and gather leaves and chestnuts which we used for different art projects. We talked about why birds start to migrate in autumn and why some animals hibernate.  Year 2 are fascinated with all that goes on around us.

Miss. Naomi is very happy with the childrens swimming progess and they clearly love their weekly swim session.

We celebrated Lucia, Zoey and Zo's birthdays, such delicious treats. Thank you!

Lilie has received 'The Headmaster Award' as she is an enthusiastic learner who thrives for new learning. Also, only one year ago Lilie arrived to ISG with no English and she can now speak, read and write with ease. Well done! 

Myer has been student of the week as he has made significant improvement in all areas, he is very focused in class and this is clearly visible with his work content. Keep it up Myer!
 
For now enjoy the autumn break and see you all soon.
 
Miss. Rebecca

 

A big and warm welcome to Year 2, where we are looking forward to growth and development!

Dear all, 

It has been a very busy start to the new academic year: getting to know each other, organising our classroom, getting used to routines again and settling down to work. The children seem to love their new class and feel at home!

We warmly welcome our new students Lauren, Alexander, Zahra, Ulma and Hugo, who have settled in fabulously. Our class now consists of 13 different nationalities.

Year 2 are very lucky to have support for the coming months by Miss Christiana, she has fitted in perfectly and we are very grateful to all her efforts this week.

We warmed up this year with lots of icebreakers. We watched 'Inside Out', which was a great way to get to know each other better, through talking about feelings and emotions. We have also enjoyed a trip to a park where we played and got to know the children from Upper, Middle and Lower Primary.

Year 2 have been busy completing artwork, such as handprints of different animals and art showing their personalities and interests.

Our reading rotation started successfully this week. It's great to see the children settling into new routines.

We have started our language programme with an emphasis on grammar, spelling and reading. Our Abacus maths programme started off with a revision and we are now moving forward with doubling and halving. Every week the children will complete a verbal and non-verbal reasoning test. These tests are designed to check their ability to understand and analyse visual information and solve problems using visual reasoning. The children are already immersing themselves and enjoying it!

Our first IPC project ‘Gateways to the World’ started with a fun and fulfilling Entry Point. We will be learning all about travelling....and the world.

Dutch, music, swimming and choir classes have had a successful start, and it was lovely to see our fabulous specialist teachers back at school.

The month of September was also a time for celebrating. Freja, Myer and Archit all had their birthday, thank you for the delicious treats!!

I would like to say that I am personally delighted to be able to teach your children this year. It will be a year of lots of learning and fun!

Enjoy your weekend.

Miss Rebecca

We got that holiday feeling!!

Hello everyone,

A warm welcome to our last blog of the year, we had so many highlights and learnt so much, it has truly been a wonderful year and I personally adored being your child’s teacher. 

The last weeks Year 2 have worked very hard preparing themselves for their various end of the year tests. Well done to you all for the incredible progress you have made this year. Feeling very proud of each and everyone of you!

All of Primary participated in our art week, and they learnt about many different artists and different techniques.

Middle primary went to the Blaarmeersen as part of their end of year excursion. We had a great time. In the morning we took part in some rock climbing and circus activities.
We entertained each other by putting together our own circus show. Everybody had a good time performing their circus acts to an audience. We also had a go at rock climbing, this was a fun yet challenging activity for everyone which tested our physical and mental skills. In the afternoon we went to the lake where we had some time to relax, find our way out of a maze and play baseball, OH, and not forgetting the water fight, which was very well appreciated on such a hot day!!

We celebrated Sebastian's birthday last week and were treated with ice-cream. Thank you!! Our last day of school was made even more special with the celebration of Hector's Birthday! What a delicious cake!

On a sad note we had to say goodbye to Gwen, Viktor and Zirak, whom we wish the very best to.  We are sure that you will visit us. Take special care!!

I would like to take this moment to thank you for your support this year and to wish you and yours a wonderful summer.

See you in September, all fresh and ready to go!!

Miss. Rebecca and Miss. Ana

 

Message from Mrs Anelda

Year 3, It is time to say “good bye” as our year has come to an end. I cannot believe this year is over! I am so proud of all of you. Over the last months we have lived, learned, loved, laughed, sang, read, played, studied and share many marvellous moments together.
Remember all the fun we had this year. I feel so honoured to have been your teacher. To be greeted by your bright smiling faces every morning was the best thing a teacher could ever ask for, but you gave me so much more than that. You gave me treasured moments that I will not forget. Have a wonderful summer holiday I will miss you all.

Keep Smiling Bright. You are all Stars!

Mrs Anelda

We are surrounded by 'Living Things'

Hello everyone, 

I hope you are enjoying the sunshine!!

Straight after the Easter break with got into a week of maths: we problem solved, measured, worked on graphs, made our own math board games, played different math games and of course all of Primary were involved in the Set tournament. It was a wonderful week of learning and putting what we already know into practice.

In literacy we have been learning all about prepositions, prefixes and comparatives through songs, actions and of course by doing exercises.
Climate change is a huge issue and with Earth Day in April we focused on the effects climate change is having on our world and what we could do to help. We watched interesting videos on this subject, brainstormed ideas on how to help and then 'put pen to paper'. The interesting results can be seen outside our classroom. The children also spoke about this during assembly to make other pupils aware.

In numeracy we have been measuring, weighing and learning about capacities. We have also started to relate division to fractions.

Our new IPC project is called ‘ The Nature of life’. We are, and will be looking at, life cycles from frogspawn to frogs, caterpillars to butterflies and the life cycle of a sea horse. We will also review the cycle from seeds to plants. The children will learn how all living things grow and change, feed and reproduce, and the effect that the environment has on them.
Geffen's Dad, Oren, joined Middle Primary to speak about his job as a biochemist and how it connects with life cycles. We learnt about evolution and Charles Darwin, how different species are similar because they share a common ancestor, how embryonic development is similar among related organisms and we learnt about genes.  We learnt so much!!!

Ine, who is almost a qualified teacher, is finalising her studies with a programme called 'Empowering Education in Europe’. We are very fortunate to have her in our class for the next two weeks. She is actively involved in giving some lessons, guiding the children and helping out in all other areas. 

We celebrated Yumiri and Ediz's birthdays, a lovely time was had eating delicious cakes, thank you!!

Alma and Hector have received the student of the week award for their incredible writing skills. Hector also received the Headmaster award for his huge interest in reading and therefore general knowledge. Well done to both of you!

With Mother’s Day on the 14th of May, we have been busy with an art activity…..a little surprise is coming your way!!

On this note, I wish all you Mummy’s a lovely Mother’s Day.

Take care

Miss. Rebecca, Miss. Ana and Miss. Ine

 

Now handing over to Miss. Anelda for your update on Year 3.

Year 3 had a lot of fun during our week of Math. We made a number portrait of ourselves and we had a “ figure me out” quiz where students had to write about themselves using numeracy functions covered in class. We played Math memory games and we did a playground survey which evolved all of middle and upper primary.

Furthermore we have been focusing on weighing objects around the classroom this can be tricky but year 3 is doing great at estimating the weights of different objects. We have been learning about different charts and everybody loved working with Pictographs. It is amazing to see how much progress everyone is making!

During our literacy lesson, year 3 looked at writing poems, the typical features, format and vocabulary used when writing a poem. All poems are on display in front of our classroom on our Poet-Tree, please come and have a look. They did a brilliant job!

Have a great Mother's Day.

Miss. Anelda

Outdoor learning is fun

Hello everyone,

With this beautiful season here, Middle Primary have been exploring the wonders of soil and plant life. The children have learnt all about seeds through classification, comparison and contrast, and hands-on planting experiences. They can now recognise the roots, stems, leaves and flowers as parts of plants, and   we also understand how the parts work together to help the plant. We have been observing and recording the germination of seeds in the classroom, and have planted them. So curious to see the growth of our bean plants!

There has been lots of gardening going on, from the planting of lettuce and parsley to the replanting of plants. We have also made an indoor vertical garden, with various edible and non edible plants, which the children are taking great care of. We have visited the Botancial Gardens of Ghent and learnt about why various plants grow under different weather conditions.

Year 2 have been learning about money and using money wisely; soon they will shop at school to ensure this learning. Division has also been introduced which the children quickly picked up on, being a close friend of multiplication.
In literacy we have been working on Limericks, so much fun rhyming words! Proof reading has been a big task, and this can clearly show if the learning is there or not. I am very proud to say that Year 2 are hard working and devoted to their learning, so much so that last week they all received a special picnic in class.
This week Aryan has received Student of the week for his continuous progess and dedication to learning. Well done!!

ISG´s International Festival was a wonderful day, all the children did us proud.

We have made lovely Easter baskets especially for our egg hunt, and dyed and painted real eggs, which are now even more appetising!

We have celebrated Ziraks birthday, so lovely to share this day with him and thank you for the oh so delicious cake!
A very special birthday wish for Miss Ana, we hope you have a fabulous day.

Ediz, Alice, Diya, Zirak, Rafef, Yashika, Shubhan and Sebastian have all enjoyed the lego challenge; Mr. Hans continues to be a huge favourite.

Nanda came to visit us before her departure, we will greatly miss her but know that she will visit soon.

Enjoy the break!

Ms. Rebecca and Ms. Ana

Year 3 students are becoming more confident in their use of numbers. We have been looking at different tasks in numeracy – adding and subtracting with numbers up to three digits using column addition and subtraction. Adding and subtracting amounts of money, telling and writing the time using the 12-hour and 24-hour clock and problem solving skills.

In literacy, pupils read and work with follow-up questions and writing their own book reviews. They have been learning more about grammar rules, spelling rules and practising their writing skills. We have been writing fact files and poems about plants.

This was a good term and we are looking forward to continuing our learning journey after the holidays.

Happy Easter holiday.

Ms. Anelda

Caring is Sharing

Hello everyone,

Just before the break an update on Middle Primary.

In literacy Year 2 have been discussing beautiful images and writing about those images, whilst trying to include all that has been taught the last months, e.g punctuation, adverbs, adjectives, present and past tense and the present continuous. They have thoroughly enjoyed this type of excerise.

Our key focus in numeracy has been doubling and halving, recognising, finding, naming and writing fractions, and understanding mixed and placing halves on a number lines. Fractions tend to be tricky for children, so we will revise what we have done just after the break.

Our IPC sessions have been focused on the children making a significant difference, so we came up with the idea to help the refugees in and around Ghent. All of Middle Primary became totally involved in helping so many people in need. They prepared posters to hang around the school, they spoke to all the classes and explained what they were doing and why. From there the whole school became involved and concerned for the refugees. The children became aware of all that they have and were often happy to donate some of their belongings. We collected over 40 large bags of clothing, toys and blankets.
Middle Primary would like to thank you for all your support. The ONG, 'VZW Humain' are extremely grateful for all our efforts.

Now we are looking forward to our next project, which will brings us outdoors!

We continue to enjoy our regular quizzes. It is a favourite of Middle Primary at the moment. Long may it last!

Alice and Lele have been students of the week, they have both shown, in their individual ways, how strong they are in and outside of class. We are very proud of you!

Lele, Geffen, Luka, Viktor, Nanda and Valentin all had their moment with Mr. Hans at the lego challenge.

On a sad note we had to say good bye to Lele, he brought the sound of the piano to our school every morning, it was just lovely to hear. And thanks to Lele, Sebastian and Ediz are now practising at school on a regular basis.
Three years ago Nanda started at ISG, she has grown into a beautiful, caring, attentive and keen learner. Her contributions in class have been outstanding, and she will be deeply missed. I take this opportunity to wish Nanda and her family the very best in the future and can only hope that we will meet again.

Wishing you all a relaxing break.

Miss. Rebecca, Miss Ana and Miss. Anelda

 

It's all about making a significant difference

Dear parents,

First of all I would like to give a warm welcome to Ida from Norway and Lele from China who joined Middle Primary in January. They have settled in extremely well.

Year 2 have been starting their mornings off with some interesting facts; they are learning so much from our general knowledge sessions.

Our literacy programme is full of new learning; the children are becoming more descriptive in speaking and writing. We have been reading lots of fairy tales, drawing pictures related to them and we are starting to write our own fairy tales.

In numeracy we have been working on subtraction, problem solving and we are now learning about 3D shapes and their properties.

We celebrated Siri’s birthday and Middle Primary were treated to a delicious cake. Thank you!

During the last month Hector, Sofia, Geffen and Rafef have been given our class award of Student of the week, which they definitely deserved as it is very obvious that they are working hard and therefore learning lots.

Hector, Yumiri, Zirak and Ida got to test out their skills at the Lego challenge with Mr. Hans, which brought a huge smile to their faces.

Our IPC topic is ' Those who made a difference'. The children are fascinated with all the incredible people who made a difference to this world. They have worked on individual biographies of significant people and have also gathered information about a significant person from their home country. With all this information gathered, the children made a timeline. We have looked deeply into the work of Antoni Gaudi and the children have made their own mosaics. Middle Primary are now learning about some of the most incredible artists. Why don’t you ask them who they are? Please come up to Middle Primary and have a look at your child's work.

We have real live Mozarts in Middle Primary. Lele, Ediz and Sebastian have taken to playing the piano in the morning, it is just lovely to listen to them. What a fabulous way to start the day!

Till next time.
Keep safe,
Miss Rebecca and Miss Ana

In Year 3 we’ve been extremely busy practising our numeracy skills, working with fractions, shapes and word problems. As always we are learning while having fun, either working in small groups or all together as a single group.
We also have a good time learning with our interactive board. One example is our Abacus interactive programme that proposes different interactive ac­tivities. It is an excellent way to learn Maths in the way that children are able to see different examples, solve prob­lems and receive immediate feedback. Whiteboards help pupils absorb informa­tion easily and have group discussions. For teachers it is a great teaching tool because we can integrate our lessons, pictures, graphs and make annotations quite easily.

Our reading rotation mornings are now well established. Kids get to read one on one with the teacher while the rest of the class is working independently on different tasks. There is a "task list" where the class keeps a record of the tasks that have been completed. This way every student is responsible for his or her own learning.

This week for the first time we used Lego Story Start­er to write and tell our own stories. Story Starter helps the students to create stories in a natural way. It enhances speaking, listening, reading, writing, and compre­hension skills. It gets students involved right from the start, motivating them to use their imagination to develop and cre­ate narratives, characters, and storylines. After building their stories, students take turns to share their ideas. They can also use the computers to write their story, which enables them to combine words and im­ages to resolve problems in storytelling that they would not be able to resolve us­ing words alone.

Miss Anelda

 

Exploring in Middle Primary

Hello dear families,

Year 2 and Year 3 have been particularly busy with the run up to Christmas. They have been learning fabulous songs in music class and we too prepared our song for the Christmas show. It is wonderful to see them enjoy music.

Our IPC project came to an end with the children individually presentating their project work on explorers; they have researched exploreres from Marco Polo to Jacques Coutseau. Come upstairs and have a look at your childs work on display.
In relation to our project on Victorian Times we went to an exhibition on child labour in Miat, Gent. Fourteen children, from different countries told their stories in a very informal way, Middle Primary were intrigued to learn more about the hardships children had to endure. We also took a look around Miat were they were many inventions to be seen.

Year 2 have settled into a very nice routine, and they are working wonderfully, individually and in pairs during the mornings. We have been working hard on descriptive vocabulary, punctuation and short stories. In numeracy our focus is now on multiplication.

We had a fantastic language exhange activity with a local school, Sint Paulus. We read a story with them and then completed various related tasks. Middle Primary were very caring towards the pupils of Sint Paulus. It was also a great opportunity for our children to practice their Dutch skills.

The lego challenge is still a favourite of all the children and the last weeks Alma, Gwen, Hector, Aryan, Anika and Norah had the privilege to programme a lego model, they are most certainly learning a lot from Mr. Hans.

We have also been enjoying birthdays, Geffen, Valentin and Anika shared cake and goodies with the class. Such a lovely treat. I would like to take this moment to thank you all for my fabulous birthday gifts, so very thoughtful!

To end this term Middle Primary went ice-skating, it was wonderful to see them trying to skate and others becoming more confident at skating. Looking forward to many more such activities.

We great sadness we must say farewell to Anika. She has been a positive influence in Middle Primary and she will be sorely missed. Take care sweet Anika and we wish you and your family the very best.

On this note, we wish you all a lovely holiday. Stay safe.

Ms. Rebecca and Ms. Ana

 

I hand over to Ms. Anelda:

Hello everybody,

To start the term, we have been reviewing some numeracy and literacy topics and most importantly we have been adjusting to our new morning routine

There are lots of different activities going on in Year 3 each week. Students have been working with different tasks in numeracy, learning their Multiplication Tables, Fractions, practicing different Adding and Subtraction strategies and Problem Solving skills.

In literacy, Class 3 has been learning the difference between Fiction and Non-fiction books. We talked about the kinds of pictures, words, elements, and the reason for reading both genres. With all these differences in mind, our next job was to choose a Non-Fiction book, look through it and write our own book review. They did a perfect job!  Furthermore, they have been learning more about grammar rules, spelling rules and practicing their writing skills. I would also like to congratulate the Year 3 students for their amazing performance on their spelling tests. I am very proud to see so many perfect scores! Keep it up guys!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

Ms. Anelda

 

The Changing of Seasons

 

Welcome back to our blog. 

Middle Primary have been OH so busy! Our IPC topic the last weeks has been focused on health and exercise, they children have learnt about the different food groups and the food pyramid. We put the children to a food tasting challenge, where they had to categorised the different foods they were tasting, from homemade pasta to rice dishes, pear to passion fruit, nuts to dried fruits. It was an enjoyable yet flavour finding and understanding of the true importance of healthy food. We also looked into the importance of exercise on the body and how we benefit from regularly exercise and about our organs and their uses. Each child received a certificate of completion of a Nutrition class. ´Oliver Twist´, the film,  has been our Exit Point of ´The Generation Game', as Oliver and his hard life has been extremely influential in our learning these last weeks. 

In numeracy, Year 3 have been focusing on the calendar: days of the week, months of the year, a leap year, and learning to tell the time to the nearest 5 minutes, also comparing, ordering and understanding place value. While Year 2 have been problem solving and also working on mental addition and substraction.

The children have now started book reviews, with a special focus on punctuation and the use of adjectives. It is wonderful to see how your children are growing with the English language, they are becoming real little writers.

With Halloween the center of attention the last week, we have been decorating our class entrance with halloween and autumnal themes, Middle Primary have been learning about the different fruits and vegetables of this season. Our halloween party was so much fun and every one of us was a bit spooky!!!!

Well done to Zirak and Yashika who have received the student of the week.

For now we wish you all a wonderful and relaxing autumn break.

See you soon.

Miss. Rebecca and Miss. Ana

Lots of learning and exploring

We are becoming a wonderful class at Middle Primary, where respect is our goal this month and the children are truly showing how to be respectful towards others.

We have been working very hard in numeracy, both Year 2 and Year 3 are intrigued with 2D and 3D shapes, they are finding this learning both challenging and enjoyable. We have also been making shapes with is a great way to learn about all the properties. The children are back enjoying Abacus online, please ensure that they do there weekly allocations.

In literacy we have been looking at nouns, adjectives, articles, speech marks and the children have been writing their recounts every Monday, therefore practicing the past tense. Guided reading is well underway and the children are reading a couple of books per week.

In IPC Middle Primary have been researching about children not going to school but having to work instead. We took a look into the 1800s when many children had to clean sooty chimneys or operate dangerous machinery in factories, how many children did not have the luxury of a school education. In groups Middle Primary researched and then wrote about the different jobs that children from the 1800s had to do. We have started reading Oliver Twist, and this wonderful story also fits perfectly with our IPC topic.

Music is a magical way to relax and the children have been exploring their feelings when listening to Andrea Bocelli. Some photos in this blog show how touched they were.

Middle Primary are just loving their music, Dutch and sports classes, we are delighted to see such enthusiasm. The lego challenge continues to be a favourite of the children and so far Luka, Geffen, Viktor and Sofia have participated.

We have welcomed Yumiri, from Japan,  to our class, who has settled in fantastically from day one. 

We had the pleasure of celebrating Yashika, Aryan, Diya, luka and Alma's birthdays, thank you for all delicious cakes!

Since our last blog Sebastain, Aryan, Diya, Yumiri and Ediz have all received Student of the week awards. Each child has shown different strengths, from respect to adaptability, thoughtfulness to enquiry, hardworking to overall good behaviour. Well done to you all!

Shubhan received the Headmasters Award as he shows respect towards his classroom and school rules, his classmates and teachers. And he is also an extremely caring young boy. We are very proud of you!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

 

Miss. Rebecca and Miss. Ana