Middle-Primary - Ms. Kelsey and Ms. Anelda

It's shocking

 

The big idea...

Electricity is an energy that makes things work. It flows along wires inside our house and classroom. Our lights, TVs, computers mobile phones, cars, and many other things use electricity. Did you know that thunder and lightning is a type of electricity? Did you know your hair can have electricity too? There are lots of other exciting facts about electricity that we are going to discover together in the Primary class over the next few weeks.

 

In Science, we’ll be finding out:

  • about static electricity
  • how to make our own electrical circuit
  • about electricity at home and in the classroom
  • about the dangers of electricity

 

In Technology, we’ll be finding out:

  • how to design and make a torch

 

In History, we’ll be finding out:

  • What we did before electricity

 

A reminder that the Entry Point for this unit will take place on Monday 10th March with a visit to Technopolis in Mechelen. It will be a fun kick-off for our new unit.

We look forward to seeing you at Gent St Pieters train station at 8.40am at the latest. Please be on time! We will meet by the doors of the main entrance (facing the fountain).

Parents who would like to pick up their child at the end of the day from the station, need to be there at 15.05. Those not picked up will walk back to school for home time at 15.30.

Children need to bring a snack, a water bottle, cold lunch and some fruit!

We hope you have had a lovely spring break and look forward to seeing you soon!

Carnival

 

In the Primary class we have been learning about how to re-use and recycle! So, what better way to re-use plastic bottles, toilet rolls, yoghurt pottles and egg cartons, than to turn them into creative carnival masks! After constructing the masks we spray painted them and added some sparkly finishing touches using glitter. It was a lot of fun!

Parents, you can see more photos from our carnival parade with the pre-primary students in the photo gallery.

 

In other news, earlier in the year when the Primary shop opened for an afternoon, we earnt more than our 120 Euro target. After donating the sum of 120 Euros to a local charity '100 sterke schouders', we still had 46 Euros left to spend. Last week the Primary students chose three 'Happy Packs' on the Unicef website to help other people in need. We used our excess funds to buy 300 neonatal tetanus vaccines, 200 polio vaccines and 180 sachets of vitamins and minerals.

 

ISG Values

 

At ISG we have five school values we find important - Love of learning, Happiness, High expectations, Respect and Diversity. Every two months we focus on a different value. Throughout February and March we are putting Diversity under the spotlight! In the Primary class we discussed what diversity means both in wider society and in our school community. In co-operative groups students then brainstormed ideas about what Diversity 'sounds like', 'looks like' and 'feels like'.

 

We all agreed that we are lucky to have such diversity in our class - a diverse range of ages, abilities, languages and cultures!

Our brilliant music class!

 

Over the last few weeks the Primary class have been working away on a puppet show. The project involved students drawing their own puppets, creating the story line and adding sound effects to create a fun audio-visual story of their own.

We had the premier of 'The story of Brilliant' in class today, and now we can share it with you too!

 

 

The Story of Brilliant from ghent.isg on Vimeo.

Reflecting on this project with the students, this is what they enjoyed, learnt and would do differently next time.

  1. What I’ve Enjoyed
    1. Sound effects for the animals (Ivan)
    2. Singing part (Alana)
    3. Performing actions with the puppets (Chavelli)
    4. Favourite part: - the fighting scene with the dragons (Emma)
                                     - capture of Mr. Simon
                                     - celebration (Idil)
    5. Drawing the puppets and  performing (Vedant)

 

  1. What I’ve learnt throughout the making of 'The story of Brilliant'
    1. Drawing skills
    2. How to perform in  a Puppet show
    3. Not to put your hand in the screen while performing
    4. Not to touch the backdrop with the puppets
    5. Not to bump the camera while recording
    6. The process of putting a movie together is hard
    7. How to make a movie
    8. It takes a long time to put together a movie of 7 minutes
    9. Intonation: speaking loudly and clearly
    10. Learning to work as a group

 

  1. What could we do differently next time?
    1. Listen even better to instructions
    2. Speak more loudly and clearer
    3. Work more carefully with the puppets and touching the backdrop
    4.  Make your own backdrop

Thank-you to our music teacher, Mr Simon, for this fun and worthwhile project!

Environmentally friendly pupils

Primary learns more about recycling on PhotoPeach

Our Greek vases

 

We first made the structure of the vase with a balloon and thick card.

Next we did a few layers of papier mâché.

And a final layer of white tissue paper.

Then we each mixed orange, red and brown paint until we created a colour that we liked.

Once the paint had dried we were able to draw patterns on our vases, inspired by the real Greek vases we had seen.

Finally, we represented a Greek Legend we had read by drawing a scene from the story on each side of the vase. We are so pleased with the final result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Centina's research and our Dream Catchers

Centina's research: "The Native American people, also know as American Indians, are the indigenous people of the Americas. /.../ The Ojibwa people have an ancient legend about the origin of the dream catcher. Storytellers speak of the Spider Woman, known as Asibikaashi; she took care of the children. So the mothers and grandmothers would weave magical webs for the children, using willow hoops and sinew, or cordage made from plants. The dream catcher would filter out all bad dreams and only allow good thoughts to enter our mind. Once the sun rises, all bad dreams just disappear. In Lakota, the dream catcher was believed to help you reach your goals, making good use of your ideas , dreams and visions. If you believe in the great spirit, the web will catch your good ideas and the bad ones will go through the hole. It is also said that the dream catcher holds the destiny of the future." Art task 3, Dream catchers on PhotoPeach

History task 3, Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt, gods and goddesses on PhotoPeach

IPC and Literacy

 

Using the Greek Legends that we have been reading in class, the students have been practicing the skill of summarising the main events in a story and sequencing them. The Lower Primary students completed a story line and a story circle, while the Upper Primary students completed storyboards which also involved re-telling the story in their own words. It was a lot of fun! Have a look for yourself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Legendary day in Brussels!

 

When we first arrived in Brussels we visited the most significant landmark in Brussels, the beautiful Central Square.

After that Miss Maija told us the Legend behind another important tourist destination in Brussels - the Mannekin Pis! Parents, ask your children if they still remember the story about why, since 500 years, there is a little statue of a boy doing pipi!

All the students were very excited when they heard that Mannekin Pis had a friend! So we went off to look for Jannekin Pis!

After having our lunch in the lovely park surrounding the Art and History Museum, we were ready for the most important part of our visit...

to look at Ancient Greek vases!

Our guide told us all about the legends represented on the vases. After reading so many Greek Legends in class, it was great to hear some familiar stories and characters and to see some real vases.

We learnt about how the vases were made and how they got the images on the outside. We learnt about what they were used for and who used them. The most interesting part was definately the stories depicted on the vases and how there is an element of truth to the Legends, but also a lot of fantasy!

Parents, you can see more photos of our day in Brussels in the Photo gallery.

Now you can look forward to seeing our own vases, we have nearly finished them!