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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!
Upper Primary pupils have spent the first weeks of school getting to know each other and the classroom routines. There are 16 pupils in Upper Primary this year – and we say a special welcome to our new ISG pupils, Guilia from Italy, Yaroslav from Russia, Fiona from the USA and Sofia from Australia! It is a lovely group of pupils – all 16 together - and pupils have already made new friends!
The Personal Value celebrated this month is Respect. Upper Primary pupils have also discussed what behaviour we find respectful in the classroom. Pupils wrote down their own classroom rules and made posters to put on display, to help remember what they all have agreed upon. They have drawn a self-portrait and expressed their personalities by sharing their favourite hobbies and things they like. It is important that all pupils feel that their different personalities are respected. They now learn about what type of games and activities they can play or do outside during break time – come rain or shine - to make sure everyone feels okay!
Pupils in Upper Primary can follow either a Bilingual programme or an English programme. During these lessons, where pupils spend time in two different classrooms, pupils focus on different aspects of language - looking more closely at for example vocabulary, literacy, numeracy and IPC.
Mr Francis shares a bit more from his classroom: Children following the bilingual programme have started going to their daily Dutch class – that is, every day except Tuesday (niet op dinsdag). They have started learning basic phrases to talk about themselves (Waar woon je? Waar kom je vandaan? Welke taal spreek je? Hoe gaat het? …) and they have studied the alphabet and the sounds in Dutch (kat – maan, bed – eend, hond – boom, mug – muur, …) They also have started doing numeracy tasks (rekenen), their homelearning preparation (huiswerkroutine) and IPC tasks in Dutch. Finally, students that are already more advanced in Dutch have started to look at more complicated sentences and tasks.
Even though it is not easy to start learning a new language, we have been enjoying our learning together and it is great to see that pupils are taking responsibility (verantwoordelijkheid) for their work, for example by writing down the words of the week (woorden van de week).
In the Upper Primary class, the bi-weekly routines (blue week and red week) are becoming more familiar and pupils remember what weeks to bring swimming togs and what weeks they have two PE lessons. They are also getting familiar with home learning routines, classroom activities and responsibilities.
The first IPC topic this year is “Express yourself” and pupils are learning more about emotions and how to express themselves in a clear way. They have for example discussed bullying and what we can do at ISG to prevent this from happening here at our school. Pupils agree that everyone should be able to be who they are and that everyone here at our school should be treated in a kind and caring way! They are now trying to be good role-models on the playground and show younger pupils how to include others in games and have fun together!
Pupils also know that we all have days when we feel on top of the world, and other days when we might be sad, upset or home-sick. There are days when we have to be extra kind to each other. It is not always easy to express how we feel, though. Upper Primary pupils have made emotion thermometers and looked at how different emotions can be expressed in weaker or stronger ways. During science lessons, they have researched whether emotions come from the heart or the brain and whether animals can feel emotions or not. They know the difference between facts and opinions and use these skills when writing scientific answers, based on evidence. They look at learning goals and try to work towards these, based on year level and language skills.
During literacy lessons, pupils currently learn more about the text type ‘friendly letters’. They learn about the specific text features and how to write a letter to an unknown person. Upper Primary pupils will write letters to year 5 pupils at Serendipity School in Belmont, USA. Pupils are excited about this pen pal programme and more information about this exchange will come later!
Since the school year started, pupils have also had a chance to meet different teachers and participate in different activities during Swimming lessons, Music class, Recorder groups, Tag rugby lunch club, Choir and Assembly! A lot of fun things happening here at ISG! Pupils were happy when Lujain got the Headmaster Award during Assembly and they loved celebrating both Diya and Mr Francis’ birthdays! Birthday cake is a great treat!
Upper Primary pupils will soon come up with more updates from the classroom here in our blog, so keep your eyes open!
Let no-one steal your dreams... This is the time of year where teachers are writing good-bye messages to their leaving pupils. Miss Jenny sends the poem that UP pupils recited during the International Festival with every pupil leaving ISG. It is time to say good-bye to friends. It is never easy to see a dear friend leave and it is difficult not to know when we meet again. Upper Primary pupils take their good-byes seriously and they make sure that everybody leaving our class feels that they will be missed! Next year, Rita, Hanna, Ariadne, Aarshi, Vitor, Luka, Kavya, Ally and Jood are all starting the new school year in new schools. Upper Primary will be a different class then – new pupils will join us. We wish all our friends leaving ISG the very best! To really celebrate our year together, pupils had a great End-of-year fun activity – a very sporty End-of-year fun – during the last week of school. Pupils cycled to Blaarmeersen and there they climbed and challenged themselves on the high ropes course together with Mr Gilles and Mr Peter. Lots of fun! Tired, but happy pupils returned to school after this excursion!
The school year ends with a real heat wave! Pupils and teachers are sweating their way through the last school days of the year. Upper Primary pupils have made sure everything is finished off and wrapped up – pupils have completed end of term tests, published their last writing sample for the year (a traditional tale), typed their highlight of the year and sent it off to the year book preparations etc. There have been days when pupils have sighed and complained – it is not easy to finish off tasks when it is more than 30 degrees outside – but they have shown resilience and they have worked hard. Now they can be proud of the content in their assessment portfolios, the comments in their reports and all the information gathered in their notebooks - with notes from all the different tasks they have finalised throughout the year.
Upper Primary 2019: IPC units, Numeracy, Literacy, Spelling & grammar, Basic facts, different text types in focus, choosing time & students of the week, buddy class and break time fun with friends, problem solving in the class after fights, Personal values in focus, marbles, excursions, swimming, PE, Dutch, music class, choir, Bozar, Chiquita Fun Run, torrential rain, snow and scorching sun, Assembly, break time clubs and after school clubs, birthday parties, whole school activites like Halloween, Carnival and International Festival and lots of other things. Pupils summarised the year with many more words than this...
Upper Primary have also tried to sum up their learning in IPC, even though we ran out of time for a real Exit Point this unit. Pupils have learnt a lot about ancient civilisations far away – the Maya civilisation in South America and the Edo empire in West Africa. One of the lovely last IPC activities in class was an art activity, where pupils picked their favourite part of the Edo creation story about the creator god Osanobua, the wise toucan Owonwon and a snail shell. Curious? Ask one of the UP pupils more questions! Beautiful pieces of art will go home at the end of the school year!
Now there are only a few days left of this school year. We wish all of you a lovely summer! To the ones leaving us - please, stay in touch! To the ones returning in September - welcome back! To all of you, safe travels and don't forget to drink water if it is hot and sunny! See you next school year!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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!
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
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!
