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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!
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!
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!
Welcome back to Upper Primary!
Upper Primary pupils have started off this school year in a great way - they have had team building activities with the other Primary classes, made 'I like-portraits' and pupils are now busy learning both Numeracy, Language arts and IPC! Romeo's birthday party during the first school week was a great kick off for our class. Mohammed from Qatar and UAE has joined our class - welcome!
In class, pupils are now getting used to our weekly routines. We discussed behaviour when deciding on Upper Primary Class Rules. Pupils agreed on a number of rules and now they try to follow them, both in class and out on the play ground. What do you think about class rules like for example "We celebrate each other's successes" and "Respect each other" and "Think before you speak"?
When working with the first Personal Goal in IPC, we discussed what Respect is, how they can show it - and why it is important. We show respect to others because we know that we deserve respect ourselves. Upper Primary pupils are now trying to treat others the way they want to be treated. No one is perfect, and sometimes pupils need reminders, but Upper Primary pupils are trying to improve. The Personal Goal castle on the classroom wall represents the strong values we all want to have, and now pupils will be looking for evidence of the different personal goals. We like when we see good behaviour in action here at ISG!
Before starting up our first IPC unit, pupils made a mind-map where they gathered ideas on how to keep the brain healthy; for example by drinking water and eating healthy food, by resting and sleeping, by exercising, breathing fresh air and by trying new and challenging things. This led the discussion to what Growth Mindset really means. Pupils now try to remember to think of learning as an ongoing process, where making mistakes can be a good thing to learn something new, where practising new skills are important, where challenges help us grow and where the word 'yet' is a key to learning - "I don't know this... yet", "I can't do this... yet" and "I don't understand this... yet".
Upper Primary pupils eat fruit and veggies during morning break, they drink lots of water, they try to be active and they try to keep an open mind to learning - that's a great start to this school year's learning!
Our IPC unit 'Travelling, moving, migrating' will take us on an exciting journey around planet Earth! Pupils have already investigated their own family's migration movements, they have discussed how packing is different when packing for a holiday trip, moving to another country or migrating to a different part of the world - and now they are busy exploring natural disasters around the world. This is just the start of an exciting unit!
Welcome back to a new year of learning!
We are the world! Upper Primary pupils and teachers represent many different counties. On the long list of countries we come from - or have lived in - you find India, Sri Lanka, France, Syria, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Belgium, South Africa, Laos, New Zealand, Sweden and Slovenia. Pupils teach each other about their different countries and cultures. In one small classroom, we feel that we are part of the world and, from what we have learnt during our IPC unit ‘Roots, shoots and fruits’, we also know that it is our obligation to take good care of planet Earth. We only have one planet!
Pupils have wrapped up their hard work connected to the ‘Roots, shoots and fruits’ IPC unit. There have been lots of work on display in our hallway, a huge tree research, nature idioms, scientific drawing of plants, explanations and photos from our lessons with Mr Claude – building flower beds etc. Pupils planted carrots and radishes, sadly enough only a few of them survived the heat wave – but they tasted delicious! Pupils know more about pollinators and pollination – and about non-beneficial insects as well, thanks to Rita's dad Ibrahim. In our hallway we have also had a big cage with moths, both pupae and fully grown moths flying around. Pupils have classified leaves and also learnt about seed dispersal.
It has been a fantastic school year of learning and growing. Pupils have improved in all subjects and they have worked on their social skills. They have played a lot and made new friends. Pupils come and go in an International School. Zara, Emma and Natalie left Upper Primary earlier this year, to move to other countries, and Kihachi and Niels D joined our class at the end of the school year. Now, sadly enough, it is again time to say farewell to dear classmates leaving ISG. We wish Mieke all the best in Cyprus! We also wish Kaaru, Luka and Niels V all the best when they start in a Dutch speaking school here in Ghent after the holidays. Good bye and good luck – we’ll never forget you at ISG!
We have enjoyed a few birthday parties since our last blog – Mieke, Niels, Luka and Chinmay have shared delicious birthday cakes with us all! We like parties!
Now all our display is off the walls and packed up and all the desks are empty – all the pupils have a year’s work in a heavy bag! The classroom looks empty but in a few months’ time new work will fill the walls. Next year Upper Primary pupils will come back and start new learning, but now it is time to enjoy a well-deserved holiday!
We wish you all a lovely, lazy and sunny weeks off from school! Enjoy the summer holidays and, to all returning pupils, see you in September!
And a special Thank-you and good-bye to Miss Teja who has been a part of the Upper Primary team this year! It has been a pleasure working together with you and we all wish you the best now that you move back to Slovenia. Do come and visit us some time!
/Miss Jenny
Since the Easter holidays a lot of exciting things have taken place here in Upper Primary. The first week back, we focused on Numeracy during our Maths week! During maths week we enjoyed problem solving, drawing designs of different types of flower beds, an exciting SET tournament, Miss Maija’s challenge and lots of other things!
We have celebrated both Shawn and Rita's birthdays, so pupils have eaten lots of cake this month! Mieke's birthday will be celebrated later on this term. Happy birthday to all of you!
Our Entry Point took place on Monday 24th of April, where Upper Primary went on a school trip to the botanical garden. We spent a cosy morning in the green house drawing scientific drawings of different flowers looking at where in the world the plants come from. Since then, pupils have read texts about trees and the life cycle of beans. They have planted beans in plastic bags and set up an experiment to find out more about what a plant needs to survive.
Together with Mr Claude, Upper Primary pupils have built two big flower beds – upcycling donated pallets. Pupils of course first learned more about safety when working with different tools. In the new flower beds, pupils will now plant lots of different things. They also built insect hotels, so hopefully there will soon be a thriving garden corner in our playground.
We then visited the botanical garden a second time, this time for a guided tour to learn more about how to group and sort plants into different families. We also looked closely at local plants in particular and what plants are edible or poisonous. ‘Roots, shoots and fruits’ is an exciting IPCunit and we still have many experiments to carry out and they still have to research more things about plants.
In Numeracy, pupils are carrying on with different tasks each week, learning strategies and methods to use when solving problems. In Literacy, we have focused on instructions and will now move on to both science reports and explanations. We have been reading both fiction and non-fiction books and the pupils are working hard on improving their language when working with follow-up activities.
Miss Sterre is back after her maternity leave, so pupils now play recorder, sing in the choir and learn about composers, music, rhythm and songs from all around the world during music lessons. Miss Marjolein is happy with the progress during Dutch classes – and pupils now dare to speak some Dutch when asked questions outside of the classroom - for example on the bus on our way to swimming lessons on Fridays. During swimming lessons, pupils can see that they are improving, and they always come back energised and happy after PE lessons. Upper Primary pupils try to take care of themselves by also eating healthy snack during break times.
There is a lot of learning going on!
Is it springtime? Or is it electricity? The sun is shining and the flowers are growing in the garden! We see butterflies and bumblebees flying around. This is a great time of the year!
Upper Primary pupils are full of energy and have loved working with our IPC topic, ‘Full power’! They have learnt how to use scientific language when documenting their experiments and they can explain why a circuit is illuminating a bulb … or not. They have built circuits and have been eager to test different alternatives when the result has been less successful. They have learnt how to read instructions carefully. They now know more about Fair tests. They are starting to think like scientists.
During Literacy lessons, pupils have learnt even more about instructions. They know that the purpose is of this text type is to make someone else interested in trying to for example make or bake something by following a number of steps. Pupils have been discussing others’ instructions and they have been writing their own instructions, they have unjumbled jumbled up instructions and they have been using bossy verbs (imperatives) and lots of time connectives while doing this.
During Friday mornings, Upper Primary pupils are joining an art project called ‘CAMPUS’. Pupils work together with pupils from a local Dutch speaking school. Artist Elly helps them try different techniques. There will be an exhibition 18-21/5, so in May we will go and visit to see the final result. You can also follow their work on Facebook.
Like always, pupils sing, play, write, solve problems and learn. Lego challenge gives pupils a chance to build and program Lego models. Miss Marianne has challenged Upper Primary pupils to think about different beats in music and how to use your own body as a drum. It sounds really cool when pupils sing 'Lean on me'!
A lot of time was of course also spent practising and preparing for the International Festival here at ISG. Upper Primary pupils hope that their performance made the audience reflect and think about planet Earth in a different way. We only have one planet and we have to take care of our home planet ‘swirled in blue’. We should share what we have and take good care of all living things around us!
The light has returned, it is officially springtime and we have changed the clocks! Let’s enjoy the Easter holidays before we meet here at school again for more learning before the summer holidays!
Upper Primary pupils have absolutely loved this last IPC unit, ’Mission to Mars’, and every day has been filled with learning. Pupils know about living conditions on Mars, they know about Mars’s geographical features, they know about robots and orbiters that are sent to other planets to investigate. Pupils have built scale model space stations, they have designed robots and showed toy robots during show-and-tell, they have written letters from the future (!!) when they are working as scientists on Mars. On our wall in the hallway, we have lovely 'space idiom art' - what does 'down to earth' look like, or 'once in a blue moon'? Pupils have also recited space poems. During a visit to the Observatory here in Ghent, pupils learnt more about solar systems, planets, stars and interesting new discoveries. Pupils and teachers have shared information from articles and TV-programs – all with a space theme, of course! Again, all of us have absolutely loved this unit!
Pupils are still learning about Morality as a personal goal, about making the right choice in difficult situations. Pupils want to learn more about being a good human being. They now learn more about the fact that being brave and asking others to stop being mean can be quite a scary thing, but that someone needs to do it. It is not easy, but if all of us started to think before we speak and if we all talked nicely to others, we would have fewer problem solving sessions in our class. We also think that the world as a whole would be a better place if we all acted this way.
During this month, we have eaten cake two times. Delicious! Yum yum! One happy occasion, Stefan’s birthday, and one sad occasion, Natalie’s goodbye party. Being a pupil at an international school means getting to know people from around the world – but it also means having to say goodbye to friends every now and then. We wish Natalie all the best in her new country and in her new school!
Now mid-term holidays are here! It is windy, grey and rainy, but holidays are still holidays and pupils are looking forward to a week off. Yet, they are already curious about the upcoming IPC unit and many other exciting events. Our International Festival is only a few weeks away, a School Quiz is on its way as well, some pupils will take part in exciting art project and some will practice to get better at football before the next big International School tournament. Today we end the school day with a Carnival Party! Enjoy our photos! See you soon again!
Upper Primary pupils are enjoying the new IPC-unit 'Mission to Mars'. Pupils are now taking part in the ISG Space Academy Programme for future astronauts! The Entry Point was lots of fun; both during PE lesson and the following lesson, pupils trained like astronauts. An astronaut has to be fit as well as a team player! Pupils have marvelled over the facts from the ISS and found facts about an astronaut's life both interesting and a bit scary. They have researched and compared Venus and Mars, to figure out which of the two planets would suit a manned mission the best. Since Venus is quite a hostile planet, with craters and volcanoes covered with poisonous fog, pupils find Mars a better choice. Pupils are now learning more about the geographical features of Mars. They have investigated the planet and found out that the highest mountain in the Solar System, Olympus Mons, can be found there, as well as the biggest canyon, Valles Marineris, 4,000 km long. Placed on Earth, Valles Marineris would stretch from New York to San Fransisco! Pupils are fascinated by these facts. Some Upper Primary pupils also find some of the information quite depressing, considering the fact that leaving Earth behind would mean saying goodbye to so many things that we love here! Pupils are now learning more about the rovers and orbiters that explore the planet. The lessons are not long enough!
During literacy lessons, pupils are learning more about formal and informal letters, their typical features, format and vocabulary. Pupils have read and discussed letters, as well as written letters. They have written informal letters to Miss Jenny to explain what they like/dislike about our IPC unit and they have written formal letters to a (made up) newspaper to give their point of view about why we have to take care of our planet for future generations. Upper Primary pupils would prefer to stay here on Earth and not have to set up civilization and live out their lives on another planet.
Pupils have practised and performed Kamishibai stories at an Expat Event here in Ghent. They have also performed these stories to our buddy class, Upper Pre-primary. Pupils love being together with their buddy class. The session was ended with some story reading. You can see on the photos that this was something that both Upper Primary and Upper Pre-primary pupils enjoyed!
Lots of different types of learning take place here in our classroom. Pupils push their way of thinking by using 'growth mindset questions'. Pupils have discussed how to improve their own writing by using teachers' comments as support. Pupils discuss how making mistakes can support learning. Pupils give each other advice on how to deal with setbacks and difficult tasks. Pupils learn how to improve their behaviour by reflecting over the Personal Goals in IPC. This month, Upper Primary pupils focus on Morality. Morality is all about making the right choice in tricky situations, by calming down before doing or saying something that would hurt others.
No one is perfect, that is one thing we know here in Upper Primary, but we try our best!
…and ready to jump into new exciting adventures!
Upper Primary pupils challenge themselves to new learning and to a bigger understanding of the world! Every Friday, Upper Primary pupils end their week with swimming class. Different groups practise different swimming skills, all in line with our ISG swim programme.
Pupils are still being challenged to program computers in our weekly Lego Challenge with Mr Hans. This week, Chinmay and Natalie built and programmed a Lego model.
In music class, Upper Primary pupils have of course practised a lot for the Christmas Show, but they have also learnt more about music from different parts of the world. Pupils liked learning about Mussorgsky – and if you also want to know what his music sounds like, you can follow this link to ‘Pictures at an exhibition’.
Upper Primary pupils are traveling through time during our new IPC-unit ‘The Time Tunnel’! This is a history based unit, where pupils learn about the chronology of important eras. Pupils have already learnt more about their own personal history by looking at key moments and events in their own lives. By discussing with parents, pupils were able to gather more facts. They also researched their own family history by searching for names and birthdates for family members. In class, most of the UP pupils were able to assemble their own family trees and make their own personal timelines.
Pupils have also researched and learnt about some important inventions and some important civilizations. Together in pairs and together as a whole class, pupils have written notes, made long timelines and added important information throughout history. And what surprised us all was of course the fact that the history we talk about is just a tiny fragment in the history of planet Earth.
A few weeks ago, Upper Primary pupils watched a movie called ‘Fantastic flying books’ to get inspiration for an art work that will be presented in Miss Maija’s office. It was also a celebration of the fact that we now have access to our school library. Pupils watched the movie and then they discussed what the movie was about. Some pupils had thoughts and ideas about both the content and the message. Some found it sad and some found it happy. Pupils could connect the movie both to our previous IPC-unit, ‘Express yourself’, and our current IPC-unit ‘The Time Tunnel’. Pupils also got inspired to read and be changed by books. What do you think when you see it?
Again, Upper Primary pupils are getting ready to say goodbye to dear friends. When we return to school after the holidays, we will miss two Upper Primary girls in our class. We wish Emma and Zara the best of luck, now that they move and start a new school in Spain and the US respectively! We will miss you, girls!
With photos from different activities from our last few school weeks, as well as our End-of-term fun, where Primary pupils together went ice-skating, Upper Primary teachers and pupils wish you all a lovely end of 2016, happy holidays and a fantastic new year!
