Lower-Primary - Ms Julieta

Making drums, dancing, making chocolates and going ice-skating!

 

We started off the week with our IPC Technology task -  making drums! The children tried to follow their own plan to make their drum and then they decorated them! We now officially have an ISG Primary class band!

Now we just need to practice how to play in time with each other on our drums!!

The Pre-Primary classes have been learning about shopping as part of their current IPC topic. When we heard that they were planning on having their own shop to raise money for a worthy cause we decided that we wanted to help out! So on Tuesday we made some chocolate truffles. First of all we read the recipe together then we got started!

On Thursday afternoon we all went shopping at the best little shop in town - the ISG Pre-Primary shop! Luckily we got in quick because everything sold out very quickly! Well done Pre-Primary students!

Then on Wednesday we all put on our warm clothes and walked into the city centre for some Christmas holiday fun - we went ice-skating! For many students it was their first time skating and even the first time they had seen ice. It was a lot of fun!

Parents, click here to see some more photos of us ice-skating.

On top of this we have also been dancing! In sports class we have been learning how to follow dance steps in time with music. This is also helping us for another dance that we are learning - but you will have to wait until the Christmas Fair to see it!

Parents, for the Christmas Fair could you make sure that boys wear smart pants and a white shirt/top and girls need to wear a dress. Thank-you and we look forward to seeing you all next Friday for some Christmas cheer!

IPC and a special visitor!

 

On Monday we worked towards our Science learning target 1.4 - 'To be able to, with help, conduct simple scientific investigations'. The students knew that we were going to make string phones so our scientific question was " Will we be able to hear someone when talking through a string phone?". I then introduced the word prediction. All the students made their own prediction based on whether they thought the string phones would work or not. Then we got to work!

 

The children had great fun talking to each other and were happy that they worked! We followed up with a discussion about vibrations and how the sound travels through the string. They tried the phone in different ways to see what worked better - with the sring tight or lose, and if it worked around corners!

After watching a short video clip about how the sound travels into the ear canal and makes our ear drum vibrate the students had a great time playing the djembe we had in class!

Our technology task that we have started is for children to design and plan what they need to make their own drum. Thank-you to those children who have already brought items in to school. We will be making our own drums next Monday!

The students continue to practice and enjoy reading books in class. Here is Ansh reading a book to the Upper pre-primary class.

Near the end of the week we all started to get quite excited about Saint Nicholas who was going to arrive soon! We talked a little about the history of Saint Nicholas and learnt a song in Flemish to sing to him. We also painted pictures of the man with the big long white beard!

Parents can see more photos of when Saint Nicholas came to visit in the photo gallery.

What a busy and fun week! Have a good weekend everyone!

 

If we had bigger ears could we hear better?

 

As part of our current IPC unit on sound we have been focusing on ears! We started the week looking at pictures of different animals and deciding if they have big ears, or small ears. We read a text about why different animals have either small or large ears and the Year 2's used this information to write a fact for each animal. Do you know why the arctic fox has small ears, or why the elephant has big ears? The children developed an understanding that animals adapt to their environment!

Following on from this we had a scientific question to investigate - "If we had bigger ears could we hear better?" First of all the students made a prediction, then we did a test to find out if we could hear better with larger ears!

The students lined up on the playstreet, and Miss Lori shouted a sentence to us. First, we listened with our 'normal' ears...

Miss Lori then shouted again and we listened with a 'medium' sized ear...

Lastly, we listened with our 'large' ear...

The students all agreed that we could hear Miss Lori a lot louder with the biggest ear! They were very excited with the result! Back in class we wrote up our experiment and the children could see if their prediction was correct or not!

We followed up with a discussion about why we could hear better and how the big ears could collect more sound waves!

It was a fun and simple experiment! Next week will use the same process to test how sound travels through different materials!

Mid-week we also had a birthday celebration as Ansh turned 6 years old! Thank-you for the birthday treats Ansh!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Enthusiastic readers!

This week we went to the Public Library for the first time. The students were so enthusiastic about choosing books to take back to school. We now have two boxes of library books in our room and the students are loving reading and looking at them. I thought it would be fun to set ourselves the goal of trying to read all the picture books before the Christmas break. When I told the class that I will read one book everyday after lunch they cheered with joy! I love their enthusiasm! They are all so motivated to improve their own reading skills and they all really enjoy listening to a story!

Here we are at the Library with the upper Primay class.

And back at school enjoying the books...

As part of our reading rotation the students can also practice reading a book out loud for the Pre-primary classes. First they practice reading to our class, before reading to Miss Inbal or Miss Mia's class. They are all queueing up and eager to have a turn. Here are Chinmay and Diya reading to our class before they read to the youngest ISG pupils!

Following on from our work in maths about symmetry we did a challenging art activity! The pupils had to cut a picture of their face along the line of symmetry and then try and draw the other side! They did a first attempt just in pencil and their second attempt in pencil and then coloured it in. Come and have a look at them on the wall by the stairs!

Have a good weekend everyone!

What does Resilience mean?

 

To introduce the Personal goal resilience we talked about the character Nemo, who all the children were familiar with. Nemo is a very resilient character. Even though he has a damaged flipper and sometimes finds it difficult to swim as fast as the other fish, he does not get upset and he tries really hard. Even when things go wrong, Nemo keeps on trying and trying and gets there in the end!

We then read this fantastic book by Miss Maija's favourite author - Anthony Browne.

It is a story about two boys called Sam and Jeremy. Jeremy is always showing off about new things he has and does not share anything with Sam. Sam does not let it upset him and he chooses to ignore Jeremy's rude comments. At the end of the story he even helps Jeremy when he falls in the water. After we read the story we discussed how Sam reacted to Jeremy's behaviour and whether he showed resilience.

Talk more about resilience at home together with your child!

It has been a short week this week but we have also been working on 2D shapes and lines of symmetry in maths.

Thank-you to all parents for purchasing an ISG t-shirt. Here are the students ready for sport lesson on Thursday afternoon looking very flash in their matching t-shirts!

Have a good weekend everyone!

 

IPC - Entry point

On Monday, together with the Upper Primary class, we visited the amazing concert building in Brugge and the Sound Factory. First of all we visited the chamber music room. Our guide explained to us the architect's inspiration for the design and the acoustics of the room. The children loved how the rows of seats went up in a spiral around the room! We also looked closely at the windows and the two layers of double glazing which succesfully blocked out all the city noise on the outside.

A simple experiment with sugar on plastic wrap allowed the children to see how sound waves can cause things to move.

Next we went into the main concert hall and again discussed the acoustics of the room and which surfaces absorb or reflect sound.

After all this talk about sound waves and acoustics the children were happy to start making some noise of their own! The children loved exploring the different sounds on the Omni.

And also on the Kilo Ohm which allowed you to make different sounds depending on how high or how tight you touched the poles.

Lastly, the students had a go composing some of their own music using Garageband!

The visit was a great way to kick off our new unit about Sound and Light!

 

 

 

Look and listen

 

Following on from what we just learnt about the human body, our new unit of work focuses on 'Sound and Light'

This unit of work is part of the International Primary Curriculum and sets out clearly what children will learn - the learning goals - in three different areas.

1. Learning goals for the subjects of the curriculum.

2. Personal development - the characteristics which will help children become more responsible, independent learners.

3. International understanding - which will help children develop both a sense of the independence of their own country and culture and the interdependence between countries and cultures.

During this unit we will be focusing on Science, Technology, Music and International

In Science, we’ll be finding out:

  • Where sound and light come from
  • What sounds we can make with objects
  • What happens when sounds enter our ears
  • How animals use their sense of sight and sound
  • How we can change sounds

 

In Technology, we’ll be finding out:

  • How to design and make a drum

 

In Music, we’ll be finding out:

  • How to play a drum rhythm

 

In International, we’ll be finding out:

  • How languages are made up of different sounds

 

As the unit progresses, please discuss with your child the work they have done and let them teach you! Identify different sounds and lights in your home and talk about what makes them happen. Discuss how we can make sound using our body, e.g. by whistling, clapping, singing etc., and how we can create tunes with musical instruments. If you have any books at home that relate in any way to our topic, please feel free to bring them to school!

Don't forget that to kick off this unit our Entry point is visiting the Sound Factory in Brugge on Monday 3rd November! We will be leaving school at 9.00am. Please make sure your child wears appropriate clothing for the weather and brings a snack and cold lunch.

I hope you have enjoyed the lovely Autumn weather during the half-term break, and see you soon!

Halloween and Exit point!

Our first Halloween craft activity was making lanterns. It was a lot of fun ripping and pasting tissue paper to a glass jar, then cutting out and sticking on a scary face!

The children were very pleased with the final result.

As part of our Human body IPC unit we were learning about healthy eating and the food pyramid. What better way to encourage healthy eating than to make a yummy pumpkin and curry soup for Halloween! First we read the recipe together, then we set to work together with the Upper Primary class. The children found out that it isn't easy cutting up onion and pumpkin into small pieces!

We served the pumpkin soup to all the parents who come to our Exit point on Friday afternoon. Of course, we thought we better try it first though!

Friday morning we gathered together with the other classes at ISG. We showed each other our costumes and sang a few Halloween songs!

On Friday afternoon we finished off our Human body IPC unit by inviting the parents in for our Exit point. We had all our work out on display and the children practiced talking to their parents about what they had learnt. And of course we all had some delicious pumpkin soup!

Have a great autumn break everyone and we'll see you back at school on November 3rd. Don't forget that the first day back we will be off to Brugge to visit the Sound Factory as part of our Entry Point of our new IPC unit called Look and Listen!

 

 

Inside the human body

 

After working on the external body parts we have now moved inside the human body! After the children had finished cutting out and pasting together their human skeleton into their books we labelled all the main bones.

We also sang and did a little dance to this song!

 

The Year 2's have also been doing a mini-research project on the brain! Together we read a challenging text with facts about the brain. We discussed the meaning of any new and difficult words and then highlighted the key words in each paragraph. We then used these keywords to create a mind-map of facts about the brain.

As part of our knowledge harvest at the start of our unit Chinmay said that he wanted to learn more about the brain, so that is what we did!

In maths this week we have been focusing on the months and seasons in the year and the days in the week. We have been reading and ordering the months and after the students stuck them in their book we created a colour coded key showing the four seasons. The students were also very excited to colour in their birthday month with their favourite colours!

 

The week ended off with some choosing time on Friday afternoon which the students love! Some students learnt how to play a new strategic boardgame called Labyrinth, Nanda and Diya made a puzzle together, others played with the lego, Duplo or on the ipads.

Here is Shubhan, who joined our class on Monday! Welcome Shubhan!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

Lots of learning in Lower Primary!

 

In the lower primary class we have nearly finished revising all our single letter sounds. The students have been practicing correct letter formation in their handwriting and writing books. Here the students are learning how to listen carefully to the sounds in words then writing them down on their little whiteboards.

For maths this week we have been learning how to measure things! We have been using non-standard units to measure things, like crayons and paper-clips.

The Year 2's have also been using rulers to measure things in centimetres and metres.

Using a piece of string exactly 1 metre long, students had to find things in the classroom that were smaller, longer or exactly one metre long. They had to draw or write their findings in a Venn diagram on the whiteboard. This was not only a valuable maths activity, but also a great co-operative activity (Co-operation is our Personal goal for October!). At first students simply worked next to each other, but after a class discussion about co-operating they tried working with each other, sharing the resources.

For IPC we also practiced using a Venn diagram to compare the external body features of a human and a crocodile!

As part of our reading rotation on Tuesdays and Thursdays, students can choose to practice reading a book out loud for the pre-primary classes. This week Isadora and Shawn read to the younger students at ISG. They loved it! Here is Shawn reading to Miss Inbal's lower pre-primary class.

What a busy week of learning in the lower Primary class. Have a great weekend everyone!