SN March Gr.5 - The International School of Belgrade

March 2012
Grade 5
ISB Lower School
Specialists’ Newsletter
From the Principal
Welcome to the sixth edition of our
Specialist Newsletters!
Our specialist teachers (also referred
as single-subject teachers) play an
integral and important role in the
Primary Years Program. The arts,
physical education, and language
study are essential elements to a
comprehensive and holistic primary
school education. The content of
these subjects is transdisciplinary in
nature, meaning that the skills and
concepts developed by specialist
teachers have relevance throughout
the Lower School curriculum and our
students’ lives beyond school.
A great example of this is when your
children ‘connect’ their school learnInside this issue:
French/Spanish
2
Art
3
Serbian/EAL
4
Serbian MT/Music
5
PE/EAL
6
ing with something that happens when they are at home or out and about with the
family. Our specialists teachers work alongside our classroom teachers to develop lessons and learning opportunities that are both interesting and connected to the classroom Units of Inquiry. Our specialist teachers work alongside our classroom teachers
regularly to find connections between subjects and even participate in field trips when
the connection is natural.
For this reason, we think it is important that we keep our parents informed about the
teaching and learning taking place in our specialists’ classrooms. You will receive our
specialist newsletter six times during the school year. As always, if you have any questions about your child’s education, feel free to contact us. Enjoy the Spring season and
our upcoming Spring Break.
I look forward to seeing you all here on the Lower School campus,
Brian H. Lettinga
Newsletter Title
French
Dear fifth grade parents,
Here is our sixth newsletter from the French class.
Dubravka Kostanjsek
French Teacher
After our reviewing activities, we started working on topics chosen by the students
for their exhibition. The students have done their inquiries individually regarding
their chosen topic and through that, they had the opportunity to practice reading
and listening comprehension. Once they had gathered all of the necessary information, they wrote short paragraphs about these topics. Right now, they are preparing a Power Point presentation for the exhibition.
Concurrently with these activities, we have been working on our play that we will
present in June.
Thank you for your time and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Spanish
Milica Rkulovic
Spanish Language
Page 2
The grade five Spanish students are exploring the world of animals. We started
by reviewing and learning the names of different animals, their habitats, food
preferences, physical characteristics and abilities, and quickly moved into reading short texts about different types of animals and answering questions in
Spanish. Currently, as a connection to their exhibition projects, the students are
enjoying using Glogster.com to create virtual posters about endangered animals. As they practice unit vocabulary and descriptive writing skills, they are
especially concentrating on differentiating between singular and plural forms of
verbs, all the while looking at animal treatment, pollution, and different visions
for the future of the earth from the animal point of few.
Art
In the previous weeks, we had successful student-led conferences. Also, students were engaged in inquiry and worked in different media in groups and on their individual projects.
We continued to learn about emphasis and have now included a new art concept - variety.
Variety is a concept that deepens students’ understanding of combining different concepts,
which we can see in all artwork.
Students have started working on their projects linked to the PYP Exhibition. The children
were grouped by the themes that they are inquiring into and they worked on finding a
strong visual presentation of their findings. They explored how to present their themes in
drawing, painting, collage, and 3D technique.
Grade 5A students have classes on Tuesdays.
Grade 5B students have classes on Mondays.
Page 3
Svetlana SpasicGlid
Art
Newsletter Title
Serbian as a Foreign Language
Ivana Jovanovic
Serbian language Teacher
After completing our unit on schedules and telling time, we started working on
weather forecasts. Through this unit we learned to understand the weather
forecast and it was a great introduction to the geography of Serbia. We learned
names of the biggest towns, their attractions, and their position in the country. We used PlanPlus, an on-line tool/website for finding directions on how to
get to a certain place or finding a specific address. Using PlanPlus, students
found the shortest way from our school to their home. We looked at the position of Serbia in Europe, learned names of bordering countries, and other European countries and capitals.
Currently we are working on the exhibition project. Each student wrote a short
paragraph about the central idea his/her group is working on. Students are practicing reading and translating their paragraph as it will become a part of their
presentation.
EAL
Visnja Plecas
EAL Teacher
Page 4
Reading powerful children’s literature about world issues – wars, famine, orphans, communities, internationalism, tolerance – is a great way of involving
children in global issues and raising their awareness of the outside world. However, simply enjoying literature for the sake of hearing a good story or language
used in a funny way is also one of the activities this class engages in. In response
to the students’ learning and inquiry linked to the upcoming Exhibition, we also
discussed the various Central Ideas they are researching and talked about their
lines of inquiry.
Serbian Mother Tongue
Peti razred je prethodnih nedelja obnovio svoje znanje o Vuku Karadžiču i narodnoj
književnosti čitajući narodne pripovetke. Obradili smo priče Krepao kotao, Svijetu se
ne može ugoditi, Praveda presuda i druge. Nakon toga smo se posvetili Izložbi
(Ehxiition). Prvo smo centralne ideje preveli na srpski jezik, a onda u knjizi Ekologija
pronalazili zanimljive informacije vezane za teme koje proučavaju. Nakon toga smo
se dogovorili da napravimo intervju sa Kristinom Milosavljević, koja se bavi zaštitom
životne okoline. Na osnovu sopstvenih interesovanja i onoga što su pročitali, učenici
su sastavili četiri pitanja po grupi. Ta pitanja i odgovore smo
prekucali i spojili u jedne zajedničke novine koje ćete imati
priliku da pročitate na dan Izložbe. U njima ćete moći da
saznate puno zanimljivih informacija iz oblasti ekologije.
Trenutno peti razred obrađuje knjigu „Orlovi rano lete“,
Branka Ćopiča.
Milena Jovanovic
Serbian Language
Teacher
Music
Fifth grade is completing their unit on composition and instrumental timbre. The children have each written the classic tale of “Peter and the Wolf” and added a new character. They have then composed and original theme for their new character and chosen an
instrumental timbre for that theme. The children are doing a wonderful job improving
their recorder skills and learning to notate their own compositions.
Rebecca Brink
Music Teacher
Page 5
Physical Education
Dear Parents,
After completing the Gymnastics unit, we spent a couple of weeks practicing adventure
challenges, as we continued developing a group collaboration skills in order to solve problems and accomplish the given task. We used different props that required the use of physical and critical thinking skills by every individual in order to understand how individual contribution helps achieve the goal of the group.
Ivana Grujicic
PE Teacher
In our next unit we will focus on playing Basketball. We will be practicing our dribbling and
shooting skills, talking about the rules and regulations, as well as implementing those rules
in a game. Our main focus will be on developing the teamwork skills and cooperation during
a game. We will be playing the game itself, and introducing various strategies. We want to
ensure that all our students have the knowledge, understanding and skills to actively and
effectively become an integral part of a team and enjoy the
game of Basketball.
EAL
During the Grade 5 EAL block, students have been using this time to work through many
of their assignments associated with the exhibition. This has given them direct support in
the process of researching, note taking and report writing. I hope you will all be able to
make it to the exhibition after the break! Students are looking forward to finishing work
that has been put on hold, like their informational reports. We wanted to start an All
About Me collage to go along with a fiction book we are reading but have not yet had the
time! If any of you have old magazines that you could donate for us to use on our collages, we would greatly appreciate it!
Page 6
Kelly Campbell
EAL Teacher