SN March Gr.5 - The International School of Belgrade

March/April 2013
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 singlesubject 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.
Inside this issue:
Art
2
Serbian/Spanish
3
Serbian MT/EAL
4
PE
5
French/Music
6
A great example of this is when your children ‘connect’ their school learning
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 with 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
Art
Over the previous weeks, as part of the unit How We Express Ourselves, the students
worked on collage projects in response to a story and learned about the art concepts
of shape, texture and contrast with warm and cool colors.
The students have recently started working on the unit Where We Are in Place and
Time – Exhibition. They have inquired into the works of the graphic designer Geof
Mcfetridge to get inspiration for making images for the Exhibition. The children inquired and worked in groups.
Also, we had successful student lead conferences and participated in the ‘Sculpture
Park’, a display of students’ 3D works during the Spring Fair.
Grade 5A and 5B students have classes on Mondays.
Page 2
Svetlana SpasicGlid
Art
Newsletter Title
Serbian as a Foreign Language
Ivana Jovanovic
Serbian Language Teacher
Upon completing the Global simulation project, Grade 5 students focused on a
sentence structure and language rules. We used familiar vocabulary to practice
the order of words in a sentence, making questions for given answers, negations,
and comparatives. Then, we focused on listening skills; at the beginning the students listened to familiar stories, such as Snow White and Cinderella. Later, we
watched cartoons, discussed the main idea of each one and answered questions
that helped the students improve their understanding and acquire new vocabulary.
Spanish
Milica Rkulovic
Spanish Language Teacher
As a culminating activity of the Animals unit, the grade five Spanish students
visited the Belgrade zoo and had a wonderful time walking around and taking
photos of different animals in order to complete their assignment which consisted of finding the smelliest animals, tallest, most dangerous etc. Currently
students are in the process of using VoiceThread to make their own presentations in order to demonstrate their findings.
In our next unit we’ll be looking at family celebrations, writing invitations to
birthday parties, shopping lists, thank you cards, and simple friendly letters.
Page 3
Serbian Mother Tongue
Peti razred je na časovima jezika završio
obradu romana „Konj i njegov dečak“.
Nakon čitanja razgovarali smo o odlikama ovog žanra i analizirali temu, fabulu,
ideju i glavne likove pročitanog romana.
Napisali smo i prikaz knjige. Podsetili
smo se upravnog govora i naučili koje
vrste reči spadaju u promenjljive, a koje
u nepromenjljive reči. Izučavali smo potom neke od narodnih izreka i u grupama napravili skečeve u kojima smo objasnili šta određeni izrazi znače i kako ih
možemo upotrebiti u nekoj situaciji.
Ukoliko još uvek niste imali prilike da
pogledate naše radove, možete to učiniti
na našoj Moodić stranici. Trenutno na
časovima čitamo roman “Orlovi rano lete”, Branka Ćopića. Za sada smo se upoznali
sa delom hajdučke družine – harambašom Jovančetom, dugonogim Stricem,
majstorom Mačkom i neuhvatljivim Đokom Potrkom i njihovim nevoljama sa
strogim učiteljom Paprikom.
Milena Jovanovic
Serbian Language
Teacher
EAL
In Grade 5 we read a number of books focusing on concepts such as the importance of preserving the world’s forests and decreasing pollution. Jane Goodall,
a scientist who devoted her life to studying chimpanzees in their habitats, was also
a subject of our interest. We used these stories as a vehicle to look at grammar in
context. Reported speech is important in our retellings of stories, so we analysed
what changes need to be made in language use when we move from directly
quoting speech to the indirect telling of what people said. We also identified the
passive voice and the causative and talked about how these grammatical structures are used in everyday and academic English.
Page 4
Visnja Plecas
EAL Teacher
Physical Education
Dear Parents,
Third, Fourth and Fifth graders continued to work on their volleyball unit throughout
March. Aside from developing and increasing basic volleyball techniques through a variety of activities and drills, students had the opportunity to apply their skills and
knowledge in game situations. We played matches in which the score was not the main
focus in order to understand how the game is played, as well as to work as a team: displaying team work, good communication and cooperation on the court.
Although playing volleyball; keeping the ball up in the air, making three touches and
sending it over the net, is not very easy for beginners, our students worked with enthusiasm and celebrated their first points.
Since every good athlete takes care of his/her fitness level aside from skills, we always
find time during our classes to work on our fitness abilities. While completing given
tasks in individual and pair activities students practiced their speed, agility, flexibility
and strength. Different warm-up tags that we all enjoy a lot helped us improve our cardio-respiratory stamina.
Our students are truly looking forward to sunny spring weather and having their P.E.
classes outdoors.
Page 5
Marija Dimitrov
PE Teacher
Newsletter Title
French
Dear fifth grade parents,
Here is the sixth newsletter for the French class designed to share information about
the things we have been learning during the last period.
Dubravka Kostanjsek
French Teacher
After our reviewing activities, we started working on topics chosen by the students
for their exhibition. The students are doing their inquiries individually, each of them
regarding their chosen topic and through that they have the opportunity to practice
reading and listening comprehension. Once they have gathered all of the necessary
information, they will write short paragraphs about these topics in order to prepare
their contribution for the exhibition. It is planned for each piece of work to be in both
languages, French and English.
Thank you for your time and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Music
Milica Lukic
Music Teacher
Page 6
During the first half of the month, G5 earned different forms of songs depending
on their type. Realizing that rhythmic songs usually have only three parts (rising
action, climax, falling action), students were divided into groups and made their
rhythmic compositions according to this three-part-form. In addition, they also
learned how to recognize different usage of dynamics and instruments in different
parts of the songs and what the composer/arranger wanted to achieve. To confirm their newly acquired knowledge, they had a written exam, with an assignment to analyze one song by listening, and recognizing tempo, dynamics, song
type, instruments and how these components change in different parts of the
song. I’m pleased to say that they all have different perspectives and creative interpretations of an arranger’s goals and their reasons for choosing specific instruments or dynamics, and their connection with lyrics.