Grade 3/4/5 Blogs 2014 - 2015

August 2014

First blog for the year

It has been a wonderful start to the school year. There has been lots of smiles and excitement. Thanks to all the parents I have already met and discussed about your child’s interests and needs during the meet and greet sessions. As the school year progresses students will take more of a leading role editing and presenting this blog. At this stage their role is to take photos of daily activities that the class can comment on.

For most of this term we will be focused on one unit about explorers as in a few weeks time will be exploring during our class camp. Please see the outline of the unit below:

Transdisciplinary theme – Where we are in place and time Central idea – groups of people explore beyond their own territories Lines of inquiry – Explorers in history How exploration has impacted people around the world How technology influences exploration Key concepts – Reflection, perspective, change Learner profile – inquires, knowledgeable, reflective Attitudes – commitment, independence, curiosity

Yours sincerely,

Scott Masson

Transdisciplinary theme – Where we are in place and time

Central idea – groups of people explore beyond their own territories

Lines of inquiry –

Explorers in history

How exploration has impacted people around the world

How technology influences exploration

Key concepts – Reflection, perspective, change

Learner profile – inquires, knowledgeable, reflective

Attitudes – commitment, independence, curiosity

 Daily Class jobs

Each day student’s have responsibility for a class job. After the first week it can be said with conviction the daily photographer and time monitor is the busiest.

These are the roles decided by the students:

Daily photographer, time monitor, free day, hand out stationary, desk monitor, feed the fish, turn on/off lights, turn on/off a/c, pencil sharpener, pull up and down screen, messenger to the office and classes, locker monitor, homework folder check and drink bottle check.

Class camp

The Middle School and Grade 3-5’s will be going on a 3day/2 night camp in Week 6, September the 17^th to 19^th of September. The venue will be a familiar place for ISB students, Batu Tapak campgrounds in Sukabumi. We will be doing quite a bit of preparation before the camp as this connects nicely with our unit of inquiry. Tents are provided and students will camp on high flat ground surrounded by mountains, jungles and farm land. There will be walks, treks, cooperative games and outbound type activities. Please have a look at the website, batutapuk.com which is both in English and Bahasa Indonesia.

   

 

Alert! Koalas have been spotted eating ice-cream.  There are a different number in each state. We used units, tens and hundred and placed in each state.

What is inside the box?  We put things inside that were related to us and shared with our class mates.

We looked at ourselves inside a mirror and painted our portraits. We then made positive comments about ourselves. 
For example:

When I look inside the mirror I see someone who is ……........

a handsome boy.    very intelligent.    good at sport.      very kind.    

My favourite part of my body is my…………..........................

mind because I can think.      nose because I can breathe.          brain because it can make me smart.

Students in control of the camera

Each day we have a daily photographer. They take snaps throughout the day and then select their 3 favourite photos. As a class we decide on the comment.

We asked the school ground staff how heavy is a papaya and how many papaya’s there are in a tree. It was all about our Maths and at our teacher’s house the papaya tree snapped and the challenge was to find out how many papaya’s are normally in one tree and how heavy their combined weight is.

We have library once a week. For part of our lesson we listen to a story read to us by the librarian. This story is, “The chocolate touch.”

This was when we danced in the hall. It shows everyone is moving different ways.

Sometimes we need more help from a teacher especially if English is not their first language.

Who likes to play soccer? It feels better running on the basketball court because it is easier to run compared to grass. The bad news is there is a good chance that if you fall down it will hurt 10 times more than the grass.

This is a picture about Maths. One of the students asked how many cups were in a galon of Aqua. We estimated and then did the test. The answer was 21 litres or 84 cups. We can check if our answer is right if we times by four. There are 4 cups in 1 litre. 1 cup is 250ml.

At assembly we read aloud our desert crow to city crow letters about our Burke and Wills explorers bad luck and needing help. Some of us were a bit nervous waiting but very happy to be able to run around and release our energy.

Our challenge in design and technology was to make a boat that could support 1 person who needed to be “snug tightly”. We will test the sailing boat next week. I hope the weather is calm.