Grade 5 Class Blog

Well the holiday is now upon us and it has been a very busy and productive half term. We are sure that the next half term will be just the same, so we are hoping that everyone has a good holiday and refreshes the batteries to start again on 26th October.

Halloween

Grade’s 4 and 5 have been asked this year to jointly run the halloween event. This will take place on 30th October. The students will be creating games for this event as their homework task for that week but we have told them early so that they can spend some time in holiday in preparation, if they wish to. We would also like to see them wearing something suitably scary (but not too scary) on the 3oth.

Last year’s photos

Loy Kratong

This years Loy Kratong activities, creating kratongs will take place on October 29th. The students have been told that they may wear Thai clothes for that day.

UOI

The students spent the week consolidating their understanding of the push and pull factors of migration, sorting scenarios and writing their own stories to demonstrate their knowledge.  After the break they will be challenged to present the information they have gathered, during this unit, to their peers.

G5B and C were very lucky to have another guest speaker this week in the form of Ms Koong who described her time working in a refugee camp.  We thank her for taking the time to talk to us about her experience. Don’t worry G5A your turn will come after the break!

Maths

Time as a key focus for the year group is now over, however students may still revisit this at anytime using the IXL program. The new focus will be based upon shape and space and be primarily about angles, where we find them, how to recognise and name them and how to measure these.

Literacy 

The students will continue their investigation into expressive features using these in a variety of genre’s from narratives to diaries and picture books.

Reading

Many of the students decode words very well and can read aloud fairly fluently, the challenge is for the students to really comprehend what they are reading and to practise this they must answer questions about what they have read both orally and in writing. Therefore we would really like to ask parents  to continually talk to your children about what they are reading. To help with this we have included a list of sample questions here please feel free to ask extra questions too.

Swimming 

Swimming has returned and we would just like to remind everyone about the changing procedures. Students who swim in the morning (G5A) can come to school in their swimming kit with either their normal uniform or their P.E clothes over the top. All other students (G5B and C )must change into their swimming kit after lunch and put their clothes on top until they go to swimming.

News G5 A

This week it was the turn of Sabrina and June to choose the news items. A task they did very well with Sabrina’s creating lots of discussion opportunities and conjectures as to who did it? with her story about an unsolved murder in Scotland. June’s news item which featured a fire in a highrise building in Korea led the discussion onto safety and how safe were we in our own homes and how great the firefighters were in this case, to have arrived so quickly, meaning that there was no loss of life. We look forward to our next pieces of news after the holiday.

Mrs Carole carole.pa@edu.kis.ac.th

Mrs Rachel rachello@edu.kis.ac.th

Mr Nic nicholasm@edu.kis.ac.th

House captains  are announced!

Hanuman- Pim and Sumire                      Naga-Divyen and Yama

Tosakan-Gadi and Beau                              Erawan-PimPim and Punn

UOI

We were very lucky last week to have Mr Tri and Mr Tan from the Secondary school to talk to us about their experiences as refugee’s escaping from Vietnam. We thank them for taking the time to enable the students to have a first hand, primary resource to further their investigations into migration.

This week the students will be continuing their research especially to understand the main factors behind migration.  Starting to look at the impact on not only the lives of the refugees but also the lives of the communities they enter into, focussing on different perspectives in this issue.

Maths

The students will be finishing their work on prime numbers and exponents and also time ready to start a new unit focused on geometry after the holiday.

Literacy

The students will continue their investigation into expressive features using these in a variety of genre’s from narratives to diaries and picture books.

Reading

Many of the students decode words very well and can read aloud fairly fluently, the challenge is for the students to really comprehend what they are reading and to practise this they must answer questions about what they have read both orally and in writing. Therefore we would really like to ask parents  to continually talk to your children about what they are reading. To help with this we have included a list of sample questions here please feel free to ask extra questions too.

Handball tournament

A wonderful handball tournament took place on Friday showcasing the PYP learner profile attributes of communuication, principled, thinker and well-balanced. It was a closely fought event with Hanuman winning the most points from both the girls and boys games. Well done to them.

Swimming 

Swimming has returned and we would just like to remind everyone about the changing procedures. Students who swim in the morning (G5A) can come to school in their swimming kit with either their normal uniform or their P.E clothes over the top. All other students (G5B and C )must change into their swimming kit after lunch and put their clothes on top until they go to swimming.

News G5 A

It was the turn of Dior this week to explain her choice of news article all about potential life on Venus. This sparked an energetic discussion on the different types of life forms which could have evolved to survive Venus’ habitat. Coffee then provided us with an interesting article about prison inmates voluteering to help fight fires.

Mrs Carole carole.pa@edu.kis.ac.th

Mrs Rachel rachello@edu.kis.ac.th

Mr Nic nicholasm@edu.kis.ac.th

As you can see from the photos below Grade 5 have been as busy in their sports lesssons as they are in the classroom.

UOI

Unit 2 focusing on migration, is now well underway with the students questioning their own ancestor’s journeys. Whilst also investigating ongoing refugee crises and the geography of the world to gain an understanding of where people move from and the distances some refugees need to travel in order to find a new home.

This week we will hear from some real refugees who found their home in Thailand.

Maths

What is an analogue clock? How many days are there in a fortnight? What is the digital time compared to the analogue time? Can you convert the 24 hour clock to digital time? How many months is it before the next set of MAP tests?  How much time has lapsed while Mrs Carole and Mrs Rachel have been surfing the net? ( normally way too much). These are all questions which the students will be facing in the coming weeks, with the focus on understanding the measurement of time.

Literacy

Expressive language features are still being investigated both through skills work and in how to apply it to the student’s narratives. Some students this week will begin fictional diary writing to incoporate these features.

Reading

Many of the students decode words very well and can read aloud fairly fluently, the challenge is for the students to really comprehend what they are reading and to practise this they must answer questions about what they have read both orally and in writing. Therefore we would really like to ask parents  to continually talk to your children about what they are reading. To help with this we have included a list of sample questions here please feel free to ask extra questions too.

School council representatives 

Well done to all of the students who were great risktakers and presented why they would be a good representative for their class. Congratulations go to

G5A- Elizabeth and Jack

G5B-Bujji and Lucas

G5C- Shuang Shuang and Petch

House Captain nominations

This year because of social distancing we asked all students who wanted to be a House captain to create a video and post it to a padlet so that the whole of PYP could then vote. The videos we received were of a very high quality and all those brilliant communicators should be congratulated they are

G5A- Divyen, Max, Austin, PimPim, Gadi, Rumaisa, June

G5B- Yama, Sumire, Beau, Ota, Pun, Kalum

G5 C- Indy, Pim Pe

Successful nominees will be announced on Wednesday.

Swimming 

Swimming has returned and we would just like to remind everyone about the changing procedures. Students who swim in the morning (G5A) can come to school in their swimming kit with either their normal uniform or their P.E clothes over the top. All other students (G5B and C )must change into their swimming kit after lunch and put their clothes on top until they go to swimming.

Handball tournament

This Friday 9th October will see the first sports house competition of the year. We wish all houses good luck. Students will need to be in their P. E clothes apart from wearing their house t-shirts.

Parent Meetings

It was lovely to meet with all the parents last week to discuss the student’s progress and to gain an understanding of what the students are like, when out of KIS. We are really appreciative of the supportiveness of the parents and we feel very happy that we are all on this learning journey together. If you have any follow up questions please feel free to use the email addresses below.

G5A – Monday 28th September

G5B- Tuesday 29th September

G5C- Wednesday 30th September

Well last week was a short but busy one as you can see from the photographs below.

UOI

Our Unit 1 has now come to a close with  students presenting their slideshows about learning a new skill and reflecting on these.

Unit 2 – Based upon the transidiciplinary theme of Where we are in place and time is focused on migration.  This got off to a surprising start,for the students ,on Wednesday morning when they found thenselves locked out of their classrooms. Only by meeting a particular criteria could they enter a room. This ranged from having long hair, to being able to say hello in five languages to being able to show the Buddhist symbol they were wearing. This activity was created to provoke the students interest into the lives of refugees and to question the fairness of the situation and question they did.

This week the students will be demonstrating what they already know about this subject and generating the questions they wish to pursue in this inquiry.

Maths

The students will continue to work on understanding exponents and will also begin to look at the vocabulary of time and how to calculate periods of time.

Literacy

Still working on their narratives the students will be adding figuarative features as they learn about these in their skills lessons.

Reading

Many of the students decode words very well and can read aloud fairly fluently, the challenge is for the students to really comprehend what they are reading and to practise this they must answer questions about what they have read both orally and in writing. Therefore we would really like to ask parents  to continually talk to your children about what they are reading. To help with this we have included a list of sample questions here please feel free to ask extra questions too.

In the recent Map reading test many students scored highly in the Informational text and vocabulary Acquistion parts however did less well in the Literature part. The best way to improve this is to read, read and read more and to read a variety of genres and styles of books. We will be encouaging the students to do this and we hope that you will do the same.

Swimming is back!

This Thursday, Swimming sessions return to Grade 5. The students will need their swimming clothes,goggles etc. They will need to change back into their normal school clothes after their lesson.

MAP tests/ Parent Meetings

This term’s MAP Tests are now complete and you should have received  information about these over the weekend.  Please remember that these will be used along side teacher assessments to provide a rounded view of your child’s progress. This will be shared at the this week’s parent meetings. We look forward to meeting with you then.

Parent Meetings– Parents meetings will take place in the Discovery lab at the end of the Grade 5 hallway.

G5A – Monday 28th September

G5B- Tuesday 29th September

G5C- Wednesday 30th September

News in G5A 

This week it was the turn of Gadi who provoked discussion with his news story about the reoppening of the Taj Mahal and Aaron who found a fascinating article about the benefits of reading aloud for all age groups.

Mrs Carole carole.pa@edu.kis.ac.th

Mrs Rachel rachello@edu.kis.ac.th

Mr Nic nicholasm@edu.kis.ac.th

Although this is a short week with Thursday as a performance development day for teachers and Friday as a holiday there is still a great deal happening!

UOI- Who we are

Eventhough many students were a bit nervous, they did a wonderful job of presenting their slideshow and sharing information about the skill they wanted to improve and informing the rest of the class about the strategy they used to do so, whilst connecting this learning to the brain and to the unit’s central idea and lines of inquiry. All outstanding presentations will be heard this week.

We are now looking forward to our second unit of the academic year which is based in the transdisciplinary theme of ‘Where we are in place and time’  and focuses on migration. The reasons for it and the impact it has both on the migrant and on those citizens of the country they migrate to.

Numeracy

Exponents, prime numbers, composite numbers and the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division continue to be the focus in numeracy. Along side these, the more general skills of coperating in pairs and groups, listening to others and sharing knowledge are also being worked upon.

Literacy

The students are continuing to use the elements of figurative language to help them improve their narrative. Proof reading these as they go, many of them are onto their second or even third draft. The stories are now way more entertaining to a reader having depth and an atmosphere.

Reading

Many of the students decode words very well and can read aloud fairly fluently, the challenge is for the students to really comprehend what they are reading and to practise this they must answer questions about what they have read both orally and in writing. Therefore we would really like to ask parents  to continually talk to your children about what they are reading. To help with this we have included a list of sample questions here please feel free to ask extra questions too.

In the recent Map reading test many students scored highly in the Informational text and vocabulary Acquistion parts however did less well in the Literature part. The best way to improve this is to read, read and read more and to read a variety of genres and styles of books. We will be encouaging the students to do this and we hope that you will do the same.

MAP tests/ Parent Meetings

The majority of students  demonstrated a mature attitude  to taking their MAP tests  in Maths and Reading, last week,  carefully reading and looking at the questions. They will complete this term’s tests with Language arts this week. This will add more data to the teacher’s own assessment tasks to enable the progress of the students to be clearly tracked. This progress will then be shared at the upcoming parent meetings in the week of September 28th-2nd October. We look forward to meeting with you then.

Parent Meetings– Please see appointment times on the class doors.

G5A – Monday 28th September

G5B- Tuesday 29th September

G5C- Wednesday 30th September

News in G5A 

This week’s news was brought to our attention by PimPim with an interesting article on the lingering affect of the symptoms of Covid 19 and by Rumaisa who provoked a discussion about fairness and modelling good behaviour with her news article about Novak Djokovic. Well done to both of them.

Please note

“Just a  reminder to all our returning families, you should by now have reviewed and completed the family address form, the health update form, the PYP ICT agreement and the school bus agreement (if applicable). If you haven’t already done so, please go to https://sea.kis.ac.th to complete as soon as possible.

Any questions, please email kisletter@kis.ac.th  attention School Services department. Thank You”

Mrs Carole carole.pa@edu.kis.ac.th

Mrs Rachel rachello@edu.kis.ac.th

Mr Nic nicholasm@edu.kis.ac.th

UOI- Who we are

The challenge has been set and the students are now well on their way with their inquiries into different methods to improve learning. Researching, testing out different strategies such as the mind palace memory retrieval method and creating their slideshow presentations in readiness to present to the rest of their class.

They have also been investigating how to improve their memories through games, the amazing talent of reading and writing braille and reflecting on last week’s brain dissection.

5A

5B

5C

Numeracy

The students have been demonstrating their learning about number, including their understanding of the four operations, prime numbers, and how to solve word problems. Next week these areas will be further consolidated and areas of struggle will be highlighted for future learning.

Literacy 

The narratives the students have been improving for the last few weeks are now showing not only signs of paragraphs, correct punctuation and spelling but also more expressive and detailed additions such as adjectives, adverbs and the inclusion of speech to really bring the stories to life. These will be continued next week.

Current affairs

As was mentioned in last week’s parent’s meeting the students are being encouraged to be aware of current affairs. Austin in G5A showed what a risktaker he is by being the first student to share a piece of news which he found interesting with his class. What a thought provoking discussion this turned into with topics ranging from Covid 19 to testing on animals, the rights of individuals including old people and prisoners in jails and the importance of having choice. We are looking forward to hearing from  other students next week.

MAP tests

The students will be undertaking MAP tests over the next two weeks in Maths, Reading and Language. This will add more data to the teacher’s own assessment tasks to enable the progress of the students to be clearly tracked. This progress will then be shared at the upcoming parent meetings in the week of September 28th-2nd October. We look forward to meeting with you then.

Please note

“Just a  reminder to all our returning families, you should by now have reviewed and completed the family address form, the health update form, the PYP ICT agreement and the school bus agreement (if applicable). If you haven’t already done so, please go to https://sea.kis.ac.th to complete as soon as possible.

Any questions, please email kisletter@kis.ac.th  attention School Services department. Thank You”

Mrs Carole carole.pa@edu.kis.ac.th

Mrs Rachel rachello@edu.kis.ac.th

Mr Nic nicholasm@edu.kis.ac.th

UOI -Who we are
The students are now well into their inquiry about how we learn. Investigations into the different parts of the brain, including seeing these up close in Friday’s dissection activity, has led the students to an understanding that knowledge and learning is not static and can always be improved.

This week’s focus will be on the variety of strategies we can try as humans to improve our learning skills. This will lead to a final summative task where the students will be challenged to test a learning strategy, they have researched. They will then present this to their class and teachers to assess the impact it could have on the learning of themselves and others.

Numeracy

Number and the four operations as in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division have been the main focus of this week’s learning. Prime numbers, square numbers and different ways of tackling both simple calculations and word problems will feature this week.

Literacy

Paragraphing, improving sentences by adding descriptive words and the benefit of correct punctuation have all featured in this week’s learning in Literacy. This will continue next week as the students refine their narratives in order to create powerful, atmospheric stories which will entertain a reader.

Reading groups are now established with all students reading a variety of texts, both on the computer and on paper ,which will challenge them We encourage all students to read at least 15 minutes a day and would like to ask parents to support this reading by asking your children  to describe what they have read. This practice will not only make sure that they are understanding what they read but will also improve their recounting descriptive skills.

Please note

“Just a  reminder to all our returning families, you should by now have reviewed and completed the family address form, the health update form, the PYP ICT agreement and the school bus agreement (if applicable). If you haven’t already done so, please go to https://sea.kis.ac.th to complete as soon as possible.

Any questions, please email kisletter@kis.ac.th  attention School Services department. Thank You”

Coaching

We are pleased to see that coaching in both swimming and basketball is now taking place with many  of the students taking part. We will look forward to supporting them and hearing their results when they start their fixtures.

Coffee  meeting

Thank you for attending the coffee morning it was lovely to see you all there. If you have any further questions please feel free to use the email accounts below. If you were unable to join us for the coffee morning please see the slide show here.

Mrs Carole carole.pa@edu.kis.ac.th

Mrs Rachel rachello@edu.kis.ac.th

Mr Nic nicholasm@edu.kis.ac.th

What a lovely productive week we have had. The students are really getting into the swing of things now. There are less reminders about social distancing and wearing masks correctly and we are getting on with the important task of learning.

UOI -Who we are

The students have been delving into the meaning of the central idea this week, generating their own questions for their inquiries. They have created visual representations of the learner profile attributes which mean the most to them and have been investigating the brain and how it works. We will continue this in following weeks looking at the impact the environment has on how we learn and finding new strategies to help us improve our learning methods.

Numeracy

The students have now been sorted into three groups to best support and challenge them as learners. All groups are focussing on number, the vocabulary of maths and strategies to help solve calculations.

Literacy

Reading groups are now underway with all students reading a variety of texts which will challenge them both on the computer and on paper. We encourage all students to read at least 15 minutes a day and would like to ask parents to support this reading by asking your children  to describe what they have read. This practice will not only make sure that they are understanding what they read but will also improve their recounting descriptive skills.

Writing is currently focused on narrative and the students will be investigating ways to improve both the structure and organisation of their stories and also, through adding expressive language ,the content.

Coffee  meeting

We will be holding a coffee meeting in the auditorium on Friday September 4th at 8am to discuss the year expectations, curriculum and to answer your questions. We hope to see you there.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact

Mrs Carole carole.pa@edu.kis.ac.th

Mrs Rachel rachello@edu.kis.ac.th

Mr Nic nicholasm@edu.kis.ac.th

Settling in

It was lovely to welcome all of Grade 5 back into the classrooms this week. It was great to see them catching up with the friends they have been missing. They have settled into the class routines well and are becoming more accustomed to following the social distancing protocols.

The current unit of inquiry is based upon the transdisciplinary theme of Who we are and focusses on how we learn, what impacts that learning and the tools and strategies we can apply to further our learning. The students have been investigating the differences between remote learning and learning on campus taking into consideration the strategies and learner profiles they exhibited when working in both environments. This week’s investigations will centre on how the brain functions.

Maths – we have been busy investigating the student’s prior knowledge and this week sees the students focussing on number and the basic operations to ensure that this knowledge is secure.

Literacy– The students will be inquiring into the features which make up a successful narrative, this week. Focussing on organisational features such as paragraphing as well as expressive features which enhance the descriptive and atmospheric elements of the writing. They will also be beginning to critically evaluate the stories they read in their groups.

Timetables 

These have now be finalised and all students should have brought these home. To access these look here. G5 A , G5 B, G5 C

Coffee  meeting

We will be holding a coffee meeting in the auditorium on Friday, September 4th at 8 am to discuss the year expectations, curriculum and to answer your questions. We hope to see you there.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact

Mrs Carole carole.pa@edu.kis.ac.th

Mrs Rachel rachello@edu.kis.ac.th

Mr Nic nicholasm@edu.kis.ac.th

1st few days

What a great start to the year. Everybody seemed to settle into grade 5 really quickly, following the social distancing protocols very well. Have a look at Group A’s  photos.

Group B’s photos

Welcome to Grade 5

We are so pleased to welcome the new grade 5 year back to school. We are looking forward to seeing you all and to getting to know both parents and students. We hope that this will be a successfull year for us all and will include iconic Grade 5 features such as the exhibition and graduation from the PYP.

As we all know, this year will start rather differently from those in the past as we continue to keep everyone safe and healthy with our social distancing protocols, these can be read here in Ms June’s letter. Please follow these carefully. We will be discussing these with the students when they arrive in their separate A and B groups on Thursday and Friday.

As Ms June has mentioned , on P.E days students are requested to wear P. E. clothes all day. Grade 5 have P. E on Thursday at the moment , instead of swimming so we request that all students in Group A come to school dressed for P. E. on that day. As for Group B Mr Nic’s class G5C have P. E on Friday so will need to wear their P. E. clothes. The rest of the grade are to wear school uniform as usual. Thank you for your help with this. Timetables will be sent out with the children so that others days can be prepared for in advance.

We cannot wait to meet you all and join together for the next year in your learning journey.

See you soon