Grade 5 Class Blog

Experimenting!

If you had walked into grade 5 this week you may have been surprised to see balloon being blown, s’mores being cooked and windmills turning but it has all been in the name of experimenting.  The students have been challenged to use their knowledge of energy and states of matter and how these change to create an experiment. Working in pairs, small groups and individually they have creatively risen to the challenge with an abundance and variety of experiments. We are looking forward to more of these next week.

In Maths, we have been investigating averages and how these help us to interpret data, this continues next week.

In Literacy, we are moving away from persuasion texts towards creating narrative texts with mood and atmosphere in these, showing not telling.

The next two weeks may be  close to the end of the term but they will be as busy as ever and we do expect students to continue with their reading ,IXL maths and homework assignments. However as an end of term treat grade 5 will be having an end of term party on the afternoon of Wednesday 11th December. We would really appreciate any gifts of food that you feel you could provide for this.

Staying with the Holiday theme please take time to read the excerpts below to see how you could help children in need!

Christmas gift donations- see the Christmas tree in the PYP atrium for gift tags.

Grade 4 Initiative

Ever given a secret Santa gift? Want to give one this year to someone who will really appreciate it? Please read the message below from Mr Zack in Grade 4

Books for birthdays

Ms Lindsay and Ms Earth would like parents to donate books to the library instead of having cakes for a child’s birthday. The gift of reading will be passed on by this gift,many times over. Please try to support this initiative.

Residential trip. This is sure to be a rewarding learning experience for all the children. Please return Confirmation letter   and Medical form as soon a possible. Any questions please feel free to contact us.

Upcoming Events

Residential permission slip to be returned by 4th December

School closed in remembrance HM King Bhumibol’s birthday 5th December

Christmas gift donations by 6th December

Grade 5 Party Wednesday 11th December

End of term 1 13th December, 11.30am

An exciting time

This week saw,the first field trip for Grade 5 this academic year, to Sunny Bangchek Solar power farm. In their reflections, the students wrote about the awesome sight of the ocean of solar panels which seemed to stretch from one side of the large window to another when revealed after the film. They were enthusiastic about all that they learnt but were disappointed that the lovely leaving gift of a recycled bag was covered in plastic as was the post-it note set. This trip really helped the students gain an understanding of a renewable energy source and we will be applying this knowledge in the coming weeks. as we continue our investigations into different types of energy sources.

In Maths we are looking into data and how we collect, organise and represent our findings in graphs.

We are still being persuasive in our Literacy lessons so be aware for those persuasive tactics being used at home. In the next few weeks we may also focus in on some narrative features as we head into the holiday season.

Thank you for all the donations for the PAWS charity with the non-uniform day on Friday being very successful.

Well done to those grade 5 members who took part in the Athletics match on Thursday and the dancers who mesmerized the secondary school with their moves in assembly.

Grade 4 Initiative

Ever given a secret Santa gift? Want to give one this year to someone who will really appreciate it? Please read the message below from Mr Zack in Grade 4

Books for birthdays

Ms Lindsay and Ms Earth would like parents to donate books to the library instead of having cakes for a child’s birthday. The gift of reading will be passed on by this gift,many times over. Please try to support this initiative.

Residential trip. This is sure to be a rewarding learning experience for all the children. Please return Confirmation letter   and Medical form as soon a possible. Any questions please feel free to contact us.

Upcoming Events

Residential permission slip to be returned by 4th December

School closed in remembrance HM King Bhumibol’s birthday 5th December

End of term 1 13th December, 11.30am

Making Connections

This week has seen the end of our sharing the planet unit based upon climate change and the introduction of our How the world works unit on energy. The students, however have spent the week examining the many connections between to the two units especially in consideration of the use of fossil fuels and the introduction of renewable energy sources. Next week, we will begin to look at the science behind how these energies are created and transferred and  how, using the scientific method, we can record our experiments.

It was so lovely this week seeing many of the students dress in traditional Thai costumes for Loy Kratong having made some brilliantly creative Kratongs in their classes.

We have now come to the end of our time area of study in Maths and have moved onto data handling which complements our unit very well. as we find the data in our science investigation and experiments we can learn how to organise and present these facts to a wider audience in our Maths sessions.

In literacy we will are still learning about being persuasive both verbally and in a written form. Watch out for some of the tactics being learnt in class being used with you in the home environment!

After some discussion, the teachers have all decided that the main focus for this half term across all lessons is to be reading for understanding. Which means more reading will be taking place in the classrooms with much discussion and answering of questions about this reading. We are also strongly encouraging the students to read more at home and to discuss their reading with their parents, friends or siblings. This will promote their learning throughout the curriculum. Questions they could be asking themselves or having others ask them are linked here.

Day trip– we are very much looking forward to our first trip out with the student’s on Wednesday. Please ensure that the permission slip has been completed.

Grade 4 Initiative

Ever given a secret Santa gift? Want to give one this year to someone who will really appreciate it? Please read the message below from Mr Zack in Grade 4

Books for birthdays

Ms Lindsay and Ms Earth would like parents to donate books to the library instead of having cakes for a child’s birthday. The gift of reading will be passed on by this gift,many times over. Please try to support this initiative.

Residential trip. This is sure to be a rewarding learning experience for all the children. Please return Confirmation letter   and Medical form as soon a possible. Any questions please feel free to contact us.

Upcoming Events

G5 trip to Sunny Bang Chak 20th November

Non-uniform day to raise funds for PAWS 22nd November

Residential permission slip to be returned by 4th December

School closed in remembrance HM King Bhumibol’s birthday 5th December

End of term 1 13th December, 12.00

G5 BCPG Visitor Center letter to parents

A diverse week

It was so lovely this week welcoming parents in to discuss the learning progress of their children. We hope that you found these meetings as valuable as we did. Discussing learning goals with both parents and students, this week, has enabled us to direct the student’s learning forward, all working together.

The students have been so lucky this week, as when the teachers were talking to the parents, they had focused lessons with Ms Kirsten, where they completed the marshmallow challenge using collaboration and thinking skills, Mr Eric who helped them to practice their communication skills, sending messages digitally in different ways and with Ms Lindsay who gave the students the opportunity to practice their research skills. All great skills which will be needed when the students start work on their exhibition.

Our climate change unit is drawing to a close with the students really understanding the big ideas, helped by our guest speaker on Monday Ms Linn who talked with passion about how she had set up the Bangkok climate change protest.  At her first meeting only a few people arrived and then more and more so that over 300 hundred people arrived at the last protest showing the importance of commitment to a cause and perseverance. Hopefully inspiring grade 5 with her words. Next week we will be moving onto our ‘How the world works’ unit about Energy and Matter.

After some discussion, the teachers have all decided that the main focus for this half term across all lessons is to be reading for understanding. Which means more reading will be taking place in the classrooms with much discussion and answering of questions about this reading. We are also strongly encouraging the students to read more at home and to discuss their reading with their parents, friends or siblings. This will promote their learning throughout the curriculum. Questions they could be asking themselves or having others ask them are linked here.

Books for birthdays

Ms Lindsay and Ms Earth would like parents to donate books to the library instead of having cakes for a child’s birthday. The gift of reading will be passed on by this gift,many times over. Please try to support this initiative.

Persuasive texts are still the focus for Literacy- how to argue convincingly to put across a point of view both verbally and in a written format, this will continue into next week.

In Maths, we are coming to the end of our work on Time, and have been looking at real life problems using timetables and schedules for buses, trains etc to calculate the time it takes for particular journeys. We will soon be moving on to investigate data.

SYTYCD

Eight of our Grade 5 Girls delighted us with their dance moves on Wednesday Morning. So good were they that Dynamix won the primary competition for KIS.  Congratulations should go to Cali, Ninny, Kaede, Chloe, Mikli, Proud, Ishita and Kana.

Residential trip. This is sure to be a rewarding learning experience for all the children. Please return Confirmation letter   and Medical form as soon a possible. Any questions please feel free to contact us.

Influenza update

Upcoming Events

Loy Kratong  11th November. Thai clothes may be worn.

Parent Forum November 11th

KISPA  Meeting 12th November

G5 trip to Sunny Bang Chak 20th November

Residential permission slip to be returned by 4th December

School closed in remembrance HM King Bhumibol’s birthday 5th December

End of term 1 13th December

What a week!

The students have shown so many learner profile attributes this week whilst in preparation for our community Halloween event. They have had to collaborate with members of their teams deciding who would do which tasks and provide certain resources, also negotiating with members of other teams over space and materials.  They had to be caring and considerate to the younger members of the community, explaining their games and sometimes adjusting their rules to suit the individual skills of the players. Their games have shown that they are thinkers, solving the problems of how to create a challenging yet entertaining activity for a range of players. We will be reflecting next week on what the students have learnt from this whole process and how this can help them in their upcoming exhibition. A huge thank you to all the parents who decorated the classrooms and corridors ready for our Halloween event, it looked awesome!

In Maths this week, time and most importantly time management has been the key focus this will continue to the end of next week.

In Literacy, persuasive techniques both verbal in readiness for the Halloween event and also written as arguments have been the major area of study. Next week will see the students writing arguments based upon their unit of inquiry. They are now becoming more aware of the reasons for climate change and have started to think seriously about ways that they could help the situation and will be using their research to make their arguments.

Art competition– we are still looking for entries. Get your poster in now to win those all important house points!

Thank you to all the parents who attended the Residential meeting on Friday. This is sure to be a rewarding learning experience for all the children. Please return Confirmation letter   and Medical form as soon a possible.

We are really looking forward to welcoming  parents to the Audi box to share your child’s learning from 4th November.

Upcoming Events

Parent Teacher Conferences 4th-8th November

Loy Kratong  11th November. Thai clothes may be worn.

Parent Forum November 11th

Residential permission slip to be returned by 4th December

School closed in remembrance HM King Bhumibol’s birthday 5th December

End of term 1 13th December

Welcome back, its hard to believe that we are on the second half term already, so much happened last half term.

In the week before the break the students wrote persuasive letters in Literacy, worked on time problems in Maths and are beginning to have a greater understanding of what climate change is.

This week we are looking forward to learning about the scientific definitions of climate change, working on timetables and extending our knowledge of persuasive texts to include arguments.

Also very importantly we are all looking forward to our Halloween games day on Friday. All the students having been given the task to create an activity for the younger grade levels. It will be very interesting to see what they produce and how they interact when supervising these games. This will provide an extra opportunity to practice collaboration and presentation skills in readiness for exhibition later in the academic year.

From the 4th of November we are looking forward to sharing the students learning and progress with parents in the conferences. Please make sure that you have signed up to one of these sessions.

Want to win points for your house make sure you take part in the poster competition.

So much has happened this week!

We have had the provocation of our new unit on Climate Change. Mr Eric and Ms Lindsay joined the  grade 5 teachers to present 5 different activities to give the students the opportunity f to become more aware of the differing aspects of this very current and emotive topic. We will be investigating more in the coming weeks based upon the central idea of “People have a responsibility to address environmental change’ looking in depth at our lines of inquiry ‘ Causes and effects of environmental change, Responses to environmental change. We will be studying this  through the key concepts of Causation, Responsibility and perspective.

Also this week, many of the children reflected and shared their learning about their Migration unit,with each other, in a variety of ways including posters, videos, quizzes and slide show presentations. The students worked very hard on this and have reflected and discussed how they can improve their presentation skills in readiness for their exhibition later in the school year.

In Literacy we have now moved from diaries to persuasive writing and so will be working on the features of this style of writing for the next few weeks.

In Maths, we are continuing to focus on time and in particular how to measure and calculate time passing between one event and another.

Friday was a very exciting day!

First we listened to some melodious singing in the Thai assembly hosted again by our very own House Captains and Assembly Squad.

Then we had a very exciting visit from two performers who gave us an insight into their lives and the qualities needed to be successful in theatre.

The Handball tournament came next, what an exciting afternoon with all students doing their best to play well and support their houses.

Another way in which the students can gain housepoints is to enter the House Poster Competition based around the six transdisciplinary themes. Create a poster remembering to have a balanced design, creative use of collage, use realistic drawings and a range of hot or cool colours and make sure that the theme of the poster is clearly defined. We will be eagerly waiting to see them.

Next week we have a Primary school book fair.  from 16- 18th. A great opportunity to get holiday reading books.

Map’s test will continue as per the timetable below.

It has been such a busy week in Grade 5. We have been finishing our diary extracts and preparing our end of unit sharing of knowledge. The students have had some choice as to how they want to present this so have chosen to do so in a variety of ways including posters, films, animations, dioramas and slide show presentations. These will be shared throughout the grade in the coming week.

The refugee diary extracts which the students have been writing are now nearing completion. Some of these have been so moving they have even brought a tear to Mrs Carole’s eyes.  This short extract from Fang Fang’s diary will show you why.

When night fell, I waited until my dad and the stranger fell asleep, I wanted to be alone and in a quiet place for sometime, I looked up at the starry sky, it reminded me of how my mom used to cuddle me in my bedroom. The breeze swept on to my face, suddenly, I saw my mom with my sister waving at me. I ran to them crying with my arms opened for a hug, but a force pulled me back, my sister and mom were going further away from me when I suddenly woke up to see my dad’s face, I looked around for a sign of mom and sister, but they were nowhere to be seen, the little hope that was in me was drained out immediately. Sadness overcame me and I stood up, we were on land with nothing but wood on the floor. I knew we had arrived.  by Fang Fang

All diaries will hopefully be completed next week ready to share.

The students have a much clearer understanding of what exponents are now so we are ready to move onto a unit about time in Maths and will be investigating strategies to find elapsed time.

Next week we will be starting our new unit about Climate change based upon the UN’s global goal 13 Climate Action.

Map’s test will continue as per the timetable below.