Grade 5 Class Blog

Only a few days left of a wonderful term. Huge thanks to everyone who was able to give a present to the Central Thai Mission, the presents were delivered over the weekend and very well received!

Don’t forget the KISPA Christmas fair on Friday. In addition to a wide array of parent run stalls there will also be the chance to buy a bracelet from Jessica, Jida, Raymond and Milky who, with the help of other Grade 5 students, and children from across the primary school, have made some beautiful bracelets that they will be selling. These ANIMAL COMMUNITY BRACELETS come in various sizes and would make fantastic Christmas presents. All profits will fund their two amazing initiatives: firstly, they will be giving out free sketch books to KIS staff and children to help set up a sketching community, with fortnightly meetings. Secondly, they will make a donation to an animal charity in our local community. Their project is a great example of our whole school unit’s lines of inquiry Taking ethical action and Creating a caring and inclusive community. Please send your child to school with some money if they would like to buy a bracelet and come and support yourself!

Please check the calendar below for the various events happening this week. We look forward to seeing you at the Awards Assembly, the party and the Christmas performance on Friday too. In addition, please help your child to remember the following important things:

• Secret Santa presents – must be in school on Wednesday 10th as they will be shared at the start of the party
• Performance costumes – parent reps have shared the details, please make sure that your child brings in the parts of the costume that they need to provide themselves by Thursday 11th

Holiday Calendar 18 (Update 301118)

Finally, from the whole Grade 5 team, we wish you and your family a relaxing, fun and engaging holiday! See you in 2019!

The winter break is nearly upon us and we are gearing up for the final week of term. Lots on the calendar:

Holiday Calendar 18 (Update 301118)

In between rehearsals, parties and assemblies we will be bringing our How the world works unit to a close and reflecting on our learning journeys within our exploration of how The interaction between matter and energy causes change. In Maths we will also be concluding our current inquiries into how conversion of units and measurements allows us to make sense of the world we live in and how the base ten place value system extends infinitely in two directions. In Language Arts we are sharing our non-fiction writing and engaging in self and peer assessment to help us formulate personalised writing targets that we can carry over into the new year. It was also great to celebrate the Hour of Code yesterday!

IMG_9313

IMG_9314

IMG_9315

IMG_9316

IMG_9317

dav

sdr

dav

dav

dav

sdr

dav

sdr

dav

sdr

IMG_0704

IMG_0713

IMG_0720

IMG_9282

IMG_9284

IMG_9320

IMG_9321

IMG_9322

IMG_9323

IMG_9324

IMG_9326

Lots of things being organised for our Christmas party on December 12th and thank you all for your support in events like this – it really helps the celebrations to be fantastic! Please communicate with our parent reps about party food and with your child about Secret Santa. This year’s Secret Santa has been organised by the students themselves and is a great example of how our year long inquiry into creating a caring and inclusive community is constantly revisited. This iterative process helps to deepen our understandings of what a caring and inclusive really means, by examining it in different contexts and from different perspectives. Thanks for your support with this fun event!

Finally, if you can, please help us support the Central Thai Mission by taking a gift tag from the tree in the atrium and buying a present to help bring Christmas to others in our community.

Have a great week. Please remember Monday 10th December is a Professional Development day for us teachers so the school will be closed. See you at the Christmas Performances!

Wow, that was an amazing few days… Well done to all G5 students for taking on the watery challenge that was DCC 2018! As with all teamwork events there were challenges. We saw students experimenting with adopting different group roles: taking the lead, listening to others, assigning deadlines and cooporating. We also saw a need for advanced communication skills and the Learner Profiles of tolerance, respect and empathy were in full effect. Throwing in a competititve edge added a sense of excitement but the increased pressure was a challenge for some. In short, it was a challenging (it’s called the Design Cycle CHALLENGE, not the Design Cycle EASY!) few days!

By Friday, we all came away with a valuable reflection experience for future team working events like…. the G5 exhibition! Here are some amazing photos, courtesy of Jane’s mum. Many more can be found on the DCC site.

DSC06432_resize

DSC06435_resize

DSC06444_resize

DSC06458_resize

DSC06469_resize

DSC06475_resize

DSC06487_resize

DSC06488_resize

DSC06495_resize

DSC06556_resize

DSC06596_resize

DSC06602_resize

DSC06597_resize

DSC06599_resize

DSC06600_resize

DSC06627_resize

DSC06621_resize

DSC06639_resize

DSC06641_resize

DSC06655_resize

DSC06659_resize

DSC06425_resize

DSC06428_resize

DSC06661_resize

L1090189_resize

DSC06431_resize

This week we set foot on dry land again and get back into our Maths unit conversion of units and measurements allows us to make sense of the world we live in. Having experienced first hand the different MYP timetable (there were some rumbling tummies at 10am!) we will be doing some Maths with MYP timetables to develop our interpretation of schedules and timetables and calculating the duration of events.

In Language Arts sessions we have been developing our skills of summarising and wondering How do we write this in our own words? We have also explored the features of non-fiction texts and students are busily putting these skills into practice in their own writing.

Finally our unit focus on developing scientific skills through the central idea The interaction between matter and energy causes change continues and students are being invited to plan and demonstrate a scientific experiment that shows their developing understanding of our lines of inquiry:

• Change of state of matter
• Energy transformation
• How matter and energy affect one another

Have a great week!

There’s been some amazing Science and Maths going on in Grade 5 over the last week as part of our exploration into how the interaction between matter and energy causes change. Check it out:

IMG_1030

IMG_1032 (1)

IMG_1052

IMG_1049

IMG_0776

IMG_1065

IMG_1105

IMG_1081

IMG_1073 (1)

IMG_1095

IMG_1085

IMG_1010

IMG_1006

IMG_1009

IMG_8997

IMG_8999

56404131285__2AF5CFCB-DEB3-46BD-A0D1-2C0510BA96D5

IMG_9039

IMG_9040

IMG_9041

IMG_8982

IMG_8983

IMG_8981

IMG_8986

IMG_8990

IMG_8992

IMG_8993

IMG_8970

IMG_8969

IMG_8938

IMG_0980

Don’t forget that the Design Cycle Challenge has been spotted on the horizon, excitement ahoy! We can’t wait to get creative, collaborative and… wet. All G5 students will be on the MYP schedule from Wednesday to Friday and should bring their swimming costume in every day. All children who receive school lunches and snacks will continue to do so as normal and after school activities will run as normal too. Your children are welcome to top up their cards and experience one of the perks of MYP life!

The DCC website is here, and will be regularly updated with photos and information. Tomorrow all G5 students will find out who their team mates are, engage in some exciting team building activities and then get started on the Design Challenge itself. They might even to get to do some testing in the pool before the end of the day!

Have a great week!

First of all, a huge congratulations to our Dancing Queens who wowed everybody last week! It was a lovely combination of competitive spirit and teamwork and a huge learning experience for participants and audience members alike.

IMG_8917

IMG_8918

IMG_1231

IMG_1228

IMG_2290

IMG_1257

IMG_1249

IMG_1250

IMG_1234

IMG_0856

IMG_0857

IMG_0863

IMG_0869

IMG_0874

IMG_1262 (1)

Last week we also kicked off our How the World Works unit. The unit will focus on developing scientific skills through the central idea The interaction between matter and energy causes change. Over the coming week students will explore the following lines of inquiry:

• Change of state of matter
• Energy transformation
• How matter and energy affect one another

As part of this unit our Maths focus will continue to be on how the  conversion of units and measurements allows us to make sense of the world we live in and how to read, write and model addition and subtraction of integers (negative numbers).  The development of these two conceptual strands will allow students to apply their Maths skills to the experiments we are conducting in class, an example of transdisciplinary learning under the PYP.

Our reading and writing focus will also be on non-fiction text types and include the identifying the features of non-fiction texts and using them to develop our writing skills.

Thanks to all those who attended our Coffee Morning last Friday. Here is the video shared by our SEA department for your reference.

Finally, please follow this link to access the information shared by Mr Eric, our ICT integrator, about how to safegaurd your child online at home. Ms Alex is also sending home a summary today of the discussion topics from Monday’s sessions with the Grade 5 students.

Have a great week!

Halloween was amazing, a huge thank you to all the support that families offered with decorating the rooms, assisting with preparing the wonderful games and buying tons of candy!

IMG_1040

IMG_1039

IMG_1065

IMG_1014

IMG_1050

IMG_1063

IMG_1016

IMG_1005

IMG_1200

IMG_1199

IMG_1123

IMG_1158

IMG_1138

This week we are sharing our enduring understandings from Unit 2 Human migration affects communities, cultures and individuals and blasting off into the world of practical science in our How the world works in unit 3. More information on the central idea and lines of inquiry will follow in next week’s blog.

A reminder that our Maths focus has switched to how the base 10 place value system extends infinitely in two directions allowing us to explore how to read, write and model addition and subtraction of integers (negative numbers). We are also inquiring into the measurement of time while investigating how to interpret and use timetables locally and globally under the conceptual understanding that conversion of units and measurements allows us to make sense of the world we live in.

In Language Arts our creative writers our applying the finishing touches to Halloween inspired stories and poems and engaging in discussions about how they follow the writing process by planning, drafting, editing and publishing.

Don’t forget our Coffee Morning this week. On the agenda will be the Residential trip, exhibition and more. See you in the AP room at 8am on Friday 9th November.

Have a great week.

Thank you to all our wonderful parent and children helping hands yesterday after school. It’s so great to know that the parent community is so supportive and helpful and the Grade 5 area has a spectacularly spooky feel!

UPDATE: MAPS summaries are now available on your child’s Managebac Portfolio page.

We hope you had a wonderful break! The students have come back full of festive energy and we are busy making preparations for Friday’s activities. Please remember, if you have any reservations at all about your child taking part, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher.

IMG_2232

IMG_2234

IMG_2235

IMG_2226

IMG_2227

IMG_2229

This week we are wrapping up our second unit Human migration affects communities, cultures and individuals and students are being invited to share their enduring understandings from the unit’s inquiries.

In Maths we are switching back to a focus on how the base 10 place value system extends infinitely in two directions allowing us to explore how to read, write and model addition and subtraction of integers (negative numbers). We will also be inquiring into the measurement of time while investigating how to interpret and use timetables locally and globally under the conceptual understanding that conversion of units and measurements allows us to make sense of the world we live in.

As we move into our third unit our reading and writing focusses will switch to non-fiction. Please help us to ensure that your child maintains a balance to their reading at home – it is helpful for all students to spend time reading both fiction and non-fiction books and our library has a great range of both genres.

Have a great week!

Contrary to what many people say, you should believe the Hype! Last week we promised a week of amazing visitors and boy, did the KIS community deliver…

On Thursday we loved making musical connections to our unit Human migration affects communities, cultures and individuals when we learnt about how Mac and Quadasi, our visitors from Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa have enhanced traditional Maskandi Music with western rythyms and influences. Or was it the other way round? Either way, it sounded wonderful and was a great example of the effects of our central idea.

The following day we welcomed author Jamie Yorke into the Grade 5 classrooms for some engaging and highly developmental writing workshops. The workshops focussed on the skills of making connections to the texts we are reading and thinking about how to use these connections to develop engaging characters for our own stories.

IMG_8343

IMG_8337

IMG_0914

IMG_0918

IMG_0911

IMG_0923

IMG_0949

IMG_0928

IMG_0940

IMG_0959

IMG_0957

IMG_0906

IMG_0903

IMG_0900

And to cap it all off we had a visit from the MYP teacher Mr Tri. His presentation about his personal migration journey really engaged the imaginations, curiosity and empathetic natures of the students and again was a powerful opportunity for students to make many powerful connections to our unit.

During this week students will undertake some assessments to assess their development with our Maths focusses of how patterns can often be generalised using algebraic expressions, equations or functions and investigations into the properties of prime, composite, triangular and square numbers. We will also be using the recent MAPS test data to help your child continue to develop their mathematical strengths and weaknesses and to develop some personal goals for improvement. As always, our growth mindsets tell us that it’s not that we don’t know it, we just don’t know it YET!

Have a great week!

As a spectator it was really wonderful to see the G4/5 handball tournament on Friday. It was a tremendous display of house spirit, teamwork, communication and some dazzling skills that have been developed in the KIS PE programme. It really made us want to have a go… maybe that should be the teacher Vs parents game for this year?!

Last week all G5 students finished sitting their MAPS tests and results will be uploaded to Managebac soon, as well as being discussed at parent conferences this week. This is a good opportunity to set learning goals for your child and these will be discussed in class over the coming weeks.

Our exploration of Migration journeys continues this week and children are developing a deep understanding of the different push and pull factors that comprise the Reasons for migration. On Friday we are looking forward to a visit from an MYP teacher with a personal story to share that will also help us delve into the Impacts of Migration.

In Maths we are exploring pattern and function involving investigations into the properties of prime, composite, triangular and square numbers. In Language Arts we continue our focus on narrative writing and developing figurative language and are already getting excited about our workshops with visiting author Jamie Yorke on Friday. Oh, and there’s also the visitors from another continent on Thursday too! Busy week!

A final reminder that the Primary book fair is here and the choice of books is amazing. Please feel free to send your child to school with a little spending money.