Parent Planner G5 Weekly Blue Planner October 25th -29th

G5 What I Need For Next Week 26th October (2)

Wonderful News!

The campus will be reopening on the 8th November for PYP students. We are so looking forward to welcoming students back on site in a safe and thoughtful manner. Look out for much more information coming your way about this in the next few weeks.

Holiday- Monday 25th October 

Enjoy your day if you are lucky enough to spend it with your family. We will see everybody on Tuesday.

There will not be our usual meeting this week as Monday is a holiday. If you have any urgent questions please direct these to your child’s teacher.

School Counselor Ms Alex

Please take a look at the Ms Alex’s (Counselor) blog it has some really interesting reports on how you can help your child when working online and also with the upcoming return to campus.Counselor’s Blog

• Thursday October 28th – 2:00pm – Primary Parent workshop “Well-being” with Ms. Alex the PYP counselor link 

Kispa Pinktober

Are you wearing pink or have you been to any of KISPA’s special events  to raise awareness of breast Cancer by wearing pink? If not, no worries as lots more events will be happening next week.

Unit of inquiry

The highlight of our week was the virtual visit from Mr Tan and Mr Tri from the MYP. They shared with us their experiences of emigrating from Vietnam. Mr Tan shared a book which thoughtfully told the story of another refugee whilst  Mr Tri shared his personal story. Describing the push factor for his departure from his home country, his dangerous journey, his final destination and the challenges he met there. The students were really engaged in the stories and sent their thanks some of which I include here.

Next week, the students will be presenting their research about a particular refugee crisis. This will be a great opportunity for the students to evaluate  their research, collaboration and presentation skills ahead of exhibition which will take place in term 2.

Literacy

Along with identifying figurative elements in a variety of contexts the students have begun writing their personal diaries based upon the experience of someone who is emigrating from their country. We are really looking forward to reading these to find the diary features and the facts included within them.

Numeracy

The students have had a whistle stop tour this week moving from converting standard units of distance to Mass and then to capacity. They also created their own scales.

They have also been learning the differences between Mass and weight and also between volume and capacity. If you are not sure, ask them, hopefully they will give you a good answer.

Next week we will be reviewing addition and subtraction strategies and procedures.

Parent Planner G5 Weekly Blue Planner October 18th – 22nd

G5 What I Need For Next Week October 18th

Parent Meeting Zoom Every Monday at 12.50

A half term already!

It is hard to believe that we have completed the first half term of the academic year and even though this has been all in remote learning so much has been achieved. The students have settled really well into Grade 5 producing some excellent examples of their learning. These include their explanation texts, their family trees, the numerous jamboards of mathematical concepts and  wonderful conversations about their reading. We have also held parent conferences, house days and had several individual conversations with students about their learning. Next half term we will be joining with KISPA to raise awareness of breast Cancer by wearing pink.

We are looking forward to being back on campus in any form that may take next half term and meeting many of the students in person.

Unit of inquiry

This week the students have been presenting their family trees to the rest of their class. Whilst doing so we have been investigating the reasons why people might migrate from one place to another- the push and pull factors. We have also been learning how to use the Cornell method to aid our notetaking skills. After the holiday we will be hearing from some guest speakers who will retell their personal stories of migration.

Literacy

Figurative elements such as, smilies, metaphors and personification have been a focus this week identifying these and using them in our own writing. We have also been revisiting our diary writing skills and creating characters to write from their perspective. We will continue this next half term when the students will need to research in order to add facts to their diary writing.

Numeracy

The students have been consolidating their understanding of multiplying decimal numbers with reference to conversions and the real world of distance measurement. After the break they will use this knowledge to apply similar rules to mass and capacity. They will need to prepare themselves by having a coat hanger, string and two large plastic cups (preferably recycled) or soup bowls and 8 double A batteries as per photo below.

Parent G5 Weekly Planner October 4th – 8th (1)

G5 What I Need For Next Week October 4th

Parent Meeting Zoom Every Monday at 12.50

Unit of inquiry

A new unit of inquiry was started this week, based upon the transdisciplinary theme of Where we are in place and time, with a focus on human migration. As a provocation, the students have been looking into their personal histories to find out about the migration of their family members. Continuing on from this, the students will be looking into the main reasons why people migrate.

Please see the image above to find out how one Grade 5 boy is choosing to take action, please help if you can.

Literacy

This week the students have been creating their own checklist for the elements which should be contained within a diary text. Using this they then wrote a diary about an important event in their lives. Next week they will be investigating the different elements of figurative language which could help them to add detail to their writing of these events.

Numeracy

The students have been consolidating their understanding of how to convert one standard unit to another when solving problems associated with distance. Next week they will apply these skills to the areas of mass and capacity.

A wonderful opportunity

Please check out the online Maths Challenge on this link for a chance to win some great prizes.

If you have any questions  please contact your child’s teacher on the addresses below.

The Grade 5 Team

G5A Carole Parker carole.pa@kis.ac.th

G5B Martyn Svendsen martyn.sv@kis.ac.th

G5C Nic Monnin nicholas.mo@kis.ac.th

Ms Kaew, Ms Ning, Ms Pinn

Dear Parents,

Please visit the Counselor’s Blog this week to find out some ideas on”how to talk to your child about school”. This is especially useful since we have just completed our Parent-Teacher Conferences.

https://klearning.ict.kis.ac.th/kblog/counselor/

Happy Monday

G5Team

Parent Planner G5 Weekly Blue Planner September 27th – October 1st (1) (1)

G5 What I Need For Next Week Sept. 27th

Parent Meeting Zoom Every Monday at 12.50

House Day

What a wonderful day the students have had today with activities ranging from Music, Thai to P.E and art.  By looking at  the pictures above you can see some of the activities they were engaged in. We thank all of those staff members who were involved today and who helped Ms Shelley in the organisation of this as we know that these days do not happen without lots of preparation.

Parent Conferences

It was wonderful to meet so many of you today even if online and to be able to discuss ways to jointly support your child’s learning. We hope that you too found the meetings valuable.

Unit of inquiry

After completing the ‘How we organise ourselves’ unit last week Grade 5 is now moving onto a unit about migration based upon the transdisciplinary theme of ‘Where we are in place and time’. The students will be investigating the reasons humans move from one country to another and the impact that this movement has on the individuals, communities and cultures associated with it.

Literacy 

The students will be inquiring into what make a good diary extract in readiness to write their own linked to their unit research. They will also be finding out about ways to record their notes from both internet searches and guest presentations.

Numeracy

We will be continuing our learning into decimal numbers and how these are used in measurement activities, investigating both the need for standard units and how these convert from one to another.

A wonderful opportunity

Please check out the online Maths Challenge on this link for a chance to win some great prizes.

If you have any questions  please contact your child’s teacher on the addresses below.

The Grade 5 Team

G5A Carole Parker carole.pa@kis.ac.th

G5B Martyn Svendsen martyn.sv@kis.ac.th

G5C Nic Monnin nicholas.mo@kis.ac.th

Ms Kaew, Ms Ning, Ms Pinn

Parent G5 Weekly Blue Planner September 20th – 24th September

G5 What I Need For Next Week 20th September

Parent Meeting Zoom Every Monday at 12.50

Dot Day

As you can see we had a lovely Dot day today, with dotty clothes, dotty activities and even dotty plants. We are now looking forward to our house day next Friday.

Parent Conferences

These will take place on Friday 24th and the following week. Please sign up on the timetable shared with you. The link will be added to this document in readiness for this meeting.

If you have any more general questions please join us in a regular Monday afternoon meeting at 12.50.

UOI

Next week will see our last week of our governance unit. The students will be focusing on assessing their understanding of the central idea and the lines of inquiry before we move onto our next unit.

Literacy

Our investigation into explanation texts will be completed next week with the students writing their own text explaining their research into a government system of their choice.

Numeracy

We be continuing to be looking into decimal numbers but will be moving towards how these are used in measurement activities and investigating both the need for standard units and how these convert from one to another.

If you have any questions  please contact your child’s teacher on the addresses below.

The Grade 5 Team

G5A Carole Parker carole.pa@kis.ac.th

G5B Martyn Svendsen martyn.sv@kis.ac.th

G5C Nic Monnin nicholas.mo@kis.ac.th

Ms Kaew, Ms Ning, Ms Pinn

Weekly planner September 13th

G5 What I Need For Next Week September 13th

Last week we welcomed our new house captains this week it is the turn of our school council representatives. We welcome them to this role and wish them well for the coming very busy year.

G5A- Elie,

G5B- , Ani and Arya 

G5C -Niska 

UOI

The students have been delving deeper into the function -how it works of different government systems. Learning that Democracies have lots of different departments who all need to be helping the main leadership make decisions. Trying this in the classroom can  be exhausting, with every decision needing a vote.  Hopefully by now, all parents have also been interviewed about the government system that you were brought up in. Giving expert accounts of how it felt to be a citizen in that system.  Next week will include a more in depth look into dictatorships and an opportunity for students to compare the information they have gathered about different government systems.

Literacy

This week, the explanation texts have been reviewed, adapted and improved by the students working with their peers to give helpful hints and to encourage more detail in the texts. Next week, this knowledge will be  of vital importance when the students start to write their explanation text about a government system of their choice.

Numeracy

Decimal numbers have featured heavily in this week’s work. What the value is of single digits? How decimal numbers can be added, subtracted and multiplied and how these numbers fit into a real life context. We will be continuing this next week inquiring into procedures used to divide decimal numbers and looking closely into our needs as mathematicians.

Dot day

Next Wednesday 15th September is International Dot day based upon the best seller by Peter H. Reynolds. We will be be going dotty, with dotty activities and we will be encouraging the students to dress in dotty clothes. Please join us in this we would love to see lots of dotty photos on seesaw.

School Closed

The school is closed next Thursday 16th and 17th for students so no work will be set on these days however we will be encouraging the students to keep reading, research their government systems and also to be working on their IXL recommendations.

Parent presentation meeting on 6th September

Firstly, thank you for all those parents who attended and who sent in such great questions. One of those questions was asking about reading recommendations. Here is the link to the library pages recommendations list.  The presentation used in the meeting can be viewed here. Parent meeting presentation

If you have any questions  please contact your child’s teacher on the addresses below.

The Grade 5 Team

G5A Carole Parker carole.pa@kis.ac.th

G5B Martyn Svendsen martyn.sv@kis.ac.th

G5C Nic Monnin nicholas.mo@kis.ac.th

Ms Kaew, Ms Ning, Ms Pinn

G5 Parent Weekly Blue Planner September 6th – 10th (1)

G5 What I Need For Next Week September 6th

Parent Meeting Zoom Every Monday at 12.50

We welcome our new House Captains 

Hanuman-  Bo and Un

Erawan-RewRew and BewBew

Tosakan- Vudh and Porche

Naga – Pauline and Della

We want to congratulate them all and wish them well for the busy year ahead of them.

UOI

The students, this week, reflected on last week’s provocation and used their note taking skills to learn more about either Anarchy, Democracy or Dictatorship. They then became the experts teaching others their knowledge. The students were then challenged to share this knowledge in a creative way. Some chose to make videos, others posters and still others models. You can see some of these below.

Monarchy was then added to the Government systems investigated, ready for the students to create their own questions to lead their inquiries forward next week.

Literacy

This week the students have been applying the knowledge they gained last week evaluating explanation texts by writing their own explaining  the form and function of an object. Next week they will be reflecting on their efforts and improving their writing with the help of their peers.

Numeracy

This week, we have been finding the value of digits in very large numbers, investigating partitioning and combining numbers and inquiring into how decimal numbers fit into our  understanding of place value.

Parent meeting  on 6th September

This parent meeting will be our termly coffee morning meeting but in the afternoon! So come along if you would like to hear more about Grade 5’s year and of course if you have any questions. We are looking forward to seeing you there.Parent Meeting Zoom Every Monday at 12.50.

Assessments

We are currently undertaking assessments to gain an understanding of where each student is in their learning so that we can best support them. We would really appreciate it if the children could be encouraged to do these assessments independently, at the time the task is set and with distractions kept to a minimum.

If you have any questions  please contact your child’s teacher on the addresses below.

The Grade 5 Team

G5A Carole Parker carole.pa@kis.ac.th

G5B Martyn Svendsen martyn.sv@kis.ac.th

G5C Nic Monnin nicholas.mo@kis.ac.th

Ms Kaew, Ms Ning, Ms Pinn

G5 Parent Weekly Blue Planner August 30th-Sep 3rd

G5 What I Need For Next Week August 30th

Parent Meeting Zoom Every Monday at 12.50

UOI

Grade 5 were very confused on Tuesday when they were separated into different classrooms to organise school council representatives. In one classroom they found that being allowed to do anything they wanted could be very stressful, frustrating and not productive. In another classroom they were met with a horrible dictator who would not let them talk and who chose the reps himself and in another the voting was easy and trouble free with everyone getting a vote. What was the purpose of this activity? To generate interest in our new unit on governance. It certainly created lots of conversation and some very indignant questions. We will see where these questions lead us in our inquiries next week.

Literacy

This week the students have been investigating what elements should be included in an explanation text, in readiness for writing their own next week.

Maths

Investigating systems in Maths, has led us to the system of place value and how numbers are organised. Next week we will be investigating partitioning and combining numbers and how understanding place value can help us understand the world around us.

Assessments

We are currently undertaking assessments to gain an understanding of where each student is in their learning so that we can best support them. We would really appreciate it if the children could be encouraged to do these assessments independently, at the time the task is set and with distractions kept to a minimum.

House day and House Captains

The house Leaders padlet was a buzz with life today as the whole of PYP were watching the videos and voting for their favourites. Grade 5 are all very excited and looking forward to seeing who has been elected on Monday. On our first house day of the year, students spent a fun time collecting objects in their house colours, finding family members willing to dress up with them and finding interesting areas to be photographed in. House activites also took place in specialist sessions, in Thai, learning about the origins of our house names and with a fun sock challenge from Mr Ben, maybe we should all try this one over the weekend! It was a great way to start our house events this year. We are looking forward to seeing what the house captains organise for us to do on the next house day.

Parent meeting  on 6th September

This parent meeting will be our termly coffee morning meeting but in the afternoon! So come along if you would like to hear more about Grade 5’s year and of course if you have any questions.

Monday 23rd Parents Meeting Q&A Summary

During Monday’s parents meeting a number of important points were discussed; It is encouraged that students are exposed to as much reading material as possible. Physical books are preferred but if that is not possible now there are a number of great online resources to explore. The KIS library website is a great place to start. Once the students’ spelling assessments have been finalized, parents will be informed as to their details. Feedback for assessment will be discussed with parents during the PTC’s at the end of September. In Grade five we encourage students to monitor their own learning. If this is not happening we will discuss it with them and then if needed get in touch with their parents. During online learning the students are spending a lot of time sitting inside so there is not the same homework expectations as there would be during the normal school week. Though we do always look to set open ended tasks should the students want to dive deeper into their inquiries.

If you have any questions  please contact your child’s teacher on the addresses below.

The Grade 5 Team

G5A Carole Parker carole.pa@kis.ac.th

G5B Martyn Svendsen martyn.sv@kis.ac.th

G5C Nic Monnin nicholas.mo@kis.ac.th

Ms Kaew, Ms Ning, Ms Pinn

G5 Parent Weekly Blue Planner August 23rd-27th

G5 What I Need For Next Week August 23rd (1)

Parent Meeting Zoom Every Monday 

Going deeper

UOI

It has been a very busy week. The students have been investigating the learner profile attributes having to really think deeply about the meanings of these to themselves and to  reflect on their own skills in relation to these. You can see some of their learning below.

Next week we will start a unit based in the transdisciplinary theme of ‘How we organise ourselves’ all about Governance. The central theme is Government systems influence the lives of citizens.  We will be investigating to find out the form and function of the systems which are in place aand also look at how these affect the communities who are governed by them.

Literacy

This week we have been completing reading assessments, chatting about current books and in some reading groups debating the portrayal of certain characters in film versions as opposed to the book counterparts. It has been a fun week. Next week we will be evaluating explanation texts before beginning to write our own.

Maths

We have been looking at the connections to be made in Mathematics this week, whilst also making sure that the platforms we will use are accessible to all students. Everyone should now be able to acess IXL,seesaw, google classroom, padlet if your child cannot please contact us on the emails below. Next week we will be looking into the systems which help us to understand place value.

Assessments

We are currently undertaking assessments to gain an understanding of where each student is in their learning so that we can best support them. We would really appreciate it if the children could be encouraged to do these assessments independently, at the time the task is set and with distractions kept to a minimum.

A note from our PYP Coordinator, Ms. Tania

Dear Parents,

I hope this note finds you and your family well and that you are keeping safe and well during these times. My name is Ms. Tania and I am delighted to be joining the KIS learning community as PYP Coordinator. 

I have been so impressed with the enthusiasm of our PYP learners and the positive manner that they have had as they have engaged with their teachers and their classmates online through these times of remote learning. It was a joy to be able to meet with them online and find out a little bit more about our KIS learners, they are truly ‘inspiring individuals’.

I am writing to you to inform our G1 – G5 parents and families that we will, in the next 2 to 3 weeks, be beginning our baseline assessments. As a school, we carry out these baseline assessments at the beginning of each year to provide teachers with an overall ‘snapshot’ of a child’s academic current level of understanding. These baseline assessments are designed to provide our teachers with information that will then support the planning of teaching and learning, and ensure that we are providing appropriate differentiated learning experiences for all of our learners. Throughout the year, we will continue to assess and monitor your child’s learning to ensure that their learning progresses. 

As a teaching and learning team, the PYP staff have spent some time researching the best baseline assessments for our students considering our learners and the current online / home environment. 

The baseline assessments for G1 – G5 will be: 

Reading Through a RAZ Kids Flight Check. (Online, Digital) 

Writing An independent writing assessment set by grade level teachers for the appropriate level and context (Teacher guided) 

Spelling Words their Way – Diagnostic Spelling inventory (Teacher guided) 

Maths A Snapshot Diagnostic Assessment through IXL Maths. (Online, Digital) 

The baseline assessments will be organised and supported by your child’s homeroom teacher, who will also provide your family with more detailed information through the weekly planner and daily notes to families.

So that we get a clear picture as to your child’s academic needs at this time of year, we ask that parents do not help their children when they are participating in these assessments, but instead, ensure that your child has a quiet, comfortable space to focus and complete these assessments, with enough time and minimal distractions. 

Please let your child’s teacher know if you have any questions or concerns or if your child is struggling, for whatever reason, with these assessments and with their learning. 

As part of my role as coordinator, I will be working with our teaching and learning team to organise a number of parent education workshops and webinars throughout the year. One of the early focuses of these workshops will be ‘Assessment in the PYP’ , and the different ways we assess to build a picture of our learners and who they are academically, socially and emotionally. Please keep an eye out for notice of these workshops. 

I look forward to meeting with you all online and hopefully in person in the not too distant future. If you have any curriculum questions please do feel free to email me at tania.ma@kis.ac.th. 

Warm regards

Tania Mansfield

House day, House Captains and School Council Representatives

Next week will see some very exciting events.  Friday 27th will see our first house day of the year. All students are asked to please wear house shirts or colours. We will be having a competition to see how many objects/ family members we can photograph in the house colours. ( More details soon). We will also be electing the new house captains. All students have been asked to submit a video to a padlet to nominate themselves as House captains if they wish to take on this role. We are so looking forward to watching these on Friday. We will also be electing a School Council Representative during the week to take on this very important role.

Parent meeting 

It was so lovely to see lots of you at our meeting last Monday. Our next parent meeting will take place at 12.50 on  Monday 23rd August.  Please come along to ask any questions that you may have and to hear the latest news.

However if you have any questions which are more urgent or concern just your child please contact your child’s teacher on the addresses below.

The Grade 5 Team

G5A Carole Parker carole.pa@edu.kis.ac.th

G5B Martyn Svendsen martyn.sv@kis.ac.th

G5C Nic Monnin nicholas.mo@kis.ac.th

Ms Kaew, Ms Ning, Ms Pinn