Parent Letter

                                                            February 25th, 2011

Dear Parents,

Here are some announcements to consider before we break up for Ski Week.

Math Open Day: Please join us on Wednesday, March 2^nd for our Mathematics Open Day. You are invited to join

• Prep to Grade 2 between 09:00 and 09:40
• Grade 3 to Grade 5 between 09:45 and 10:30.

The children will share some of the math games that are used during the school day.

Lost Property: Please check the lost property containers before we break up for Ski Week as everything will be donated to Frauenhaus during the holidays.

Elementary Extension: As many of you know, the construction of the new Elementary Extension will begin during Ski Week. This means that when we return from the holiday a significant section of our playground and car park will be fenced off. Half of the parent parking spaces will disappear temporarily so many of us will either need to park further away from the school or use the drop-off system.

From next week onwards, students who normally exit via the Art/Music room stairwell will exit down the central stairwell at the end of the day. I would ask that all parents wait in the playground to collect their children as it will be too congested inside the school at this time of day.

Even though we are temporarily losing some playground space, we will proceed with our plan to introduce table tennis tables (courtesy of the parent volunteer fund) and swing ball poles to enrich recess opportunities for our students. We will also use the holidays to secure the bicycle stands and re-arrange the playground bins into colour-coded re-cycling stations.

The construction project is scheduled to be completed in time to begin the new academic year in August 2011, however no internal work will begin until the end of this academic year. The extension will house our new fifth grade wing. The library will be relocated to where the current 5^th grade classrooms are, allowing Reception to move into the space where our current library is situated. We will become a 3 section school from Prep to Grade 3 and a 4 section school in Grades 4 and 5. In addition to this, there will be a multi-purpose room that can be used for movement, music and drama.

Sodexo Price Changes: After Ski Week Sodexo will be increasing the prices of their food and drink tickets. Upper Elementary Children (Grades 3 – 5) will only be able to use pink tickets. Lower Elementary Children (Prep – Grade 2) will only be able to use yellow tickets. Please remember that no money is exchanged in the cafeteria. All purchases are made with tickets. These can be bought at the snack bar in the front foyer before or after school. The food prices are as follows.

Pink (big meal) 3.50 euros

Yellow (little meal) 2.00 euros

The price of cappuccino in the front foyer will also increase to 1.50 euros. Please direct all inquiries to Mr. Andreas Tegeler. He can be contacted at isd.3107@sodexo.de

Thank you for your patience and understanding in the coming weeks. We will do all we can to ensure that the construction project has a minimal impact on our students' learning.

On behalf of all the teachers and staff at the school, I wish you all a relaxing and enjoyable Ski Week.

Warm regards,

Alan Lorenzini

Elementary Principal

 

German News Advanced, Frau Thielmann

German News

Grade 3 Advanced / Frau Thielmann

February 2011

I would like to give you an overview of the work covered in the German class.      

Around Christmas time we sang a lot of German Christmas songs and talked about different traditions to celebrate Christmas. The students created their own Christmas card with a German text. After the winter break the students wrote a short text about their holiday in order to practice their writing skills in German.

We started with the fifth unit in "Tamburin 2, Deutsch für Kinder" which focuses on animals. The students learned to talk about things they do every day and to use the correct time expressions (Am Morgen, am Abend..).

We talked about different kinds of animals and the special vocabulary we use in this context. The students created their own poster about their favorite animals (alone or with a partner) and presented it to our class and to the grade 3 Advanced class.

They also got their own animal book called „Mein Tierbuch". Here they have to focus on correct and detailed reading in German as different texts tell them how to draw certain pictures.

We continue to use the German books in class. Whenever a student finishes a task he/she can choose a book and read. In addition we sometimes do reading lessons. In order to further support your child's reading skills, please encourage your him/her to take a German book home from the library for his / her reading pleasure.

If you have questions please contact me.

Birke Thielmann

Math day Wednesday 2nd March 9:45 - 10:5

Dear all parents,

A reminder that the 3rd grade have their math day next week on Wednesday between 9:45 and 10:25. This is a chance for the parents to enjoy mathematics with their child in their learning environment. You never know...you might even learn something!

:-)

3rd Grade Assembly

A fourth grade student filmed the wonderful 3rd grade assembly that was full of performances. The 3rd grade students did a great job up there in front of so many people. The student audience was highly engaged and thoroughly enjoyed it, as did the teachers and parents. The quality of the video isn't great but the sound is fine. It was a good attempt at filming from a difficult position!

Here's the Voicethread link:

http://voicethread.com/share/1768158/

 

 

 

Mr. Hall creates music from everyday objects with 3rd grade

Mr. Hall set the challenge to the 3rd graders to bring in everyday objects to create music. Using the sounds that the students brought Mr. Hall organized the instruments to create a piece of muisc that represented a 'storm'.

Here is the final performance:

3rd Grade Assembly

The 3rd Grade assembly is next week on Tuesday 22nd February. All 3rd grade parents are invited to watch the assembly after the whole school assembly during first period. The parent assembly will begin at around 9:30am and last for about 20 minutes. We would love to see you there!

Mr. Fred Scofield 'the haiku man'

Grade Three have had the pleasure of working with Fred Scofield who is a poet specializing in Japanese poetry called haiku. He has been working with the students to help them understand what haiku is. He took the students out into their environment and helped them develop their own haiku.

Supported by Mrs. Gunn (art), Mrs. Borofsky-Borchert (drama and movement), and Mr. Thompson (music) the students of third grade have been using what they have leanrt in their workshops with the artists Mrs. Godsmark (Illustration), Mr. Hall (music) and Mrs. Coffey (dramatic reading) to create ways to deliver their haiku. They will be sharing these on Friday afternoon with all of third grade and many will be performing in assembly next week.

Here's a little insight to some of the preparation:

World Maths Day 2011

It is coming...

World Maths Day - March 1st, 2011

You can participate from school, home and now also by

downloading an app for your iPod Touch, iPhone and your iPad.

The free App is called:

WMD2011

World Maths Day 2011

Everybody can use their normal mathletics username and password to join Maths Day.

Here is the link for World Maths Day:

http://www.worldmathsday.com/ 

 You can go to that link NOW and practice, practice, practice before the BIG DAY comes!! 

Enjoy ;-)

Ms Kashkari

Nature walk

 Today we went on a walk to explore nature. Nature and the invironment is what inspires Haiku.  
  Haiku is a kind of poem where you write about nature and the seasons of the year. It was fun
  being able to go outside and explore the nature and invironment when you should be in class
  We observed the different kinds of sounds that you can hear in nature. I heard mostly birds,
  cars and airplanes. I really enjoyed the walk!

    Phillip

Unsure about the Central Idea?

3.3's translations of the current Central Idea so that we all understand in our mother tongue.

Dramatic Poetry Readings with Mrs. Coffey

After Mrs. Coffey's 'dramatic reading' presentation the students of grade three were very motivated and excited about the prospect of performing. The students searched through many many poetry books with the help of Mr. Owen and selected poems that they liked. They could work by them selves or in a group no bigger than three. Mrs. Coffy came back to workshop with them to help them improve their dramatic readings. This was the criteria for a good dramatic performance that the students of 3.3 created:

Criteria for a Dramatic Reading

How to engage with the audience

Dramatic reading by:

Assessed by:

	1	2	3	4	5
Use different voices
Use expression in your voice (excitement, anger, fear, surprise…)
Speak in different volumes
Use a prop (and things around you)
Use movement (body language)
Eye contact, face the audience
Try not to look at the book (learn your poem!)
Speed up, slow down, pause
Enjoy it!

Mr. Hall's fantastic presentation about music

Today Mr.Hall did a fantastic presentation about music. He didn't just tell Grade 3 about what music is, he played for us.

He played the Tuba. For me hearing a proffesionel Tuba player was an exciting experience. He told us about how to compose music he told us that we can make music out of everyday objects. Mr.Hall has played many different kinds of instruments in his life. His favorite group of instrument is brass, then comes percussion. Did Mr.Halls presentation about music change or affect the way you like music? Why?

Phillip

Victoria's notes using the Livescribe pen

Analyzing narrative writing samples

The students of grade three have been exploring their understanding of stories. We have been focusing on the structure and language features. using children's writing smaples the students worked collaboratively to identify and discuss structure and language features in seven writing samples. They were then asked to sort them in order from least effecitve to most effective.

Action beyond the classroom: Gustav's drawings

Inspired my his love of music and drawing this unit has inpired Gustav to start some drawing projects at home. Take a look....very impressive!

the blog

           Today 3.3 was listening to Mr.Hall talking about his job as a professional musician.
            It was very exiting !He brought his Tuba as well. He played the Pink Panther for us it sounded very good!

            Mr.Hall was telling us about how much Tuba costs,it was 22.000 euros unbeliveble!

            The whole of 3rd Grade enjoyed it. It seemed like Mr.Hall played many instruments before.

            Sounds interesting right? don´t you think?

            by Raphaela

Todays Meet Notes

            

             

Mr. Hall's Presentation

Today Grade Three were very lucky to engage in a presentation from professional musician and performer Mr. Hall. He is the 3rd guest speaker for this unit and came to present about his form of art. Some of the children were taking photo's and others were filming. Three of the students were using itouches and the wireless internet connection to engage in a conversation using the website http://www.todaysmeet.com/. They had to multitask in order to listen, repsond and asking questions while actively engaging in responses and conversation with each other during Mr. Hall's presentation. This is how the conversation went (the bottom is the beginning):

He was showing us a video about a band that is so good!! Maxi

How creative can you be ? Gustav

A big tuba is 22.000 euro! Gustav

A big tuba costs: 7000 euros!!!!!!!! Maxi

The tuba has the most keys from the woodwings family!!! Maxi

Only 3 or 2 questions now! Bad eh? Gustav

As he was at my age he didn't know a tuba. Gustav

He is sure telling useful information. Gustav

He first played piano ,just like me! Gustav

There are 9 people asking questions . Gustav

I wonder what it feels like to have your head in the tuba while Mr. hall is playing it. Mr Driver

A tuba is very heavy!! Maxi

Wow that was good! Gustav

Wow he's very loud indeed ! Gustav  

He is playing the pink panther!!!!! Maxi

He will play the pink panther! This soo cool! Gustav

He is going to play it and play it on the computer!! Maxi

This will be in credible that he will play live! Gustav

He is going to show us a little video. In the video there are lots of people that are from different countries!!!! His music is very interesting. Maxi

He looks really funny with that on his head. Gustav

He will play a live performance ! Cool eh? Gustav

Can you feel it in your stomach? Mr Driver

When Mr. Hall plays the low keys I can feel my chair vibrate! Mr Driver

Mr hall can play so low with the tuba!! He can make 11 sounds on his first try. Maxi

He can make 12 sounds. Gustav

He can make how many sounds ? 4! Gustav

How many Numbers/notes do's he play ...10! Gustav

He will show us how the sound can change. Gustav

15 maybe? Mr Driver

How many?Mr Driver

Now he is going to show us how he plays the tuba! Maxi

How do instruments get invented? Mr Driver

Now he is gonna play a real tuba. Gustav

For how long have you played these instruments. Mika

I wonder what other things you could use as an instrument. Mr. Driver

We have to find out how an instrument. He can make sounds. Maxi

I think music needs imagination and feelings in it what about e you Mika

As we buzz what produces our sound? A vibration. Gustav

Vibrations make music! Mr Driver

You can : buzz throne the lips. Gustav

What do you think it will sound like? Mr Driver

He is going to show us to demonstrate us how he uses the tuba. Maxi

What do you think it will sound like? Mr Driver

He is gonna demonstrate us: how the tuba is gonna sounds with out a thing .Gustav

Whoseaphone! Mr Driver

Why does he have a tube? Mr Driver

Mr hall He teaches musical instruments He teaches grade 8 and some of 9 grade 10, 7, and 6. He shears to us conduct bands He plays tuba ,violin Gustav

Mr hall Teaches the whole 8th grade, some 7th and 9th grade. Makes art on instruments. His main instruments are hitting instruments. And woodwind Maxi

Is music your only intrest Mika
Are musicians artists? Mr Driver

I used to play the piano but Mr. Hall plays so many instruments! Mr Driver

What interests you most in music? Mika
How many instruments can you play? Mika

Type what you think, any connections, new ideas, quesions...