From the Principal

January 2012

ISB Lower School Specialists’ Newsletter

Inside this issue:

French/Spanish 2

Art 3

Serbian/EAL/EAL 4

Music/M&D/SMT 5

PE 6

The content of these subjects is transdisciplinary in nature, meaning that the skills and concepts developed by specialist teachers have relevance throughout the Lower School curriculum and our students’ lives beyond school. A great example of this was our Winter Performance, “Connecting Through Kindness” where all our students had the opportunity to showcase their artistic abilities through music and dance. Our spe-cialists teachers work alongside our classroom teachers to develop lessons and learn-ing opportunities that are both interesting and connected to the classroom Units of Inquiry. For this reason, we think it is important that we keep our parents informed about the teaching and learning taking place in our specialists’ classrooms. You will receive the specialist newsletter six times during the school year. As always, if you have any ques-tions about your child’s education, feel free to contact us. Enjoy the February Holiday and travel safely. School resumes for all ISB students on Monday, February 20. Happy New year to all, Brian H. Lettinga

Gr. 1

Welcome to the fab-ulous fourth edition of our Specialist Newsletters! Our specialist teach-ers (also referred as single-subject teach-ers) play an integral and important role in the Primary Years Program. The arts, physical education, and language study are essential ele-ments to a compre-hensive and holistic primary school edu-cation.

French

Page 2

Newsletter Title

Dubravka Kostanjsek

French Teacher

Milica Rkulovic

Spanish Teacher

Spanish

Dear first grade parents, Here is the fourth newsletter for the French class in order to keep you informed about the things we have been learning during the last period. Since you’ve last heard from us, we finished working on our unit about different materials. Right before the holidays, we reviewed all of the contents we have been learning on since the beginning of the school year (greetings, introductions, school material, colors, etc.). At this moment, we are working one orientation in time, learning how to say the different times of day (morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night – le matin, le midi, l’après-midi, le soir, la nuit), the days, the months, the date and the seasons. We will add typical activities linked to every time of day and every season. We also continued learning numbers and got to the number 69. Through all the activities, students are encouraged to combine all of the elements we have been working on since the beginning of the year and are practicing listen-ing comprehension and oral expression, as well as basic reading and writing of familiar words and expressions. Thank you for your time and please feel free to contact me if you have any ques-

tions.

After quickly reviewing clothing vocabulary and adjectives used to describe the

color and size of different articles of clothing, grade one students moved straight

into learning calendar vocabulary and expressions used to describe different

weather conditions. We started with a review of numbers 1 to 10 and quickly

moved to learning and practicing numbers 11 to 20. We used “the clapping game”

to practice the names of the months of the year and took advantage of the chang-

ing weather conditions to learn expressions such as: “it’s cold”, “it’s snowing”, “it’s

sunny”, etc. Currently we are in the process of learning the numbers 21 to 31, as

well as the names of the days of the week, and then we’ll be ready to write the

date together every class. When we return to school after February break we’ll

finish off the Calendar unit by learning the names of seasons and discussing what

the weather is typically like in Belgrade each season and how the clothing we wear

differs depending on the season and weather conditions.

Page 3

Art

Svetlana Spasic-

Glid

Art

In the previous weeks, Grade 1 students were exposed to a variety of techniques such as drawing, painting, collage, and sculpting. Students learned about positive and negative space, mixing colors, form, texture and pattern. On returning from the winter break, the children worked in exploration corners where they chose different materials to express their thoughts and feelings about their winter break experiences. While working on their individual projects, the students had the opportunity to continue practicing mixing primary colors in order to make secondary colors. We used a story about a wise mole that the children loved as a starting point for their indi-vidual collage projects and group pieces of art done with pastels. While working on that task, children continued to deepen their understanding of team work as well as positive and negative space and patterns. The students enjoyed manipulating play dough while making their lovely sculptures and making picture frames in a collage technique. Grade 1A students have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Grade 1B students have classes on Mondays and Fridays.

Serbian as a Foreign Language

Page 4

Newsletter Title

EAL

Ivana Jovanovic

Serbian language Teacher

Kelly Campbell

EAL Teacher

After sucessfully completing our weather unit, firstgraders quickly moved to seasons

and their characteristics. We are focusing on words related to each season, such as:

umbrella kišobran, snowdrop flower visibaba, wellington boots čizme za kišu,

butterfly leptir etc. The class is reviewing clothing items, colors and weather condi-

tions on a daily basis and connecting the words we know to seasons. After com-

pleting the unit on seasons, we will start city vocabulary and means of transportation.

Grade 1 students continue to work hard in their EAL class! In their regular class-

room the students had been working on writing to socialize. We continued with

that writing theme in EAL and wrote thank you notes and even a sympathy

note to a character from a book! We have been reading good books lately and

focusing on making good predictions using the title and pictures. Students new

to English have begun to make their own set of flash cards of basic sight words

that they need to learn. We will begin taking these cards home after the Febru-

ary break. All classes are working on good receptive skills; that is looking at the

speaker, repeating what has been said, and trying to add a thought to what has

already been said. In class we continue to read new books, discuss and learn

new vocabulary, and play games to practice new skills and words.

EAL

EAL Beginners

We continued developing oral language, focusing on learning general English vocab-ulary and extending short one word answers. We focused on naming words related to winter, and reviewing basic action verbs and adjectives. We practiced describing what we can do in winter using present tense. As we played various language games, we reviewed singular/plural of the common nouns. In addition, we contin-ued reading guided EAL books, focusing on developing basic reading strategies as well as reading comprehension. We talked about characters, setting, problem and solution. We practiced listening comprehension skills as we listened to the tape and read along a leveled book: “Who’s in the Shed?” Students enjoyed the “reading the-ater” activities.

Divna Stakic

EAL Teacher

Page 5

Music / Movement & Dance

Ljudmila Janicijevic

Music Teacher

Business or Pleasure? It was both business and pleasure for grade 1 students on their journey as they explored the music and dance from different cultures. We went from warm Greece where we danced Syrtaki and listened to Zorba the Greek to cold Norway where we familiarized ourselves with an adventurous story Peer Gynt and the famous Norwegian composer Edward Grieg. As we explored this diversified music we also practiced playing string in-struments focusing on ukuleles as well and the percussion section.

Serbian Mother Tongue Učenici prvog razreda su nastavili sa učenjem štampanih slova ćirilice. Slova koja smo

savladali u januaru su Z, V, D i Č. Pored učenja slova i vežbanja pisanja i čitanja kraćih reči,

prošlog meseca smo govorili o svetom Savi, o običaju proslavljanja slave i o tome zašto dan

Svetog Save škole u Srbiji proslavljaju kao svoju slavu. Učenici su se tako prvo upoznali sa

Rastkom Nemanjićem kroz priču „Zlatno jagnje“, Svetlane Velmar Janković u kojoj su saznali

da je on bio srpski princ koji nije želeo da nasledi oca i postane sledeći vladar, već je rešio

da svoj život posveti pomoganju drugim. Naučili smo takođe i da je on izgradio prve škole i

bolnice u Srbiji. Govorili smo i o tome kako proslavljamo slavu u sklopu porodice. Učenici

su uvežbali da ono što su naučili objasne i na engleskom jeziku pa su u petak, na Svetog

Savu, odžali kratku prezentaciju ostatku svojih razreda.

Milena Jovanovic

Serbian Language

Teacher

Page 6

Marija Dimitrov

PE Teacher

Dear Parents, Welcome back! I hope you all had a nice and active holiday! First graders spent the first week after their winter break creating different parachute for-mations and playing parachute games with a variety of props (such as balls, jump ropes, scoters, etc.). Students realized that parachute games can be great fun for all of us, but only if we all listen and follow directions carefully and if we work cooperatively, as a team. That’s exactly what helped us all to “get back on a track” after three weeks of holidays. Right after parachute games we started a new unit of one of the three basics sports - gym-nastics. We stressed the importance of being safe while preforming gymnastics elements and stu-dents truly took it seriously. They realized that they can contribute to a safe environment by putting safety mats on the floor before practicing and through assisting their partners by checking on their position. First graders began the unit by reviewing what we worked on last year: the “bridge”, the “candle”, the “bracelet” position, as well as the forward and backward roll. Apart from improving their skills through the performance of rolls over mats and stances they have learned so far, this year students faced new challenges, such as linking two rolls in a row, keeping the balance in various poses, while using different body parts on mats, as well as on the balance beam. We practiced keeping our body still in a tripod pose (hands and forehead form a triangle on the mat, where the balance is kept, while knees are on elbows), as well as in a head-stand (hands and forehead form the same position and legs should be stretched up, above the head). We worked on the handstand (the same upper body and legs position but plac-ing only our hands on a mat). Although some of us had doubts and fears at the beginning, we were brave and committed ourselves enough to overcome them. We can proudly announce that many of first graders are able to see the world up-side-down now, while keeping their body still in those stands.

Physical Education