Primary Press September Edition

PRIMARY PRESS SEPTEMBER 2015 Issue 6

Primary Press

September 2015

YEAR FIVE AT THE CONCLUSION OF THEIR SENSATIONAL EXHIBITION ASSEMBLY

What a fantastic past two weeks in Primary. We have had a very successful athletics day and a literacy week full of super reading and writing challenges. None of these events can happen without the hard work and dedication of our terrific teaching staff and of course our parents and community. Even the best laid plans mean nothing if there is not a committed and dedicated force of people behind it to make it happen. We salute you all! Vinaka Vakalevu.

Over the past few weeks we have also witnessed our Year 5 students in action at their exhibition assembly and the exhibition itself, hosted just this week in the new outside library space. How very proud we are of our students and teachers as they showcase and celebrate their term’s learning through an extended, collaborative inquiry that marks the culmination of their PYP learning experience. This is an important part of the PYP curriculum and demonstrates the students’ abilities to conduct in-depth research using key concept questions to drive their inquiry and apply the transdisciplinary skills and demonstrate attitudes and attributes of the Learner Profile to understand the

knowledge they have acquired through the research. As a result, students are expected to respond, choose and reflect how best they can take action to address or raise awareness within the community about their findings. Bravo Year 5’s!

Early next term, in fact, the first three days of Term 4, all students in Year 3 – 5 will participate in the annual ISA assessment at school. In this edition, we have included some information for those of you who are not aware of what ISA is and why we participate in this international assessment. All results will be available for these assessments at the beginning of the next school year.

Our Literacy assembly was ably hosted today by our Reception and Year 6 students. It was a great finish to the term and to our literacy week last week. A job well done!

Thank you to all those parents who attended the student-led conferences this week with their children. We continue to find that these conferences are most beneficial in that they actively engage students in their own learning process. Through the conferences, students also learn the process of self-evaluation and develop organizational and oral communication skills.

Being inquirers has been our focus learner profile attribute these past few weeks. An inquirer is someone who asks questions to learn new ideas. Congratulations to all those students who were recognized by their teachers and classmates for demonstrating this attribute throughout their learning. We are eager to being our new focus attribute next term. Stay tuned to find out what it is!

Our ‘Stop, Think, Do’ social skills program continues in the Year 2 and Year 3 classrooms with Ms. Passin, our Primary Counsellor, on Thursdays. We hope to include other year levels before the end of the year and into the new school year. This program has been discussed in earlier editions of Primary Press. If you would like further information, please contact Ms. Passin or Ms. Whittaker.

Next term we celebrate with the whole school, Fiji Day at our Fiji Day Whole School assembly. This has now been postponed to the following Friday, October 16.

We wish you all a safe and happy holiday. We are excited for the last term of our school year which begins on Tuesday, October 6. See you all then!

Karen and the Primary Team

From the Head of Primary

PRIMARY PRESS SEPTEMBER 2015 | Issue 6 2

What is the ISA? The ISA assessment program is designed specifically for students in international schools in Years 3 -1 0. It is based on the internationally endorsed reading, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy frameworks of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). (*NB ISA is not part of PISA and is not endorsed by the OECD)

Who uses ISA? International schools with an international focus, whose language of instruction is English uses this assessment tool. Over 340 schools participated in last year’s assessments. To see a list of schools, click on this link.

Why do schools use ISA? Schools use ISA because it is not specific to a single curriculum, it tests core skills in mathematical literacy, reading and writing and the test material is eclectic, drawing on many cultural and national sources. The assessments are designed with the knowledge that more than half of the test takers have first languages other than English. It includes writing tasks and open-ended questions to better illuminate students’ thinking processes and it provides diagnostic information that can be used at the school, class and individual level. Performance on the ISA can then be related to international benchmarks. The scaled ISA scores enable monitoring of student performance over time.

ISA is delivered via paper testing in mathematical literacy, reading and writing at ISS and happens over two days, during October 6 – 8. We set

aside two days (approx. 200mins/day) for the assessments during the testing period. The assessments are administered at the same time to all students within the school, regardless of year level. They are delivered in the morning, while students are fresh.

Students with limited English have options and may choose to be exempted from the testing program or be included in one or two of the tests (e.g. Maths). This is decided with input from the parents. In the case of a student with a disability that may affect performance in the assessment under standard conditions (e.g. vision impairment, ADHD etc.), the school, in agreement with the parents, exempt the student from the testing program or arrange special support for that student to participate. Non-standard conditions relate to things such as extended time, use of a laptop or administration of the tests in a separate area or a scribe because of a hand injury.

This data is also used to inform school planning and action plans.

If you have any further questions relating to ISA, please see the Head of Primary or visit the webpage.

https://www.acer.edu.au/isa/ib-and-isa

PAT ASSESSMENTS

Our school based PAT assessments will also be completed in the first few weeks of Term 4. These assessments are completed at the beginning and towards the end of each school year, providing data for goal setting as a school, year level, class and individuals. These assessments include Reading Comprehension, Mathematics, Spelling, Vocabulary (Year 3 – 5) and we now have the new Punctuation and Grammar to assess our older students. PAT tests are thoroughly researched and normed and measure and track student achievement, also providing us with objective information for setting realistic learning goals and planning effective programs.

If you wish to read more about our PAT Assessment tools, please check out their

website: https://www.acer.edu.au/as

sessment/our-assessments

These assessments are developed by the company that also provides ISA.

ISA International Schools’ Assessment

https://www.acer.edu.au/files/ISA_Participating_Schools_2014-15.pdf



https://www.acer.edu.au/assessment/our-assessments

https://www.acer.edu.au/assessment/our-assessments

PRIMARY PRESS SEPTEMBER 2015 Issue 6

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS Students are currently learning about their rights and responsibilities.

Students are exploring Children’s Rights such as right to:

Education

Food and water

Shelter

Health and hygiene

Playing and

Family and friends

Students are learning to make comparisons and connections to other children around the world particularly In Hindi studies with Ms Subadra. They are finding out about the lives of children whose needs and wants are different to theirs. Students are also learning about situations where rights and needs are not met.

Year One Term 3- Week 10

DAY CAMP!

Thank you to all parents who contributed boxes, food and other goods to the year one camp. The kids had a fantastic day and demonstrated their organization, teamwork, creativity and communication skills. The day went on without a hitch! We hope the students had as much fun as the teachers! (Even the Boogieman-Mr. Gerry)

The winning team for the day was Connor Harris, Corbin Moussa and Alex Wild.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Student-led conferences will be held

Thursday 17th. This will give the

students an opportunity to showcase

their learning to parents and I know the

students are very excited about this.

Year One students will be performing

in the Fiji Day assembly alongside

secondary students in term 4.

An excursion to a local school will take

place in week 2 of term 4. Details to

come.

Friday 18th September….Holidays!

Year One Team


“They will never be the same again because you just cannot be the same once you leave behind who and what you are, you just cannot be the same.” ― NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Name

Our new unit on Human Migration for ‘Where We Are in Place and Time’ tells the story of the journey of the earliest civilizations from the Fertile Crescent, through Northern Africa and then on to countries all over the world.

Music, a cultural marker for these traverses is a focus within this unit of inquiry. Students will have the opportunity within their summative assessments to exhibit and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of human migration through a written test and a musical task involving the composition and performance of an original migration based song.

Students are having a great time exploring and linking geography, earth science and history from National Geographic resources, Newsela and may other various inquiries to the implications and challenges of human migration.

YEAR FOUR INTENSIVES WITH MR. TIM

Lorem Ipsum

Dolor Sit Amet

Year Four Happenings Buffy Jack, Sarah Raikabo, Fariah Ali

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5263703.NoViolet_Bulawayo

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/21600154

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/21600154


The word on everyone’s mind and mouth in Year 5 is the PYP Exhibition. If you are familiar with the Primary Years Program at ISS, you may know that the culminating experience of this program is an Exhibition that celebrates students learning through the display of their knowledge and concepts, skills and attitudes and of course, action.

The Exhibition involves the exploration of current or burning issues selected by each student within a theme. The difference is the use of ALL 8 key concepts instead of 2 or 3 that are normally used in a unit of inquiry. Once questions are developed using the concepts, students launch into intensive research of various sources to answer their questions.

Students are guided by their teachers and mentors to organise themselves through the use of timelines, checklists and by identifying and using their communication, self-management and social skills in addition to their research and knowledge skills. They also have to show their learning in different ways.

At each step of the way, students are guided to reflect on their planning and learning. Here are some reflections of some Year 5 students about the PYP Exhibition.

Josh: It’s been fun. It’s not like anything like I’ve done in my previous school. I like how it has lots of different components like ICT, art, writing. I enjoyed doing the skit. The learning is more complicated than my old school. I love doing the art component the best. In my old school, everything was based on subjects. Here, we use all the subjects.

Emma: I’ve experienced a lot of hard work and a lot of pushing to get it done. It isn’t as scary as I thought it would be. I also learned a lot from researching. I feel a lot of different emotions at the same time. At one moment I’m happy that I have done so much and at the same time, I feel frustrated that there’s still so much more to do.

Year Five


The music focus with Year 4 since Week 7 has centered on ‘Human Migration’. During this unit we have been discovering where we are in place and time, our personal history, homes and journeys. Through our Music lens we tuned into this unit by listening to 2 songs titled “Freedom” and “Ki Yo Wah Ji Neh”.

Our students further discussed how cultural markers are important to migration. We connected music as a cultural marker, to the plight of slaves from the Caribbean through the song “Freedom”. Singing melodies, phrasing, harmony, rhythmic accompaniment, patterns and ostinati were also on focus as we deconstructed these songs to identify the musical elements present.

Whilst our Year 4 journeyed into finding out more about their unit, our year 5 students were gearing up for their final presentation with Exhibition in week 10. Year 5 students put on an exceptional performance during a the Year 5 Exhibition Assembly, displaying their music skills and talent by performing and singing “Glory” and we were graced by the inclusion of our Art teacher Mrs Stice who accompanied our live band performance, playing Violin.

Our Primary choir is now focusing on a performance for Fiji Day in week 2 of term 4 with a few Fijian folk songs. As we approach end of the term I would like to wish all leaving students this term the very best and a happy 2 weeks holiday to everyone

For the love of music,

Mr Tim.

Music with Mr. Tim


All classes from Reception – 5 spent class time developing their skills in Long Jump, Triple Jump, High Jump, Shot Put, Discus and the 100m sprint.

Primary students from Reception – 5 participated in the Primary Inter house Athletics Carnival which was held on the 3rd of September at ANZ Stadium. With great weather and a huge parent turnout it was a fantastic day with loads of great feedback following. Again, the teaching staff and parent helpers were amazing at facilitating the carnival however it was a case of the students stealing the show! Students showcased all they had been learning in Term 3 and put it on show for all present and it was a great day. At the completion of the day, Eagle house again proved they will be hard to beat in 2016 with some fantastic displays of athleticism throughout the day. Well done Eagle house!

Overall Results:

1st: Eagles/Yellow 124

2nd: Kangaroos/Green 122

3rd: Iguana/Red 84

4th: Kiwi/Blue 77

Athletics Antics


We Express Our Thoughts and Ideas in many Different ways

Saka read us a legend about the musical turtles of Kadavu. We listened very carefully tried to remember some important Fijian words like Tinaicaboga, Raudalice, Namuana, drua because we had to use them in our retell. We hope you enjoy our ECH 2 version of this interesting legend.

“The Musical Turtles”

(Retold by ECH 2) Many, many years ago in a village called Namuana, a young girl Raudalice lived with her mum Tinaicaboga and her dad, who was the chief of the village. Raudalice and Tinaicaboga loved fishing. One beautiful, sunny day they took their fishing net, lawa, fishing line, wa ni siwa, and some food, vaqa, and went fishing on their little canoe, waqa ni viti.

While they were fishing, a big canoe, drua, full of warriors from Nabukelevu sailed past them. “O totoka! Beautiful ladies. We’ll take them to our village,” the head warrior called out. They put the two women in their drua. Raudalice and Tinaicaboga cried and called out, “HELP! HELP!” No one heard them.

The gods felt sorry for Raudalice and Tinaicaboga and turned them into turtles, vonu. The warriors saw the vonu. “Where are the women?” they shouted angrily. The warriors threw the turtles into the sea. Raudalice and Tinaicaboga swam away into the deep sea.

Today when the women of Namuana sing a special chant, the two turtles swim up and show themselves but they do not show themselves if the people of Nabukelevu village are watching.

Fijian Studies


DROP EVERYTHING AND WRITE (DEAW)

Our daily writing topics throughout our Literacy Week celebrations were loads of fun. One day, we had to imagine that we could become anything we wanted and write about that. Another day, we had to think of all the ways we could use $1000 000. Wednesday, we had to write about what our book character adventures might be and Thursday, we were asked to write what we would write a book about if we were authors and what would that book might be called. On the last day, we wrote about what we would do if we were invisible. Here are some of our writing pieces from throughout the week! “If I am a tooth fairy, I can fly to school in the morning. I can get prizes to children.” (Alyna,RS)

“If I am an author, I will write a book called ‘The Dragon and the Knight’. (Viliami, RS)

“If I could be anything in this whole wide world, I will be a fairy so I don’t have to worry about traffic and arrive to school early. Why? Because I don’t have to walk, I can fly.” (Sofia, RS)

“If I can be a transformer, I can save the world because people need to be saved.” (Hong Yi Mi, RS)

“I can be a super hero because I want to fly to school and to save the world. My super hero is strong and courageous.” (Charlie, RS)

“I can be an artist because I like doing crafts and I like to paint, draw and colour. (Denisha, RS)

“I can be a pilot. I can fly a plane. I can take people to places and to different countries.” (Yunis, RS)

“If I had a million dollars I would buy every healthy thing and give poor people half of it so everyone wouldn’t be poor anymore. I would buy a house and water and all my needs. Well I am going to spend it on good stuf, for example, needs like water and food.” (Telya, Year 1S)

“If I was an author, my book would be called ‘The Interesting Day’ and the book would be about an animal called Willaman Dandada. He had 50 funny adventures and 50 scary adventures. Now I’m going to tell you one scary adventure and one funny adventure. Now which one should I start with?” (Will, Year 1S)

“If I was invisible at Christmas I would steal a present for my parents from the gift shop intelligently and give the presents to both parents. Second, I’ll get robbers and take them to the cops. There’s about a thousand things that I can do when I’m invisible but if I tell you all a thousand, it would take centuries so I’m finishing now. (Sijin, Year 1S)

“I would like to be a squid because they do not attack or an ant because an ant can hold something ten times their body weight.” (Calvin, Year 1S)

“I want to be the ender dragon in Minecraft. I can fly wherever I want to. I have four mighty feet. I have four altogether. If you ever hit me, I’m swift to kill. Remember, I have 100 lives. My breath is purplish acid, awesome, but dangerous.” (Caelen, Year 1W) “I want to be an eagle. I want to be an eagle because I want to experience flying freely and happily in the air. I want to see the beautiful sunset from the air. I can see from a bird’s eye view the world spread out before me like a colourful jigsaw puzzle.” (Fana, Year 1W)


News from the little Green Cottage

Early Childhood had their sports day, on Thursday 3rd, September on the Primary Green. We had team games and relays. The highlight of the day was, when Ms. Jodee did a 50 meter dash. Thank you, Vinaka Vaka Levu, Dhanyavad, Merci Beaucoup, Gam Sa Han Ni Da, Arigato and Chee chee nee, to all our Dads who made it to our father’s day breakfast. Our theme for Literacy Week was “The Mind Has Wings, Read a Book and Take Flight.” Amelia Singh’s mother kindly came in with her beautiful big book and puppets, and read the story of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. The looks on the children’s faces when she drew out the puppet butterfly from the cocoon was an absolute joy to see.

To all our Green Cottage families, thank you for your support and smiles, contributing to a happy, successful term three.

Please be advised of the following important, Green Cottage dates:

Monday 28th September - Emerson Simm’s birthday

Monday 05th October- Teacher Only Day.

Tuesday 06th October - School begins.

Saturday 10th October - Fiji Day and Queen Sarah Starr’s birthday.

Safe and healthy holidays fromThe Green Cottage team,

Ms Litia, Ms Sala,and Ms Jacqui.


What’s New in ECH2? It has been an emotional last half of the term for the Whales and Dolphins. On August 28

th we said goodbye to Mrs. Amanda as

she made her way back to the United States. While we said goodbye to Mrs. Amanda, we also welcomed Ms. Mere as our new ECH2 teacher. We had a party for both of them and we thank our parents for coming to our party.

While the rest of primary was at the Athletics carnival on September 3

rd, we had our own Athletics day with ECH1 and

Discovery. We played freeze tag, relay races and other fun activities. We also were able to have morning tea in the undercover area! It was great having the whole primary school to ourselves on that day!

We had our Father’s Day breakfast on September 4th and we had

an excellent turnout. Thank you to our fathers, mothers, grandparents and siblings for sharing your special day with us! We hope you enjoyed your gifts!

Week 9 was Literacy Week and it tied very well with our unit this term, which is Storytelling. Our central idea is: “Stories communicate ideas which connect different cultures”. We came dressed up as our favourite storybook characters and showed off our costumes to the rest of primary. We also participated in the “Drop Everything and Write” activities and invite you all to check out our drawings on the windows of our classroom! You’ll also see our door decoration, which is inspired by our Little Red Hen Assembly item! We also ended our unit on Storytelling by having a cultural morning tea on September 16

th, where we came to school dressed in

our cultural clothing.

As always, we thank you for your continued support and hope you all have a wonderful and restful break. We will see you back at school on October 6

th for our last term being

Whales and Dolphins.


LITERACY WEEK FUN


LITERACY WEEK ROTATIONS

Evan Budojo, Nelle Leenders, Ben Cook, Ivy Frost, Charles Sonnek, Helen Lou, Kevin Fong, Amelie Nili, William Brooks, Vikramank Singh, Euan Murray, Chloe Manaog, Calvin Carter, Milan Haer, Jenah Stice, Seira Kokuba, Noah Howlett, Zara Ryan, Finn Kruger, Baylian Saberi, Camryn Jackson, Sieun Park, Michelle Jitoko, Gideon Tora, Nelle Leenders, Sofia Andrews, Isla Robertson, Amy Yue Ma, Basmah Jalil, Hannah Jenney, Max Carter, Isla Ramsden.


Counselor’s Corner

Just in case you missed this last month, I am thrilled to be the new primary school counselor. I am at ISS Primary every Thursday from 7:30 to 4:00. The role of the school counselor is to help students achieve in school by helping to remove obstacles to learning. The counselor assists in the personal, social, academic and career growth of all students. This is done in many ways such as classroom guidance, small group counseling, individual counseling, teacher consultation, and whole school programs.

Currently, I am delivering the social skills curriculum, Stop, Think, Do in years 2 and 3. Once the lessons are complete in these grades I will move on to other grades. The children are currently learning:

To notice positive behaviors and

complement each other

To pay attention, listen and talk to each

other

To practice pro-social behaviors and “fill

each other’s buckets”

To identify and communicate their feelings

appropriately

To control their negative feelings and stop

using bad habits

To manage their emotions and practice

effective ways to calm down when upset

As we progress through the lessons, children will continue to learn to choose to behave in ways that have the best consequences, to make and keep friends, and learn strategies for handling negative peer pressure, put downs, teasing, and bullying.

While I am in the classrooms the majority of the day, I also can see students individually and in targeted small groups. If you think your student would benefit from seeing me, please talk to the classroom teacher.

Also, there is a new student program up and running at ISS Primary! We now have two nominated, trained student ambassadors for each classroom, reception through year five. These student ambassadors perform several duties to make new students feel welcome and a part of ISS Primary. Some of these duties include welcoming new students when they arrive, providing a small tour of the primary school, introducing the student to teachers and other students, teaching the new student the rules of the classroom, and playing with the new student at recess during his or her first week at ISS.. While the ambassadors perform these duties they also learn responsibility, leadership skills, and speaking skills.

I continue to enjoy working with you and your students!

Sincerely,

Kate Passin


Reception News


Uniform and Dress Code Reminder Students are asked to wear correct uniform at all times. If inappropriate clothing or school wear is worn to school, a reminder note will be sent home to parents. Please ensure all clothing is labeled with your child’s name. There is a choice of uniforms for our students including:

Girls: Bula dress or navy blue shorts/skorts with bula shirt.

Boys: Bula shirt with navy shorts or navy sulu.

Shoes: Sandals (protective of feet) or black lace-up shoes with white socks. Footwear is to be worn outdoors at all times. There are times when teachers ask children to remove their shoes when indoors. Sports runners and socks must be worn on PE or sports days. Rubber scuffs or slip-ons are not regarded as school uniform.

Sports Uniform: Navy singlet/shirt and navy shorts. A sun hat is required for PE and sports lessons.

School Sun Hat: required as part of the sun smart policy. A ‘no hat, no play’ (outside) policy is in place. Caps are not considered suitable headwear as they do not provide the necessary protection.

Many thanks for your cooperation with this dress code. Please refrain from sending students to school with brightly coloured attire, including jumpers/sweaters on the cooler days. There are school jackets available for purchase. Wearing navy blue is recommended.

School Hours and After School Activities We currently have some students wandering around school after school hours. Please be advised that our school hours are 8 to 2.30pm daily. Students are expected to arrive at school no earlier than 7.30am and no later than 7.55am. Instruction begins at 8.00am. After school, students are not encouraged to remain at school unsupervised after 3.00pm. There is no adult supervision before 7.40am and after 2.50pm in the afternoons. Respecting time at ISS demonstrates a respect for all learning opportunities, to teachers and to other students. Please be prompt if you are collecting your children from school each day.

If your child is not involved in any after school activity, they must go home as per normal on that particular day, even if their siblings are involved in after school activities. They are not supervised and the school cannot be accountable for their safety as we are either involved in school meetings and professional learning sessions or supervising an after school activity ourselves. We thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Personal Items at School Students should not come to school in possession of anything which may pose a danger to themselves or others. Additionally, students are discouraged from bringing personal items to school such as toys, games etc., unless otherwise asked by their teachers to do so for classroom learning purposes.


Primary Visual Arts

It’s been a full, fun, and wonderful term in Visual Arts. ECH1 completed a collaborative mural inspired by nature and the art of Monet. We have been learning in ECH2 how art can tell a story and convey meaning. It’s been interesting to see how artists and storytellers around the world to this, and to try it for ourselves.

Reception students dedicated themselves to understanding how portraits can reflect our personal characteristics, and students created marvelous self-portraits.

An inquiry into architectural design has allowed Year One students to explore how form and function can combine to meet achieve practical and artistic purposes.

We have embarked on a collaborative Unit of Inquiry in Year Two, and are coming to understand how advertising has the power to influence and persuade. We look forward to a show of enthusiasm and creativity as the students begin their summative assessment task, and take action in their learning.

Year Three students continue to learn a great deal from artists throughout history. Most recently, we have looked at some of the most beloved works from Vincent

Van Gogh, and have found out that in his lifetime, he was not beloved to many. We have considered how Caring and Empathy can help us find deep meaning in Van Gogh’s work and we’ve made connections to our own lives and our own art.

Year Four continue to amaze with their lettering techniques, applying their learning to several hands-on projects.

Year Five students have shone brightly as they put their learning on display during the PYP Exhibition, and we are incredibly proud of them!

Enjoy a restful and creative holiday, and I look forward to seeing you all again in

Term Four!

Mrs Lindy Stice


What’s New in Year 2?

The Power of Persuasion What is advertising? Why do people advertise? What are the different ways to advertise? How does advertising affect our choices and opinions? These are the driving questions behind our current inquiry into ‘How We Organise Ourselves’ with a particular focus on Advertising. We started the unit with a BANG! The Year 4 students tried their best to persuade us to spend money on their products using bright posters, catchy jingles and phrases, sale offers and lots of charm and wit. The experience helped our Year 2s to realize that there are a number of ways that advertisements try to gain and hold our attention. Some of the strategies were more successful than others.

We have been fortunate to have some very knowledgeable and informative guest speakers come in and talk to us about how their companies plan and carry out advertising campaigns, how companies design advertisements to persuade a target audience and what happens when advertising sends out misleading information. Mrs. Stice is helping us try to understand how advertisers use different marketing techniques to appeal to their audiences and look at the details in advertisements from an Art perspective.

Mr. Ryan talks about advertising at Colgate Mr. Mclean of Digicel was very informative. Ms. Sian Atterton spoke to us on behalf of her Palmolive. Brother who is a graphic designer who creates ads.

Ms. Meagan sharing her experience in advertising Mrs. Stice talks us through the Key Concepts. Decoding advertisements in the Art room.With Year 2.

Holiday Homework The Year 2s would like to put all their knowledge about advertising to use by holding a Bring and Buy sale next Term. We have discussed possible items that they could sell such as old toys or baked goods. They would like to design an advertising campaign to promote this event and afterwards, survey and reflect on how successful the campaign was. We ask for your help in looking at advertisements with your child over the holidays and discussing the techniques that are used in the advertisements you study while helping them to decide what techniques they would like to use in poster, television, radio ad or jingle of their own. Drafts, storyboards or just good ideas are all welcome on our return in Term 4. Have a wonderful break one and all!


Year 3s Go Exploring

The Year 3 classrooms are buzzing with wonder of exploration journeys by explorers of the New World and explorers of the modern era. Exploration and discoveries are truly interesting subjects to research and learn about. Once again our year 3 students are thoroughly enjoying reading about how exploration leads to discoveries and how it develops new understandings.

In the last 3 weeks, we have had the pleasure of having our new primary counselor, Mrs Kate Passin spend time in our classrooms and working with the students. This has been very useful and helpful.

Perhaps the highlight of our Literacy week is the announcement of the winning doors by both the year 3 classes and 4J. As our prize we get $100 worth of Scholastic books for our class collections.

Students showing off Art work and Euan Murray acting out a role with Kate Passin.


Library Term 3 has been an exciting term for us at the library. During our library lessons, ECH 1&2 listened to a variety of stories and predicted what would happen next in the story. We revisited the different parts of a book; and identified the story elements: title, author, illustrator, characters, setting, problem and solution. During library week, Mrs Deborah Singh brought her “The very hungry Caterpillar” story kit to the library for a wonderful story telling session.

For the Reception class, we read the book ‘Yoko’ by Rosemary Wells and later identified the different maps that represented each country in the story. We used the world map to travel to different parts of the world and to map out where we are from, places we have visited and places that we would like to visit in the future.

Year 1 studied a variety of structures through books. We completed a research paper identifying the materials used, structure design and why the structure was built. In collaboration with Year 2 teachers, students researched their chosen Ecosystem focusing on their lines of inquiry. Both classes learned to reference their sources properly.


Year 3 used the World Book Online database to learn more about ‘Pop Art’ artists. After listening to the book “Philea’s fortune: a true story about self-expression” by Agnes de Lestrade, students created their own interpretation of Pop Art using pictures, words and colors.

Year 4 read about the different cultures of the world and how they used food, culture, art and clothing to express themselves while Year 5 library class focused on properly referencing the sources they use in their research. We used the online referencing generator to create our Reference list. They also used the Year 5 exhibition blog to reflect on their exhibition journey.

Last week, we celebrated Library and literacy week. The Library staff would like to thank all the parent helpers who volunteered to teach students Origami crafts and storytelling session last week. Here are some pictures of the week-long celebration:

Yes, the library will be open during the 2 weeks break with all services operating as normal. Please feel free to visit the library with your children to check out books. In our library webpage, we have put together free sites that you can visit for free online e-Books. The Library Staff wishes all our students and families a very enjoyable holiday.

Library Holiday Opening Hours

8.00 am – 2.30 pm

Close on Weekends and Public Holidays

Ms Salu Vaciloa – Library Teacher

Library Website: http://issfijilibrary.weebly.com/ Email: [email protected]

http://issfijilibrary.weebly.com/


Guruji read the story Hawa aur Suraj’ with illustrations to us in Hindi. We translated the story to English using our own words with accompanying pictures and made a book.

One day Hawa (Wind) and aur Suraj(Sun) had an argument about who was strongest. They had competition. Hawa huffed and puffed but could not make the man walking on the street take his shawl off. Suraj(Sun) shone brightly and spread his heat. The man felt very hot, he took his shawl and wiped sweat from his forehead. From this story we learn that we don’t have to hurt anyone to prove our strength.

Namaste - Hindi Studies Year 1s in their UOI Hindi Intensive at the moment are inquiring on Children’s Rights– Bachchho Ka Adhikaar.

We are presenting and having discussions on

Bachchho Ka Adhikaar. Our rights in Hindi and

about children in India and other countries.

Children have the right to be protected.

This little boy in India wants to be a Lawyer but he can’t go to school. I am very privileged to be in school.

Guruji read the story ‘Pyaasa Kauwa’ to us in Hindi with illustrations. We translated the story in English with pictures and made a book.

Figure 1

Student sharing his learning with his parent in Hindi class on Student Led-Conference day.


ICT and Year 5’s are working collaboratively this term. The Transdisciplinary Theme is “How the world works.” With the central idea “Human survival is connected to understanding the continuously changing nature of the Earth”, students look into the natural and man-made phenomena and its impacts. Students work in groups and look at both local and global impacts of natural and man-made phenomena using Google Earth online. They are grouped according to the natural and man-made phenomena of their interest. They discuss and mark the different locations in the world where disasters have happened and navigate around the globe as they plot locations where disasters have occurred. This develops their mapping skills as they will also learn and understand the longitudes and latitudes in order to get the exact locations or closer.


Learning Support Corner-Primary

Fun things to do during the holidays

(to keep those skills going)

Build a marble Lego maze, play "I spy", trace mazes on paper or make your own with duct tape.

These are great ideas to work on visual discrimination skills and hand-eye coordination.

Unit of Inquiry

Have you taken action yet?

What can you do?

Play a round of balloon tennis. Any hopping, jumping, climbing and balancing is good to develop your gross motor skills.

Be creative. Invent a game, a play, a tool, a story or a whole kingdom.

Resource of pictures: Pinterest

Get your thinking skills going and do some science projects by

making magnetic slime or finding out why we need sun cream.

Get your fine motor skills going with shell art.


PYP CURRICULUM CORNER

At ISS we take pride in the fact that when we walk into a classroom we will find architects, humanitarians, artists, poets, musicians, mathematicians,

linguists, authors, scientists, actors and athletes to name a few. On reaching the end of yet another term, teachers and students continue to celebrate learning in different ways. We take pride in how our students learn particularly our holistic approach to assessing learning in the PYP which teaches children "how to think and not what to think". Apart from report cards, the Student-led Conferences and the Year 5 PYP Exhibition are perfect examples of authentic assessment of student's understanding of concepts and their ability to share and reflect on their learning journeys in order to review their goals. Below is what the assessed curriculum in the Primary Years Programme looks like. THE ASSESSED CURRICULUM: HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT STUDENT'S HAVE LEARNED?

Standard C4: Assessment

Assessment at the school reflects IB assessment philosophy. The prime objective of assessment at ISS is to provide feedback on the learning process. It identifies what children know, understand, can do, and feel at different stages of the learning process. We believe assessment to be integral to teaching and learning where students receive guidance through the five essential elements of our programme;

the acquisition of knowledge

the understanding of concepts

the mastering of skills

the development of attitudes

and the decision to take action.

We believe assessing the process is just as important as assessing the product of inquiry. Teachers are constantly observing if students are:

asking questions of more depth, that are likely to enhance their learning substantially

becoming aware that real problems require solutions based on the integration of knowledge that spans and connects many areas

are demonstrating mastery of skills

accumulating a comprehensive knowledge base and can apply their understanding to further their inquiries successfully

demonstrating both independence and an ability to work collaboratively. INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS ASSESSMENT When students return in the first week of Term 4 the assessment process continues with students in Years 3-5 sitting the International Schools Assessment.

Below is a regional summary of mean scores of schools in the different IB regions including ISS.

ISA REGIONAL SUMMARY REPORT 2014/ 2015

Rosi Uluiviti

PYP Coordinator

REGION GRADE MATHEMATICAL LITERACY

READING WRITING TASK A (NARRATIVE)

WRITING TAS K B (EXPOSITION)

mean mean mean mean

AFRICA 3 4 5

263 316 391

262 310 384

362 404 468

399 420 475

AMERICAS 3 4 5

334 426 444

279 342 365

364 417 438

391 418 446

ASIA 3 4 5

320 395 453

298 359 417

384 434 481

407 447 490

EUROPE 3 4 5

296 385 435

281 339 405

361 416 463

399 442 480

MIDDLE EAST 3 4 5

250 395 453

238 294 354

357 398 453

392 421 469

ISS 3 4 5

336 379 482

298 382 417

387 443 464

430 469 501

Gender Inequality-Jade Cave

Preventing NCDs - Abhas Jiwanji

Documents

Primary Press September Edition