From the Principal

Grade 5

September 2013

ISB Lower School Specialists’ Newsletter

Inside this issue:

French/SFL 2

Art 3

Spanish 4

Serbian MT/EAL 5

Music 6

PE 7

tion, and language study are essential elements to a comprehensive and holistic primary school education. 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, providing balance for all our learners. For this reason, we believe it is important that we keep our parents informed about the teaching and learning taking place in our specialists’ classrooms. You will receive our specialist newsletters seven times during the school year. As al-ways, if you have any questions about your child’s education, feel free to contact us directly with your concerns or questions. Teachers and administrators are available each and every school day before and after school to address any ques-tions or concerns you may have regarding any of our programs. Looking forward to another exciting school year filled with learning and fun, Mr. Lettinga Lower School Principal

Dear Lower School Families, Welcome to the first Specialist Newsletter of the 2013-14 School Year! Our specialists teachers, also re-ferred as single-subject teachers, play an integral and important role in the Primary Years Pro-gram. The arts, physical educa-

French

Page 2

Newsletter Title

Dubravka Kostanjsek

French Teacher

Dear fifth grade parents,

Here is the first newsletter for the French class in order to keep you informed about

the things we have been learning since the beginning of this school year.

After revisiting some of the vocabulary and structures covered in grades 1, 2, 3 and 4

through board games the students had created themselves, we started connecting

with the homeroom “How we organize ourselves” Unit. We have been learning and

practicing how to tell the time and to describe our usual activities on a working day

and during the week-end. We are about to start talking about our rights and respon-

sibilities at home and at school. In this part of the Unit, we will also review appropri-

ate ways to communicate with others within different communities we belong to.

Throughout all of these activities, the children are practicing understanding instruc-

tions given in French and are encouraged to use that language themselves and prac-

tice the structures we have been learning.

We are learning through drawings, listening, speaking, reading and writing activities.

I would also like to remind you that some explicit grammar will be taught through a

step by step method at this point. This is done to enable the students to correctly

use some of the basic structures.

Thank you for your time and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Serbian as a Foreign Language

Grade 5 students have enjoyed a very good start to the school year. It took them no

time to learn basic colors and numbers up to 100. Then, they learned about the

phonetic nature of the Serbian language. They described their trip to Vrnjačka Ban-

ja using simple repetitive sentences. This helped them learn new words and

phrases.

Currently, we are focusing on Organizations and learning about daily schedule and

routines.

For additional information, a copy of this newsletter and photos of our class pro-

jects please refer to Serbian as a Foreign Language (SEFL) Moodle page.

Ivana Jovanovic

Serbian language Teacher

Page 3

Art

Svetlana Spasic-

Glid

Art

In the previous weeks, students drew, made their collage projects, and started working on

their painting projects. We started the school year with the pre-assessments for the use of

value and group work and continued with various formative assessment tasks to help children

inquire into the difference between representational and non-representational art.

We have been working on a unit of inquiry Who We Are – Artistic Journey, as a connection to

their learning in the homeroom. The aim of this unit is to introduce artists’ works that have

different perspectives on presenting reality. Students are inquiring into different artistic styles

using the same elements and principles of art: line, shape, value, and color.

So far, students have inquired into the use of line, shape, and value while working on their

individual and group projects. Also, students inquired into the styles of Leonardo da Vinci,

Joan Miro, and Marc Chagall, while analyzing the similarities and differences between the

artists and finding out about the artists’ styles and beliefs regarding combining the elements

and principles of art and presenting reality.

Grade 5A and 5B students have classes on Mondays.

Page 4

Newsletter Title

Sonja Spasojevic Spanish Language

Spanish

Dear fifth grade parents,

Welcome to our first Spanish newsletter! In this letter you will found out all the ex-citing learning activities taking place in Lower School Spanish class.

From the very first day the grade five Spanish students have been reviewing

greetings, introductions, numbers, personal information data and vocabulary cov-

ered in previous grades. At the beginning of the month of September, we were prac-

ticing vocabulary regarding personal information. We learned more about each oth-

er, about our preferences, what and why we like to do something, why one meal is

our favorite food, which color is our favorite color and why. By making an interview

we were collecting data on our personal food/music/color/school… preferences.

While working on the expanding the vocabulary, we also worked on the correct use

of some grammatical items (word order in a sentence, positive, negative and ques-

tion sentence structure). We paid extra attention to expressing ourselves in full sen-

tences (Mi color favorite es azul, porque es el color de mis ojos y porque es el color

del cielo y de de libertad. / My favorite color is blue, because it’s a color of my eyes,

and because it’s a color of the sky and freedom). Currently we are in the process of

preparing a new project which will provide information about our school prefer-

ences, classroom objects, school subjects, school free time activities, as well as

about our preferences. We will focus on Spanish vocabulary acquisition, making con-

nections to our previous knowledge, practicing all language skills, explaining basic

grammatical rules and creating multimedia presentation using Microsoft Power

Point.

All grade five students have demonstrated a great enthusiasm for Spanish language

learning and acquisition.

Thank you for your time and please, feel free to contact me if you have any ques-

tions.

Page 5

Serbian Mother Tongue

Milena Jovanovic

Serbian Language

Teacher

EAL

Visnja Plecas

EAL Teacher

Grade 5 EAL students started the school year by sharing their adventures from the sum-

mer holidays. We then read a true story about Thor Heyerdahl and his adventures on the

Kon Tiki. We identified differences between fictional and non-fictional texts and used The

Kon Tiki text to identify main ideas and supporting detail. The students were encouraged

to return to the text to find information that would help them write a retell of the story

using guided questions. The text served as a starting point for many discussions – includ-

ing what a scientific hypothesis was, how and why the raft stayed afloat, the purpose of

log books and many other topics, with students constantly sharing personal experiences

and prior knowledge. We are now in the process of developing the narrative texts they

wrote in their homerooms. I am conferencing individually with each child to discuss their

stories and to provide support and guidance in revising and editing their texts.

Naša prva nastavna jedinica u petom razredu je Lirska poezija. Do sada smo pročita-li pesme „Drug drugu“, Dragana Lukića, „Svitac pšeničar i vodeničar“, Dobrice Erića, „Ciganin hvali svoga konja“, Jovana Jovanovića Zmaja i „Ko da to bude“, Stevana Raičkovića. Razgovarali smo o tome da se u svim ovim pesmama peva o osećan-jima, raspoloženjima i razmišljanjima. Naučili smo da postoje opisne, ljubavne, običajne, rodoljubive i misaone lirske pesme i da sve one mogu biti autorske i narodne. Podsetili smo se šta je stih, a šta strofa, šta je rima i kako se postiže ritam u pesmama. Takođe smo govorili o pesničkim slikama. Naročito je bilo zabavno obrađivati pesmu o Ciganinu koji želeći da proda svog starog konja izmišlja i preuveličava njegovo vrednost, te su se i učenici oprobali u pisanju oglasa za proda-ju životinja. U sklopu gramatike smo naučili da pored vlastitih i zajedničkih postoje i zbrine i gradivne imenice.

Page 6

Music

This year’s fifth grade group has many leaders with a significant background in music and a desire to excel in this subject. With their curiosity and enthusiasm for music the inquiry into this form of art comes naturally. Connecting with the PYP unit "Organization" we adopted grade five's classroom agreements to fit the needs of our music class. We also discussed different forms and structures in music as well as differ-ent roles and responsibilities. This will surely help students to function more effectively as we move from choir, to band, to orchestra, soloist, and other formations. We then created several bands and began with music making and the performing process. Stu-dents are playing percussion and string instruments, making arrangements for a variety of songs. Our song of the month was the score ''Touches pas au grisby'', Stevie Wonder’s "Free". This year we are working in a newly renovated and expanded classroom. Our doors are always open and we love visitors.

Ljudmila Janicijevic

Music Teacher

Page 7

Physical Education

Dear Parents,

Our grade five students had a very active start in the P.E. program.

After a variety of group games and activities in the first week of school, students took the Physical Fitness Test. We have measured student’s abilities, such as agility, flexibility and cardio-respiratory endurance, as well as abdominal and upper body strength. The same test will be done at the end of the school year, which will provide us with infor-mation about students' progress and development.

Following the test we had a discussion about how our body works and what activities might develop and maintain our physical fitness. We plan to improve our abilities and display even better results in June!

Currently we are inquiring into our Basketball unit; improving our dribbling, passing and shooting skills. Through different drills and modified games, we are learning about the rules and regulations of the game. As always, the final score is not what matters most to us, but the teamwork and cooperation.

Marija Dimitrov

PE Teacher