NTSIS PYP Primary Newsletter (9th December – 13th December 2019)
Transdisciplinary Theme: How we express ourselves
The Christmas caroling assembly was a blast. Between rehearsing for the winter performance and learning the lines of the Christmas songs, the students continued to inquire into the unit. It was a busy week but for the fun and laughter we had, it was worth it!
What a busy week…
Grade 1:
Central idea:
Sound can help us understand the world and express ourselves
Lines of inquiry:
1. Sources of sounds
2. Expressing ourselves through sounds
3. Responding to sounds
We can no longer contain our excitement as it’s barely a week before the annual Christmas show on December 18th! We kickstarted the celebrations by singing “Deck the Halls” at the PYP Christmas caroling assembly. Since we are inquiring about how we express ourselves through sounds, we made our own shakers out of paper cups and beans, and used them for our assembly performance. Additionally, we explored the basics of beatboxing, wrote our beats, and performed them in class. We even had our tablets ready to record our performances. As a reward for working so hard, we also had our class Christmas party this week and made holiday flex tangles.
For our language learnings, we added the digraph “ch” to our list of digraph sounds. We also looked at demonstrative pronouns – this/that/these/those for our grammar component. Meanwhile in Math, we strengthened our skip counting skills by looking at number patterns.
What a busy week!
Grade 2:
Central idea:
Imagination is a powerful tool
Lines of inquiry:
1. How we show and enjoy our imagination
2. Our imagination helps us to explore new possibilities
3. Ways in which we can share our imagination
This week, we had to bid farewell to one of our classmates, Arthur. Arthur will return to Brazil. He has been a good friend. Gifts were given and pizza was consumed. Messages from his peers; Arthur, you will be missed. Thank you for playing with me. Thank you for teaching me football. I will miss your smile. These are just a few messages but the feeling is the same. Everyone will miss Arthur.
We also had our Christmas Assembly, where we performed the Christmas carol, “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” Everyone did a super job on stage and had a lot of fun.
What a busy week!
Grade 3/4:
Central idea:
Stories are created and expressed in a variety of ways
Lines of inquiry:
1. Story structure and elements
2. The purpose of stories
3. Different versions of the same story
This week we discussed narrative writing related to the central idea of our 3rd unit of inquiry-Stories are created and expressed in a variety of ways. Students discovered what the purpose and structure of narrative writing are. They started creating a comic strip about narrative writing in which they will present their understanding of this newly acquired knowledge. At the end of the week, we had the Caroling Assembly during which
students performed a popular American Christmas song – Jingle Bell Rock. We also enjoyed Christmassy home-made cupcakes brought by a parent and this was a lovely ending of our week.
In Math lessons, students did some calculations on multiplications tables of 11, 12 and started multiplication up to 2 digits by 1 digit.
In language inquiry, we continued with the use of prepositions in, at, on, during, before, to etc. in a sentence. Despite all the fun we had this week, students still wrote their weekly spelling, grammar and math tests.
What a busy week!
Grade 5/6:
Central idea:
We express and solve problems differently based on different points of view.
Lines of inquiry:
1. People identifying problems
2. Conflict resolution skills
3. People expressing conflict through the arts
Students applied their critical thinking skill to apply to analyze who to save on the sinking ship. They looked at the different criteria such as age, gender, occupation, etc. and decided who should be saved and why. We also looked closely at the types of conflict and the different conflict styles. In Math, we studied about the relationship between fraction and ratio. We solved some word problems involving ratio including changing ratios. In Lnguage, we started creative writing by looking at the things we like; things we do for fun; things we care; and things we’re interested in. We also looked at the difference between typical and unusual life experiences that we can write on. In Science, we did a respiratory system paper model on how the lung expands and contracts when we breathe in and out. We also did a chest vest paper model to show the different important organs in our chests. We studied how the different body systems work closely together to ensure that our body functions properly.
This week, we feature specialist subject: Art
Over the past couple of months, PYP Primary students have been focused on detail work creating art featuring architecture, woodland creatures, and the fall and winter holidays! Students have painted beautiful buildings, tangly trees, and Nutcrackers. They’ve built fun Christmas trees out of popsicle sticks and created cozy cats out of brown paper! It’s been a busy couple of months, and we are so looking forward to the Winter Performance! Happy Holidays, everyone!
