NTSIS PYP Primary Newsletter (2nd September– 6th September 2019)
Transdisciplinary Theme: Who we are
We are at the halfway mark of the first unit. Students and teachers are engaged in meaningful inquiries by gathering, sorting out information and make connections for the actions to come. Parents play an important part in supporting our community of learning. Learning never cease in NTSIS!
What a busy week…
Grade 1:
Central idea:
Relationships contribute to our well-being and needs to be nurtured
Line of inquiry 1: Relationships in our lives
Line of inquiry 2: Friendship roles and values
We started the week by celebrating Maahi’s birthday! The children couldn’t wait to try the cake that Maahi had so graciously brought to school. Of course, they were also excited to receive their chocolate goodies from the celebrant. In UOI Show and Tell, the students talked about family members using the various objects they brought to school. It was interesting to learn about each one’s family in a different way. We also looked at the concept of family trees as the students shared their own family tree in class. Additionally, we had fun creating LEGO models of our family. In Math, we had a pattern hunt around the school and started our exploration on number bonds. We finished the week by having our first spelling test of the school year covering our sight words for the week and revisited the short vowel sounds.
We are going to…
This week, we will be talking about friendship and its role in our lives. We will explore what types of friends we have and find out the kind of friend we are to other people.
What a busy week!
Grade 2:
Central idea:
Culture shapes who we are
Line of inquiry 1: Diversity of cultures around the world
Line of inquiry 2: The ways in which families are connected
During the week we finished looking at Line of Inquiry 1. The learners reflected on what it means to have a culture and what some of the differences are in our cultures. We continued to learn our poems and happily saw an improvement in the weekly spelling and Math. We also saw the Learner Profiles of; Communication, Caring and Knowledge being demonstrated in and out of the classroom. The week was finished off by a presentation by the parents during assembly as to how the Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival.
We are going to…
Monday will see us start Line of Inquiry 2, where we will be focusing on ways in which families are connected. With The Mid-Autumn Festival on our door and the moon filling up, we start by reciting our autumn and moon poems as part of our look in to celebrations and festivals as part of our culture, we also explore food and how we eat and share food as a means of connecting our families and friends within our various cultures.
What a busy week!
Grade 3/4:
Central idea:
Thinking and learning can help us develop our potential
Line of inquiry 1: Understanding the brain
Line of inquiry 2: Tools and strategies that can help us learn effectively
In week 3, we explored the concept of mindfulness. We applied our research skills by finding out how mindfulness helps us deal with strong emotions online. We even did a meditation activity and experienced mindfulness. We also completed their Brain Facts poster! We presented our creation as a class. In Math, we interpreted simple and scaled bar charts.
We are going to…
This week, we will continue to discover the parts of the brain and their functions. We will be learning about how different parts of the brain function. The concept of mindfulness will be further elaborated on how it helps our brain to relax.
Our unit of Inquiry will start with these questions.
What does the left side of the brain control?
What does the right side of the brain control?
What does the frontal lobe control?
What does the temporal lobe control?
What does the parietal lobe control?
What does occipital lobe control?
What does the brain stem control?
What does the spinal cord do?
What a busy week!
Grade 5/6:
Central idea:
Interactions can lead to and solve conflict.
Line of inquiry 1: Role of communication plays in conflict
Line of inquiry 2: Resolving conflict between team members and through communication
We reviewed multiplication, division and order of operation on whole numbers. We looked at the interactions and conflicts found in a play script, “How Dorothy Saved Scarecrow” and roleplayed the scenes. We also studied why plants need to disperse their seeds far away to avoid conflict or overcrowding with each other and the interconnection between water and germination of seeds. We learned how rumors and gossip spread and cause conflicts through interactive games like “Telephone”, “Charades” and “Guess Feelings”. We also looked at some of the good communication skills we should have in our daily interaction with people.
We are going to…
This week, we will learn ways to resolve conflicts peacefully as we role play some scenarios. We will be doing addition and subtraction of mixed numbers. We will be looking at the
relationships and connections between simple and compound sentences using connectors as well as the main and subordinate clauses. We will also look at the interconnection
between spores and non-flowering plants by comparing reproduction in flowering plants.
This week, we feature specialist subject: Dance
For the past weeks, we explored how to express emotion with body movements and felt the music of different emotions. We tried to learn a happy dance to show our joy. In the following weeks, we will further explore the expression of dance emotions.
In line with the central ideas, we found the connection between dance movements and daily life activities. In order to understand different cultures, we learned Mongolian Dance. In the subsequent weeks, we will learn more about dance in different cultural backgrounds.
Events:
Coffee Time with Parents (4th September 2019)
We took a look at the events that we will be celebrating at the PYP. The next celebration will be for the National Day of China. We also had a short discussion on Language & Assessment policies. This Coffee time saw the launch of the series of PYP Basics. This week, we looked at what a central idea is. Since inquiry does not stop in school, we are committed to support parents in understanding the IB philosophy. We hope to have parent collaborations in our curriculum planning in the future.
Celebrating Mid-Autumn at assembly (6th September 2019)
Parents joined us to introduce how the Mid-autumn festival is celebrated in their countries. They even taught us how to make festive goodies of China, Japan and Korea. While the activity time was short, we had a blast! Thank you, parents!
