w and Gro n r a e L re, We We Sha , r e d n We Wo
December 2, 2011
Grade 5 Newsletter
11:00 Dismissal
Unit Three: Beliefs & Values
Friday December 16 This is the last day of school before the Christmas Holiday.
Unit of Inquiry Our central idea for Unit Three is Our behavior is a reflection of our beliefs and values. This statement will guide the teaching and learning throughout this time. During this unit, we want students to know that all people hold personal beliefs and values that are expressed in our actions and decisions, and the way we communicate. We will ask them to identify their own beliefs and values. We want students to understand that beliefs and values can originate from many sources, including organized religion, culture, family and friends and personal experiences. We want students to express some of their own beliefs and values through a piece of writing—a story, song, or poem— that they will share with the class. We will use this unit as an opportunity to learn about the PYP attitudes of tolerance and appreciation.
Mathematics Students are investigating area, a two-dimensional concept for measuring an enclosed region. Students use square units to describe the size of a surface beginning with comparisons between different surfaces and progressing to the use of nonstandard, and then standard, units. Throughout this unit the learning activities will make explicit links between students’ existing number knowledge and strategies and their ability to solve problems in measurement.
Language Our focus of Unit Three is creative writing and the use of figurative language in the expression of our ideas. Students are working on a series of ”snapshot” pieces of writing—stories that reflect significant events in our lives. We will spend time editing and revising the stories in order to include elements of figurative language. In reading groups, students are investigating the different levels of questions that extend understanding of text.
Danish A
Danish B2
Danish B1
The students enjoyed showing their Breaking News at the Open House! In Unit 3 we will look into values and beliefs connected to the Danish Jul—some of the traditions go back to even before the Vikings were here. The next book review is due December 8th.
In this new unit “How we express ourselves”, the Danish lessons will focus on figures in the traditional supernatural belief system, Nisse, Hekse and Engle. We will look at how these figures are part of the Danish traditions and what values they represent to the figures in pictures and descriptive text.
More and more classroom instructions are coming only in Danish as the students have been focusing on vocabulary for the classroom. They have been practicing with dictionary
PE
Do you have something to share? Please let us know if you would like to visit our classroom as a guest speaker to share about the beliefs and values of your culture or religion. It could be a slide show of photos, a story or a mini-lesson. If you have an idea and would like some guidance, please let us know. The students love when parents visit the class. Thank you.
Winter/ rain clothes
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!
We have been playing a multitude of different games over the last few weeks and are now in the process of creating and sharing our own games with the rest of the class.
CISGrade5
LeaChristiansen@cis.dk, MoiraChristensen@cis.dk, KarenSerritslev@cis.dk Copenhagen International School 22-26 Hellerupvej 2900 Hellerup Denmark T +45 39463300
As we are heading into a colder, wetter season, it is increasingly important that students have the appropriate clothing at school given they are required to be outside in the playground every day. Indoor shoes are also recommended.