Primary Press November 14, 2014

PRIMARY PRESS September 19, 2014

Our final Primary Press for 2014! This term has been once again action packed with Fiji Day assembly, PAT and ISA assessments, Diwali and of late, our annual primary Halloween event. It‟s not over yet however, and yet to come, we have the Year 5 graduation, our Primary concert, Year 5 camp and our Meet the New Teacher session. Never a dull moment here in Primary.

Over the next couple of weeks, teachers will be constructing the classes for 2014 in readiness for Week 9 and the „Meet the New Teacher‟ session. It is our policy to make initial placements of students in classes for the coming year according to a set of clear and fairly managed criteria including balance between new and returning students, academic range and balance, ESL and support for learning needs within a class, friendships, gender and special needs requirements if applicable. These recommendations are given very careful consideration by teachers. The lists are developed initially independent of specific teachers. With staffing not yet finalized for next year, it is important to note also that in any school, there may be a certain amount of movement among faculty as new teachers arrive and others depart and even those who remain may request a change to teach a different year level. Please be assured that we will always have your child‟s interests at heart in all such decisions. Classes with new incoming teachers in 2015 will be still part of the orientation session in Week 9 as it also provides them a chance to preview their new classrooms and mingle with their new classmates.

Our school concert is fast approaching. This annual fun filled and entertaining evening is on Tuesday, November 25 in the school‟s multipurpose hall from 6pm. All classes have been busily preparing for this terrific night out. Please be reminded that concert day is a half day at school and all students should be collected on this day at 12.00pm. On this evening, we always have our Christmas tree and families are invited to place a gift under our tree for the less fortunate. If you choose to do this, please ensure you have labeled whether it is for a male/female and what age the gift is appropriate for. We look forward to seeing you all there to witness some sensational talent!

Some of you may be leaving for holidays a little earlier than our end of term date. Please let us know if this is the case. Report cards are being sent home on Tuesday, December 2. We will be unable to provide these any earlier, therefore, if you are not going to be here, you will be able to collect them from the primary office in the New Year.

Our Year 5 students will be celebrating their graduation next Tuesday evening. We wish them a wonderful night and thank our Year 5 team for organizing this for our students. The students will then participate in a Year 5 camp in Pacific Harbour in Week 8 to celebrate their final year in primary.

Our PAT assessments have been completed for the year and quality time will now be spent analyzing these results at the beginning of 2015 in our teacher only days. This will help teachers plan for students leading into the new learning school year and guide them with the differentiation that will be required for term one. These results along with our ISA assessment data will only enhance our improvement agenda and in turn, the teaching and learning at our school.

Our language focus will continue into 2015 with handwriting and writing being our start in Term 1. Mathematics will then take the driver‟s seat and we will set out on the journey to improve our numeracy standards at ISS primary. As you can see, the primary team is also continually learning to improve practice.

A huge shout out to our PTFA for their recent efforts with the Halloween evening. It was a great night enjoyed by all who attended. Thank you to the Halloween team and our primary staff!

Enjoy the next three very busy weeks everyone! May you have a wonderful break with your families. Thank you for the valuable contributions you make to help us educate your child/children.

Kind regards Karen

Reception loved learning about RANGOLI during Diwali.

A rangoli is a colourful design made on the floor near the entrance to a house to welcome guests. At Diwali, Hindus draw bright rangoli patterns to encourage goddess Lakshmi to enter our homes. We made rangoli in front of our classroom using different coloured rice.

We are well and truly into our last unit of inquiry on Heritage and Culture. The student have really enjoyed discussing their ‘Life in a timeline’ and baby pictures with the class. Thank you to the guest speakers who have come in so far to talk to the children about their culture and how things have changed.

An update from the Fantastic Fours!

Well here we are in the middle of our last term as Year 4’s! We can’t believe how quickly this year has flown by! We have grown so much as inquirers, thinkers, and communicators from the start of the school year to now.

We started the term off by welcoming Hiona Takimoana from New Zealand, who joined Year 4S in Week 2. She has blended in so well with our Year 4 family already!

We finished off our unit on Trade in Week 2. In Week 3, we started off our last Unit of Inquiry on Conservation. Our Transdisciplinary Theme is “How We Share the Planet” and our Central Idea is: “The ability to conserve our environment and its natural resources protects the balance of nature”. This has been a really interesting and thought provoking unit. We already had three speakers come in to share their expertise on Conservation. Our first two speakers came from the National Trust of Fiji – and they shared with us pictures of many animals and plants that we must take care of and protect in Fiji. Our third speaker was Mr. Peter Sinclair, who came from SOPAC to share his knowledge about water and how best we should conserve it.

What an interesting presentation! We enjoyed the experiment where we tasted six different bottles of water that each contained different salinity! It was interesting to see our class results. We thank all our speakers for coming in to our classrooms to share your knowledge about conservation.

We have also been practicing every day for our concert item, which will be on November 25th. We have decided to go with an African theme and can’t wait to show all our family and friends our dance moves!

This term our unit of inquiry is entitled “Under the Sea" with the Central idea, "People and Living Things share resources to survive". ECH 2 Whales and Dolphins explored the unit by having hands on experiences with real sea animals like octopus, fish, crab and stingray. Children observed and felt the sea animal and used different types of resources like videos, books, teachers and friends to get information about them and how they survive.

Through these provocations, the children gained interest in pursuing their own research which will be their summative assessment for this unit. Each of them chose a sea creature which they will further explore at home through different ways. The children will report their findings to their friends and teachers next week. We look forward to our ECH 2's learning experience as they share their personal inquiries.

What’s New in Year 2?

Term 4 is already moving along very swiftly and our Year 2s are busier than ever. Here are some of our highlights so far:  Performing the jingles we composed with Mr Tim during our Primary assembly in Week 2  Beginning a new Unit of Inquiry into ‘Stories’ in Week 3  Celebrating Fiji Day, Diwali and taking part in our school’s Pinktober Biggest Morning Tea  Learning about Fijian legends in Fijian Studies class  Finding out about Remembrance Day and reading stories about the Great War  Concert prep!

Programnme of Inquiry With the Transdisciplinary theme of ‘How We Express Ourselves’, our new unit of Inquiry into Stories is proving to be both fun and interesting. Year 2s are thinking a lot about the following Central Idea: Stories inform, provoke and give us pleasure. So far we’ve discussed what stories look like (Form), shared what we know about the role of stories (Function) and described how they make us feel (Perspective). Ms. Kasatoka has shared with us her knowledge of Fijian legends. We have learnt that storytelling has helped keep Fijian legends alive for many years. In class we have begun to look at different versions of the Cinderella story and are thinking about what appeals to us, what doesn’t and why. We wonder how you, our parents and friends share stories? What kinds of stories do you enjoy and why?

Math Over the last couple of weeks, we have been learning about measurement in Math; focusing on Capacity and Mass. We have enjoyed a lot of practical math activities such as estimating and measuring the capacity of several different containers; as well as using our classroom weighing scales to find out and compare the mass of different items in our classroom. We think that the kitchen is the best place in our house to continue to experiment with mass and capacity. Which container in your kitchen do you think has the greatest capacity? Which has the smallest? What item do you think has the heaviest mass? Which has the lightest?

Concert For the primary concert, we will be performing a Latin/hip hop dance to the track ‘Mas Que Nada’ by Sergio Mendes and the Black Eyed Peas. More information regarding costumes will be emailed out to parents in the near future. Primary concert this year will be on Tuesday of Week 8 (24 th November). We hope all our families will be able to attend to see our fantastic co-ordination and fancy footwork.

ACTION! For Remembrance Day this year we learnt a lot about the World Wars and why it is important for us to remember the sacrifices made by others during times of war. A few of our children were able to make connections between what we learnt in class and their own family histories. Maggie, Nathan and Oliver all identified the roles their great grandfathers played during First World War. Matt brought in his great grandfather’s service record and shared interesting stories about his life with us. Matt also brought in a story of a Great War hero, Bess the war horse, whose bravery during World War 1 is reflected in the book, Brave Bess and the ANZAC Horses. We made poppies, wrote essays reflecting on our feelings on what we learnt and observed a minute silence at 11am on November the 11th along with the rest of the school.

PINKTOBER IN PRIMARY

YEAR ONE How many times has one heard, “Tell me a story?” No matter where one’s from, children love to be entertained. In Year One Unit of POI this term we are studying Performing Arts and how we can communicate culture through music, movement and drama. We have been enjoying various activities including making puppets, script writing, Chinese calligraphy and researching various cultures in preparation to perform and reflect on our learning. The unit will culminate in a performance of the Chinese Dragon Dance for the End of Year Concert.

The students in collaboration with Ms. Emele, Mr. Tim and Ms. Stice have been busy producing all aspects of our Chinese dragon performance from the music, choreography and the dragons themselves! In the process we have learnt much about the Chinese culture and the symbolism behind the Chinese dragon and lion dances.

We hope you enjoyed the Year 1 meke performance at the Fiji Day assembly as much as we enjoyed learning and performing it. All of the movements, choreographed by Ms. Emele, showed different aspects of the Fijian culture. Here are some thoughts some Year 1 students had when they reviewed our performance: “Year 1 was perfect at the Fiji Day assembly.” Elia “The girls smiled. Some of the boys did the powerful steps really well.” Shailesh “Everyone did a good job and moved at the same time.” Seira

PSPE in Primary It has been a very exciting term and the children have been learning, having fun as well as developing their skills in PE. They have been developing their catching, throwing, running, kicking and ball bouncing skills.

Units of Inquiry Intensives

Year 3 - Force and Energy They learnt how energy is transferred from a large ball to a smaller one with this kinetic energy experiment.

Reception - ‘Comparing personal histories helps us to understand who we are.’ Shivani shares with her classmates the types of games her parents use to play when they were young.

Hind Studies-Hindi Bhashayt

Namaste We have been having an exciting teaching and learning journey in Hindi Studies.

Reception has finished their Unit of Inquiry on “Light” from the Hindi Perspective where we focused on the significance of Light in Hindu culture. We also learnt about the most important Hindu festival -“Deepawali –the Festival of Lights.” Children had fun making “Rangoli” designs.

Resolving Conflicts Year Three are inquiring into resolving conflicts. In Hindi class we are focusing on conflict of finite resources, particularly water in Indus Valley. Children have been watching media footage on the Indus River Valley and the effects of dams being built in Pakistan and India. The year three students are now trying to find strategies to solve water conflict locally.

In the Language skills programme, Year 5 and Year 3 have been learning about Hindu festivals and culture and learning Hindi scripts. They also learned Hindi songs and poems.

The children had fun making and eating Peda Indian sweets.

Christmas aur Naya Varsh shoobh ho.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Fijian Studies - Na Veika Vakaviti

We hope you all had a scary but fun time!

t

A big thank you to our Halloween coordinators Diane Adams and Jennifer Dodson!

Year 5 – on the move!

WoW! What an unbelievable year we‟ve had so far and there is still so much more to do. So much learning has taken place and while most classes are letting out their breath and starting to wind down, in Year 5 we are taking in a deep breath in preparation for the whirlwind of activity that has yet to take place.

UOI We are currently investigating how wealth (in natural resources or by other means) is distributed evenly/unevenly around the world. The following is a snapshot of what we have been learning.

Transdisciplinary Theme:

HOW WE SHARE THE PLANET An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.

Central Idea: opportunities.

Distribution of wealth affects communities and individuals‟ access to equal

Lines of Inquiry:

Relationship between wealth and power The impact of the distribution of wealth on communities and individuals Equitable access to resources and opportunities

We have come to an understanding that we need to look after our finite resources because they are not renewable, meaning once they are gone we cannot get them back. We have discovered that natural resources within a country not only contribute in some way to the survival of its people, e.g. coal – energy, timber – shelter, etc.; but the use of these resources to produce products can be a means of creating wealth for too few creating inequality and conflict (competition for the limited resources we have). The bottom line is that we need to manage and look after our natural resources in order to have a chance of surviving in the future.

Graduation We are about to make our biggest entrance (or should I say exit?) yet, at our Graduation night. Graduation night is a night for Year 5 students only, a night when the “Fantastic Fives” officially graduate from primary school to middle school. We have prepared a number of surprises for our parents on the night and are ready to go.

Our Graduating Year 5s

Congratulations Year 5 on a successful year of learning and we wish you the best as you move into Year 6 in 2015.

Concert Craziness!

As we all know, the primary concert is in week 8 of this term. Everyone is preparing for the huge event, especially Year 5. This year, the Year 5s are going out in style with a live band performance and they are certainly busy with getting it „just right‟! Our theme this year ties in with our final unit of inquiry – Sharing the Planet with a focus on awareness in protecting our natural environment.

Year 5 Camp In week 8 we are off to camp at the Coral Coast Christian Camp in Deuba. Hopefully it will be a relaxing time with all of us just „chilling‟ on the beach (although there have been whispers that the teachers will be putting us through some sort of “boot” camp).