Primary Press October

PRIMARY PRESS OCTOBER 2015

From Karen and the Primary Team Our last edition of Primary Press for this academic year is once more filled with some wonderful submissions right across the school including our specialist subjects and learning support team.

It has been a very busy term and continues to be right up until break up day on December 3. Upcoming events include our annual primary concert on Tuesday, November 24 and the Year 5 graduation, being held in the last week of school on Tuesday, December 1. Our Year 5 graduation is a different timeslot and format this year and promises to be a terrific event, fitting for all of our Year 5 students. They are all very excited for this event and busy practicing in readiness.

Additionally, on Wednesday, December 2, we will be holding our yearly ‘Meet the Teacher’ session at 9am in readiness for the new school year. Where possible, our new classes will spend the session with their new teachers for 2016 and enjoy some time with their new classmates. We also include new enrolments where possible, particularly the children who are already here in Fiji and our new local enrolments, of which we have many. Our current count on primary enrolments for next year is already approaching 320 and increasing daily.

Teacher and Class Allocation for 2016 As per the recent parent update email that was sent home just last week, over the next couple of weeks, teachers will be constructing the classes for 2016 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 2016 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.

School Concert Our school concert is fast approaching. This annual fun filled and entertaining evening is on Tuesday, November 24 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. We look forward to seeing you all there to witness some sensational talent!

Early Holidays 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 1. 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.

Thank you to all of those parents who have already notified us of their plans to leave earlier. A reminder that all students will finish school on Thursday, December 3 at 12pm after our whole school farewell assembly.

Teachers last day is on Friday, December 4.

PAT Benchmark Assessments Our PAT assessments have been completed for the year and quality time will now be spent analyzing these results at the beginning of 2016 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, which becomes available to us mid-December will only enhance our improvement agenda and in turn, the teaching and learning at our school. We plan to focus on and fine tune our Mathematics curriculum in the new school year.

All results are made available to parents and individual reports will be sent to parents of Year 3 – 5 students for the ISA assessments in the New Year.

Halloween Hauntings Thank you to the PTFA and primary staff for making our annual Halloween evening another great success this year. It was a frightful but fun event supported well by all of the ISS community. We hope you enjoy some of the photographs we have included in our Primary Press.

Thank you!

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.

We are looking forward to another exciting and worthwhile academic year in 2016!

Karen and the Primary Team

Music with Mr Tim Our journey through Music this year concludes with our Year 4 students wrapping up their Unit of Inquiry on Human Migration earlier in the term and our Year 5’s taking their new Unit through on “How We Express Ourselves” all the way into week 8.

‘Rituals, traditions and artifacts provide a window into the beliefs and values of cultures’ has been our Central Idea.

Our Key Concepts are Function, Perspective and Reflection and we looked into what constitutes a Culture and the significance of rituals and traditions.

This Unit allowed our students to look into different cultures and understand the reason why they follow their traditions that gives them their identify through their beliefs and values. The coming of age of different traditions sparked a lot of class discussion and inquisitive thought provoking questions that brought about how our beliefs and values are important and it makes us who we are.

Our Year 5 students have also begun their preparations into their farewell which is fast approaching.

As for all other year levels, we are continuing our Musical journey with preparations for our end or year concert coming up in week 8.

For the love of music, Mr Tim.

Finishing the year in Year 3 The year 3 students and the year 3 team are satisfied with the learning that has taken place this year.

We are busy finalizing and presenting our final assessment on ‘Thinking and Learning’. Leading up to this assessment, the students have delved deep into how they think and learn and about their learning styles. This learning has been strengthened with Mrs Lindy Stice who also co-taught via an art focus.

We were particularly fortunate when we visited the Fiji School for the Blind where our students interacted and learned firsthand how students with a sensory deprivation learn and operate on a daily basis. This was an eye opener which generated a tremendous amount of interest and never-ending questions.

As you are aware we have been busy preparing for our concert which is scheduled for November 24th and our Kris Kringle gift giving and class party on week 9. More information of the class party and end of year activity day will be sent to you at the end of next week.

The Year 3 Team.

What’s New in ECH2?

We can’t believe it is the middle of Term 4 already! First of all, we would like to welcome Paige Thompson to the Whales class. We are very happy to have you here with us.

The children have been happily investigating our current Unit of Inquiry this term, which is “Under the Sea”. Over the past few weeks, we have observed a fish, octopus and crab and we learned about them in depth. We even were able to cook the fish and the crab! “It actually tastes really good!” remarked Zoë.

Ian also came in and shared his expertise on sharks, which we found very exciting and interesting. We looked at many different species of sharks such as the whale shark, the great white shark and the basking shark.

We also learned that sharks do not target humans and we should do our best to protect sharks. Many thanks to Ian for coming in to our classroom!

We also went on a wonderful excursion to the USP Marine Centre, where we fed fish and prawns and observed many preserved marine species. We toured the campus and walked on the beach. We observed how much plastic and garbage there was on the beach, and we all felt very sad. We are learning to take responsibility in looking after our ocean environment. Israel says: “Don’t throw cans in the water. Otherwise the shark will think it is food and eat it. He will die”. Chrystel adds, “Throw rubbish in the bin. Fish will get sick and die if there is rubbish in the sea.”

Many thanks to Salote from the USP Marine Centre for organizing such an interesting and thought provoking excursion!

As you can see, it has been a very busy and exciting Term 4 so far! We are really looking forward to the Primary Concert night because we have been working really hard practicing our dance! See you all on Tuesday, 24th November!

YEAR FOUR As part of our migration unit at the beginning of the term, we presented our slavery songs to Mr Tim with some of us taking action to record our songs.

We have since then been inquiring into trade and looking into how the bartering system evolved within the Fijian culture. As part of the summative task, the students are creating their own book about trade, aligning the information with the unit’s lines of inquiry.

Fijian Studies HOW the WORLD WORKS Exploring patterns with ECH 1

We have been exploring MASI patterns with Saka.

We know that masi feels soft.

MASI has different shapes on it. There are diamonds, squares, hearts, flowers, circles and triangles.

We can sleep on masi.

We can sit and play on masi.

We can stand on masi BUT we MUST take our shoes off first.

We made a house with a BIG piece of masi.

Counselor’s Corner Greetings from your primary school counselor! I am now at ISS Primary every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:30am to 4:00pm. The role of the school counselor is to help students achieve in school by helping to remove obstacles to learning. The counselor assists in the personal, social, academic and career growth of all students. This is done in many ways such as classroom guidance, small group counseling, individual counseling, teacher consultation, and whole school programs.

Currently, I am delivering the social skills curriculum, Stop, Think and Do in years 1, 4 and 5. The curriculum has been completed already in years 2 and 3. The children are currently learning:  To choose to behave in ways that have the best consequences  To practice behavioural skills that send the right signals to others  To make and keep friends  To handle negative per pressure, put downs, teasing, and bullying  To identify support systems around them if they need help  How to cooperate in a group The students are learning this through a guided curriculum, class discussions, and roleplays. The children LOVE to act which is great practice for them when they find themselves in true conflict. When your students are learning these new skills, it is very helpful for their parents/caregivers to talk with them about what they are learning.

While I am in the classrooms the majority of the day, I also can see students individually and in targeted small groups. If you think your student would benefit from seeing me, please talk to the classroom teacher. I continue to enjoy working with you and your students!

Sincerely, Kate Passin

YEAR FIVE The end of 2015 academic year is nigh and the Year 5 students are preparing to graduate from Primary to Middle School. They have been delving into the idea that artifacts, rituals and traditions provide a window into the beliefs and values of cultures. Upon deconstruction of their main idea, students were introduced to the iceberg model of culture which they applied to various rituals and traditions from around the world.

Model used in Eva Haug’s presentation on culture

David Rock’s adaptation of the cultural iceberg model

Students practiced using these models to apply it to articles on rites of passage rituals from around the world. Here’s what some of them had to say: Reina: I knew that emotions and thoughts were stuff that you couldn’t see. When I saw this image, I knew that results and behaviours are what people show. Emotions and thoughts are much deeper and sometimes can’t be seen.

Viliame: These models are good for analyzing information, and then you can break it into smaller pieces of information. For example, you can see how and why people do the sorts of things within their culture. By using this model, it makes it easier to understand their culture.

Ashleigh: It made me understand more about cultures and how other people think and you can use it to see how and why people carry out certain rituals and traditions. It’s also easy to sort out information by using this model.

Griffyn: I didn’t really think of culture like that until I saw the iceberg. I thought it was a really good way to show how thoughts and emotions affect culture.

In the images below, students learn about artifacts from various traditions and cultures.

Menorah

African Idol Godhead

Brazilian Rain Stick

Fijian Derua

News from the Green Cottage Dear Parents and Guardians, November and Diwali Greetings to you all.

Vonu’s dressed up in their ‘Bula’ wear for Fiji Day.

Guess how many sand pies?

Dhanayavad to Mira Milenkovic, Devansh Pal, Aakansha Nand and families for the Diwali sweets. They were delicious.

Enjoying the sunshine.

Making patterns with balls.

Our next major event is our Primary concert. Tuesday 24th November, 6.00 pm – 8.00 pm.

School finishes at noon on this day. (12.00pm) The ECH 1 Team, Ms Litia, Ms Sala and Ms Jacqui

Primary Visual Arts We are enjoying an action-packed term in Visual Arts, all the while buzzing with excitement over the many special days and activities that are part of Term 4.

Year 2 students concluded their inquiry into advertisement with an all-out campaign to advertise the very popular Healthy Pop Sale. The campaign, which included posters and banners and more, allowed students to put their knowledge of persuasion and advertising to the test, and proved to be wildly successful.

ECH1 Vonus are experimenting with a variety of printmaking techniques this term. Their love for expressive mark-making is evident, as they take creative risks and enjoy the oftensurprising results of printmaking methods and materials. Ms Sala and Ms Litia and I love to hear their giggles and cries of delight at seeing the prints as they are ‘pulled’!

Year 3 students are considering learning communities and learning styles in their current UOI. They have been collaborating to discover more about their preferred learning styles and those of their classmates. We look forward to their presentations, which will showcase their learning styles as they present on a topic of their own choosing.

Thank you for your continued support this term. It has been wonderful to see students, particularly in upper primary, work on their art outside of art lesson time, and to become increasing independent in their creative processes.

Year One Term 4- Week 6 END OF YEAR HOW WE EXPRESS OURSELVES This term the children have been very busy practicing for the Fiji Day assembly, Primary Assembly and the End of Year Concert. The students have all shown great professionalism, maturity and perseverance during this time.

We would like to take the opportunity to commend all year one parents who have assisted the year ones students and team this year. Their growth has been outstanding and the year one team has enjoyed everyday working and learning with the students. We wish you the best of luck next year!

CONGRATULATIONS YEAR ONE!

UPCOMING EVENTS

From week three students have been learning about expression.

To celebrate their learning the children are currently developing and planning a fashion item to represent their culture and showcase at the end of year concert.

They are currently very busy and in the process of developing their ‘fashion statements’ and will be ready to show-off in week 8!

Watch out for year one! 

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The End of Year concert will take place on the 24th November. Year one students will be performing an item.

Please note the concert day will be a half day for students.

End of term 4 Thursday 3rd December.

Year One Team

RECEPTION Light affects living things and the environment

PRIMARY PSPE – Mr. Joe Well done to all of the Primary Athletes who recently participated in the second stage Suva Zone Championships! It was a great effort to make it to this stage and we are very proud of you all! A special mention to Lucas Nili who has progressed through to the Chow Games Nationals for Long Jump.

A superb effort and we wish him all the best for the upcoming competition!

Athletes who participated at the second stage Primary Suva Zone Qualifying series: Lucas Nili Sienna Harper Leona Douglas Tabbai Soko Tom Landry Aidan Cakaukeivuya Jasmine Colling Reina Arai Armand Davias Manoa Keteca

------------------------------What’s New in Year 2?

The Art of Storytelling  How are stories created and shared?  How are effective stories constructed?  What do stories convey?  What feelings and emotions do stories evoke?

These are the lines of inquiry which are helping our Year 2 students find out more about Communication in our current inquiry into How We Express Ourselves. The Central Idea for this inquiry is, Stories inform, provoke and give us pleasure. We started our inquiry by discussing the different ways we have heard stories over time, who our favourite storytellers have been and identified some of our all-time favourite stories. We have also been fortunate to have parents Eliza Taylor and Ateca Ravuvu come in and share cultural stories with us as well as their experiences of how stories were passed on to them.

Ms. Ravuvu, a dancer by profession helped us to explore storytelling through dance. We had fun choreographing our own movements to tell our version of a story.

The Year 2s have used their newfound confidence and enthusiasm for storytelling through dance to choreograph their own concert item. We look forward to showing you what we have put together at the Primary Concert in Week 8 of this term.

Are you a storyteller?

If you would like to come in and share a story with our Year 2s, please let the class teachers know. We would love to have more parents come in and share your cultural experiences of stories with us before the end of term.

A message from two of our new teachers for 2016

Welcome Ms. MacKellar and Mrs. Harris!

Bula, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Ms. Amanda MacKellar and I am excited to be joining the team at International School Suva for 2016. I graduated from Griffith University in 2002 with a Bachelor of Education and began my teaching career in a remote school in Queensland, Australia in 2003. I then transferred to an urban school in 2005 where I have been teaching for the past 10 years. I am passionate about helping students achieve, and be the best they can be, with a goal to becoming lifelong learners. I believe in creating a positive and supportive classroom with individual student learning goals based on the requirements of the students. I am also passionate about science and aim to instill a curiosity and passion for science within my students. I am looking forward to meeting you and your children and guiding their learning successes.

P.s. My favourite colour is pink, any colour pink! My teaching folder is pink, I mark work with a pink pen, and I love pink ice-cream and pink jelly beans.

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Bula! My name is Wendy Harris. I am from Melbourne, Australia, but was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Japan, Mexico and Singapore before moving to Australia to complete High School and attend University.

After a short but interesting career in Orthoptics, I became a teacher. I met my husband whilst teaching in Japan and we have two children. After three years in Brunei and six years in Jakarta, Indonesia we have moved to Fiji. Apart from my jobs as a teacher and my children’s taxi service, my interests include spending time with my family, keeping fit, music, reading, learning languages and traveling.

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

Reception students are having fun in their Unit of Inquiry on “Light”. From the Hindi perspective, we focused on the significance of light in the Hindu culture. We also learnt about the most important Hindu festival-“Deepawali –the festival of Lights.” Children had fun making “Rangoli” designs, diyas (clay lamp) and making sweets.

We made diya (clay lamp).

Students listening to the story of Deepawali –Festival of Lights.

Different sources of light.

Significance of Light-(Kalsa) Discussion

We are making Peda (sweets).

Yummy…… Peda!

We are making a Rangoli sign of welcome on the door step and connecting with our maths lesson –symmetry and patterns.

AWARDS Alfred Arunga Roviana Gina Talei Tikosaya William Brooks Caleb Narayan Yann Lacayo Typhaine Nervaile Yann Lacayo Tahli Robertson Fardeen Sheik Maggie Burdon Tara Marshall Myah Stice Imogen Ryan Kaia Whitfield Papanui Liew-Marsters Vikramank Singh Ben Mackenzie Shailesh Sharma Brianna Taylor Oscar Kennedy-Foran Saugat Bohora Candelaria Clemente Juliana Espinosa Euan Murray Fana Strobel Xincheng Li Jonathon Kirk Natsumi Matsuura James McLean Kaelan Balpe-Leahy Jai Ludher Connor Harris Sheldon Takimoana Shivani Salter Hugo Kok Warren Mackenzie

Lucy Chane Tom Landrey Shawna Sun Kevin Du Ogilvy Hui Lainie Robertson Isaac Mackenzie Tiana Parshotam Lilly John Jasmine Weerasinghe Sina Izumi Inigo Chavez William Burdon Driya Kumar Qihang Gao Shon Prasad Hannah Chane

2 0 1 5

Learning Support Corner – Maths Maths is fun! We can strengthen our basic knowledge through games. Monopoly can help with basic addition, subtraction and dealing with money. Here are some ideas to have fun with maths at home.

BBC Bitesize Fun maths practice on this British site. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/maths/ Ages 5-7 http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/ Ages 7-11

ABCA.com

Fun 4 The Brain

Games and activities for Grades K – 5

Free educational maths games

http://www.abcya.com

http://www.fun4thebrain.com