International Day

On Tuesday we had our annual International Day.

Great and warm thank you to all the parents who helped to organize it!

More photos on ISE Facebook page.

Book Week 2014

 Book Week 2013

Our annual Book Week is about to start.
This year's theme is: Healthy Mind in Healthy Body

It will get started with a book themed slumber party this Friday night
and continue with many different events throughout next week.

Please consider volunteering for mother tongue reading. You can sign up in the lower school hallway.

Ms. Kadri as updated the ISE Book Week wiki. Take a look here.

Celebrate this week!

We have started a new tradition on Fridays. In addition to sharing what positive learning, attitude and actions the students have noticed about each other during the week, we celebrate the small and big positive accomplishments and joys of the week.

This week we celebrate:

• sharing our dance video during the PYP assembly
• finishing several illustrations for our picture books
• completing daily math practice
• doing some challenging multi-digit addition and subtraction problems
• learning a bit more multiplication
• Literature Circles because we love reading
• note-taking for sports writing

I hope that you find time this weekend to celebrate the small and big things that have made you grateful and brought joy to your family.

Today is the day...

..when we share our dance video with our lower school community during the PYP assembly.

The students have come up with a short introduction to share what we learned during this unit.

I have allowed them to decide what to say or do. 

The usual

Back to school and back to the routines.
We have some positive routines in our class.

Morning circle
In addition to regular free choice sharing, we shared our holiday reading. We reflected on how well did we stick to our plan and what were our favorite books we read.

Wordstudy
This started on Tuesday and did only regular, written and blind sort. Next week we will start on Monday again and also include the timed sort.

Mental math
No escape from it. We will pay a bit more focus to subtraction before we move n to multiplication.

Five Minute Friday
Today's word was Imagine. You can try it at home.  Set a timer for 5 minutes and just write. We got a word list, a writing reflection, some writing prompts for future and some stories.

Closing circle
Finishing a day with a positive note leaves me smiling every day. To hear what the students like or accomplished shows their engagement and effort. Friday's comments about the classmates show appreciation. I did get a suggestion today to change our finishing chant and I hope that the students will help me with a new chant next week.

Homeroom

We started the second half of the year talking about how should we be and what should we do to have a positive social and learning environment. We all wish to feel good and learn well. At first the students listed different ideas on post-its and then we talked about the ideas and organized them into groups. I was glad to see that their ideas fit well with my two expectations: Be Kind and Learn.

The pictures below are work in progress.

I hope you can find the PYP Profile words on this picture

When we started the school year in August, we wrote about ourselves. Now, when several moths have passed, it was time to create another piece abut ourselves, to see how we have changed and also as a way to introduce us to our new classmate.

drafting with post-its

adding color

Practicing for winter pageant

Every year ISE has a winter pageant. It is a combination of a play, music and dancing. This year the script was inspired by our UOI "Family Stories." Grade 3 students also have the honor of being the main characters.
Yesterday Ms. Karolina and Doc. Shepherd (the directors of the pageant) came and the students practiced read and acted the play through from the beginning to the end.

I can't wait to see the end production.

Friday's closing circle

On Fridays, right before going home, we sit in a circle and each child pulls a little wooden figure with a classmate's name on it. Then they take turns sharing what they noticed the classmate doing well during the week. It can be about getting along with others, putting effort in learning, demonstrating knowledge, showing positive attitude, or creating something. It's pleasant to finish a week with the room filled with positive comments. 

Teaching each other

When it comes to new technology I am often a learner myself and don't necessarily have all the answers. I love it when students figure out their own solutions and then teach each other. Today during UOI several students wanted to add pictures to their texts on Google Drive. Some of them experimented a bit and figured it out. They also discovered how to make their texts colorful. Then they were ready to instruct others, patiently and step by step. Then they all shared their drafts with me.

My job now is to add questions and comments to help them to improve their writing. 

Morning circle lessons

This week I shared Amy VanDerwater's poem First Flight and three quotes during the morning circles.

" Your teacher can open the door, but you must enter by yourself." Chinese proverb

"You'r braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." by Christopher Robin ( Winnie the Pooh)

"Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can." Unknown

Today I asked what ideas the students had collected from this week's morning circles.

Here is their collective wisdom to take along.

Your teacher can help you learn but you must learn yourself.

It 's good to be brave and try.

When you get new work, try ar least.

Grade 3 response to Fears and Worries Before the Schoolyear

Collective work - first we secretly wrote some fears and worries, I mixed them up, and then we came up with a response.

Fears and worries before school:

What if I do badly in math?

What if I am kicked out of school?

What if I fail the tests?

What if I get sick?

What if the ball hurts me in PE?

What if I loose my teeth?

What if my snack falls in the trash?

What if I loose my I-Pad?

What if I run out of time to finish work?

What if I forget something important?

What if I have too much homework?

What if I am late?

What if my BFF abandons me?

What if nobody likes me?

What if I am alone?

Grade 3 response:

Don’t worry.

Everything is going to be fine

Learn, learn, learn.

Try your best and take your time.

You can finish your work later.

Be yourself and others will respect you.

If you’re searching for friends,

don’t be afraid to talk.

Say “hi” and invite them to play.

You will never be alone.

Think about good things.

Hope for the best.

Don’t worry.

Everything is going to be fine.

First week

We started our week with three big goals:

To get to know each other

To create a positive learning environment

To put routines and procedures in place

Looking back, I can say we got quite a lot accomplished.

I found out interesting facts and stories about the children. They wrote about themselves and drew portraits. (All presented on our classroom door)

Portraits and About Me writings

We also shared our hopes and dreams for this year.

hopes and dreams

For the community we have read and talked about kindness and learning.

For the classroom we got started with morning circle and workshops, we have different seating plans to use, we got familiar with the schedule, began our unit, know where things belong, and how we take care of our belongings.

Seating plans

UOI books

I'd like to finish as I used to do when I was a child:

I am tired but happy.

First day jitters

What will this year be like?

What will the students be like?

Am I ready for the new school year?

I have to admit that even after 15 years of teaching I get a bit nervous before the first day of school.

I shouldn't have been.

The smiling faces reassured me that everything was going to be great.

The energy that filled the room promised an exciting learning journey for us all. 

This week we are building our community. First of all we will learn about each other and create essential agreements to ensure a positive and supportive learning environment. The second important learning is putting routines and procedures in place. 

I shared my two (yes, only two, but very important) expectations. 

Be kind

Learn

We will have many discussions to make sure we understand what these expectations mean, and what they look, sound and feel like. 

The first two read aloud books were:

We decided that none of us were as nervous as Sarah in this story

If you wish to take a look at our read aloud books, come and visit us