ISB Newsletter - April 2011

1 April 2011

Reception Newsletter In March we had lots of things going on. We celebrated ‘Martisor’ and we made beautiful ‘martisoare’ to take home for our mothers. We also had a surprise party for our mothers with cake, poems and songs. It was so nice to see them all in the classroom having fun with us!

In the classroom we have been learning about spring, insects and life cycles. We had so much fun making different insects and learning about them. We are looking forward for the warm weather so we can go for an insect hunt in the park.

And of course, what a beautiful way to end the month with our excellent Spring Show which we know you all enjoyed.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Nursery Class

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Nursery has been very busy this month!

We have been learning all about Our Five Senses (touch, taste, smell, hearing, sight.) When we learnt about sound we made lots of different musical instruments, listened to different types of music and went on sound walks around the school. When we learnt about sight we did lots of different types of painting such as bubble painting, glue painting and marble painting. When we learnt about smell we painted using different smelly paints, made collages using herb and spices and made smelly playdough. This week we are learning about taste and have been making toast in the classroom with different spreads, cooking and have been doing blind taste tests and know that we like the taste of chocolate but not onion!!

We also invited our lovely mothers to come to school for a little party on International Women’s Day. We sung them a song, gave them a card and then we all had a yummy cake to celebrate.

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We have been working and playing with lots of people in the school this month: we went over to Secondary where the English students put on some puppet shows for us and we have had the Year One children come down to us to read us some stories that they have learnt during guided reading.

We finished this month with our Early Years Spring Performance, which I think you will agree the children did amazing in and looked lovely. A round of applause for them! We hope you managed to come and see it and enjoyed it as much as we did.

Birthdays this Month Berfin Nursery L

Year 1

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This month Year 1 enjoyed a visit to Peasant Museum linking with two subjects: Design and Technology, topic ‘Houses and Homes’ and History, topic ‘Homes’.

Children enjoyed looking at a collection of textiles (especially costumes), icons, ceramics, and other artifacts of Romanian peasant life.

Mrs. Annie and Mrs. Cristina joined us and took lots of photos.

Many of the Year 1 children were involved in the Science Week events by designing rockets at home and participating in the ‘Tower’ competition. They enjoyed working as a team and building a tall, stable, and beautiful tower!

In Literacy lessons, children have been learning about Traditional Tales and they went to secondary school to watch five short plays performed by Year 8 students. Year 1 children sat quietly during the show and then answered the questions asked by secondary students.

In Guided Reading Year 1 were so excited to go to Nursery and read to their younger buddies the books they have been practicing reading for a week!

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Year 2

March was a very busy month for Year 2. Children from Years 1 and 2 who are learning Romanian as a second language, prepared a small show for Marţisor Day which is celebrated in Romania on 1st March. They recited poems and sang songs in Romanian. We also celebrated Mothers’ day in our school and children who learn Turkish prepared a show for their mothers. On 21st March our Science week started. It was a week full of various jolly activities. Children from the whole of primary school had made space rockets for the Science Fair. Each class had to make a tower for the Science contest. 2G worked very hard as a team and won a certificate for the best tower. During our Science lesson we looked at how materials change when they are heated. 2P and 2G baked cookies while 2B made jelly.

Year 2 went on trips linked to our Science week. Class 2G and 2B visited the Chipita Croissant Factory and had a chance to see how croissants and cakes are made and packed. Year 2P decided to go to the Botanical garden and saw plants from different countries and went on to visit a museum. On 23rd March Years 1 and 2 were invited to the Secondary School to watch a puppet show. Children from EAL Department wrote their own stories, made puppets and theatres and performed for us. We enjoyed visiting the secondary school class and watching bigger children perform for us.

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Year 3

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In year three we have had a busy few weeks, we all worked hard on our production ‘Around the world in 80 Minutes’ and sang, danced and performed our socks off as we travelled to Australia (3B) Morocco and South Africa (3K) and back to Romania (3R). Thank you to all of you who came to watch and supported us!

Since then 3R have had their assembly on how to Save Water which was very informative and gave us top tips on how to save more water.

We have all taken part in our History Theme Day on World War 2, we imagined we were children being Evacuated, and transported away from our parents and friends to different families to live. Many of us found this an upsetting thing to think about, but some thought it would be an excellent adventure!

We wrote postcards home to our parents, we made Gas Masks for safety and we even tried to work out how we could spend our money following the rationing rules in Numeracy. Some of us in PE played games and danced to songs from the 1940’s.

As part of Health and Fitness week we will be taking a trip to a local park to play games and outdoor activities to learn more about how to keep ourselves healthy with exercise.

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Year 4

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March proved to be yet another busy month for year 4. Science week was an excellent time to think about how we can reuse and recycle different pieces of material. We built rockets, looked at which paper aeroplanes could fly the furthest, built bridges out of scrap paper and made long poles out of newspaper to catch balloons.

4M making bridges out of scrap paper. The children had 6 pieces of A4 paper, 1m of tape and had to make a bridge which was able to support 1kg and span the length of a sheet of paper!

Puppets made from recycled material by 4F for their coming assembly.

The children also started reading a fantasy story. We are studying ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.’

Children pretended to hide in a cupboard with their favourite characters, Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter and join in their adventures through the fantastic land of Narnia.

Children also learnt “that it is very silly to shut oneself into a wardrobe, even if it is not a magic one…”

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4L having fun while exploring characters’ thoughts through acting and using the ‘freeze frame’ technique!

Year 5

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A handbag that was made from a bin liner and some CD’s, a dress made from plastic spoons and an outfit created from an unused cardboard box were just some of the eco-c creations that could have been seen on Friday 25th March as part of Science week in Year 5.

The Eco fashion was an excellent activity in which all year 5 participated. Their hard work and effort made it such a special event which encouraged them all to design and make outfits from unwanted things around the home. The costumes were amazing and Y5 were all definitely ‘A load of old rubbish’ strutting around the corridor!

Well done everyone, the Eco Fashion Show was great!

And the three winning outfits went to Isabella (5w) Sara D (5D) and Maria (5C)

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Year 6

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Year 6 had an amazing time during Science Week! Here’s what we got up to…

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We took part in messy experiments, We created Junk Rockets, We were “WOW-­‐ed! ” at the Science fair, We observed elephant’s toothpaste being made and We boggled our brains during the Big Science Quiz.

If that wasn’t enough, we also visited the Bucharest Botanical Gardens.

Here we had the chance to observe and compare different tropical plants and enjoy this natural environment in the heart of the city.

Some of us were lucky enough to spot a woodpecker in the trees and we even shared our lunch leftovers with the local ducks!

We also went on a visit to see Mr. George in the secondary school science lab. Here we learned about acids and alkalis and what happens when you mix them together. (The answer is… bubbles, light, gases and heat.)

We feel that Science Week was a great success and are looking forward to Year 7, when we can impress our friends at next year’s Fair!

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Tower building, jelly races, practical investigations...

Just some of the exciting events Primary children took part in during our Science week, which was held between the 21st and 25th of March.

On Monday each class in the Primary School had to complete a challenge to build a tower using limited resources within an hour. The children had to work well as a team, as well as use their knowledge of structures and materials, in order to be successful in this. The winning classes were as follows: RI, 1M, 1A, 2G, 3B, 4L, 5C and 6S. On Tuesday Year 6 went on a trip to the Botanical Gardens. The children particularly enjoyed the glass houses where they observed plants from around the world and learnt that there are many, many different types of cacti. They also enjoyed the outside team-building games.

On Wednesday 6S has their special Science Week assembly on the theme of Famous Scientists. They delivered their lines well, acted with confidence and taught KS1 & 2 not only about some of the famous names of science, but also explored the different branches of science and their importance.

Year 2 went out on trips on Thursday. They visited the croissant factory and the botanical gardens.

Thank you for bringing back from the factory so many goodies! Year 6 went to secondary school for an explosive chemistry lesson with Mr. George.

They are all very excited about going to secondary school now. Thank you Mr. George! After lunch we held a KS2 science quiz. Children had to organise their own house teams for this and it was great to see children from different year groups working together. Well done to everyone who took part in this. It was a very close contest. The winning team included the following children from the Yellow Lions house team: Ioana S (Y6), Sarah P (Y5) and Ana (Y4).

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On Friday Year 1 went to the Theatre where they saw a puppet show, which linked to their class work on shadow puppets. We ended the week with the Science Fair. Classes went down to the lobby to see practical demonstrations by the secondary students. The older students were excellent in their explanations and they really got the Primary children excited about science.

Well done to the secondary school science department.

The Primary children amazed us all with their wonderful Space Rocket creations. It really is amazing what you can do with a bottle, toilet roll and a piece of tin foil. Well done to all of you who put in the time and effort. The prize winners from each year group were as follows: Davut (Y1), Sara (Y2), Erik (Y3), Andrei (Y4), Abdel (Y5), Seyma (Y6).

As well as all of the above, children were involved in all sorts of science-related activities in their lessons. Year 3, for example, had a series of practical investigations on materials while Year 5 collected junk and made their own clothes out of it; providing a lively fashion show at the end of the week. Reception and Nursery classes did some baking and Year 6 learnt about friction by trying to move jelly from one plate to another using only chopsticks. The challenge got a bit harder when Mrs Benton poured oil over the jelly! In the library, children loved hunting for facts among the books, around the walls and even under the tables, and they also had a go at designing front covers for non-fiction books.

It was a very busy and exciting week in Primary School and it was well worth all the effort involved in organising all the extra learning activities. The children are all very positive about Science at the moment. Long may it last!

Sarah Ssengendo, Science Coordinator for Primary School