SEPTEMBER
Newsletter
2014
www.isvietnam.org
Newsletter
September 2014
Table of Contents Message from the Principal page 01 Pre-K & K1 Updates page 02 K2 Updates page 03 Grade 1 Updates page 04 - 05 Grade 2 Updates page 06 Grade 3 Updates page 06 Grade 4 Updates page 06 Grade 5 Updates page 07 PE Updates page 07 French Updates page 08 Science & Maths Updates page 08 Music & Drama Updates page 09
Message from the Principal The month that has passed since the previous newsletter has been so full of activity it is hard to know where to begin, but a good place would be looking at the final Saturday of September, where the School opened its doors to the Hanoi community. As an IB curriculum school, we automatically work to become part of the community we find ourselves in, and on this occasion it was in the form of a carnival. Full credit to the staff who spent time planning the event, and then providing activities both inside and outside the building (what happened to the forecast thunderstorms?) for the hot and humid morning. The participants were a wonderful mix of existing pupils and parents, and people who had never been through the door before. A mixture of individual activities started the day, and a large, competitive team event brought it to a close. And talking of our on-going IB accreditation process, it is worth saying the PYP staff are working hard to put this year’s paperwork in place in record time. This will be invisible in most regards, but evidence the community can see will come in the form of the personal learning plan (PLP) each
Arts Updates page 10 - 11 English Updates page 12 Family Medical Practice Epidemic Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye) page 12
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student will compose with their homeroom teacher, and take home on 7th October. That document will form the basis of the one-to-one meetings taking place with parents and teachers on 9th October (all afternoon, until 4pm). For many parents (and students) the fact we are an English medium school is the single most significant feature of the School, and it is certainly true that the level of English a student commands has a huge effect on the achievements in all subjects learned in the School. Therefore, it is both pleasing and important that the English support classes have started in the middle school. These are taking place three afternoons per week, and are designed to benefit students who have a range of abilities in the language. For more news of the month’s events, place check the website and Facebook page regularly, and please remember the school will be closed from Monday 13th October until Tuesday 21st October (with Monday 20th being a teacher training day).
Pre-K & K1 Updates by Ms. Michele
Upcoming Events
We are Growing!
October
This week as part of our inquiry on ‘Who we are’, we have been focusing on ‘How I am growing and changing’. We have looked at children of different ages in the school and discussed what is different and what is the same about the children.
We invited Nathan, from Grade 4, to the class and we compared Nathan to Duc Anh. The children enjoyed drawing around Duc Anh and Nathan. We are going to paint the life size drawings and stick our observations on the paintings.
Oct
End of Quarter 1 International Women's Day
Oct
Start of Autumn Break
Oct
End of Autumn Break
Oct
Professional Development Day
Oct
Start of Quarter 2
Oct
Open Day
10 13 17 20 21 22 Oct
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Is Nathan the same as Duc Anh?
No! Duc Anh
Hands big Minatsu
Bigger Zoe
He is too tall! Phuong Binh
Carnival Day
Flat and fat shapes! We have discovered that there are flat shapes and fat shapes! The Pre-K children have been looking for flat squares, and the K1 children have been looking for fat cubes around the school.
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K2 Updates by Ms. Boriana
sy... e weren’t bu If you think w
...think twice Mathematics is always fun because:
During our unit of inquiry we are learning how to use thinking tools. We share our ideas and put them together on a big chart. We know this kind of tool is called a T-chart. It just so happened that at the same time we were learning the letter sound of “T”. Learning about the letter sounds is fun. We went on an “A” sound hunt around the school.
1. You get to use a lot of manipulative.
2. You get to move around alot
and you even get to paint a caterpillar and a longer caterpillar... (Which might get messy...)
Just look how we collect data !
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Grade 1 Updates by Ms. Stephanie Language Arts
Maths
We have been using our Morning Message to learn about ending punctuation, and capitalization. So far we have looked at beginning sentences with a capital, and the uses of periods and exclamation marks.
Knowing and remembering number pairs that equal 10 is an important skill for calculating 2-digit sums. This week grade 1 has been doing a lot of work on learning and remembering these important pairs.
In Writer’s Workshops we have been reading ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ by Crockett Johnson and discussing what we notice, and which ideas we could try in our own books: having text at the bottom of the page, writing about just one character, using just one or two colors to create an effect, etc.
We have also started looking at 10s and 1s place value, both in our work with the 100s chart, and in other games and activities. Understanding place value is an important foundation for all future number work and is highlighted and returned to throughout the year.
Unit of Inquiry
This week we continued our feelings inquiry by extending our thinking about happy and sad feelings. We explored degrees of emotion, and discussed things that make us feel a little bit sad vs. things that make us feel very sad, and things that make us feel a little bit happy vs. those that make us feel very happy. We also started work on our unit project: My Feelings Book. Each child is working on creating their own book about their feelings, what causes them to feel certain ways, and the things that help them manage their feelings. We look forward to sharing these with friends and family at the end of our unit. We watched a short film about managing sad feelings, and then brainstormed other ideas as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuyAfCxGfWI
Homework Hints LANGUAGE ARTS: Watch and listen to ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ at home, then ask some imagination sparking questions: What would you draw if you were Harold? What else could he have drawn to help when he was falling? What kind of adventure would you draw if you had a magic crayon of your own? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVaOOgWyvJM&index=8&list=PLzp2aWF9BS_RhhGNRO5yFuSPt 31d_TDre MATH: A quick game to practice number pairs of ten can be played using your fingers. Hold up any number of fingers, and ask how many fingers you are hiding. This also gives your child practice quickly recognizing finger numbers, which are a helpful tool for beginning mathematicians!
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The ‘Feeling Happy’ pages from the books we are working on as part of our unit of inquiry.
Grade 1 Updates by Ms. Stephanie
Things that make students in grade 1 happy: going to a friend’s house, going to Korea, going to the beach, eating cake, going to Dinosaur Land, going to the mountains, having P.E. class, going to the pool, swimming in the lake, visiting Disney Land, buying a new phone, going to the zoo with family, playing soccer, seeing flowers, visiting grandma, going to E.C.A., being on a big plane, eating ice-cream, and going to the aquarium.
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Grade 4 Updates by Ms. Penny
Grade 2 Updates by Ms. Audrey Dear Grade Two Parents, We have been very busy these past few weeks learning about how to stay healthy and fit by choosing the right foods for a healthy diet. We have begun to investigate different ways to exercise and how exercise helps us not only to stay fit but also to feel good about ourselves. We did a little brainstorming about how math fits in with this health unit and we came up with shapes (geometry) and time (measurement). Our discussions about food pyramids led nicely to learning about the attributes of 2 and 3 dimensional shapes. Discussions about exercise have led to monitoring our heart beats when we are resting as well as just after exercising. This week, we discussed what we think of games and sports. We created a Venn diagram of the tow concepts and have had many discussions about what we think games are and what exactly a sport is. In the mean time, we have also timed ourselves running and measured how far we can jump. We have some super fast runners in our class!
Grade 3 Updates by Ms. Anna Grade 3 read, practiced and performed the play, ‘The Gingerbread Man’. We invited our buddy class, Pre-K/K1 to be our audience; they enjoyed watching the play then joined Grade 3 in acting some parts of the play.
Language This week in reading groups we have been focusing on reading strategies. Reading group A is working on sequencing events in a story. Reading group B has started a novel study on Sideways stories from Wayside School. In writing lessons we have been focusing on structuring sentences and paragraphs.
Maths This quarter we have been concentrating on number skills. We have worked on addition and subtraction as well as fractions. We are continuing our focus on number this week with mult plication. Students have learned how to multiply 2-digit by 2-digit numbers as well as fractions. Next week we will move on to division. Inquiries Grade 4 is approaching the end of their inquiry into digital media. This week they have been learning how to use imovie in order to create a movie that showcases their understanding of our inquiry. Individually they have made a practice movie on a topic of their choice, with their inquiry related movie to be made in the coming week. Once they are finished we will be uploading these movies to their e-portfolios.
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Grade 5 Updates by Mr. Robert
PE Updates by Mr. Liam
Unit Of Inquiry Grade 5 has been investigating the forces around us. We have discovered that gravity keeps us on the ground and brings us back to the ground when we jump up. We also discovered pressure is a force too. Pressure can move objects and too much pressure on a balloon will make it burst. Finally we looked at friction. First we tried to pull two books apart and realized that it was not as easy as we first thought. In the below experiment, we put on our swimmers and tried to slide on a piece of plastic. First we tried to slide with only water on the plastic and we found that we could only slide 1 or 2 metres. When we added soap we could slide up to 4 metres.
Our conclusion is that soap reduces friction.
Mathematics So far this term we have been looking at addition, subtraction, place value, whole numbers and length. In addition and subtraction, we have been practicing the jump strategy, compensation strategy and the split strategy. Ask your child to tell you more about it. As part of length, we investigated the perimeter and area of both our pools, the football field and the school grounds.
Greetings to you all, I would like to update you on the events and activities taking place in PE. Term one sees all grades focusing on cooperative games. While participating in the activities the students are learning to work with others in a team environment, and gaining an understanding of personal space and other people around them. Other skills and learning we have been focusing on is warming up and stretching, emphasizing how important this is before any physical activity. Your child/ children can show you the basic stretch routine, ask them and see what they can show you! In our swimming program we are currently assessing the students and identifying weaknesses and strengths. This allows us to group the students in ability levels and teach or manage each group’s focus. The students within each group have been identified as having similar skill sets. This allows for the person managing the group to keep a focus on the group and what skill they are developing. Interschool sports I have been in touch with BIS in Long Bien and they are happy to start playing a variety of matches against ISV. I will keep all updated on the when and where as they happen. Regards, Mr. Liam Chadwick
Language For language we have been learning to write scientific procedures. We have written a number of scientific procedures and followed them to conduct experiments on forces. We have been rehearsing our reader’s theatre scripts in our reading sessions. The students performed these last Friday and you can view them via the email I sent you last week. We have been honing our listening and note taking skills by watching Youtube clips of forces experiments.
Crazy Hair Day, do I need to say anymore!!!
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French Updates by Ms. Perrine
Welcome back in French Grade 1!! Cette année nous allons beaucoup nous amuser en chanson. Nous en avons déjà appris 3 dont la chanson du robot dans le château. Vous pouvez retrouver la vidéo sur Youtube :”Le robot dans mon château”. A bientôt!!!
Grade 3 - Laura commence sa deuxième année en classe de français. Pour rafraichir sa mémoire, elle a crée une bande dessinée où deux princesses se rencontrent et se présentent. Bravo pour cet excellent démarrage!!
Science & Maths Updates by Ms. Mridula
K1 - “Zoe et Joanna ont commencé les cours de français en chanson. Vous pouvez retrouver la chanson sur youtube “French Greetings Song for Children”. Nous révisons ensemble les couleurs en français mais aussi le nom des animaux. What a great start!!!”
The middle school students have completed two units in Mathematics, the first one on Numbers and Sequences, and the second one on Fractions, Decimals and Percentages. During the next few weeks, the students will cover a unit in Geometry, learning about lines, angles, shapes, geometrical reasoning and construction. In Science, the students have been studying and developing scientific skills through theoretical concepts, practical investigations, individual and group activities. While they continue with scientific skills and method, the students of Grade 6 will study the characteristics of living things, Grade 7 students will focus on the unit, Food and Digestion, while the pupils of Grade 8 will learn all about photosynthesis.
Grade 2 - Bienvenue en classe de français Hojeong et Chuong!!! Nous avons commencé l’année en chanson!!! Vous pouvez retrouver les paroles de la chanson sur Youtube “French greeting song for children.” Nous nous sommes entrainés à écrire les paroles de la chanson en français. Ce n’était pas facile mais nous avons réussi. Nous avons appris le nom des animaux mais aussi leur couleur. How exciting!!
"Les élèves des classes 6, 7 et 8 ont eu un excellent démarrage en français. Ils savent maintenant tous se saluer et se présenter. Nous avons aussi appris les couleurs et les chiffres. Depuis deux semaines, ils ont appris à utiliser le verbe être et le verbe Grade 4/5 - Bienvenue à Alex, avoir aux trois premières personThien Cam, Mei et Felicity en nes du singulier ainsi que les classe de français. Pour différentes parties du visage. commencer l’année, les élèves de Grade 4/5 ont réalisé une bande dessinée ou deux personnages se rencontrent et se présentent. Ils ont pu réviser ce qu’ils ont appris par le passé. Ils ont eu beaucoup d’imagination!!! Bravo pour la créativité!
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Grâce au site internet Linguascope, nous avons recrée à peu près à l'identique les visages de tous les professeurs du primaire et ceux du secondaire. C'était très amusant! Puis nous avons écrit une description très sommaire de leur visage en utilisant ce que nous avons appris jusqu'à maintenant. Venez dans le couloir des primaires près du bureau de monsieur Bryan pour voir le résultat! C'est maintenant à vous de deviner qui est qui? A vous de jouer… "
Music & Drama Updates from Mr. Daniel Pre K and K1 are enjoying an introduction to music through song, rhyme, poetry, story and digital media. The children are rapidly developing their confidence and are now ready to begin to learn the rules of simple participation games and dances. The children are learning about their feelings through listening to stories, participation in the reenactment of stories and games aimed at building and reinforcing spoken English. K2 are building on the skills of last year and are becoming able to enjoy more complex games and songs. They are also developing a strong sense of beat within music and are beginning to be able to place this beat on simple percussion instruments. In drama the children are becoming aware of the need to follow rules and instructions in order to play a game correctly and to enjoy their time in class more thoroughly. Grade 1 are exploring the complexities of their feelings through selected poetry, songs, games and music activities. They are now becoming conscious of the beat in music and are able to distinguish between beat and rhythm. They are also having their first experiences with music notation and have begun using stick notation in the writing of simple rhythms. Grade 1 have also been enjoying poetry and have memorised Brother by Mary Ann Hoberman. Grades 2 and 3 are working well together and are working at increasingly more challenging levels. They are now able to note most the simple songs we sing in stick notation and are becoming aware of how to place these tunes on the music stave. The children are also developing good listening skills and are singing with good tone and volume. In drama we have been considering the functions of inventions and machines and the children have enjoyed the Audio story Boffy and the Teacher Eater. From this we have designed and presented our own inventions and will be using these ideas to develop drama soon. Grade 4 are on their way to developing the language and behavioral skills necessary for success in this challenging grade. We are playing more complex and socially interactive games that encourage the development of language and social skills. In music we are now working with more complex notation concepts and singing/ reading notation that uses semiquavers and new rhythm combinations. In Drama we have enjoyed Charlotte’s Web and are developing our own animal characters for use in drama. Grade 5 have been looking at the conventions of playwriting through the adaption of the narrative poem Tom’s Bomb. They are learning about Act and Scenes, Stage Directions, and writing believable dialogue. We are now in the process of completing a play, which will later be adapted for the stage. In music the students have been extending their understanding of more complex rhythm notation through reading and writing of learned songs. They are also expanding the pitch range of the written and sung songs and are extending their comprehension of music in different forms. The student have enjoyed what shall we do with the Drunken Sailor and the round Pick a Bale O’Cotton. Grade 6 are formalizing their knowledge and understanding of rhythm concepts they are also working together as a group to create a rap song. Hopefully the Hanoi Rap will be premiered at an assembly soon. Grade 7 are consolidating their understanding of rhythm concepts through an extended range of time signatures and are beginning to consider the relationships between simple and compound time. They are also exploring the pentatonic scale and working individually to create compositions at the keyboards. They are keeping a written record of their investigations and composition through a developmental workbook. Grade 8 are exploring more complex rhythm concepts and are now beginning to be able to translate rhythms between time signatures. They are hopefully beginning to see the interconnected nature of more complex rhythm ideas. They are also working together on the creation of a popular song. They are recording their investigations and creative process in their developmental workbooks.
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Arts Updates from Ms. Katherine The K1 and Pre-K have been working with shapes and colors. First, they looked at artist Mondrian and worked with primary colors,. squares, and rectangles. Then, they met artists Sonia and Robert Delauney and worked with circles.
Grade 1 students have been working with expressing feelings through art. They looked at the painting Woman with a Hat by artist Henri Matisse, the famous French artist, who used wild Fauve colors! Then, they created portraits and figures using wild colors to show some very definite emotions (and some crazy hats).
K2 Students have been looking at artist Wayne Thiebaud. Kindergarten students have created beautiful cakes by first drawing the shapes of cakes, using an oval, two vertical lines and a smile. They have decorated their cake shapes with drawing and then with patterns using collage.
Grade 2 students have been investigating healthy lifestyles through art. First, they looked at artist Grant Wood, and drew a landscape using foreground, middle ground, and background. Then, they met artist Arcimboldo, who painted portraits using the forms of foods. Second grade artists are now working on creating portrait collages using photographs of fruits and vegetables. For a fun game using this idea, go to: http://www.middlestreet.org/archim/arc himframe.htm
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Arts Updates from Ms. Katherine Third graders have been discussing and studying various types of buildings, and have looked at the huge collage art piece The Block by artist Romare Bearden. For more information, go to: h t t p : / / w w w. m e t m u s e u m . o r g / m e t m e d i a / i n t e ra c t i v e s / a r t trek/romare-bearden-lets-walk-the-block
Fourth Grade students have been working with creating the illusion of 3-D forms using shape, shading, and shadow. They studied various cake still life paintings by Wayne Thiebaud and then used gradations of color to create lusciously real looking cakes of their own! They plan to create a website showcasing their own and Wayne Thiebaud’s artwork cakes.
The third graders now are using geometric shapes and rhythms to create collage buildings and are working on creating a collage cityscape of Hanoi.
Fifth graders have been studying how artists create the illusion of movement created by forces like gravity. They looked at the modern artist Duchamp and analyzed the painting Nude Descending the Staircase. They then also studied artists involved in the Futurist art movement to determine how these modern artists created the illusion of dynamism, momentum and speed using repetition of shapes and lines.
Middle school students began the year by studying art analysis and now have been exploring the basic “vocabulary” of art: The Elements of Art. These include: line, shape, color, texture, space, value and form. Students have created power point presentations that will be used in the Art Room to teach primary students these concepts. Seventh and Eighth grade students have continued these studies, concentrating on color theory. They have been creating artwork based on various color palletes, including analogous and complimentary color schemes.
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Health Guide
English Updates from Mr. Janos Together, Grade 6-8 English have been very busy since August. They have completed their autobiographical scrapbooks where they developed and demonstrated their creativity, writing skills, ability to follow instructions, and craft second drafts. They have read the short story “Charles”, working on their vocabularies and reading comprehension. They have been studying literary terms, learning about setting, simile, metaphor, character, and perspective. And finally they have been reading individual novels in preparation for their first monthly book report. Individually, Grade 6 has been learning about factual writing, including being able to extract necessary information from multiple sources and then use that information to inform others. The first draft of their book report is due on Monday, Sept. 29th (please see the Book Report Format handout). They will be starting on Black Beauty in October. Grade 7 has been looking at descriptive writing, with an emphasis on creating mood and setting. They have also been practicing how to write a description of a place they know well. The first draft of their book report is due on Monday, Sept. 29th (please see the Book Report Format handout). They will be starting on Call of the Wild in October. Grade 8 has been looking at travel writing, comparing and contrasting how different writers approach it for different purposes. The first draft of their book report is due on Monday, Sept. 29th (please see the Book Report Format handout). They will be starting The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time in October.
International School of Vietnam
Tel: +84 (0) 435 409183
No. 6-7 Nguyen Cong Thai,
Fax: +84 (0) 435 409187
Dinh Cong, Hoang Mai, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Recently, there have been a growing number of children and adults with symptoms of conjunctivitis (pink eye). Conjunctivitis is the inflammation of the white of the eyes. Pink eye is commonly caused by a bacterial or viral infection or an allergic reaction. As pink eye is highly contagious, early diagnosis and treatment can help limit its spread. The most common pink eye symptoms include: • Redness in one or both eyes • Itchiness in one or both eyes • A gritty feeling in one or both eyes • A discharge in one or both eyes that forms a crust during the night that may prevent your eye or eyes from opening in the morning • Tearing Pink eye can be highly contagious for as long as two weeks after signs and symptoms begin. Early diagnosis and treatment can protect people around you from getting pink eye too. Viral and bacterial conjunctivitis Viral conjunctivitis and bacterial conjunctivitis may affect one or both eyes. Viral conjunctivitis usually produces a watery discharge. Bacterial conjunctivitis often produces a thicker, yellow-green discharge. Both viral and bacterial conjunctivitis can be associated with colds or with symptoms of a respiratory infection, such as a sore throat. Both viral and bacterial types are very contagious. They are spread through direct or indirect contact with the eye secretions of someone who's infected. If your infection is bacterial, your doctor may prescribe antibiotic eyedrops as pink eye treatment, and the infection should go away within several days. There is no treatment for most cases of viral conjunctivitis. Instead, the virus needs time to run its course — up to two or three weeks. Viral conjunctivitis often begins in one eye and then infects the other eye within a few days. Your signs and symptoms should gradually clear on their own.
Contact Us
Dai Kim Urban Area,
Epidemic Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye)
www.isvietnam.org inquiries@isvietnam.org
Prevention Prevention of infection is reducing the spread of the Virus. This can be done by keeping children home from school until symptoms have gone, always maintaining good hand and general hygiene, and avoid sharing toiletries and towels. Make an appointment with your doctor or pediatrician if you notice any signs or symptoms you think might be pink eye.
www.facebook.com/ISVIETNAM Dr. Brian McNaull, Medical Director, Family Medical Practice
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FAMILY MEDICAL PRACTICE 298 I Kim Ma Street, Van Phuc Compound, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, Vietnam Tel: +84 4 3843 0748 - Fax: +84 4 3846 1750 Email: hanoi@vietnammedicalpractice.com