English gazette Issue 4

Issue #4 Spring 2016

Presents: a very special

Note from the Principal

Contents

“As each edition of the Gazette arrives I get excited to read about the latest events, exploits and adventures that have been taking place. I love to see the imaginative and creative ideas come to life within the pages. This Gazette is an interesting blend of narrative, description, explanation and information. The humour, graphic design and funny photos and images tucked away really bring our school to life. Congratulations to the editorial team for putting together this very creative and attractive 4th edition which demonstrates how important English writing is across all areas of the school. The focus on EU and exploration is wonderful! Whether you are in the kitchen, the library or in a Character Education class, this ‘Exploration Edition’ gives insight into the wonderful work happening around the school! Enjoy the read!” Mr Michael Spencer.

Meet the Team p2

Editorial

Y2

p7-8

News and Events p3-4

Y1

p5-6

Y3

Y4

p9-10

p11-12

Y5

p13-14

Comp.

Winners p15-16

Geog. p17-18

History p19-21

Cartoons p22

Food Tech. p23-24

Library p25

Book Week p26

Character Moms p28

YKPS Values p29

Writer’s Corner p29-30

Your Voice p31

Head of English’s Note

‘‘It has been wonderful to see the evolution of the English Gazette.

With each issue packing more and more in, you will be busy reading for quite a while! It is clear to see throughout that students are involved in learning opportunities that allow them to develop their English language skills as well as their creative side; whether it be in English or EU classes. This is the first Gazette assisted by an Editorial team and I am sure that this experience was worthwhile for these students and beneficial to Mr Jonathan, who I know takes great pride in ensuring the final product is fabulous in every way. I know that students will enjoy reading this edition of the English Gazette and we will all anxiously look forward to next year’s.’’ Ms Helena.

Editor’s Bit “Well, we’ve finally arrived at the 4th edition of the English Gazette! Whoop whoop! ...

And why, do I hear you ask, did you keep us waiting for so long? Er ... well ... about half way through making this, there was a major ‘uh oh!’ moment when Mr Gazette Macbook decided it needed a rest and stopped working ... losing pretty much all of

the work done up til then! Many thanks to Chenye and the IT team for coaxing him back to life! To make up for the delay, we’ve made this issue a super mega bumper edition (yeh, I know we say that every time) and included a whopping 8 extra pages for your enjoyment! That means we’ve squeezed so much stuff in that this issue is fit to burst with awesomeness. Thanks to all

Competition Well done to Joyce Bao for winning the WHERE IS IT? competition from the last edition! She was able to find the mystery location and send the answer to english.gazette@ykpaoschool.cn To get your chance to win, turn to the back page and find where her photo is!

who contributed and helped to get it finished. Enjoy the read!”

What is the English Gazette?

The English Gazette is a small magazine made by students from YKPao School.

Students write and draw stuff and send it to their teachers or the Gazette Team. Then they will be proud of themselves. Other children can learn from these good pieces of writing and improve their own work.

What do you enjoy most about school?

Everyday I feel really happy coming into school in the morning because I can see all of my friends and teachers. It is a nice feeling to see so many happy people together in one place! In lessons I enjoy learning most when teachers let us work in teams to solve problems. This is one of the reasons why I really like EU class. We have learnt to cooperate to complete the task. Sometimes this is a real challenge but an enjoyable one!

The Ed.

Why is YKPS a great school to come to?

In YKPS you can learn two languages and there is a lot of Character Education that will make you a better person. You can learn lots of different things in EU, and get the chance to do experiments and use iPads!

If you were an animal, which would you be?

I would be a scorpion because I could protect myself in the desert. No other animals would want to eat me because I’d have a hard exoskeleton, poisonous sting and big pincers to nip them with!

Beware the Jorpion!

Meet the Team

This is Aaron and Jonathan. They like to pester teachers to collect lots of samples of your work. They then decide which are worth using in the English Gazette.

There is a lot of work that goes into every edition that you may not realise. From getting photos and chasing teachers for work, to editing and design on the computer, there is a lot to be done! Thankfully for this edition we have a dedicated team to help out! Allow us to introduce the Y5 Gazetteer team! Including Mr J that makes us AJAJAJ or AAAJJJ or ...

Jonathan

Aaron

Jessica is now a fully trained scanner! She scans all of your pieces of work and saves them as images so they can be put on the computer and edited.

Jessica

Once on the conputer the work needs to be edited and cleaned up.

Ava

Aria HOW WE DECIDED THE FRONT COVER: Thanks for all of your entries for the EU front cover competition.

Here’s how we came to the overall decision:

Then the Gazette team had to begin to sort through all of the entries to chose the best in the year. We were looking for those with interesting designs and ideas.

There were over 500 entries from across the school. First these had to be sorted into year groups.

Well done to Y5 who had the most entries!

After the overall winners were decided, the gazette team each had the responsibility to interview a winner and record the conversations.

This was a challenge for many of the team, but they were able to get enough content to make their very first article. Read the interviews in full on page 15.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!

As you can see, even beautiful work has lots of black marks and old words that have been erased before!

Once we had decided the final entries, we passed them on to our Judges to vote for the ultimate winners. These were Mr Spencer, Ms Chen, Mr Tim and Ms Wang Yan.

Finally we chose a selection of around 5 entries for each year group. Unfortunately we had to discount several of these as the student didn’t include their name. Note from all teachers in YKPS: Remember to write your name on all of your work! Thank you!

Above: Aria interviewing Leona and Aaron with Rainbow As you may well know, Y5 Team Editor Jonathan is a bit of a prankster (must be something to do with his name). Here is an experiment you absolutely definitely must NOT try at home!

p2

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to

English Speech Day 2015!

enjoy the show!

Just a few highlights from the day: As usual there were lots of interesting acts at this year's English Speech Day. Clockwise from the top left corner: Lulu is a mouse in Y1's performance of The Gruffalo; Y5 get into the spirit; Sean ďŹ nds something ... er stinky; Bernard is a ... blue spot; Y2 amaze everyone with their punctuation Kung-fu; Mike double amazes us with his funky hip-hop moves; Enoch, Ayk, Jonathan and Lesean pop out from under their blanket to recite a poem!

Missing creatures!

Have you seen this strange animal? If you can find five hidden somewhere in the gazette, please report to Kevin in Y4C for a Gazettepoint award!

ADVERTISEMENT

Pass the hula hoop

Try to collect all 4 editions

building a fort

Read the English Gazette!

It's awesome !

p3

Year 2 BBQ

making lanterns

art&craft activities

News and Events Nanbei Hu Trip

Children get their chances to share their most memorable (and scariest) moments on this trip of a lifetime!

One of the most exciting parts of the trip was seeing the monkeys at the local zoo

camping

archery

Leap of Faith

rock climbing

Arwen

hiking kayaking

James

Library Reading Buddies

Max ‘n’ Laurence The Buddy Gang

Benson ‘n’ Leopold

“I was reading with a little Year One called Max. I let him choose some books that he was interested in and we talked about them together. For this book, he wanted me to read it to him. It was funny because I have never tried reading to children before. I am not used to reading picture books aloud as I usually read longer novels, not Year 1 story books! He really enjoyed the story, especially because I read with a lot of expression. I even changed my voice so that the elephant character sounded grumbly and the pig sounded sharp and squeaky. Over the sessions together I feel that Max has really learnt a lot. It is important that young students try and develop their reading more, rather than sticking with one book. They can try out Fantasy, Science Fiction or Mystery books to get more interested in different genres.” Laurence.

p4

Year 1

p5

p6

Year 2 T H E

T U N N E L BY RAY

p7

Over the course of the first semester, Year 2 studied books by Anthony Browne in order to create a new adventure story based upon one read and analysed in class. The children explored new characters, problems and settings within these imaginative adventures!

Some great stories from Year 2! It’s such a shame that we could only include the introductions to them.

We want to show as much students’ work as possible, and unfortunately there isn‘t enough space to include the entire piece. If we did this, the writing would be about this small and no one would be able to read it! Are you disappointed yours isn’t included? Make sure your teacher knows you want to submit it and gives it to one of the Gazette team.

p8

Year 3

information texts Whether it’s outer space, rainforests, or even dinosaurs, you name it, Y3 have written an information text about it! Here is a selection of their amaing booklets!

Chris Jocelyn

Caleb

Henry

Lesean

RAINFORESTS

Catherine

p9

Raina

Kailee

Year three learnt POETRYabout different types of poetry. These included limericks (above) and diamontes (below). Which type is your favourite? Why not write one to show off in the next edition of the Gazette!

Phoebe

instructions

Sometimes we really want to include things but it’s too late to get them in before the Gazette release date. Here is this year’s Y3 (in Y2) enjoying playing the board games they made in their instructions unit!

Will

Daisy

Top Row: Chris+Ricky / Siyu+Anthony / Rachael+Minnie+Daisy Bottom Row: Heidi+Sally / Daisy+Catherine / Will+Jin

p10

Year 4 A long time ago, in a classroom far, far away . . .

Ever gazed up at the stars and wondered what it would be like to visit new worlds? Ever questioned if aliens actually exist? Ever wanted to go back in time to change your result in the Maths test?! Well Year 4 thought about these questions and more when doing their narrative unit of Science Fiction or Sci-Fi for short. May the force be with you!

Check out this amazing front cover and blurb from Sophie ... what do you think will happen? Duun duuuuun duuuuuuuuuuuunhhh!

Woah!! Robots! Pebbles! Cool!!!

Check out the first page of Isabella’s Sci-Fi odyssey ‘Lost in Time’.

Superb work!

We have no idea what Lucas’ alien language means, but it sure sounds interesting! Lucas, please tell us what a Mupeecreedifficee is!!

p11

Sci-Fi Inventions In EU, Y4 have also learnt about inventions. In their Time Tunnel unit, students researched historical inventions and even got the opportunity to design and make their own! This Hi-Tech TV is by Shawn.

With the new film just out, Starwars fever hit Mr Wilson’s class. This adjective collection was created by Y2 Anya

What do you think the world will be like in the future?

Here are some of Mr J’s students’ ideas on what amazing Sci-Fi technology to look forward to!

Leonna

Ningning

Alvin

Elisa

Mr Jonathans Y4 class enjoyed their Sci-Fi unit so much that they decided to create their own play for English Speech day! This was about how Mr Spencer went forward in time to discover what YKPao School will be like in the

year 3000! There he met his great great great granddaughter, Michelle. Together with her, he got a chance to observe such lessons as ‘Jetpack Basketball’, ‘Robot Boxing’ and even ‘Chinglish’. He tried his hand at playing the Gisby in Music class. Just before leaving, he met a certain familiar teacher named ... Crock!

Left: Crock/Michelle Top: The Gisby Girls

In their Art class, Y3 got the chance to create some spectacular work about space using vibrant colours and shapes.

p12

Year 5 Yawen

Florian

Fairy Tales Remixed!

Mason

All this Brilliant and Creatively Designed work!

Excellent Fairy Tales with Great use of Humour and Imagination!

Phew! It’s much harder than it looks! A huge ‘well done’ to Ms Shija’s Class!

Nicole

Keely

Yoyo

Rebecca

Bella

p14

THE WINNERS

out of

500 entries and 5 year groups

Year 1 Justin

This picture shows a globe, magnifying glass and a bat! Together they spell the word EU. These three things are what I would like to learn about this year in EU. At the moment we are learning about the environment. I learnt that it is important to save water. In the school you should not use too much and turn off the taps when you are finished. Another thing to help the environment is to save paper and turn off the lights in the classrooms. I was really happy to receive the award of a science book!

Year 2 Ambryn

I got the idea from learning stuff in EU - we had been learning about how to save the environment in Shanghai. I felt happy that Ms Mohoney had taught me lots of helpful things and proud that I could show these to everyone through my artwork. I'm learning about living, non-living and once living things. I've been on a field trip to the botanical gardens to look for living and non-living things. I touched things like leaves and cicada shells to see the difference between living, non-living and once living.

Year 3 Emily

My friend (Y3 Phoebe) said that she wanted to use an astronaut looking at the Earth for her entry. I thought this was a very good idea but I didn’t want to copy her so I thought of this picture instead. This is a girl watering some plants. Around her lots of weather is happening as EU is all about the World and what happens in it. I was really happy to get the prize of a book all about space because we have just finished an EU unit called ‘Space and Time’. I learnt that if we look at the sun it is actually 8 minutes before.

Year 4 Leona

The main idea of this picture is that every second the world comes up with clever ideas.

That is why I used a lightbulb. Even though the earth doesn’t actually have a brain, people that live on the planet are all thinking of ideas at the same time. We just need to listen to these to make them come true and change the world to be a better place. In EU we are learning about animals that live in Extreme Habitats. We are making a board game to teach other children about how animals have adapted to live in these.

Year 5 Rainbow

I got the idea from my classroom as our class has created a lot of displays of flags from around the world. We were learning about Global Citizens so I immediately thought that this is what EU is about: people and countries cooperating together. We were learning about different countries’ culture and history. Even though we researched loads of countries, I still think China is the most interesting because the different emperors have really interesting stories such as the great emperor Qian Long.

Runners Up

The judges were amazed with your creativity and artistic talent! With so many good pieces it was hard to decide. Here is a selection of some other entries:

Tracy

Bella

Sophie

Cindy

Emily Dora

Emma

Tian

Min Ho

A n d t h e r e st !

Wendy

Clara

Lucy

p16

Geography

In their EU unit, Diverse Asia, Y4 found out loaaads about the different countries that make up Asia. This map is made out of lots of students’ work. Can you spot your contribution?

So .. where’s Turkmenistan again?! Ah, here it is, right beside Uzbekistan! Result!!

Flags

Foods

Animals

Currency

Landmarks When doing their EU Travel Expo,

EU TRAVEL EXPO

students got a chance to welcome

Year 4 EU classes got a chance

eachother

to share their expertise and knowledge of their group’s country with teachers and students from other yeargroups. There was some really inventive ways of telling others about their country such as puzzles, soundclips, quizzes.

Children even wore traditional clothes, cooked local food and played musical instruments!

ring Momo, Sp and Wendy

chosen

3) sain baina uu

2) selamat datang 4) 你好 (ni hao)

6) こんにちは (konnichi wa)

7) 안녕하세요 (ahn nyeong ha se yo) 8) xin chào

9) sabaidee

11) sawa dee-ka (female) sawa dee-krap (male) 12) Assalamu Aleikum

p17

their

the country from the ‘Hello’ below?

1) mingalarba

5) Kamusta

using

country’s language. Can you guess

Answers at the bottom of p30

10) namaste

The Year 5 classes built on what they learnt last year in Diverse Asia and started to explore what Globalisation means. They looked at links between countries and how trade and tourism form relationships between them.

Work by Tiger / Jack / Anna Rainbow / Ivy/ Dolly.

Year 2 have been learning all about Natural Disasters. They worked in pairs to research and present about either Volcanos, Tornados or Earthquakes. This is Justin and John’s work all about volcanic activity.

p18

ATHENS History

Jennifer

Andrew

Jade

p19

Mandy

Effie

SPARTA Robin

Angela

Clare

Maggie

p20

As a final activity for the EU History unit, The Great, the Bold and the Brave, Year 5 students were set the task of researching an ancient civilisation. Students then selected a specific area (architecture, government, fashion, art, etc.) to focus on. Below are a few examples of the models created by the students to represent the architecture of different ancient civilisations. Which can you spot?

The The The The

Circus Maximus / The Pyramid of Khufu / The Coliseum / The Pantheon Theatrum Pompeii / The Parthenon / The Erectheum / The Great Sphinx Tiber Bridge / The Theatre of Dionysus / The Temple of Athena Nike Arch of Constantine / San Pietro’s Church / Parliament House

p21

Cartoons

By popular request, this section has been reserved for cartoons. If you are a budding comic artist and want more people to see your work, the Gazette is an ideal place to publish. Keep ‘em coming in!

Mike

Min Ho

p22

This year, students were really fortunate to be able to learn all about FOOD! Yum yum! In English class, Year 2 learnt names of unusual fruits and how to label the different parts of them. In EU, Year 4 had to think more about the flavours of fruits in order to begin to design their own fruit smoothie.

p23

Food Tech

IN THE K I T C H E N

Dear Ms Liz, do you know what I've learnt in EU? I've learnt a lot! I made my own colesaw, lemon mint drink, egg surprise and my own smoothie. My smoothie is called "Berrylicious King"! I have been learning a lot from cutting, blending, and squeezing the fruit. In Food Technology, I try to use English a lot and it is getting good now! Best wishes, Gaya.

Dear Ms Wangyan, in EU class, we make an "egg suprise" from using eggs and ham. It is very delicious but there were still many people that had an “eggsplosion”! We also learned how to make coleslaw, I love the dressing because it tasted very good. I like our own smoothies the best. The smoothies were perfect because we used a lot of fruit inside. Yours sincerely, Wendy.

Coleslaw Instructions

Y4 really enjoyed their EU Food Tech Unit! At the end they even wrote emails telling their teachers how amazing the experience was!

Joyce

Pictures by Isabella

Big Bad Q’s (Didi, Rafael, Theodorine, Sage) 1 kiwi fruit, ½ lemon, 1 cup orange juice, 1 teaspoon of honey

This one was too sour. We should have done a better job of balancing the flavours. For example, if we put in a whole kiwi fruit, we shouldn’t have used a lemon!

TYMJ Restaurant (Tina, Yaya, Mark, Jiahong) ½ mango, 5 strawberries, 1 cup orange juice, 9 grapes Our smoothie was a bit sour. It is sour because we didn’t peel all of the grapes’ skin. We added more orange juice to make it sweeter but put too much in and made it too sweet!

Choco Sunrise Cream (Alvin, Joyce, Cheng Hao, Mary) 1 cup milk, 1 banana, 5 strawberries, 1 tablespoon of honey Both of our group’s smoothies tasted very similar. Ours was not quite sweet enough but it had strawberry bits which tasted nice. Next time we should add more!

p24

Library

Stuck for a book to read? Too many choices in the library? Can’t seem to decide on which one to read first? Never fear, Year 2 are here to help out! Here are some great books to try!

Cathy

Miranda

p25

Macy

Asun

Jack

Amy

Chloe

Book Week

Book Week this year was extraordinary in every sense of the word! You guys did the school proud with your reading efforts, raising over 110,000RMB for the charity Heifer. In between doing this you also managed to have loads of fun!

Amazingness was everywhere; from designing and making your own costumes, to Trevor Lai teaching you how to draw.

It really was the best Book Week yet!

read to feed

superbabies

villains!

BOOKFAIR!

costumes!

trevor lai!

Happy shoppers!

comic characters

Mask making

p26

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a MOM (or DAD!) Introducing the ...

CHARACTER MOMS

Have you ever seen one of these odd people wandering around the school? Who are they? Teachers? Parents? Superheroes?!

Well a bit of all three really. They are a group of parents committed to work with our school’s students and teachers to build an exciting & dynamic Character Education programme.

These parents play an essential role in helping YKPS children become responsible, caring, ethical and positive global citizens.

The Character Moms lead one 30-minute session in a classroom per month to provide opportunities for YKPS students to express their thoughts and feelings.

They use various creative methods such as drama & skits, stories, games, personal experiences, videos and more to reinforce our school’s character values. By doing this they encourage you to think deeper about topics using problem solving approaches.

Y4 Tim's mum with Ms Natalie, Jai + Leyla's dad, Y3 Thomas' dad

Clockwise above: Y2 Gabriel + his dad, Y5 Ivy and Park's Grandmother, Y4 Joshua (transformed into his Character Education alter ego!)

It was weird to see my mom in class and weirder to see her "teach" Character Education! The weirdest was to see my mom and her friends wearing superhero T- shirts and "teaching" us!

Imagine having to answer like a student to your mom in class! After sometime, I started to look forward to seeing them; their skits are funny and the activities fun. For example, in the Reflection lesson, I did a jumping exercise that made me learn about stepping back before going forward. Activities like this help us to know by doing it and not just listening. E-Ren, Y4C

Isabella's mum ... and a lot of balloons!

I loved the topic on responsibility because we did an activity where everyone had to find the balloon with their name and work together to do it quickly. The programme is great because the parents are really nice and teach lots of stuff. I also like the cool T-shirts! Dylan, Y3D

Y4 E-Ren's and Luke's mum I like it when they come in because it's fun when you see your parents at school. Erm ... but also no, because one time my mum came in her pyjamas to show she was not responsible and it was soooo embarrassing!! Charlotte Kaye, Y2B

I like Character Education because it is interesting and the activities are fun. My favourite theme is RESILIENCE as it is a trait that I have. My mum also sounds better than she does at home. Rebecca Y5B

I like the teamwork and the chance to be creative.

I think the student led classes will be challenging and a real test of how well we students know the eight character traits. Timothy, Y4A

Year 1

Year 5 Park and Ivy's mum

p27

2C parents ... and a giant inflatable shark!

I liked seeing my parents in our Character classes. My favourite was the lesson on RESPECT when my dad acted in a play as a rude and spoiled kid with terrible manners. It was funny to see the parents acting like children and doing all the stuff my brothers and I would get in trouble for! Caleb, Y3A

Overall, I like the trait of RESPONSIBILITY as I think this is the area that I need to consistently work on. It’s so weird that I forget it while arriving at school although I keep reminding myself before leaving home! Kai, Y5E

C H A R A C T E R

EDUCATION

Map of my Heart

Leyla

Year 2 were able to reflect on what is special in their lives and created a Heart Map to share with the class.

Catherine

p28

Fiona

Mike Chloe

Leona

p29

Michelle from Y4 is certainly keen to use English as much as possible. When travelling she makes sure to take a pad of paper to write notes on what she sees. This time she tells about her Tibetan adventures

p30

ANSWERS to eu geography quiz: 1) BurMa 2) MaLAYSIA 3) MONGOLIA 4) CHINA 5) PHILIPPINES 6) JAPAN 7) SOUTH KOREA 8) VIETNAM 9) LAOS 10) NEPAL/INDIA 11) THAILAND 12) KAZAKHSTAN

Your For this editiothn,e Voice wele qucootllecestefrod m Y1

most memorab rk. and 2’s Heartwork homewo !

Be prepared to be inspired

“Do the right thing even when no one is looking.”

(Arkie Y1C)

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”

(Minghan Y2)

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

George Eliot

“The greatest glory lies not in never failing, but rising every time we fall.”

Nelson Mandela

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”

Dali Lama

“You can do anything, but not everything.”

David Allen

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful” Anon

“The richest man is not he who has the most, but he who needs the least.”

Unknown Author

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

Steve Jobs

“It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts.”

Mother Teresa

Thanks to Joyce for thinking of the WherE Is It? location. Remember, the first student(s) to email the answer to

WherE Is It?

“Good thoughts, good words, good deeds.”

Ahura Mazda (Leyla Y2D)

“People are just about as happy as they make up their mind to be.“ Abraham Lincoln (William Y1C)

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” Lao Tzu (Charles Y1D)

english.gazette@ykpaoschool.cn win a chance to decide the next WherE Is It? challenge! good luck and happy hunting!

“Defeat is not the worst of failures, not to have tired is the true failure.”

(Eddie Y1D)

“If the lessons of history teach us anything it is that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.”

Anon

“In the end, it isn’t about changing the world, but rather, how many worlds you have changed.”

Unknown

“If not us, who?

If not now, when?”

John F. Kennedy

Special�thanks�to�all�the�teachers�that� contributed:� Sandy,� Diana,� Joleen,� Kate,� Wilson,� Liz,� Natalie,� Michelle,� Evelyn,�Andre,�Jon,�����Shijia,�Helena,� Sandra,�Tim�and�Mohoney.�Another�big� thanks�to�of�the�TAs�for�helping�scan� and�collect�all�the�students'�work,�and� for�Mr�Spencer�and�Ms�Chen�for�their� support�and�good�humour�(I�hope!).

Last,�but�not�least,�thank�you�to�all�of� the�Y5�Gazetteers�(AAAJJ)�for�their� help,�and�of�course�all�the�amazing�YKPS� children�that�contributed�to�make�this� publication�happen!�You're�awesome!�JB