IB PYP Newsletter
St. Andrews International School Green Valley
May 2018
Primary Years Programme (PYP) @ St. Andrews
“Developing independent, confident, life-long learners.” At St. Andrews we celebrate the best of international learning by combining the IB PYP with the English National Curriculum. This allows us to provide an environment which ensures rigorous academic standards delivered within a strong framework that promotes inquiry and critical thinking.
Songkran break was only 2 weeks ago but it seems like much longer with our students having achieved so much already at the start of Term 3! From Rec & KG visiting Kidzoona, the Y5s going to the Ancient City and the start of this term’s activities program, we really have been making the most of our time. I can’t wait to see where we go this term! Rachel Mustovic, PYP Coordinator
PYP Spotlight: What are Key Concepts? PYP learning is driven by eight key concepts which give our Units of Inquiry direction and meaning.
Putting these into a practical example, we could create the following questions based on chocolate:
FORM: What are the ingredients? How is it made? FUNCTION: How is chocolate used in cooking? CAUSATION: What does eating chocolate do to our bodies? CHANGE: How does chocolate change its state of matter? CONNECTION: Where does chocolate come from? What process does it go through before it ends up in the supermarket?
PERSPECTIVE: Does everyone enjoy chocolate? Why or why not? RESPONSIBILITY: How does manufacturing chocolate impact people and the environment? What does fair trade mean?
REFLECTION: Do I feel differently about chocolate now? Will I change my view on chocolate based on what I have learnt?
Stars of the Week At St. Andrews, we not only challenge students academically, we encourage them to become active, caring, lifelong learners who demonstrate respect for themselves and others and have the capacity to participate in the world around them. These are just some of our ‘Stars of the Week’ who have shown our Learner Profile attributes and Attitudes. Well done everyone!
Caring
Open-Minded
Knowledgeable
Cooperation
Reflective
Communicators
PYP in Action - Units of Inquiry Here is a round-up of what’s happening during Term 3 in the Primary School. I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a pretty inspiring time to be at school! Year
Nursery
Central Idea
Learner Profile
Caring, Communicator
I learn about my world through shapes, colours and numbers.
This is our favourite unit and the children love all our fun activities. For the first two weeks we will be focusing on exploring colours. This week we learnt our rainbow song and the traffic light song. We played with coloured water and mixed them to create a new colour at water play. It was a fun week and we will continue with more engaging activities to help develop the children’s maths skills.
Year
KG & R
Central Idea The games that we play help us learn new things
On Friday April 27th the children in KG and Reception went on a trip to Kidzoona. This trip was planned for 2 reasons; firstly, to help the children practice their turn-taking skills, communication skills and how to use games in a caring and principled way and secondly, to help the children learn more about games and rules of games to be able to complete their summative assessment ‘I can create and design a game with a rule card’. Kidzoona was the best place to take the children to achieve our aims, it is full of role-play areas, has large and small construction, active areas, craft activities, iPads games, dance activities and lots of trampolines and inflatable equipment to explore.
Learner Profile Communicator, Caring
PYP in Action - Units of Inquiry Year
1
Central Idea We have a responsibility to the sea and sea creatures.
Learner Profile Thinker, Knowledgeable
This term students will be looking into our responsibility and impact on ocean life. Through a series of science experiments, research and 2 field trips (one to the Navy Turtle Sanctuary in Sattahip and the organization of a Beach Clean up), students will be assessing how much our ocean life is affected by humans as well as the actions we can do on a daily basis to ensure that our oceans and their creatures stay safe.
Year
2
Central Idea Electricity is used in various ways and affects our lives.
In the first half of this term, Years 2s are inquiring into:
Identification and understanding of parts of an electrical system The importance of electricity and the impact on the environment Electricity can be conserved
Last week, the students were exploring natural electricity and doing investigations into static electricity.
Learner Profile Caring, Inquirer and Knowledgeable
PYP in Action - Units of Inquiry Year
Central Idea
3
Learner Profile Inventions can improve the way we live.
Balanced, Reflective
This term our unit is an inquiry into forces and how they have been used in inventions. We are looking into:
How magnetic forces work How magnets affect can objects How using magnetic forces can make our lives easier
We have started the unit by carrying out an investigation comparing the mass of an object to the energy needed to pull it. We used Newton meters to measure the pull force. We are now going to focus on the use of magnets in inventions and come up with some ideas of our own.
Year
4
Central Idea The interactions between human body systems contribute to health and survival.
Learner Profile Balanced, Thinker, Inquirer
This term Year 4 began their new Unit of Inquiry "The Human Body". Coach Kevin came and set up a boot camp of different exercises and we measured how our heart rate changed before, during and after exercise. We plan to use our data for a Maths activity later in the unit. Thanks Coach Kevin for giving up his time to get the unit started with a squat and a crunch. More crunching and squatting when we study the digestive system!
PYP in Action - Units of Inquiry Year
5
Central Idea Ancient civilisations still have an impact on our lives today.
Learner Profile Communicator, Open-Minded Knowledgeable
Year 5 had a wonderful trip to Ancient City in Samutprakan where they got to explore different architecture styles from different periods in Thai culture to link with their current Unit on Ancient Civilisations.
Year
6
Central Idea Exploration leads to discovery and a new understanding of the world.
Year 6 have been tuning in to our Explorers unit, starting to inquire into interesting explorers from the past and present, with our students thinking about whether they would like to be explorers. We have linked our unit with our Literacy work by researching an
explorer of choice and our students are now writing their own “Rebel” biography. In Science, we’ve been looking at light and how we see. The students even made their very own periscopes.
Learner Profile Inquirer, Thinker and Communicator
PYP in Action - Year 6 PYP Exhibition The Year 6 Exhibition is an important part of the PYP for all students. In their final year of the PYP, students take part in a collaborative, transdisciplinary inquiry process. Students investigate, inquire into and solve problems to make a change and make the world a better place. It offers students a platform to show they are responsible and independent learners.
This year our Central Idea was “Small Steps to Global Goals.” The students were in groups for one of the UN Global Goals and wrote their own Lines of Inquiry, deciding which particular area of their goal they felt most important and connected to. The night started with a wonderful whole year presentation which showed how confident and wellrounded our students really are. Our families and friends then had the opportunity to roam around each of the groups’ stands. It was an absolute pleasure to hear the conversations between the students and their guests. They truly showed their passion and knowledge of their Global Goal.
PYP in Action - Year 6 PYP Exhibition As part of their Exhibition, each group decides upon a course of Action they believe to be meaningful, purposeful and sustainable in the long term. In choosing their action, students need to think about the impact it will have; this can be anything from promoting awareness of a goal, encouraging connections within the community, gathering donations, fundraising or offering prototypes as solutions. This year our groups decided upon the following Actions, many of which are ongoing: The ‘No Poverty’ group organised Donation Bins and encouraged our community to donate items such as clothes, toys and shoes that were in good condition. These were then sent to the Hand to Hand Foundation. The ‘Zero Hunger’ group ask for donations of Milk formula, long life milk and other food goods as part of their Food Drive, which were then delivered to the Hand to Hand Foundation.
The ‘Qualilty Education’ group wrote to Cognita and United Football, asking for monetary donations to provided four Thai children with a year’s schooling.
By baking delicious cookies and selling them at school, the ‘Clean Water & Sanitation’ group to raise money for the Thailand Water Charity which provides clean water systems for communities. The ‘Reduce Inequalities’ group created a website to inform people about inequalities in the world and highlighted inspirational figures who have fought against them.
The ‘Climate Action’ group created a Vegan & Vegetarian Cookbook which they sold, with profits going to buy reusable straws for the school coffee shop. By encouraging people to donate money to watch the teachers dance (including Ms Michelle!), the ‘Life on Land’ group then bought trees to plant within the school grounds and donated trees to the community on the night. After contacting The Father Ray Foundation to see how they could best support, the ‘Peace & Justice’ group organised a Donations box for toiletries which were highlighted as in need. The ‘Partnerships’ group were responsible for raising awareness of the Global Goals in general. As one member moved back to Argentina, they were even able to get their message there!
PYP in Action - Specialists Our specialists have been hard at work as well...
Music
Year 6 are returning to one of their favourite activities from year 5 - recorders! Having done very well with this last year, they will now be using the instrument to learn short pieces at a slightly harder level, focusing on playing in harmony rather than in unison. In a few weeks they will then use the recorder to create their own group compositions. Here's a short video of 6HD playing one of the songs they've just started this week, from the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...https:// youtu.be/QJTiMT1MTYk.
Year 6 French students have been playing Battleships in order to create sentences to ask for fruits and vegetables at the market. They were all very engaged and had a lot of fun, only being allowed to speak French the whole time!
French
PE For our Year 5 and 6 students, the PE Central Idea is: A growth mindset can impact physical performance and development. Students complete a growth mindset reflection and identify where their personal strengths and weaknesses lie. They then set themselves a target based on this, where they can demonstrate how their attitudes have contributed to success, both individually and when working in a team. This can be both in the PE lessons as well as attitudes in our sports teams.
Parent help & support @GV At St. Andrews we are very lucky to have parents who are willing to give up their time to help in the Primary School. The way that our parents help include: listening to children read, helping with a Primary activity, helping in the library and buying all the ingredients every week for our cooking activities. Below are our upcoming PYP Units of Inquiry which will start in the second half term. We are looking for parents and/or community members who may be able to help support these units by sharing their expertise. Even if your child isn’t in the year group, if you think you could offer something, please let us know!
You can either talk to the class teachers direct or speak to Rachel Mustovic, our PYP Coordinator (email: rmustovic@standrews-schools.com). Year
N KG & R
Central Idea
I learn about my world through shapes, colours and numbers Stories around the world help us to learn.
Y1
Jobs within a community involve different roles and responsibilities
Y2
Life was different for older generations in my family
Y3
Holidays and trips need organizing and planning
Y4
People from the past have influenced the way we live our lives today
Y5
Dramatic arts can be used to express our feelings and ideas
Y6
All plants and animals have life cycles that are characterized by change
Information for Parents We now have several different ways of keeping parents up-to-date with our latest news and events:
Firefly Online Learning Platform This not only provides parents with curriculum and general school information but also has Class Pages with weekly updates and news.
Workshop: Friday 2nd February 2pm – 2.45pm
Facebook Follow us /StAndrewsGV
Twitter Follow us @primarygv
LINE Stay in touch by joining GV School News or GV Parent Sport
Upcoming Events May 8
YEAR 1 TRIP TO TURTLE SANTUARY, SATTAHIP
May 9
YEAR 2 TRIP TO BLCP POWER PLANT
May 9-13
PRIMARY FOBISIA GAMES, PHUKET
May 14
YEAR 5-8 SWIMMING GALA
May 16
PRIMARY SCHOOL LIGHT UP LEARNING DAY
May 17
EARLY YEARS WHEELS DAY
May 21
YEAR 5-6 FRENCH TRIP TO THE PULLMAN HOTEL
May 22
YEAR 1 BEACH CLEAN @ NAM RIN BEACH
May 22
YEAR 4 FIRST AID COURSE
May 24
POETRY SLAM!
May 28
PARENT MEETING– YEAR 6 TO 7 TRANSTITION
May 28
YEAR 2 LEARNING JOURNEY
May 29
VISAKA BUCHA DAY (SCHOOL CLOSED)
May 31– June 1
YEAR RESIDENTIAL TRIP (DESTINATION TBC)
June 1-2
U13 INVITATIONAL GAMES
June 5
YEAR 3 TRIP TO PATTAYA FLOATING MARKET
June 5
YEAR 4 TRIP TO MADAME TUSSAUDS, BANGKOK
June 7
YEAR 2 TRIP TO THAI THANI
June 8
GREEN VALLEY’S 21ST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION