Pta Update Wk5

I've got my helmet! But have you seen my teeth?

As you all know this Thursday we will be going ice skating. We will need to leave at around 8.30 and we will be back around 14.00. Things that you need to bring are;

• Tram card
• a LARGE snack
• a LARGE lunch
• a bottle of water
• If you have not requested and paid for them, don't forget your SKATES and HELMET
• warm clothes
• ski or waterproof pants
• extra socks (you never know when you need them!)
• band-aids/plaster if you are renting skates or haven't used yours for a long time
• something warm to drink

The forcast said that it will be COLD this Thursday and we will be outside the whole time.

Homework Week 5

Continue with you POI project. You should of written your whole story and now working on editing it and your layout of your book. Remember to continue to refer to your Inquiry project outline. (if you have lost yours you can find another one hanging on the whiteboard)
Due Thursday

• Maths: make a graph (line, bar or circle) of anything. Make sure you have your titles, heading, scale, and that you use a ruler.
• Maths: page 28 Maths Practice Book
• Spelling sheet

Due Friday

• Finish editing your chapter story
• Reading Journal
• Raz Kids

Connecting Form & Function to the Exhibition

"It's ok, I want to be a chair"

At the Röhssska museum last week we saw a chair made of cardboard called the Wiggle chair by Frank Gehry. The chair made me think about how people can be economically and environmentally responsible by re-using boxes to fit peoples needs and how this fits into our up-coming Exhibition. Some quick thoughts on the subject; cardboard normally thrown out or recycled (using energy), it's free!, people in second and third world countries have ready access to it, extremely strong, can be cut into any form, is 100% recyclable.

Here is a website that I found if you would like to learn more.

http://www.cardboardonline.com/discover-the-ins-and-outs-of-cardboard-packing-boxes/  

PTA newsletter

Pta Update Wk4

Homework Week 4

Due Wednesday

• Study for the 1/2 year maths test

Due Thursday

• Spelling sheet

Due Friday

• Raz kids
• Reading Journal
• Finish writing the first draft of your chapter story
• Picture of something that is just form or function 

Due Feb 9th

• Your children's book for POI. Don't forget to follow your assignment outline!

Notice!

• Trip to Röhsska museum this Thursday we will leave school at 12.50 and be back around 14.40
• Ice skating on the 2nd of Feb. bring in your forms if you need skates and/or helmet

Poetry photos

Over the last two weeks we have been discovering our new Inquiry unit and the central idea 'Our appreciation of things depends on their form and function'

   

In class we have made a wall of pictures of objects that have great form and function. Last Friday we started our Inquiry project for this unit. We will be making books for young children that balance function (what is the story teaching children) and form (the layout, how the book looks, visually attractive to children). You can check out the website that we are using to make our books here.


Over the next three weeks we will be having a form and function fashion fiesta! Each Thursday up until the Sports break (week 7) we will have a themed shirt (or whole outfit if students want) day. This week we will have function clothing or as we named it today 'bad shirt day' so get your child to dig out the ugliest (but most comfortable) shirt they can find at home and wear it with pride this Thursday. We will be having a catwalk competition to find the most 'functional' shirt! Next week will be form or 'fashion victim day' and the last week will be form and function,  'best dressed day'.

In Art the class has looked some of the greatest designers of our time. Joe found a wonderful website for the kids to explore, This is a great website and one of the best that I have seen. You can check it out by clicking on the photos at the top of this post. They have also started to think of and design objects that they feel are needed but haven't been invented yet that have both form and function. So of the examples that Joe has shown me have been a bunk-bed that is inside a monsters mouth and a mug that heats or cools water and has an ergonomic shape for your hand.

Last week we had our fractions test which produced some very good and interesting results, these have been marked, photocopied and given back today. If you want to see your child's test and they have 'lost' it, please tell me as I can always photocopy it again. This week we will be concentrating on studying for our 1/2 year maths test. Since late last week we have been all working hard in our books and with a mountain of photocopies that I have printed out in preparation.   

1/2 year Maths Assessment

Because we have spent more time than that was planned on our fraction assessment the 1/2 year Maths assessment will be moved to next Wednesday (25.01.12). This is so the students will have more time to review and study.

Authors Chair

Authors chair

The Lost Island Of Tamarind

By Nadia Aguiar

Three children--Maya(13) Simon(9) and Penny(0½) Nelson-- travel with their mother and father who are scientists and are part of The Red Coral Project. The Red Coral Project is a project to find a substance called Othella. They cross The Blue Line--it splits the Outside world to Tamarind (I'll get to that part later). The blue line was really stormy and then there was a loud BANG. The kids parents went outside to see what the problem was. Maya counted the footsteps. 1..2...3...4..5...6...7...8...9...10..Maya counted some more. Then nothing. The children waited until the storm was over and Maya went outside to see what the problem was.....Their parents had disappeared. When they woke up, they found out that they had reached Tamarind--where the Othella is.

That was the bit where the kids parents disappeared.
Tamarind is a wild island that has been lost over the many years. It is close to the country Bermuda, where the Nelson family is originally found. On the Island, they meet a boy named Helix and his parrot Seagrape.
.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes the sound of adventures. There is a second book to this called The Secrets of Tamarind, but I haven’t read it yet.
I rate this book 10/10, because it is really cool and the children come to too many close calls.
The End

Tae Kwon Do

Tae Kwon Do will start this term as an after school activity in two weeks time. It will be held at the ISGR gym on Thursdays between 15.10 - 16.

Please email Peter (peter.sjoberg@isgr.se) if you are interested.

 

PTA newsletter wk3

Pta Update Wk2

Homework week 3

Due Thursday

• Spelling sheet
• email or print out at least one object that has been designed that demonstrates to you the central Idea of our POI 

Our Appreciation of things depends on their form and function

• Talk to your parents about items that they have in your home that have been designed around from and function

Due Friday

• Study for the 1/2 year test this Friday. Go over work that you have done since the start of the year
• Raz kids
• Reading Journal

Start to work on your story/POI assignment at home so you have enough time to finish it before the sports break

Term 2

Welcome back parents and students, I hope you all had a great holiday. We have a LOT of work ahead of us this term in Year 5 plus many school activities.

At the end of last term we finished off with a great morning of poetry, Glögg and Jul must. It is always great to see the results of weeks of hard work by the students and the thrill that they get from performing in front of friends and family. We almost finished presenting our assignments on migration in the last days of term, I think we still have about two or three people who went on holidays early need to present theirs. I have been pleasantly surprised with the high quality of work and presentations from the students. After The last few have presented I'll mark and return them as quick as possible. In reading, the class had a fun time doing an assessment task on a book that they have read recently. Some of the students got a bit carried away and ran out of time to finish theirs completely. 

In Maths we have had to carry over our unit of mathematics on Fractions into term 2, we will continue to work on fractions until the end of this week and have an assessment on the unit next Monday (16.01.12). We will also have a half year assessment next Friday (20.1.12) and all of next week (and homework) during maths will be spent reviewing and revising work that we have done over term 1.

In Language over the next four and a half weeks we will be combining two of our units it one large one. The class will be looking at Story structure, focusing on plot and character development as well as Chapter story writing. In reading we are starting a new reading programme that will mostly be done in the students free time. Most of you would already know about Raz Kids, if you don't please take five minutes to sit down with your child (you need them to log in) and have a look at the website. I have asked the students that they need to read at least one or two of the Raz Kids books + quiz each week.

In POI (Programme Of Inquiry) our new unit of Inquiry is under the organizing theme of How We Express Ourselves and the central idea is; 

Our appreciation of things depends on their form and function

The lines of inquiry are: 
• Beauty is subjective 
• How things function influences their appearance and vice versa 
• There is a process of design when creating a product 

We will work closely together with the specialists on this unit, and are in the process of booking a visit to the Röhsska museum. As always, if anyone has special competence or skills in this area, you are very welcome to come in and talk to the students, or if you have any connections that could help us, please let me know! 

This POI unit will be relatively short as it needs to finish by the sport holiday (week 7) as we will be starting our work on the Exhibition after the break. Because of all the specialist subject teachers taking on such a large role in this POI the students will get just as much exposure to the POI concept. Between now and week 7 we will also start to look at our Exhibition topic so that after the Sport break we'll hit the ground running. At the moment we are trying to book a better date for the actual Exhibition night so I don't have a date to give you yet. 

Some of the school activities this term include; ice skating, Spring show, Sports day and of course the Exhibition. All the dates, besides Exhibition night, should be on the school calendar which you can find in the right hand side of the blog or on the ISGR website. I will write more about the coming events and an outline of what we will be doing in Language and Maths up to the end of the year next week. I am also in the process of making a few short slide shows to put on the blog of some of the things that we did before Christmas.   

homework Wk2

Hi everyone, spelling homework will not start again until next week and a new reading programme (Raz kids) will begin this term

Due Thursday

Maths practice book p.96 (some you will find this hard to do, don't worry we will be working on this all week)

Due Friday

Reading Journal

Raz Kids Remember you will not be able to log-in until you and I set up an account in class (this week should be just spent exploring the website, getting a 'feel' of how the reading programme works so you are ready to read and complete activities starting next week). click here or below to go to the webpage.

Notice! We will have a maths assessment (test) next Monday on Fractions. We will also be having a review test on what we have learnt in maths so far this school year next Friday.

P.S. I have started a MEGA newsletter today rapping up what we did at the end of term 1 and what we have ahead of us in term 2. This should be finished tomorrow and up on the blog for all to read.

PTA newsletter

Pta Update Wk2