VICE-PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

NEWSLETTER

ENGLISH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL MOSCOW EAST

Friday 3rd April

We have now completed our second full week eLearning. I have been able to view many lesson and assignments that teachers have been setting for our students. I have been blown away by the imagination and effort that the teachers have been putting into their lessons to help to recreate the classroom environment and continue student’s learning.

After the success of last week’s poetry entries and readings, we ran the theme of ‘staying connected’. As a school recognise the importance of social connections with friends, classmates, teachers and the community. I set the challenge for students to create a poster, song, game etc. that could be used to connect our school community together. There have been some wonderful entries so far and I look forward to sharing some with you next week, as there is still a chance for students to submit their ideas in their canvas tutor group pages (secondary) or on seesaw (primary).

Thank you for all your support and the continued hard work from our fantastic students! If you have any questions or concerns about eLearning, please contact your child’s tutor, Mr Phillips or me.

We all hope you stay safe and well.

Nursery and

Reception

Year 1 & 2 We are nearly at the end of our first week of online teaching where both the teacher and the students were all at home. The things that have made the week lighter, more fun and more active were our daily 11am workout sessions with Joe Wicks the Bodycoach and our daily 2pm Zoom sessions together. Ms Olga has also been joining us and it feels so nice to 'Stay Connected' at this time.

I have been so impressed by the home learning produced, especially when the children record themselves speaking and sharing their learning. It is great to hear their voices.

In maths, we have been counting in 2s, 5s and 10 and exploring arrays using groups of these numbers. In English, we have been exploring rhyming words using the funny book 'Oi Frog!' We have also explored how the ee sound can be made in all of these ways: ee,ey,e,ie,e_e and y!

I have really enjoyed seeing the children's

interest in science grow when researching hot habitats in the world. We have learnt some interesting facts about the camel, scorpion, meerkat, lizard and tortoise. Did you know that a camel does not actually store water in its hump? In

topic, we have been learning about the climates of the world - which is appropriate with our current changable weather in Moscow!

I have shared some pictures of our busy Zoom meetings, workout sessions and some of the fantastic work produced at home.

This week EYFS children learned the sound “sh” and carried on talking about People Who Help Us. They role played being shop assistants, writing and reading their own shopping list,

and buying rainbow colours of fruits and vegetables learning about what makes us healthy and strong. They counted all the pairs of shoes they have at home and hunted for shapes in their home environment. They learned how to catch a fish, made fishy “sh” words craft and shoe box monsters. They counted fish, matched the colours, wrote and read “sh” words, lis-tened to stories and sang songs.

Year 3 & 4

GEOGRAPHY

Year 3 and 4 have plunged into online learning with gusto! We are having wonderful lessons on Zoom, where every child has been reliable about turning up prepared, on time and ready to learn! We wrote exciting stories about animals invading our houses using the Google Animals app. The Year 4 students had the opportunity to complete a very complicated Harry Potter themed Maths Escape Room (fortunately they all made it out!). Physical activity is extremely important when we are all stuck inside, and Joe Wicks has been helping us to stay active. One of Ms Williams' friends in the USA read us a story on Seesaw, and we are now writing letters to her. It's a good time to connect with the world - which is our theme this week! We are all in good spirits, and love spending time together every day on Zoom. We can't wait to get back to school and see each other in person!

Our second

week of

online

learning is

drawing to an

end and I want to congratulate my

students once again on their

commitment and efforts. Their

maturity in dealing with e-learning has

made my job as their teacher a little

easier. The Year 7 students continued

with their topic Rivers focusing on the

importance of rivers and how they are

used today. The Year 8 students are

busy with the topic Coasts looking at

how our coastline must be protected

and limiting erosion. The Year 10

students continued with the topic

Earthquake and Volcanoes

concentrating on hazards and

opportunities these natural

phenomenon create. We have had

conference calls with every lesson

and the majority of students have been

in attendance.

Year 1,2 have been learning the song Spring Is Here . Year 4 have been learning about old time music La Morisque. Year 7’s studied Indian Musical instrument, Year 8 were learning to play pentatonic scales and Year 9 were looking at African rhythm.

MUSIC

Year 6 Year 5

The attitude of the children in Year 6 has been so impressive throughout our eLearning adventure. Everyone has shown maturity, enthusiasm and independence when needed. This has meant that we have been able to do some fantastic learning in recent weeks. In Maths, we have been solving tricky problems with percentages and pie charts. Some of the problems we have tackled have really stretched our thinking skills, but everyone has risen to the challenge.

Year 5/6 Topic and Science In Topic, we have been learning about volcanoes. We learned about how volcanoes are formed and the differences between extinct, dormant and active volcanoes. We also learned about the different types of volcano, such as cone, shield and stratovolcanoes. We had class discussions on Zoom, watched videos and completed activities on Seesaw.

We have had a great time at our Zoom Tutor Group meetings. It has been wonderful to share our news and we even played hangman earlier in the week. Everyone is in good sprits and keeping busy with assignments. In English this week, students looked at synonyms and antonyms to help students to expand the vocabulary and to consider their word choices carefully. They also created emoji stories where they substituted nouns, verbs and sounds with different emojis to create wild and interesting stories. Students have been attending one-to –one reading sessions via Zoom. When we return to school we are going to decorate the classroom with the great artwork that we have been producing at home.

In maths, students looked at the multiplication. Students were tasked with revising the grid method and we learned how to use short multiplication to multiple 3-digit numbers by a 1-digit number. They compared the different methods and will continue to use their preferred choice

In Science, we learned about chemical reactions and how they can create new substances. For example, we used the Mys-tery Science series to learn how rubber can be produced as a result of a chemical reaction. It was interesting to see how something that we see and use so often is actually made.

In English, we have continued reading the book Our Teachers are Superheroes. We have nearly finished the story and thing are getting really exciting! We have used the story to learn and use new vocabulary and practise our use of punctuation. We have also read some interesting articles about the world around us, including on the current situation and one about North Korea. This has led to some very interesting discussions!

Tim exercising at home with PE Joe

PSHE How do you feel?

ENGLISH

DRAMA ART

Year 6-9 Drama all met in small groups on Zoom this week. Each student

is going to create a movie about a cultural story, myth or legend

from their home country. We discussed ideas, and many of the

students are approaching this challenge with

enthusiasm. The finished results will be

shared with the younger students as a way to

Students in the Year 10 English as a second language

class have prepared and recorded a presentation. They

researched a location they find interesting and

historically important. Students chose locations such as

Red Square and the Colosseum. It gave them a chance

to use technology and record an audio track or video to

share the information. This task allowed them to

practice researching and identifying key information and

reinforcing their ability to communicate in English.

This is Tigran with his Ryan Berkley style Gorilla and Emilia and Maria with their chosen artist for the Year 8 personal project for art. Well done Emilia who has continued working on her high contrast portrait too. Liana Y11 has been amazing this week and has used photography and sketching to experiment with different angles and viewpoints for her final compositions. Y10 have been resourceful and creative as always and continued with preparatory work for their new Landscape project. I am so proud of the students wholehearted engagement in adapting to this change in their teaching experience. Well done!