From the Principal

Grade 5

February 2013

ISB Lower School Specialists’ Newsletter

Inside this issue:

Art 2

Serbian/Spanish 3

Serbian MT/EAL 4

PE 5

French/Music 6

hensive and holistic primary school education. The content of these subjects is trans-disciplinary in nature, meaning that the skills and concepts developed by specialist teachers have relevance throughout the Lower School curriculum and our students’ lives beyond school. A great example of this is when your children ‘connect’ their school learning with something that happens when they are at home or out and about with the family, and especially on designed field trips. Our specialists teachers work alongside our class-room teachers to develop lessons and learning opportunities that are interesting, en-gaging, and connected to the classroom Units of Inquiry. Our specialist teachers are regularly seeking these natural connections between subjects. For this reason, we think it is important that we keep our parents informed about the teaching and learning taking place in our specialists’ classrooms. You will receive the specialist newsletter six times during the school year. As always, if you have any ques-tions about your child’s education, feel free to contact us. Enjoy the Spring season of learning! I look forward to seeing you all here on the Lower School campus during our Student-Led conferences,

Brian H. Lettinga

Welcome to the fabu-lous fifth edition of our Specialist Newsletters! Our specialists teachers (also referred as single-subject teachers) play an integral and important role in the Primary Years Program. The arts, physi-cal education, and lan-guage study are essential elements to a compre-

Page 2

Art

Svetlana Spasic-

Glid

Art

During the past few weeks the students spent time drawing, sculpting and exploring the art concept of emphasis through body art. As they experimented with making con-trast by using different elements of art and design, the students created pieces of art using various materials and reflected, as a group and individually, on the solutions they discovered while working on their pieces. As you can see from the photos below, during the retreat the students enjoyed explor-ing the art principle of emphasis, as a whole group and in small teams, and reflected on their learning in the second trimester. Grade 5A and 5B students have classes on Mondays.

Serbian as a Foreign Language

Page 3

Newsletter Title

Ivana Jovanovic

Serbian Language Teacher

During February Grade 5 students focused on persuasion. They used a product

of our global simulation project – the imaginary planet, and decided to open it

for organized tourist visits. The students read tourist brochures and catalogues.

We visited web pages of tourist agencies and studied their slogans and offers.

Then, we watched a short documentary from the serial Svet na dlanu. The docu-

mentary was about the island of Tenerife and it gave tourist information on what

to see and do if you decide to travel to this destination. All these activities pre-

pared students for creating a poster and a brochure about their planet. They

worked in groups and each group presented and advertised their half of the

planet. Students enjoyed this unit. They were creative and did great work com-

bining advertising strategies with the words and phrases they have learned so

far.

The grade five Spanish students are immersed in the world of animals. After

quickly reviewing/learning the names of numerous animals, we moved straight

into talking about their natural habitats, pointing out their physical traits, what

they eat, and what they’re able to do. In this unit we’ll focus not only on de-

scribing animals, but also on using appropriate vocabulary to make compari-

sons and express our ideas in different ways, writing different types of sentenc-

es. We’ll look at adverbs of intensity and frequency and practice using appro-

priate adjective forms (singular, plural, masculine, and feminine).

Milica Rkulovic

Spanish Language Teacher

Spanish

Page 4

Serbian Mother Tongue

Milena Jovanovic

Serbian Language

Teacher

EAL

Visnja Plecas

EAL Teacher

Grade 5 students continued to work on developing their writing skills by revising

and editing stories they had written. We also practiced developing academic lan-

guage by engaging in dictogloss activities. Students listened to texts read aloud and

took notes of key words and phrases, thus getting practice in identifying important

facts. They subsequently reconstructed the texts in pairs and in groups, as closely

as possible to the original text. In this way they were able to replicate complex

grammatical structures and reinforce subject-specific vocabulary. We supported

the current Unit of Inquiry by introducing and modeling the writing of persuasive

texts. The students brainstormed situations in which they might need to be per-

suasive, figuring out along the way what it involves to be successful. We then joint-

ly wrote a persuasive text on the Importance of Reading.

Učenici petog razreda trenutno u sklopu nastavne jedinice pod temom Persuasion, izučavaju na koji način slike i reči mogu da utiču na donošenje odluka. Kao kon-ekciju sa tom nastavnom jedinicom na časovima maternjeg jezika analizirali smo pesme i priče u nastojanju da kada jednom oformimo svoj stav o njimai ili o li-kovima koji se u njima pominju, pronađemo dovoljno valjanih argumenata da pot-krepimo svoje mišljenje. Tako smo većali o savršenom dečaku iz pesme “Primer za ugled”, Vladimira Stoiljkovića i razmatrali da li su sve njegove vrline u našim očima zaista vrline. Zatim smo nakon čitanja narodne pripovetke “Šljive za đubre” u kojoj otac, da bi oženio svog sina, stavlja devojke na čudan i neočekivani test, odlučili da se stavimo u ulogu jednog od likova i napišemo pisma žalbe sudiji, trudeći se da ga ubedimo da presudi u našu korist i promeni ishod pripovetke. Nakon toga smo vežbali pisanje argumentativnih sastava u okviru kojih smo se zalagali za veći džeparac ili dobijanje kućnog ljubimca. Trenutno čitamo roman iz serijala letopisi Narnije, “Konj i njegov dečak”.

Page 5

Physical Education

Dear Parents,

Our fourth and fifth grade students have recently finished their gymnastics unit and moved onto the team sport; volleyball.

We started with a review of the basic techniques involved in passing, serving and receiv-ing the ball by engaging in different drills, in pairs and in groups.

Since volleyball is a movement game, a player should never be still during a game. They have to adjust to wherever the ball is and whoever is playing it.

Through group activities we practiced moving around a court and adjusting our posi-tions according to the ball and the position of the other players. We practiced playing the ball and changing the direction of the pass when needed.

After revising basic volleyball rules, such as how points are scored in the game, players’ positions and when and which way players rotate, we started playing matches.

Students were expected to apply their volleyball and cooperative skills and knowledge in a real game situation. They truly tried their best, while gaining confidence in their abilities.

Marija Dimitrov

PE Teacher

French

Page 6

Newsletter Title

Dubravka Kostanjsek

French Teacher

Dear fifth grade parents,

Here is our fifth newsletter for the French class which is aimed at keeping you in-

formed about the things we have been learning during the last period.

As we announced in the previous newsletter, we introduced some of the most fre-

quent connectors for expressing the cause/effect relationship (parce que – because,

comme – since, à cause de – because of, grâce à – thanks to, c’est pourquoi – that is

why, donc – so) and practiced using them in various situations. After that, each stu-

dent chose one topic to work on (climate, landscapes, activities, history, animals and

plants). At this moment, we are about to finish our written part of the task (written

expression). The next step is going to be practicing the oral presentation and finally,

putting it together with the pictures and making a short documentary film about our

imaginary island. When we wrap this up, we will dedicate some time to reviewing

the topics and structures we have covered so far through reading, writing, listening

and speaking activities.

It will be my pleasure to see you all soon and discuss your child’s work and progress.

Thank you for your time and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Music

Grade 5 students were hard at work these past months. With my absence they were lucky enough to have two lovely Milicas stepping in and stepping up to help them wrap up the second trimester and prepare for the student led conferences. They focused on playing percussion instruments and reading music scores. Using newly acquired knowledge, they worked collaboratively in order to create authen-tic accompaniment for a variety of different tunes. In addition, they composed their own authentic rhythmic pieces.

Ljudmila Janicijevic

Music Teacher