rbis highlights february 2012

R a i n b o w B r i d g e I n t e r n a t i o n a l S c h o o l

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Principal’s MessageDear RBIS Community,

Greetings and Xin Nian Kuai Le!January is always a festive month at RBIS. As one exciting new year celebration ends, another even more explosive one approaches. Welcome Year of the Dragon!

International Baclaureate(IB) Primary Years Program(PYP) Authorization Visit March 1st & 2ndWe are happy to announce that two representatives from IB will visit our school on March 1st and 2nd. During the visit they will evaluate the progress we have made towards implementing the PYP at RBIS. Over the past three years we have achieved the objectives of our 3-year PYP action plan and we are confident that the representatives will be impressed by the learning experiences we create for our students. Our target goal is to become an accredited IB school by the end of this school year. If you would like to learn more about the IB PYP program you can visit their website at www.ibo.org.

We will also have an informational session for parents who are interested in learning more about PYP authorization on February 16th. More information regarding this event will be available next week. If you cannot attend the meeting, the faculty and leadership team at RBIS is always happy

to answer any questions you may have about the PYP and curriculum.

International School Assessment (ISA)In October our 3rd through 6th grade students participated in the ISA. The ISA is an annual assessment program that has been specially developed to measure skills in mathematical literacy, reading and writing of students in international schools.

The following indicates RBIS’s performance in relation to other schools who participated in October ISA testing:

• Mathematical Literacy: Higher and within the 60% of all international students tested.

• Reading: Slightly lower and within the 60% of all international students tested.

• Writing Task A: Comparable and within the 60% of all international students tested.

• Writing Task B: Higher and within the 60% of all international students tested.

The purpose of administering the ISA at RBIS was to collect performance data of 3rd through 6th grade students in areas of literacy and mathematics. By analyzing performance data the school is able to identify strengths and areas of development of individual students, grade levels, and the elementary program as a whole. This information is used to inform teaching as well as the literacy and mathematics program for RBIS students. You may wish to visit the websites of PISA ( w w w. p i s a . o e c d . o rg ) a n d / o r A C E R (www.acer.edu.au) for further information.

-Rebecca Zipprich Principal Rainbow Bridge International School

Celebrating 15 years of building a community of life-long learners.

News and EventsAfter school enrollment forms due Feb. 10th.PYP Parent meeting Feb. 16th.Literacy Week happens Feb 20th - 24th.Page 2

Early Childhood Coordinator and Elementary CoordinatorWhat does it mean to be Internationally Minded?Page 2

Science, Library, and Technology

Page 3

Chinese, Music, and Art

Page 4

P.E. and RBIS Soccer

Page 5

Photo GalleryDigital Photography Class, Winter ConcertsPages 6-7

Rebecca Zipprich, RBIS Principal

Volume 5, Issue 3, February 2012

2381 Hong Qiao Road (Zoo's East Gate), Shanghai, China 200335 T: (86 21)62689773, 62684081 F: (86 21) 62691294 www.rbischina.org

http://www.ibo.org

http://www.ibo.org

http://www.pisa.oecd.org

http://www.pisa.oecd.org

http://www.acer.edu.au

http://www.acer.edu.au

http://www.rbischina.org



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The IB’s focus on International Mindedness is one of the things that sets it apart from other curricular models.

What does it mean to be internationally minded?The Ancient Greeks said that through travel, a person gains a deeper philosophical understanding of what people do and why. International mindedness means that students understand that people from different backgrounds hold different views and have the ability to reflect and appreciate these differences.

Viewing the world as us and us, not us and them. E d u c a t i n g f o r i n t e r n a t i o n a l mindedness requires that we provide students with authentic contexts through which they can explore the world, as well communicate and connect with students f r o m d i f f e r e n t backgrounds. At RBIS, we are blessed to have wonderful cultural diversity within our classrooms. Students are fortunate to be in an international community where their peers are children from all over the world. This gives us a unique opportunity to share cultures and build cultural understanding within our classrooms from a very young age.

In the introduction to Making the PYP Happen it states that “The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.” The learner profile is central to the IB philosophy and aims to develop students who are: inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Principled, Open-

minded, Caring, Risk-takers, Balanced and Reflective. Through the cultivation of these attributes, we hope to create people who are able to examine ideas from multiple perspectives and appreciate points of views that are different from their own.

There are many ways we do this at RBIS. During each Unit of Inquiry, teachers choose two or three learner profile traits on which to focus during the inquiry. While children are always encourages to develop all of these traits, we choose two or three to explicitly teach. When choosing traits, we try to

pick ones that will be the most authentic in the context of that particular unit. For example, if it is a unit on storytelling, we m i g h t s e l e c t communicators and risk-takers as students will have to be able to communicate their ideas and be willing to share and learn from constructive peer and teacher feedback.

We also recognize that in the quest to develop internationally minded

students, the entire community –parents and teachers alike—must make a commitment to embody the learner profile traits. Students need to know that, as a learning community, these are the traits that we value. Ultimately, we want to instill in students, the values that will enable them to see the world as “us and us,” not as “us and them.”

We are so fortunate to have such a diverse community here at Rainbow Bridge. In that spirit, we welcome parents into the classrooms to share their culture and language.

To learn more about the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program, please visit: www.ibo.org

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2

C A L E N D A R Feb. 3rd After school Enrichment Forms sent home

Feb. 8th Read-a-Thon information sent home

Feb. 10th After school Enrichment Forms due.

Feb. 16th PYP Authorization Parent Meeting in the library 10:00-11:00am

Feb. 20th Read-a-Thon forms returned

Feb. 20th-24th Literacy Week

Feb. 23rd Literacy Night 5:30-7:00

Feb. 27th After School Enrichment begins

A N N O U N C E M E N T S

Earth Day Stage Acts

We are looking for stage acts for our Earth Day celebration in April. If you know anyone who is interested, please contact Mr. Alex at [email protected].

Congratulations Ms. Linda!

Ms. Linda our Early Childhood PYP Coordinator gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Cassius Hauser on Dec. 13th. We look forward to her return form maternity leave the last week of February. Please contact Ms. Rebecca with any questions regarding our Early Childhood Program.

News and EventsNews and EventsNews and Events


Kate BensonElementary Coordinator

Linda MathewsEarly Childhood Coordinator

Educating for International Mindedness at RBIS

http://www.ibo.org

http://www.ibo.org

mailto:[email protected]




‘R a i n b o w B r i d g e I n t e r n a t i o n a l S c h o o l

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ChineseLanguage is always firmly connected to culture and the study of a language is a gateway into understanding another culture. In Chinese class, students are learning Chinese language as well as getting more familiar with Chinese culture. Learning to respect another culture shows a kind of international-mindedness that the PYP advocates.

Early years students started to repeat words and sing songs together with teachers. Preschool continued working on their inquiry into the arts. They made colorful palettes, made handicrafts to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, and sang nursery rhymes.

Pre-K classes have inquired about “light”. Students learned rainbow stories, the alternation between day and night, the different phases of the moon, and luminous animals. They also created art about rainbows and the moon’s different shapes, and learned a song about the firefly.

The central idea of kindergartner’s unit was “Machines make work more efficient by conserving our energy.” For the past two months, students learned terms and expressions pertaining to useful machines we encounter in our daily lives. Teachers also encouraged students to imagine what our life would be like without those important machines.

In 1st through 6th grade, teachers grafted PYP pedagogy onto traditional language teaching. Teachers searched for more resources to support units of inquiries as well as used the textbooks and different activities to make classes actively engaging. Teachers used stories, Chinese idioms and activities to make Chinese teaching connected with PYP key concepts and the learner profile.

Here is an example:The students modeled what it is to be caring, a characteristic of the PYP Learner Profile, through the action of making New Year cards for migrant school children and by holding an ‘Ayi’ appreciation day to say ‘thank you’ to the school’s Ayis for all their hard work.

-Linda Zhang, Chinese Curriculum Coordinator

LibraryMany thanks to the many families who donated books to our international collection! Our goal is to provide relevant mother tongue reading materials for all our students, and we’re making progress! In addition to the donations, in January some Korean students traveled to the Korean bookstore to select some tantalizing new titles for the library shelves.

Fifth/Sixth Grade and FLIP IT! ® Research MethodFifth and sixth graders are flipping out over the FLIP IT ® research tool they have used on their current unit, inquiring into how people continue to be challenged to maintain peace. Students gathered information from books, online articles, email interviews with experts, and a student-designed online survey. They used the FLIP IT® graphic organizer to collect all their research questions, bibliography information, and notes. They’re even learning to master MLA citation—bravo! They will present their understanding in a children’s how-to book about keeping peace and solving conflict.

Third Grade KamishibaiThird graders explored some ways that culture can be communicated through storytelling by watching kamishibai (Japanese storytelling). Some enthusiastic Japanese students also presented kamishibai in the library and in the classroom and shared their experience with this unique storytelling method. Students also laughed their way through a dramatization of the hilarious picture book Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude.

-Ms. Adrienne

TechnologyOne of our goals at RBIS is to seamlessly integrate technology and information literacy skills into the students’ daily curriculum. Over the past two months we have taken tremendous steps forward in reaching this goal. Students in third through sixth grades now have access to a mobile laptop lab. The mobile lab consists of 16 MacBooks complete with Microsoft Office software and creative applications like GarageBand, iMovie, and PhotoBooth. The mobile lab is readily available to our older students to use in their classrooms throughout the day. Now, as students work through their Units of Inquiry, they can grab a MacBook to help them investigate, research, organize, create, and share.

To help students transition from using the desktop PCs in the computer lab to the Apple platform, Ms. Adrienne and I conducted a series of introductory lessons. Once students became familiar with the basics, they were off and running! So far, third grade have used the MacBooks for word processing, PowerPoints, and storytelling with GarageBand. Fourth graders have also been using GarageBand to record their own original poetry set to music. Fifth and sixth graders have been exploring how to create powerful iMovies to showcase their findings about peace and conflict resolution. The students are so excited to have access to this technology during the day, and look forward to creating more unique work to showcase their learning.

Online research has been the primary focus of the younger grades. Finding information online can be an overwhelming task for both kids and adults, but if children are taught strategies for online searching and are given multiple opportunities to practice this skill, they can begin to feel successful and develop confidence in their abilities to navigate the World Wide Web. As young students begin to use the Internet to find information, it’s important to give them guidance and structure along the way. By providing students graphic organizers for note-taking, emphasizing key nonfiction reading strategies, and teaching them how to navigate web pages, we are preparing them to be successful in a world where information literacy skills are needed on a daily basis.

-Ms. Melissa




‘R a i n b o w B r i d g e I n t e r n a t i o n a l S c h o o l

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ScienceWhy do some animals have wings, webbed feet, or sharp teeth? In first grade, the students studied life cycles and adaptations. Living things was a great connection with how the world works. After the characteristics of living things were discussed, students studied various animal life cycles. Each class chose the animal life cycles they were interested in learning about. Some classes wanted to learn about insect life cycles while others were interested in reptiles.

After a few weeks of learning about life cycles, we began to discuss different animal adaptations. Students set up an experiment to learn how desert animals have different adaptations to allow them to stay cool during the day. One wet sponge was placed outside in the shade, one inside a Ziploc bag, one under sand, and the control was placed on a table inside the room. After a few days, students compared the mass of the sponge to the first day to determine which lost the most moisture. The experiment created student generated questions as they helped answer each others questions.

Kindergarten has been busy learning about simple machines during their how the world works unit. Students learned machines make work easier by testing different types of machines. They explored different simple machines by constructing a working model as an example. Students were given different materials and worked in small groups to create a pulley. Each group received a plastic cup with a hole, yarn, and a wooden block. Students worked together to create a plan to construct a working machine. All groups were successful and found creative ways to create a pulley.

Kindergarten and First Grade studied different aspects of how the world works; however, both grades discovered the world we live in is a fascinating place that is connected through many systems.

-Ms. Jennifer

MusicIn music class this past semester; students have been learning to play instruments in the upper classes and in the lower classes, they have been learning about dynamics and rhythms. When working on playing instruments, students come in each week and try different tunes each time – sometimes playing by written music and sometimes extending the challenge to playing by ear. Learning to differentiate written musical symbols is a big part of music literacy, as well as becoming familiar with terminology. Students are learning to use academic words to describe what they see and hear. The classroom instrument of choice is the xylophone. Songs are selected according to student ability, with variation in levels of song difficulty so that more advanced students can be challenged.

Younger students have been mapping out song dynamics by arranging squares with the appropriate dynamic markings on the floor and constructing rhythms using animal cards. After discussion of the names of the animals and appropriate rhythms that would fit their names, students practice arranging them in different sequences and then walking around the room trying them. The note values that we’ve covered so far this way are quarter notes, eighth notes and half notes. Students are not yet learning the technical names for these notes, but they are establishing a foundation on which they will better understand these musical principles. We have also been working on musical timing, and responding to auditory cues in music at the correct time. Giving the students different colored balls to hold does this. When they hear their color named out, in rhythm, they learn to respond in rhythm by keeping timing.

-Ms. Lindi

ArtPreschool students learned how color corresponds with emotions by reading the book The Way I Feel by Janan Cain. We then discussed how colors and feelings are linked. Students further explored this link by creating expressive self-portraits. While listening to sad, happy, scary, groovy, or angry music, we made facial expressions to match the music and took pictures. Each photo was then modified into a black and white drawing effect so that the students could color it while determining what color to be used for each expression.

Pre-k students have explored light and shadow by making shadow puppets. As a tuning-in activity, we went outside to find shadows. We then discussed what we discovered. We then read the book Bear Shadow by Frank Asch to inquire more about shadows. We also watched a videos of artists who create shadow puppets by just using their hands. The children were amazed that such detailed animals and people could be created with just shadow and te artists’ hands. After watching it, each student had a chance to go to the front and try to make a hand shadow puppet. Their hand shadows were traced on a paper. The students then, turned their hand shadows into a different creature by adding details and color.

Kindergarteners have experienced texture even further by making their texture monsters. Inspired by the book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. The students have created their own wild things with real textures and simulated textures. They used materials suc as cotton, toothpicks, cork, beads, cardboard, styrofoam, etc. to produce real textures. Afterwards they added paint to complete tier wild thing design and made it look like an abstract impasto artwork.

Older students have completed their summative assessments from their previous unit of inquiry that explored the elements of art. Check out the display of their work down the elementary building corridor. The after school digital photography class will have a opening reception of their work on Feb 16th at 3:00pm in the gallery space in front of the gym. Please stop by and see their impressive work!

-Mr. Alex and Mr. Romel






Physical Education Pre-School have been improving their balance, movement, coordination and ball skills by playing games which require children to move in different directions with different movements like running, skipping, hopping, jumping, running backwards and making their body into different animals and objects. Students have also been throwing and catching balloons and different balls to improve eye coordination and balance by walking along balance beams and jumping onto mats.

Kindergarten and Pre-Kindergarten students have been developing their hand eye coordination and balance, with exercises to practice different kinds of throwing and catching with tennis balls, bean bags, basketball, soccer balls and balloons. We have also used obstacle courses to encourage children to jump, climb, crawl, balance and perform rolls to get around the course. Students also been playing line tag, freeze tag and island tag games which is developing coordination and awareness.

Students in 2nd Grade have been looking at the central idea of ‘Within an organization people share responsibilities towards a common purpose’ and in PE we have looked at responsibility and roles within a team as well as playing some strategy tag and relay games. Students then reflected upon how balance through teamwork, working together for the same goal, collaboration and respect for each other could help us achieve set targets. Students also were set tasks and had to give each other roles, orders, jobs and responsibilities.

Our students in 1st, 3rd and 4th Grade have been advancing their soccer skills and making good progress on their dribbling ability through games designed to develop how to change direction whilst moving with the ball, stopping a moving ball, ball tricks and feigns to take the ball past opponents. Games like Sharks and minnows and island tag, where students have to dribble the ball past defenders to safe areas helped develop moving with the ball as well encouraged students to get their head up and be more aware. Students have also been practicing passing, shooting as well as fun small sided matches that enabled them to put their new skills into a match situation.

5th/6th Grade have been working on the central idea of ‘People continued to be challenged to maintain peace’, and PE they have been looking at ways to resolve conflict as well as team building activities. Students took part in competitive games in the gymnasium which were videoed and then we viewed the lesson and discussed positive and negative things we observed. Following this students then were set numerous team building activities which required each student to communicate and work together. One of the activities students took part in was the human knot, which involved students tangled together by hands and they then have to work together to untangle to whole group.

The RBIS Soccer and Basketball teams and have up and coming fixtures in the month of February. Our school’s Basketball team will play against YK Pao School whilst the Soccer team will have a friendly match against Shanghai United International School before joining the International Youth league at Shanghai American School for the Spring Season starting Sunday February 26th. Competing against other schools in a friendly, fun environment is a great way for our students to develop their skills and enjoy sports,

-Mr. James

MEGAzine #3 is now on sale for RMB 10. Proceeds go towards buying trees in Mongolia and helps fund the 5th and 6th grade student trip to Moganshan.

Made for KIDS by KIDS!.. But, adults can read it too.



http://www.rbischina.org/Community/viewnews.aspx?id=63





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Digital PhotographyStudents in the after school digital photography course have completed their Fall semester program. Check out the exhibition of their work beginning Feb. 16th in the gallery space in front of the school’s gym.





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Winter Concert RBIS students put on an amazing performance that consisted of singing,

dancing, interpretive dance, student soloists, and even teachers performing alongside their class. Great job to Miss Lindy and Miss Tina for

organizing and conducting a fabulous concert!





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Contact UsOffice of AdmissionTel: (86 21) 62689773, 62683121Fax: (86 21) 62691294Email: [email protected]: www.rbischina.org

Rainbow Bridge International School2381 Hong Qiao Road(Zoo’s East Gate)Shanghai, China 200335

LocationRBIS is an inclusive learning community located inside the Shanghai Zoo, one of the largest green spaces in Shanghai.

The campus is just 5 mins. from Hongqiao Int’l airport and 10 mins. from the Gubei area. A Metro Line 10 station is located in front of the zoo’s main entrance.

To HongqiaoAirport

Hongqiao Lu

Hongzhong Lu

Hongjing Lu

Hongmei Lu

Huanxi Lu

Jinhui Lu

(3 km)

The Bund (17 km)

Zoo’s east gateShanghai

Zoo

Yan’an Lu

Ham

i Lu

Metro Line 10








rbis highlights february 2012

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