Newsletter 23.06

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

This has been one of the busiest weeks of the year filled with a range of different activities.

On Monday we started to prepare for our farewell ceremony, creating a number of different pieces of art work to decorate the walls during the event. We then heard from each student as they presented their science presentations, this ran on into the start of Tuesday. I was really happy with the presentations I saw and I was genuinely interested in some of the areas that children had chosen to study.

On Wednesday we were able to watch a full dress rehearsal of the primary production, ‘The Lion King’. I was blown away by the performances, particularly by one of our very own Chameleons, Kara.

Thursday was one of the hottest days of the year, nevertheless the Chameleons put on an incredibly collection of activities for the school’s first International Day. Each class had chosen a country and created an activity to represent that country. This was a really positive event with all children thoroughly enjoying it.

Finally on Friday was the talent show, this had been organized by a number of the student council members and gave children the chance to show off their incredible talents. Two of our very own Chameleons had made it through the audition phase into the talent show and they both performed brilliantly, well done to Leti and Bethen for their efforts today.

A note from the school regarding bicycle training.

Wie Sie bereits erfahren haben, hatte in diesem Schuljahr die Polizei des Hochtaunuskreises bedauerlicherweise keine Kapazitäten für die Fahrradausbildung unserer Viertklässler. Die Schulleitung hat sich mehrfach an verschiedenen administrativen Stellen um die Ermöglichung bemüht, aber leider ohne Erfolg. Nun haben sich unsere Deutschlehrerinnen freundlicherweise bereit erklärt, die Theorie des Fahrradtrainings mit Ihren Kindern zu besprechen und als Lernkontrolle den offiziellen Test zu schreiben. Bitte haben Sie Verständnis dafür, dass wir aus rechtlichen Gründen den Fahrradpass auch bei Bestehen der Theorieprüfung nicht ausstellen dürfen.

Next week:

On Monday we have our graduation ceremony, this will start 14:15. We will open the doors to the Aula at 14:00 and start welcoming in parents after this time. The farewell ceremony should finish around 15:30, this will be the end of the day for Grade 4 on that day.

For most lessons this week we will be sorting out the classroom, ensuring that pupils have everything they have worked on this year. Children will be bringing home their work books along with other pieces of work that have been displayed. You might want to consider sending in an extra bag for your child to take their work home in.

Thursday will be a very special day. After such a long hard year, the grade 4 team has decided to reward the children with a pizza and ice cream picnic in the forest. It will be wonderful to have all three classes together for one last time. It has been proposed by parents that we have a Ice cream Sundae buffet alongside this. Each child will bring an ice cream topping, a bowl and a spoon on that day.
This magnificent morning will then be followed by an impressive Sommerfest. On that day your child will need to be picked up from the classroom at 13:45. If your child is getting picked up by another parent, please let me know.

Friday will then be our last day; this will be filled with collecting our things together, watching a movie and saying goodbye.

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

in dieser Woche haben wir die vier Fälle (Nominativ, Genetiv, Dativ und Akkusativ) besprochen. Desweiteren haben die Schüler die wichtigsten Regeln im Straßenverkehr kennengelernt. In einer gemeinsamen Stunde mit dem Klassenleiter haben wir uns besonders den Verkehrszeichen zugewandt.

In dieser Woche haben die Schüler ihre 5. Klassenarbeit zurückbekommen. Zu Ihrer Information die Notenverteilung:

Note	1	2	3	4	5	6	Durchschnitt
Häufigkeit	2	5	10	4	-	-	2,78

Bitte stellen Sie sicher, dass Ihr Kind alle Klassenarbeiten unterschrieben in der Schule abgibt. Prüfen Sie bitte auch, ob Sie noch vorherige Klassenarbeiten zuhause haben. Diese müssen zur Dokumentation in der Schule aufbewahrt werden.

Falls Sie bereits alle Klassenarbeiten unterschrieben zurückgegeben haben, danke ich Ihnen für Ihre Unterstützung.

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein erholsames Wochenende!

Agnes Fojcik

Enjoy the weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.

Newsletter 02.06.17

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

This week has been almost entirely spent on children completing either their geometry math assessment or publishing their literary essays. There were a number of children who finished both at the start of week; I was amazed with these children for being so well organized and ahead of schedule. Those who had finished spent time working on their art work, continuing to create buildings for our miniature city and working on their science presentations.

Children have now completely planned out their experiments related to one topic that we studied in science this year. Children spent time creating a hypothesis and then an experiment to test that. Some children will require time to do their experiments at home, please assist them in filming or photographing any experiment that does take place there. Some children are choosing to do their experiments in school, this will happen on Monday 12^th June. Following this there will be a presentation from each child explaining their experiment, results and a connection to a larger issue. This will take place on Monday 19^th June.

As well as the geometry projects, I have been doing some problem solving teaching, this time approaching it from a different angle. We looked at a number of different problems and categorized them into easy, medium and hard. We then discussed what made a problem easy, medium or hard. At the end of the week we started to look at creating our own word problems based on number sentences. We will continue to do this after Wegscheide.

Next week:

Wegscheide!!!

On Monday 5^th school is closed.

Tuesday 6^th:
Children to be dropped off at school before 8:45 as usual. There will be a space near the front office for children to leave their bags when they arrive.
8:45 - Children will come up to class. If you wish to stay to say goodbye to your child please wait downstairs.
9:00 – We will begin to load up the buses.
9:30 – buses will leave.

 Tuesday to Friday – we will all have a great time at Wesgscheide.

Friday 9^th:
12:00 – buses will return to school and children will be picked up. No supervision will be provided in the afternoon. When you pick your child up please make sure to check in with me so I know they’ve been collected.  

Things to remember:

-          Any medication that your child is bringing must come with a signed letter to show that they know how and when to take this. If the medication is prescribed by a doctor we also need a doctors signature. (form for this included in email)

-          If you haven’t returned the tick removal letter and would like to, please bring it in on Tuesday morning.

-          We will only call you if there is a serious medical emergency. No news is good news.

A message from Frau Fojcik:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

in dieser Woche haben die Schüler Übungen im blauen und im grünen Flex-und-Flora-Heft bearbeitet. Zudem haben wir die Klassenlektüre „Das geheimnisvolle Spukhaus“ weitergelesen. Die Schüler haben außerdem eigene Lese-Mal-Rätsel (Logicals) erstellt.

Ich wünsche Ihnen eine erholsames Pfingstwochenende!

Agnes Fojcik

Enjoy the long weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.

Newsletter 19.05.17

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

In English this week children wrote their reason paragraphs fully, I was able to meet with a lot of children and ensure that they understood the writing process well. I’m pleased with what I have been seeing and I feel confident that all children will be ready to hand in published copies on time. Children are able to work on their English at home if they wish, however I urge parents not to give too much support as this will be formerly assessed. 

We started the week by completing the first part of the math assessment, this was in the form of a short test which checked their knowledge of geometry vocabulary. Then, on Wednesday, I introduced the next part of the assessment to children. The next section involves becoming a city planner and designing four different districts in a city onto a grid. Each district has specific geometric and building specifications that children need to follow as they design it. This will be assessed by me asking them to point to the specific geometric terms as they are shown on their design. Children will also need to identify the area and perimeter of all the shapes drawn on their districts. Students seem to be really enjoying this activity and I’m excited to assess this with them. Due to the fact that this is a formal assessment, children cannot work on this at home. 

In science this week we introduced our scientific method project. We took a look at the scientific method again and the 8 step process which is consists of. Then, using a work booklet provided, children started to plan out their investigation. They had to first choose an area to study that was related to the following topics: states of matter, weather or erosion. Children then spent some time on the computer researching their chosen area and write a hypothesis that they would then test with an experiment. All children should now have spent time writing up the experiment that they want to undertake. Children will now be able to start conducting their experiments in school or at home depending on what they need. For those performing their experiments at home, they will need to video or photograph the process and results. 

Over the past few weeks in ICT we have been getting used to using a program called Scratch2. Scratch2 is a piece of software that easily and intuitively allows children to create games, animations and stories. We have started to understand and apply some basic things in Scratch2 and I’ve been amazed at what some children have produced. Some children asked to be able to work on Scratch2 at home so here is the link https://scratch.mit.edu/ .

In sports we have been practicing for the Bundesjugendspiele, I am really impressed with the focus and self-direction that children have been showing during these training sessions. Children have been pushing themselves to try and beat their personal bests to ensure they are ready for Wednesday.

Thank you to those who handed the Wegscheide letters in on time, if you would like your child to go to Wegscheide I need to know by Monday. 

Below are a number of dates that you should be aware of in May and June.

Important Dates:

-         

-          May 24^th – Bundesjugendspiele (weather permitting)

-          May 25^th and 26^th – School closed.

-          May 29^th – June 2^nd – Formal Math conference of Geometry Project

-          May 29^th – June 2^nd – Published Literary Essay to be handed in

Here is an overview of the areas of study we will focus on throughout the next week:

Next week:

Due to the fact that we will only realistically have Monday and Tuesday next week with any real lesson time and the fact that both the English published piece and the formal math assessments are due in on the week of the 29^th, I will be allowing children to choose what they would like to work on out of English, Math or Science during the lessons on these days. I have trialled this before in single sessions and the Chameleons have been excellent at staying motivated and choosing appropriate work to work on. I explain to the children that this is an excellent way for children to get used to managing their own time whilst still in an established environment, a skill which will be vital for Wegscheide and further schooling after grade 4. I will still offer guidance to children and will be conferencing to give support in all lessons. 

There will still be a couple of mini-lessons on Monday which focus in on how to write the conclusion of their literary essay and how to correctly calculate the area and perimeter of some irregular shapes. 

German:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

in dieser Woche haben die Schüler eine Personenbeschreibung (Bild: Lehrerin) geschrieben und diese in einer Schreibkonferenz mit ihrem Partner und mit Hilfe eines Überarbeitungsbogens verbessert. Die verbesserten Aufsätze habe ich anschließend korrigiert und letzte Tipps vermerkt. Zudem haben wir die Zeitformen Präsens, Präteritum, Perfekt und Futur in verschiedenen Übungen und Spielen gefestigt.

 Zur Erinnerung: Die letzte Klassenarbeit schreiben wir am Montag, den 22.05.2017 (Themen: Personenbeschreibung / Zeitformen Präsens, Präteritum, Perfekt und Futur I).

 Im Anhang finden Sie das Bild der Lehrerin (Übungsaufsatz) sowie ein weiteres Bild zur freiwilligen Übung. Desweiteren finden Sie im Anhang einen Bogen mit den Bewertungskriterien zur Personenbeschreibung.

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein erholsames Wochenende!

Agnes Fojcik

Enjoy the long weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.

Newsletter 12.05.17

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

In English this week we began to draft our essays. I was really pleased to see that everyone had chosen to write the literary essay about Sing or a well known text and almost everyone had completely finished their plans. This set them up in a perfect place to start writing. I modeled how to write a summary which connects to the thesis sentence and we looked at drafting our first behavior paragraph. To teach this a used the saying ‘we’ll make our paragraphs B.E.T.R’. This is a four step process to writing paragraphs which focuses on students explaining the reason they chose their evidence to represent that specific behavior. This is a slightly trickier skill for students however it is far more valuable and demonstrates and better understanding of both the character strength and the film or text.

Out math sessions this week were full of mini lessons that taught children everything they needed to know for the small quiz on Tuesday. We started by recapping 2d and 3d shapes (I have provided a handout for those children who wanted it), then moved on to perpendicular and parallel lines, next came angles, how to identify and label them as well as being able to measure them with a protractor or set square, Wednesday included learning out the diameter and radius of a circle and then finally we started to cover area and perimeter. This does sound like a lot but the majority of it is recap from last year. All of these terms will need to be known for the quiz on Tuesday.

In science this week we revisited the water cycle and began to look at the impacts of the water cycle on our planet. We learned about weathering and erosion and demonstrated how erosion can change how the earth looks. We also did our first experiment for the unit which looked at the rate at which water cools.

A quick reminder to say that the Wegscheide permission letters need to be returned by May 19^th.

Thank you for all the scrap donations, we now have an enormous amount of materials to build with. I’m really excited to see the giant city that children will build using what you have provided.

Below are a number of dates that you should be aware of in May, a few of these are related to assessments in both Math and English. More details can be found in their respective sections below.

Important Dates:

-          May 16^th – Formal Math quiz related to Vocabulary

-          May 19^th –Deadline for Wegscheide permission letters

-          May 24^th – Bundesjugendspiele (weather permitting)

-          May 29^th – June 2^nd – Formal Math conference of Geometry Project

-          May 29^th – June 2^nd – Published Literary Essay to be handed in

Here is an overview of the areas of study we will focus on throughout the next week:

English:

Next week in English we will continue to the write the guided literary essay based around a character from Sing, children are now deep within the writing process. Please check in with your child at home to see what stage of the their writing they are on. I would expect children to be some way through drafting their behavior paragraphs by now.

I will also continue to assess reading using the readers workshop non-fiction rubric.

Math:

On Tuesday we will write a short quiz which will ensure children have comprehended all the vocabulary related to geometry and shapes that we have covered, this will go towards the final math formal assessment grade. I will then introduce the next part of the assessment which will be to design and build a miniature city using strict guidelines that we will provide.

Science:

This week children will begin to develop their own hypotheses for the next part of the changing matter project. They will then conduct the experiment and perform a short presentation which looks at the impacts of their topic of experimentation.

German:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

in dieser Woche haben wir verschiedene Übungen zur Personenbeschreibung durchgeführt (vor allem zur treffenden Wortwahl: Verben, Adjektive, Nomen, Satzanfänge).

Desweiteren haben die Schüler neue Lernwörter erhalten (s. Anhang). In dieser Woche fand auch die letzte Stunde unserer Lesepatenschaft mit der 1. Klasse statt.

Die letzte Klassenarbeit in diesem Schuljahr schreiben wir am Montag, den 22. Mai 2017. Für Schüler sollen eine Personenbeschreibung anfertigen sowie die Zeitformen Präsens, Präteritum, Perfekt und Futur I richtig anwenden.

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein erholsames Wochenende!

Agnes Fojcik

Enjoy the long weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.