Newsletter 16.12.16

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

Pupils have been completing their work this week, hitting deadlines and ensuring everything is ready for select presentations. On Monday I collected in the published copies of their realistic fiction writing. I am now spending time reading through these and grading them, once complete I will feed this back to the pupils.

On Wednesday, the Chameleons presented their humanities project, this was based around perspectives and particularly identifying how two different people can have different perspectives on the same thing. This is the first time I’ve been able to see the Chameleons present in front of the class, I was amazed at the preparation that some pupils put in. This was a wonderful build up towards the science presentation on Monday (19^th).

In Math pupils have started to work with a partner on a division based problem solving project. For the project, children are creating their own movie theatre and solving various problems based around this. It’s been very interesting to see the perseverance of some children as they are getting on to trickier problems.

We also had a much deserved class treat on Thursday afternoon and on Friday we took part in a wonderful Christmas concert. The pupils from the Chameleon class performed brilliantly and really blew me away with their singing. As well as this, those children who were drumming surprised me wonderfully.

Math Assessment Breakdown

1s – 7
2s – 10
3s – 1
4s – 3
5s – 1

Important Dates and Information:

-          Monday 19^th Science presentation

-          Wednesday 21^st, last day of school. No afternoon HORT.

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

English:

Now that pupils have finished their published copy they are continuing to write a winter story based around the same steps as they’ve done before. This has really let their creativity come out and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by pupils competence to follow the writers workshop steps.

Math:

As pupils have now completed all the required assessments and check-ins within math we will be continuing a math investigation focused on division.  

Art:

We will spend some time does Christmas crafts and on Wednesday morning we will practise our baking skills, creating winter cookies for the grade 4 class time afternoon.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.

Newsletter 09.12.16

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

Pupils have worked hard on a number of projects this week ensuring they are completing them for the deadlines provided. The deadline for the completed published writing piece has been pushed to Monday 12^th. As well as this there completed humanities project is due on Wednesday 14^th, they will be presenting their findings to the class that afternoon.

Pupils have also worked hard to review the multiplication and division math work in preparation for the assessment, it is wonderful to see the level of effort that the Chameleon class has shown to ensure they fully understand the work required.

We also had an incredible field trip to the Goethehaus in Frankfurt on Friday. During our time at the Goethehaus we received an insightful tour focusing on the colour wheel, one of Goethe's incredible works, and a writing activity which allowed pupils to experience the day to day life of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Following our time at the Goethehaus, we explored the many wonders of Frankfurt Weinachtsmarkt. I want to say a huge thankyou to the parents who supported this trip as it wouldn’t have been possible without you as well as a thankyou to Frau Fojcik who organized this trip for the entire grade.

An important notice for next week, there will not be any sport lessons due to the Christmas Concert on Friday. 

The Chameleons have now completed the class target for behaviour, due to this on Thursday 15th, pupils will a treat afternoon. A letter will be sent out on Monday with more information about this. 

Important Dates and Information:

• Friday 16^th December, Phorms Christmas Concert
• Wednesday 14^th Humanities presentation due
• Monday 19th Science project due
• Thuesday 15th deadline to return photographs
• You are still able to buy tickets to the Christmas performance. Each ticket is 5€, siblings of children can attend for free

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

English:

I have received a number of completed published pieces already from pupils. It is clear, from the ones I have received, that children are now fully comfortable with the writers workshop model of assessment. Children know that the rubric contains a lot of guidance and they are able to review the rubric whilst they are completing that stage in the process. I am incredibly happy with what I have seen.

Start next week, pupils will begin to restart the writing process to create a short 1-2 pages winter story. Some pupils have already started this process and it’s amazing to the see the difference I in how they are now compared to the start of the year.

I have now started another round of ORT reading assessments; this is one of the slightly longer assessments and will see just how pupils are doing in terms of their reading ability. As well as this, in the coming week there will be a separate reading assessment that the class completes together, this will focus around the skills covered in readers workshop.

Math:

As pupils have now completed all the required assessments and check-ins within math we will be starting a math investigation this week. This will reinforce the division and multiplication work we have just completed by incorporating it into practical activities. This will end the unit nicely ensuring a solid end to the unit. 

Science:

Pupils will continue to research and inquire about their chosen topic. They will continue to work on their presentations, I will be expecting these to be presented during the last week of the school term.

Art:

We are post-poning our final art project until after the winter break to ensure all children are fully commited to its creation. 

German:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

diese Woche haben die Schüler weiterhin an ihren Geschichten gearbeitet und begonnen, diese zu überarbeiten. Um eine Geschichte anschaulich und unterhaltsam zu gestalten, ist es nämlich wichtig auf eine treffende Wortwahl zu achten (Verben, Adjektive, Satzanfänge). Desweiteren sollten Gefühle einer Person ausführlich beschrieben werden. Zudem hatten wir heute einen tollen Tag im Goethehaus Frankfurt!

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein erholsames Wochenende!

Agnes Fojcik

We hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Best regards,

The entire chameleon team.

Newsletter 02.12.16

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

Who can believe that there are only two and a half weeks left of school before the winter break? It comes as no surprise, I’m sure, that the next few weeks will be filled with hard work and assessments, as well as an assortment of themed activities, to lighten the mood a little.

Almost all pupils have now started to publish their final edited story. On Tuesday I showed pupils the rubric for the finished edited piece, I will attach this to the newsletter email, I then proceeded to hand out copies on Thursday. The first section of the rubric relates to spelling and part of this calls for all ‘grade appropriate’ words to be spelled correctly, rather than leaving this as a vague and ambiguous term we have given out a list of words that we will consider as the ‘grade appropriate’ words for this assessment. Pupils should be using this word list as they are editing to ensure their spellings are accurate. I’ve been really pleased with the majority of writing that I have seen; the level it has improved since their first draft is remarkable. 

In math we continued with our division pathway, we broke down the tricky elements of  written divisions and simplified them. I taught two different methods which children could choose to use. Friday was the last day that I allowed children to work on this pathway, I’m aware that there are a couple of children who still haven’t finished; it would be helpful to them if they completed this at home. 

Next Friday we are going on a field trip to the Goethe Haus in Frankfurt, attached to the newsletter email you will find a letter with information regarding this trip. As well as that I have given copies of this letter out to children today. After we have finished in the Goethe Haus we will spend some time in the Christmas market, for this to be possible we require some additional help from parents, if there is anyone who would be able to assist us in this please contact myself by Wednesday.

Important Dates and Information:

-          Thursday 8^th December, Formal Math Assessment (Multiplication and Division)

-          Friday 9^th December, Field trip to the Goethe Haus.

-          Friday 16^th December, Phorms Christmas Concert

-          You are now able to buy tickets to the Christmas performance. Each ticket is 5€, siblings of children can attend for free.

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

English:

I have now completed the revision check-ins and we are already looking toward the Edit/Published check-in. I will start this as soon as I possibly can, which will be dependent on children’s writing. This check-in will be slightly different as I will be reading their published copy ahead of time and then discussing the grading choices I’ve made with them. They will still have a chance to discuss or argue their grades however this will be more limited this time round.

I am also starting another round of ORT reading assessments; this is one of the slightly longer assessments and will see exactly how pupils are doing in terms of their reading ability.

With everything going on next week I am prioritizing math over english, therefore there will be less english sessions this week.

Math:

On Thursday we will be completing the multiplication and division formal assessment.

Monday will be taken up by completing the check-in related to the division pathway they have just finished.

On Tuesday I will be giving the pupils a practise test in preparation for the formal assessment, then throughout Wednesday pupils will be able to work on the questions that they struggled with.

Science:

Pupils will continue to research and inquire about their chosen topic. They are now able to start working on their poster and presentation. During the presentation they should be informing the class and me on their topic; it should be an effective presentation that informs the class at an appropriate level.

German:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

diese Woche haben die Schüler weiterhin an ihren Reizwortgeschichten gearbeitet. Wir haben anhand eines Bildes besprochen, dass man Gefühle besonders anschaulich darstellen kann, wenn man auch die Mimik und Gestik einer Person beschreibt.

Freundliche Grüße und einen schönen 2. Advent

Agnes Fojcik

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.

Newsletter 25.11.16

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

November is speeding by us all, I cannot believe that December is almost already here. This week I have seen pupils work incredibly hard once again, the next writers workshop check-in has started and pupils are ensuring their stories are ready for this. 

I have started to teach the editing skills for the writers workshop already this week, pupils are learning to listen out for if their sentences sound smooth, as well as hunting down any spelling or punctuation mistakes. This is often hard for pupils to spot independently, therefore they have been working with their writing partners to edit each other’s work. 

In math we started the division path way, this has started simply by understanding vocabulary such as divisor and prime number. We then looked at the rules of division and created a small booklet to help pupils understand if a number is divisible by certain digits. Most pupils have taken this on well and push past the work expected, I started to teacher written division methods, this has been in the form of long division as shown in Flex and Flo, as well as the bus-stop method of division which is a step on from this. Pupils are able to choose which method they prefer when solving these calculations. I expect pupils to now have completed the first side of their pathway sheet. If pupils have not I would recommend they take some time to complete this at home.  

I have now completed all my parent-teacher interviews, thank you for attending and I hope the meetings were informative.

Important Dates and Information:

-          28^th – 29^th November the Usborne book fair will be taking place in the Library. More information regarding this to follow.

-          Tuesday 29^th, we will be going into the Gymnasium at Phorms for a Gymnasium taster day. This shows pupils what a day in the life of a gymnasium child will be like.

-          You are now able to buy tickets to the Christmas performance. Each ticket is 5€, siblings of children can attend for free.

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

English:

During the mini-lessons next week I will continue to give children time to share their writing this will allow them to find any spelling and grammar mistakes in preparation for the final check in. Children should also now be writing their finished story up in a published form.

I will also be meeting with pupils individually to complete the revision check in. This will probably the rest of the week to complete.

Math:

Pupils will be continuing with the division pathway. We will be working on this for the entire week and pupils should be finished with the entire pathway by the end of next week. I will then be completing a short check-in to see how pupils have got on with the division pathway.

Science:

Pupils will continue to research and inquire about their chosen topic. It might be worth children spending a little time at home to research this topic and then printing off material to read in greater detail in class. They are also able to email me with pages to print if that would be easier.

German:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

diese Woche haben die Schüler weiter an ihren Reizwortgeschichten gefeilt. Zudem haben wir die Rechtschreibstrategien vertieft und schwierige Lernwörter wiederholt. Desweiteren wurden einige Übungen zum Leseverständnis durchgeführt.

Bitte denken Sie daran, dass die Schüler jeden Monat ein Buch bei Antolin bearbeiten sollen. Bis Ende November sollten die Kinder zwei Bücher bearbeitet haben (je eines für Oktober und November). Viele Schüler sind aber bereits sehr aktiv und haben fleißig Punkte gesammelt.

Herzliche Grüße und ein schönes Wochenende

Agnes Fojcik

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.

Newsletter 18.11.16

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

This has been a week where I have truly seen a class of writers. Pupils have been excited about improving and revising their original draft stories. They have chosen to put extra effort into their writing whenever they can and they are now using all the skills we have discussed in class. I believe this has stemmed from the latest rubric which was given out on Monday. This is for the next check-in which I will be starting with pupils next week. During this check-in I will be looking at the revisions that children have been making and ensuring they fully understand the writing process. 

Many pupils already seem ready for the check-in and I am excited to hear what they have written. If you are able to, this weekend, please have your child read their story aloud to you. Even by just reading it aloud to someone new can have a big impact on what they notice.

In math we continued with the multiplication path way, I’ve been incredibly impressed with pupils attitude to the pathway, almost all seem to be really enjoying the pathway model of teaching as they are able to work at their own pace, seeking assistance when necessary. All pupils should have now finished the pathway and today we completed a check-in quiz related to the pathway. 

We began to look at our inquiry unit this week in science, pupils will be diving into the topic of ‘How does my country impact the world’. For this they choose a country along with a concept, which we discuss in class, then pupils will research how their country fits into the concept and how this has an impact on other countries in the world. 

Thank you to all the parents who have already managed to attend a meeting with myself this week, I will continue to meet with parents next week. 

Most parents have already signed up to a time slot, thank you for doing this so quickly. Each meeting will aim to last for about 15 minutes. If there is anything in particular that you would like to discuss please let me know in an email ahead of time. Please also let me know if you would like me to organize another member of staff to be there to translate as my German may not be up to par. 

http://doodle.com/poll/ngnd2e8rrqam36hk

 

Important Dates:

-          Monday 14^th November to Thursday 24^th November Parent Teacher Interviews being held.

-          22^nd November School Photographer

-          28^th – 29^th November the Usborne book fair will be taking place in the Library. More information regarding this to follow.

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

English:

During the mini-lessons next week I will begin to instruct pupils about how to move on from revising to editing their text. This will involve looking for punctuation, spelling mistakes and grammar.

I will also be meeting with pupils individually to complete the revision check in. This will probably take one and a half weeks to complete.

Math:

Pupils will be starting the division pathway. This is an area that I feel a lot of pupils will find tricky however, because I was aware of this previously, I have ensured that the pathway breaks down division to the very basic steps of splitting amounts up. We will also be looking at specific language that is related to division such as divisor and prime numbers.

Science:

We will be continuing to look at the inquiry model and then pupils will be starting to research and dive in to their own inquiry. This may require pupils to do a little research at home although I will guarantee some ICT for pupils to research and we will be discussing appropriate researching methods and how to check the credibility of information found on the internet.

Humanities:

This week I gave a project out in humanities which links to our perspective topics. Pupils have chosen a topic that they know could have two different perspectives; these were discussed in class however pupils had free choice over the topic itself. Children are going to then investigate their topic, this will most likely come in the form of an interview or two, depending on their topic.

German:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

in dieser Woche haben wir als Vorbereitung auf das Lernwörterdiktat in der nächsten Woche noch einmal die Lernwörter sowie wichtige Rechtschreibstrategien wiederholt. Besonders haben wir uns dabei auf die Groß- und Kleinschreibung konzentriert.  Außerdem haben die Schüler begonnen, erste Notizen zu ihren Reizwortgeschichten anzufertigen und Ideen für ihre Geschichten zu entwickeln. Zudem haben die Schüler das Präteritum wiederholt, da die Geschichten in dieser Zeitform verfasst werden sollen.

Das Lernwörterdiktat wird in der kommenden Woche am Freitag, den 25.11.2016, abgehalten. Die Bewertungstabelle finden Sie im Anhang.

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein erholsames Wochenende!

Herzliche Grüße

Agnes Fojcik

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.