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.

Newsletter 11.11.16

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

Winter has truly set in this week, most of the days we have seen grey clouds and a fair amount of rain. The Chameleons, however, are keeping spirits high and getting on with their class work. 

Throughout the week I have been finishing up meeting with pupils regarding their first English check in. I was incredibly impressed by most pupils work. You should have been shown the completed rubric with a grade on it, this is not their final grade for the project as it will be made up of 2 other grades from later check ins. As well as this we have a done another round of short reading assessments and I have seen improvements in almost everyone. This tremendous work just shows how well your children are doing in the readers and writers workshop.

In math I gave out the new pathway which is centered completely around multiplication. We focus on a single method in the mini-lessons, however if pupils are struggling with this I often suggest a different approach they could try. At the start of each session we have be doing a 5 minute multiplication challenge. Pupils were given a 10 x 10 multiplication grid at the start of the week; they then had 5 minutes to completely fill it out. Pupils have now moved on to larger grids involving all tables up to the 12 times table!

Starting on Monday 14^th November and running to Thursday 24^th November I will be holding parent conferences. These are for us to meet and discuss your child’s development so far throughout the year; it is also an excellent opportunity for you to see the work your child is doing in class and to ask any questions. Below is a link to a Doodle Event, within this you are able to schedule a time for us to meet.

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:

Pupils are now well on their way with revising their chosen pieces, from what I have seen they are doing a wonderful job at this and using a range of lenses to help them spot how they could improve their work. This will continue next week.

I will be giving out a new rubric next week which will be connected to the next check in. This will be discussed in class and it might be good for you to ask your child about this rubric, this will help them to understand what they need to do further.  

Math:

Pupils will be continuing to work on their multiplication pathway, for the second week of this I will be focusing my mini-lessons on word problems that involve multiplication. We will discuss the procedure of how to solve word problems in general and then look at how we can tell that these are multiplication problems.

Science:

In science this week we will be finishing up our preloading lessons by looking at the seasons, how they occur and what they look like in different places around the world as well as filtering in our humanities topic by discussing how different countries handle some tricky global issues.

Humanities:

We will continue to look at different perspectives in class. This is something that pupils seemed to have enjoyed very much this week. They often bring up interesting current topics to talk about and these fit brilliantly with this specific humanities topic.

German:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

im Englischunterricht arbeiten die Schüler mit dem Writer's Workshop. Dieses Konzept greifen wir nun auch im Deutschunterricht auf und starten damit in der kommenden Woche. In den nächsten fünf Wochen sollen die Schüler eine Reizwortgeschichte verfassen. Abgabetermin für die Geschichte ist der 16. Dezember 2016. Die Note ersetzt die 2. Klassenarbeit. Weitere Informationen zum Ablauf und der Bewertung entnehmen Sie bitte dem Anhang.

Um eine Geschichte anschaulich zu erzählen, benötigt man einen abwechslungsreichen Wortschatz. Deshalb haben wir uns in dieser Woche mit dem Wortfeld sagen  beschäftigt. Zudem haben wir die Regeln der wörtlichen Rede eingeübt, um die Erzählungen lebendig gestalten zu können.

Die Lernwörter der Woche waren Wörter mit y/chs (s. Anhang). Das nächste Lernwörterdiktat findet in der Woche vom 21.-25. November statt. Den genauen Termin erhalten Sie im nächsten Newsletter. Zur Bewertung: Im Lernwörterdiktat werden alle Rechtschreibfehler gezählt, also auch bei Wörtern, die nicht zu den Lernwörter gehörten. Dass Schüler zu Beginn des Schuljahres noch viele Fehler machen, ist völlig normal. Der Durchschnitt der Summe der Diktate fließt zu einem kleinen Teil in die mündliche Note mit ein. Viel wichtiger ist, dass eine Steigerung der Rechtschreibleistung während des Schuljahres erkennbar ist. Eine Übersicht mit dem Fehlerschritt erhalten Sie nächste Woche.

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein erholsames Wochenende!

Herzliche Grüße

Agnes Fojcik

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.

Newsletter 04.11.16

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

The first week back after the two week break started with a rather spooky Monday. Halloween at Phorms was a huge success, the pupils dressed up in some truly incredible costumes and the whole school took the afternoon to celebrate with a variety of activities. In 4^th grade, each classroom was open and children could move between rooms as they wished.

Pupils have also jumped straight back into work, within Writers workshop I’ve started to conference with pupils regarding the first check in. This looks at the plan and draft of one of their stories. Pupils are coming to the meetings prepared and ready for the questions asked. Those who I have met with have told me that they understand the grading they’ve received and agree with it based on our conversation.

In Math, pupils were given and have completed a multiplication and division pathway. This looked at skills which they had already learnt in previous years. On Friday we also sat a short check-in quiz to recap their knowledge. This will come home on Monday for you to see.

Starting on Monday 14^th November and running to Thursday 24^th November I will be holding parent conferences. These are for us to meet and discuss your child’s development so far throughout the year; it is also an excellent opportunity for you to see the work your child is doing in class and to ask any questions. Below is a link to a Doodle Event, within this you are able to schedule a time for us to meet. 

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:

I will be continuing to meet with people regarding the plan and draft of their realistic fiction story. Pupils will be bringing their rubrics home once we have met. Within lessons I will continue to instruct pupils how to improve and revise their stories, they will be using their writing partners to help push their work forward.

I will be starting another round of reading assessments with pupils, these are shorter than previous assessments but they will aid me in seeing the progression that has been made.  

Math:

Pupils will be getting their new pathway which is focused around multiplication; this involves multiplying with larger numbers and using a variety of formal written methods. As well as this we will be running intensive times tables workshops within the lessons to ensure all pupils are proficient with their multiplications.

Science:

In science on Monday pupils will be sitting a small check in quiz covering the areas that we studied last term. As well as that we will look at the weather and environment in a number of different countries from different continents. Pupils should be able to identify what type of climate certain countries have by the end of the session.

Humanities:

We will begin to look at perspectives in humanities, identifying that different people could see the same thing in different ways.

German:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

diese Woche begann schaurig-schön mit Halloween. Passend dazu haben die Schüler eine Krimigeschichte gelesen und sind dabei einem frechen Jungen im Batman-Kostüm auf die Schliche gekommen. Außerdem haben die Schüler mit Hilfe eines Sachtexts den Ursprung von Halloween kennengelernt und erfahren, dass diese Tradition ursprünglich aus Irland stammt. Als Vorbereitung für das Aufsatztraining der kommenden Wochen haben wir Adjektive gesammelt, die gute sowie schlechte Eigenschaften einer Person beschreiben. Um treffende Wörter zu finden, wurden die Schüler an die Arbeit mit dem Synonym-Wörterbuch herangeführt. Zudem wurden die neuen Lernwörter geübt (s. Anhang).

Desweiteren wurde das 1. Lernwörterdiktat verbessert. Das Ergebnis des 1. Diktats fließt nicht in die Bewertung mit ein. Vielmehr diente dieses Diktat dazu, dass die Schüler an einen längeren Diktattext herangeführt werden und diese Prüfungsform kennenlernen. Die kommenden Lernwörterdiktate werden dann aber bewertet. Die genauen Bewertungskriterien teile ich Ihnen im nächsten Newsletter mit.

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein erholsames Wochenende!

Herzliche Grüße

Agnes Fojcik

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.