From the Principal

Grade 5

May/June 2013

ISB Lower School Specialists’ Newsletter

Inside this issue:

Art 2

Serbian/Spanish 3

Serbian MT/EAL 4

PE 5

French/Music 6

guage study are essential elements to a comprehensive and holistic primary school ed-ucation. The content of these subjects is transdisciplinary 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 some-thing that happens when they are at home or out and about with the family. Our spe-cialists teachers work alongside our classroom teachers to develop lessons and learning opportunities that are both interesting and connected to the classroom Units of In-quiry. Our specialist teachers work with our classroom teachers regularly to find con-nections between subjects and even participate in field trips when the connection is natural. 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 our 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 your summer holiday. I look forward to seeing you all here on the Lower School campus, Brian H. Lettinga

Welcome to final edition of our Specialist News-letters. We have had a great school year here at ISB! Our specialist teachers (also referred as single-subject teachers) play an integral and important role in our Primary Years Program. The arts, physi-cal education, and lan-

Page 2

Art

Svetlana Spasic-

Glid

Art

Over the previous weeks, the students finished working on their art pieces for the Ex-hibition. In their exhibition groups they inquired into the works of the graphic design-ers Geof Mcfetridge, Jackson Pollock, and Keith Haring and combined the previously gained knowledge with their new findings and ideas. I hope you enjoyed their presen-tations. Upon finishing with the Exhibition unit, the children devoted their time to making bookmarks and birthday cards inspired by the artist of their choice and reflected on their learning during this trimester. I wish my students a great summer break! Grade 5A and 5B students have classes on Mondays.

Serbian as a Foreign Language

Page 3

Newsletter Title

Ivana Jovanovic

Serbian Language Teacher

During May, Grade 5 students were very busy working on their foreign language

piece for the Exhibition. They all agreed that our focus should be on dialogue.

Therefore, we used www.pixton.com to create comics. Students did very well,

communicating a clear message to the reader. Students were surprised with the

complexity of the project – their comics went through a cycle of changes before

they were ready to be published. This assignment provided students with an op-

portunity to think about their central ideas from a different perspective and to

use a dialogue as a way of conveying a message to an audience.

During the month of May the grade five Spanish students began a new unit

which allows for the exploration of different types of social correspondence.

We first looked at party invitations and birthday cards and are currently in the

process of planning our Spanish end-of-the-year party according to advice giv-

en in a language learning magazine we use in class. At the same time, the stu-

dents are hard at work writing personal letters. They are putting a lot of effort

into writing letters that express who they are and provide information about

their everyday life and I look forward to finding out something new about them

and seeing just how much they’ve learned this year.

Milica Rkulovic

Spanish Language Teacher

Spanish

Page 4

Serbian Mother Tongue

Milena Jovanovic

Serbian Language

Teacher

EAL

Visnja Plecas

EAL Teacher

Most of our activities in this period were linked to the students’ work on their Exhi-

bition topics. They were engaged in research activities and had discussions on a

variety of topics – friendship, how to keep the planet green and what kind of trans-

portation is suitable for this purpose. We also talked about endangered animals,

abandoned pets and how we could help these animals survive the results of hu-

man activity. The students were involved in investigating their lines of inquiry, tak-

ing notes and organizing their findings. We talked about the students’ impending

transition to Middle School and their future life in school.

Učenici petog razreda su na časovima maternjeg jezika nastavili sa čitanjem romana „Orlovi rano lete“, Branka Ćopića. Završili smo čitanje prvog dela romana koji se dešava u bezbrižno vreme kada se naši begunci igraju u šumi i uživaju u svom log-oru. Drugi deo knjige se dešava u vreme Drugog svetskog rata i u njemu nas čekaju neke potpuno druge okolnosti i događaji. Na časovima smo takođe uradili kompo-nentu na srpskom jeziku koja će činiti deo izložbe koji učenici organizuju na kraju PYP programa. Snimili smo vesti u okviru kojih je svaka od pet grupa imala svoj pri-log. Tako ćete u četvrtak moći da pogledate i saznate kako možete pomoći na-puštenim životinjama, kako pružiti prvu pomoć u svakodnevnim situacijama, kako se osećaju ljudi prema kojima imamo predrasude, koje su to pet najatraktivnijih lokacija u Srbiji za decu i kako možemo pomoći našoj planeti da bude manje zagađena.

Page 5

Physical Education

Our students took advantage of the sunny spring weather at the beginning of the month to work on their track and field skills, outdoors.

We started with running events, such as running middle and short distances. The main focus was on proper running technique, including our foot position and arm motions, as well as on the importance of proper breathing. Students were involved in individual and pair activities in order to improve their technique and endurance, as well as gain better speed and agility.

Since a good start is crucial for any race, especially for short distances, we practiced starting on signals from different positions. Later, we ran many races from standing starts and sprint start positions. We focused on our arm motion to help students to real-ize the importance of the arms’ swing during the run, especially in the very first mo-ments of a race.

We continued with relay races; practicing running with a baton along with a hand-off technique. Students were very excited about relay races. They all participated whole-heartedly, while being very supportive to their fellow runners and displaying great sportsmanship towards other teams.

The biggest challenge was probably running hurdles, which were higher than the year before. After spending some time exercising the lead and trail leg, we got used to the height of the hurdles and dared ourselves to run races. Although some of the students had doubts about completing the run, they all faced the challenge bravely and asked when they would do it again!

We also worked on improving our jumping skills by practicing the broad, the long and the high jumps. Our focus was on take-off and landing techniques, as well as on the ap-proach to the take-off area.

The end of the year Physical Fitness test is ahead of us. We have been working on our stamina, strength, agility and flexibility, thus we all believe that we have improved throughout the year!

Stay healthy through sports!

Marija Dimitrov

PE Teacher

French

Page 6

Newsletter Title

Dubravka Kostanjsek

French Teacher

Dear fifth grade parents,

Here is the last newsletter for the French class for this school year.

After wrapping up our exhibition presentations, we will review all of the important

themes covered since the beginning of the school year through various activities. The

students will also make a board game that includes questions about French language

and culture, which is a very useful tool they can use to review a lot of topics.

Thank you very much for all of your support and collaboration throughout this school

year.

I wish you nice and exciting summer holidays!

Music

Fifth graders were true and expert inquires. Working in groups, they analyzed different music forms and created authentic compositions with lyrics, movements, instrumental and singing parts. Using mouth pianos and xylophones, students learned about the difference between chromatic and diatonic melodic patterns in C scale. Our song of the month was “Sunrise Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof. Ljudmila Janicijevic

Music Teacher