Although it doesn’t seem 5 minutes since we were welcoming the children for the new school year, we have already reached the end of a very busy and productive first half term. This is always a very important time in the school year, as students and teachers alike adjust to their new classes and, sometimes, a new school. I am always very impressed with how welcoming the students, staff and parents are to new students and their families when they arrive at ISM and this year has been no exception. This sense of community is such a strength of our school and one that provides your children with an excellent environment in which to grow both academically and socially. I am extremely pleased to see how quickly the children have adjusted to the changes that starting a new school year brings and they (as well as their teachers) have been working very hard since the very beginning of the term. Outside of the classroom, we have had some very enjoyable events, including a fabulous swimming gala and Year 5s class trip to La Musée des Merveilles in Tende. The parent information meeting at the beginning of the year and this week’s “Teaching Reading in the Primary School” presentation have seen us continue to support parents in supporting their own child’s learning and this will continue after half term with the “Teaching Maths in the Primary School” presentation on Wednesday 23rd November. On behalf of the Primary School staff, I would like to wish you and your families a very enjoyable and relaxing October break. Best Wishes,

Chris Benson (Head of Primary School)

Primary Newsletter October 2016

Message from Mr Benson

          By Ben Tarpenning By Sveva Ponzi Class 6A Class 5A Nov. 2015 Nov. 2015

Monaco Circus Poster Event! Each year, under the direction of S.A.S. la Princesse Stéphanie, 6 children

(from Monaco schools) are chosen to take part on the Children’s Circus Jury. We were extremely proud when Ben and Sveva represented our school on this jury last year as their poster

designs were chosen!

If you would like to design a poster about the Monte-Carlo Circus this October holiday, please make sure to write your:

FULL NAME, AGE, CLASS, ISM, NATIONALITY on the back of your artwork and hand it to your class teacher on:

WEDNESDAY 2nd NOVEMBER 2016.

RULES

Your poster must have a CIRCUS theme! You may use any sized paper, card, canvas etc. on which to create your artwork. Also, you may use an art media of your choice, such as: pencil, pen, paint, crayon, pastels, inks, junk, collage, fabric and modelling materials and

you may even sew!

Whatever the outcome of this event, all of the artworks submitted will be displayed around the Primary school.

Le  Festival  International  du  Cirque  de  Monte-­‐Carlo  Le  41ème  Festival  International  du  Cirque  de  Monte-­‐Carlo  aura  lieu  du  19  au  29  janvier  2017.    http://www.montecarlofestival.mc  

Last year’s winners of the ‘Monaco Circus Poster Event’ last November 2015.

Year 4

LLearning in the Primary School

Year 4 have been learning a lot about the human body. First we learnt about the names of the bones. We practised labelling ourselves to help us remember!

Then we carried out an investigation about the length of our bones and we compared the lengths of our shin bones. We proved that human skeletons grow as they get older, however it was interesting to see there is not as much difference as we thought in the length of our shin bones. We were also surprised to find out that just because someone is tall, it does not always mean that their shin bone is longer!

Langage et mathématiques

En mathématiques, nous commençons à utiliser pour la résolution de problèmes une méthode très efficace : les modèles en barre.

Ces schémas nous permettent de déterminer différentes solutions pour des problèmes mathématiques. Avant de calculer, il faut analyser, discuter avec les autres élèves et lorsque la solution est trouvée, il faut la justifier, la prouver à l’aide des schémas utilisés.

Tout cela est un vrai travail de langage … en mathématiques !

Analyser

Démontrer et expliquer au tableau.

Expliquer à son voisin

Year 4 As part of their homework, Year 4 had to write a ‘100 word challenge’. The only rule was to include the following words; umbrella, red, mountain, hard and floated. They came up with wonderful stories, full to the brim with imagination and exciting vocabulary.

Year 5

Investigating plant growth Year 5’s new science unit has taken us on the adventure of plant growth. Are seeds dead or alive? What’s inside a seed? How do they begin to grow? These are some of the questions we have asked. Starting with the study of fruits and their seeds we have set up class experiments to test conditions and observed the results daily. Our champion bean plant now stands at an amazing 80 centimetres after 3 weeks of growth! The final experiment tests what will happen if we place one of our bean plants in a cupboard and the other on the cupboard. Our predictions made us rather reluctant to condemn one of them to the cupboard! Many thanks to all the children who have brought in a great variety of seeds from home, we have had many and shared their own experiments in growing plants with the whole class. A special mention goes to Richard’s apple seed, Gigi’s peas, Audrey’s lentils and especially Katerina’s lemon seed which germinated in a plastic bag blu-tacked to the window, giving us an excellent view of root and shoot growth.

Fable writing! We have been very busy in Year 5, learning all about how to write a fable. The children started with a moral and two animals characters, followed by structuring their story using the writing process. The ideas, planning, drafting, editing and publishing stages have made our English lessons very exciting. They’ve created some wonderful stories and all with such excellent variety. The last stage was to assess their own writing; picking out powerful verbs, adjectives and connectives! Super work.

La visite au musée des Merveilles à Tende

Les classes 5 ont visité le musée des Merveilles. Ils ont récolté beaucoup d’informations au sujet des hommes préhistoriques. Ils ont également rencontré un homme préhistorique retrouvé congelé dans de la glace pendant des milliers d’années, son nom est OTZI.

Ils ont passé une très belle journée!

Year 6 Year 6: English Language This year’s Class 6 students have started the year well, with plenty of reading (some students have even reached their AR target already!) and lots of writing too. One of the first writing tasks was a 100 word challenge entitled “Back to School”. This evoked many emotions, ranging from anxiety and nervousness to excitement and jubilation. Discussions about that very first morning were very interesting indeed! The arrival of Autumn gave us another opportunity to develop our writing skills: displayed in the Year 6 classrooms are some beautiful examples of descriptive texts, full of rich vocabulary and powerful imagery. Through the study of autobiographical and biographical texts, we have begun to touch upon the essential skills of research, note-taking and summarising. We have also discussed the main features of these types of text, and tried to apply these in our own writing. Grammar and punctuation continue to form an important part of each week’s lessons, and I look forward to seeing each student’s increasing knowledge reflected in the quality of their writing as the term progresses!

Concernant la classe 6C, je souhaite vous parler de ce que les élèves ont appris en Unités de Recherche. Le premier thème abordé en classe 6 traite des cartes, (non pas des Pokémons, au grand regret des enfants, sans doute), mais des cartes dans le domaine de la géographie. J’ai donc souhaité introduire le sujet par une petite « Histoire de la cartographie », afin de resituer les choses dans le temps. En effet, les cartes, les planisphères, les mappemondes… que les enfants ont l’habitude de voir aujourd’hui n’ont pas toujours étaient les mêmes. J’ai donc cherché à leur faire prendre conscience que les représentations de la Terre ont évolué au fil du temps. Nous avons ainsi parlé d’un grand savant Grec, Ptolémée, qui fut l’un des premiers à pouvoir affirmer que la Terre était ronde. Nous avons aussi cherché à éveiller leur esprit critique, en évoquant le fait que cette vision scientifique du monde fut, un temps, rejetée par l’Eglise, en Europe au moyen-âge. Afin d’illustrer ses propos, ils ont vu que sur une carte du XVème siècle, l’Afrique, l’Europe, l’Asie sont représentées, mais il manque… l’Amérique ! Ceci nous a conduit à faire le lien avec ce qui avait été étudié en classe 5 au sujet des « Grands explorateurs », afin d’évoquer les inexactitudes des cartes marines, alors appelées « portulans ». En conclusion, les élèves se sont donc aperçus qu’il n’est pas facile de représenter à plat ce qui figure sur une sphère, et que toute projection déforme la réalité. C’est ainsi que nous avons pu commencer à apprendre, par groupes de deux, à utiliser les atlas que nous avons en classe !

La géographie de Ptolémée Image extraite d’une exposition à la B.N.F.

Depuis quelques semaines, les élèves de classe 6 découvrent les légendes de la mythologie grecque. Après avoir fait connaissance avec les principaux dieux de l’Olympe, ils ont lu “Jason et la Toison d’or”.

Il nous rest encore de nombreuses légendes à lire jusqu’aux vacances de Noël et les enfants sont vraiment passionnés par ces récits où réel et fantastique se mélangent, et où, souvent, les héros doivent livrer des combats extraordinaires. N’hésitez donc pas à leur en parler.

Lecture suivie en classe 6

A note from the Counsellor… We live in an increasingly digital age and, whilst this interconnectivity and increased communication can be a wonderful resource, it is also an area of concern for Educators and Parents alike. If, like myself, you are a parent who has grown up without much of the technology readily available: Internet, interactive video games, twitter, social media…. then you may sometimes find yourself wondering what guidelines to set for your children. From a psychological perspective, repeated exposure to any stimuli will undoubtedly cause a desensitization affect after a while. This might apply to video violence, bad language and inappropriate images. Whilst most parents will not allow their (under age) child to view an 18 rated film, when it comes to video games this guideline is more often overlooked. As pre-teens start experimenting with social media, a whole new arena is opened up - that of identity and body image. With constant feedback from peers and an ‘emerging need’ to document one’s life story digitally, I can see a certain new pressure on children and teens to view themselves through the ‘eyes’ of the Facebook page and how many likes they have for a particular photo! I think we should aim to educate ourselves as parents, and our children so that they can use digital resources in a respectful manner. I would like to recommend the following website which provides answers to FAQ and some helpful guidelines. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ Thanks for lending me your ear! Stephanie Woollacott

Student Council 2016-17

Elections for the Primary School Student Council took on a slightly different format this year: prospective representatives wrote a letter of application to Mrs Duncan to explain why they were interested in the position and how they would contribute to the well-being of the Primary School before making a speech to their class persuading their classmates to vote for them. The representatives for each class, together with their substitutes, are as follows: 4A Marie and Maria S 4B Tina and Freya 4C Perla and Laryah 5A Lily-Rose and Flavia 5B Angelica 5C Lina and Diana 6A Zlata and Sveva 6B Gustavo and Alexandra 6C Tiffany and Larissa The representatives meet each Friday at lunchtime, and have already brought many good ideas to the meetings. We look forward to following their progress over the coming months!

Class 4 Tyrannosaurus Rex Skulls

Class 4 Tyrannosaurus Rex skulls you see on the black cards were created after the students followed this process: In their first lesson, the students:

1. were introduced to and discussed examples of animal, human and dinosaur skeletons as well as skulls.

2. experimented different ways in which to hold a pencil and control a pencil when drawing in the air and on paper.

3. drew a sketch of the Tyrannosaurus Rex skull, using an HB pencil only, in their sketchbooks, whilst following an artist’s instructions on a video. (No erasers were allowed)!

In their second lesson, the students:

1. traced over their pencil drawing of their skull in their sketchbooks and then rubbed a pencil over this, so that it imprinted onto the black paper.

2. used a white crayon and they drew on top of the feint pencil lines. 3. revised ways in which to paint fine lines using a fine paintbrush, such as, rolling the excess

paint off the bristles and supporting the ‘hold’ by placing the little finger on the table etc. 4. had the choice to use white acrylic paint in places on their dinosaur skull. 5. sometimes used black and white pastels to create ‘balance’ in their picture.

Extension: When completed, some students drew the skull again, but this time, they used fineliner black pens (of varying nib sizes) on white paper to create a similar image - experimenting with their use of line and shape.

J.Brees

Class 4 Tyrannosaurus Rex Skulls

On  Friday  21st  October,  the  Primary  School  will  perform  the  song  they  have  been  working  on  in  Music  this  half  trimester.  All  classes  (4,  5  and  6)  will  perform  Oasis's  'Don't  Look  Back  In  Anger'  and  class  4B  will  be  performing  Coldplay's  'Viva  La  Vida'.  Throughout  this  trimester,  students  have  had  the  chance  in  every  lesson  to  evaluate  their  previous  performances  and  improve  their  performances  to  prepare  for  their  performance  as  a  whole  Primary  School.