Classroom

Classroom

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Important Message from the P.E. Department About the Angkor Wat Run / Bike Trip

Dear Parents,

I am writing to you with a few reminders regarding the Grade 4/5 Angkor Wat Trip.

Training Sessions

Training sessions started yesterday and will continue on Tuesday and Friday lunchtimes at 12.10pm on the Basketball Court. We expect all students going on the trip to to participate. I will be writing to you next week with details regarding the bike ride training sessions.

Deposit

A $50 deposit was due in yesterday, payable to the Finance Office. When we have an accurate number of students participating we will then be able to calculate the final price.

Parents' Email list for the trip

There will be numerous times when we want to contact the parents of the students going on the trip with information. In order to do this we have requested that you please complete the parental contact form found on the PE Blog.

Important Date and Information

The PE Blog also contains lots of important dates regarding the trip. You will also find on the blog a copy of the presentationmade during the parents' meeting regarding the trip. If you did not attend the meeting I would ask that you please take the time to go through the presentation

All the best,
Ben
Ben Wiggins | IB PYP Physical Education
International School of Phnom Penh
www.ispp.edu.kh

Monday, September 15, 2014

No Mother Tongue or After School Activities on Wednesday and Thursday

Please remember...

There will be NO After School activities taking place this Wednesday, September 17th and Thursday, September 18th  due to Elementary Parent-Teacher Conferences.


We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.



http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/sad-girl-clipart

Message from Mr. Ben About the Angkor Run and Bike Ride and About How to Put Blog Posts on Student Blogs


Dear Grade 4/5 Parents,

Thank you to those who came to the Parents' Meeting regarding the Angkor Wat Trip. If you missed this meeting the presentation can be accessed on the ISPP Elementary PE blog - Angkor Wat page. 

This site will be where we will post information regarding the trip, such as important dates, such as when the money is due!

We also request that you complete the contact form on the blog, so that we can create an email list specific to those students participating in the trip, as information will be passed out through the PE department, and not through each individual class teacher.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Ben 


Dear Grade 4/5 Students,

If you are working out how to put your reflection of the cooperation games unit onto your blog -check out the PE blog! The latest post shows you one way to do it!

If you have any questions, please ask.

Mr. Ben

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Week of September 19 in Mr. Jon's Class!



We are quickly catapulting towards the P'chum Ben holiday next week, but before that, students, parents, and teachers will be working full throttle in room 37!

Math

In math this week, students will be exploring two different concepts related to our place value and base ten number system.

First of all, they continue to explore the different forms of numbers: word form, base ten unit form, expanded notation, and standard form. We are staying on this topic due to a bit more emphasis on how digits change in value across the different place value columns last week. In grade 4, of course, this means looking at place values up to numbers in the millions. In grade 5, students work with decimals again.

Next, we will delve into comparing and ordering numbers in more depth. Grade 4s will be again working with whole numbers up to millions, while grade 5s concentrate on decimals down to the thousandths.

Inquiry through the lens of language

For reading this week, students continue to collaboratively research a belief system of their choice with partners, adding information to a shared Google document. Later in the week, they will be turning this information into some type of oral and visual language presentation. Students will choose what application or media they want to use to show this information. For example, they may use applications such as Haiku Deck, Keynote, or Google slides. They may also choose to use other applications such as Evernote, Show Me, or Educreations. Finally, many students will elect to make a good old poster!

In writing workshop, students still learn about the features of recounts and strategies of planning and writing them. Early this week, we plan and create a joint construction of a recount about our trip to the mosque together in groups on a shared Google Doc. Later in the week, students plan and draft their own recount about either: one of our other field trips for this unit, a trip they have taken to a sacred place outside school, or a celebration related to a belief system they have witnessed or taken part in.

Homework this week...

should be fairly straightforward. Students are being asked to reflect on their development of three learner profile attributes: caring, open-minded, and reflective. In order to do this reflection, students will be using a our Learner Profile Reflections for Report Cards Form. Students will be instructed to use their best grammar and spelling as they write three short paragraphs on how they showed these three attributes in this unit. They may want to go back and review homework assignments as part of reflecting on this.

In math, students will be doing paper homework for a change. This homework sheet will deal with word, standard, expanded, and place value unit forms of numbers. This homework sheet reflects the work students are doing in class exactly. However, as students cannot do this homework until they have been taught the lesson, I have stated on the homework sheet when students should start trying to work on the homework. Grade 4s should be able to start on Tuesday night, while grade 5s can start on Wednesday night. In the meantime, if your child would like to do more math, she/he can play the Live Math game on Mathletics.

Last but not least, students will be doing some small research into the Khmer holiday of P'chum Ben. Parents, guardians, and Khmer relations/family friends...the students want to interview you about this holiday (as well as possibly due some light internet research perhaps using the "research tool" from their homework Google Doc).

After obtaining some of the facts about P'chum Ben, students will create a small presentation about the holiday on either a poster, or one of the digital applications of their choice.

Reading is the same homework as always...read every night and make two entries on our Class Reading Log Form.

Notes about computers and homework

I know that some students and parents have had difficulty with how homework is mostly done on line, especially if students use an iPad rather than a computer.

Please be patient. The quality of digital student homework, and the ease with which they are completing it, gets better and better each week and I am very happy with progress students are making. It is natural at the beginning of the year for students to experience a slight amount of stress when learning new technology on top of trying to complete their homework tasks. However, I guarantee, stress over the technology is quickly disappearing (probably at a faster rate for children than for us adults).

Now, I do realise that sometimes internet does not work, or parents/siblings are busy with home computers. I have asked students to factor this during the week and not to use it as an excuse. Students are always allowed to use classroom computers at breaks, before, or after school if they arrange it with me. Students also can always use the computer lab computers at lunch time break, or before and after school. Part of time management for homework also involves resource management, right?

I also am usually online until about 7:30 PM. Students have been instructed to please email/chat with me if they ever have issues with online homework until that time. Many students have already contacted me with questions and have had their questions answered during these times.

However, I do ask that you ask your child to contact me, rather than you contact me yourself. This is not because I don't want to hear from you of course. Rather, I want your child to get practice in sending clear, polite, and responsible emails/chats in which they have a real world reason to be very precise in expressing their needs, misunderstandings, and questions.

Special Notes

This week we have parent teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Students will therefore be dismissed at 12:00 on both days. See you all there at your allotted times.

Please remember, as well, that next week schools and offices will be closed for the P'chum Ben holiday.

Classes will resume as normal on Monday, September 29.






Commenting on this blog has been enabled!

One skill we are working on here in Grade 4/5 is how to make effective comments about artwork, writing, blogs, and digital media.

Have you ever read something on this blog that you would like to say something about?

Please feel free to submit a comment and share your ideas with me, other parents, students, and teachers!

You can do this by clicking anywhere below any post where the text says "comment" or "no comments".

I look forward to hearing from you!





Monday, September 8, 2014

Base Ten Number System and Place Value Unit Photo Expose!

Grade 4 and 5 students have been inquiring into the base ten number system and place value in the past few weeks. Furthermore they have been reviewing basic facts, math games, use of IXL, Mathletics, and Front Row applications, and have been familiarising themselves with math centers activities that will serve as independent practice all year. Follow along with these photos!

Students recorded multi digit numbers...
from facts about home countries...


Students then worked together
to order these numbers...

from least to greatest. 
Students then experimented with base ten
blocks...
...before using these blocks to
demonstrate base ten concepts...
...and connecting their models...
to place value charts. 

Author Donavan Christopher Works with ISPP Elementary Students this Week!

We are proud to announce that visiting author Donavan Christopher will be visiting ISPP this week from Wednesday, September 8 until Friday, September 10.

Mr. Christopher blends reggae rap, poetry, storytelling, and a drive for social justice together into his writing workshops and we look forward to learning about the writer's craft from him this week.

Mr. Jon's students will meet Mr. Christopher on Wednesday at an elementary assembly, will have a classroom based writing workshop session with him on Thursday during library time, and will bid farewell to him on Friday after break.

Please be sure to ask your children about Mr. Christopher and how he has inspired them to think and create throughout the week.

What is going on September 8 - September 12 in Mr. Jon's Class?

Greetings from the rain soaked Russian Market!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful long weekend and that the students of Room 37 are refreshed and ready for tomorrow!

This week, we will continue to explore new horizons in Room 37 with more exciting events related to our current unit under the theme of Who We Are  - Belief Systems. Students have been inquiring into the major belief systems of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Judaism. This week, they will be looking into Islamic beliefs and will take a field trip to a local mosque, Al Jamee Al Islami, on Thursday from 10:35 until 12:15. Please help your child to dress respectfully for this trip. Shoulders should be covered and students should wear at least knee length trousers or dresses.



Students are also beginning a small group or individual research project on a belief system of their choice this week; students will present their information next week using a medium of their choice: Keynote presentation, Haiku Deck Presentation, Google Drawing/Poster, hand drawn poster, oral report, poem, etc.

Students will loosely research based on the lines of inquiry of this unit and any other questions they have about the belief system they are looking into. They will gather and organise information on a collaborative Google Doc, record sources of information, make note of key words, and record further questions as the week goes by. Ask your child to show you this research document this week!

In math this week, Grade 5s will be using their knowledge of our base ten place value system and decimals to describe numbers in standard, word, place value, and expanded notation forms down to thousandths. Grade 4s will be doing the same, but with numbers up to hundred millions. You can help your child with these concepts this week by asking him or her to write down numbers that you say in these forms. Here is an example:

Standard form: 3.456
Word form: three and four hundred fifty six thousandths
Place value form: three ones, four tenths, five hundredths, and six thousandths.
Expanded notation form: 3 + 0.4 + 0.05 + 0.006 = 3.456

In writing this week, students are beginning a two week unit on recount writing. We begin this week by recalling and making educated guesses about the features of recounts, sorting texts into recounts/non recounts, analysing recounts to find examples of these features, and jointly planning and writing a recount about our trip to Phnom Chisor. By Thursday, students will be planning and drafting their own recounts.

Have a great week everyone!




Sunday, September 7, 2014

Mr. Jon's 2014 - 2015 Class Photos are Posted!

Please keep checking this ongoing slideshow of the learning in Mr. Jon's classroom this year as new photos are constantly added!

Extra Large Slideshow



Monday, September 1, 2014

Technological Advances in Grade 4/5!

Students using iPads to illustrate homework on their Belief Systems.

As you may have noticed already this year, one focus of our curriculum in Grade 4/5 is to incorporate technology into many aspects of what we teach and create.

Various applications and technological devices offer students new and exciting ways to display and explain their learning, to perfect self management and organisational skills, and to practice working collaboratively on projects. In addition, many online services offer innovative methods to practice mathematics, vocabulary, and recording of responses to new information.

However, as you are aware, many of these applications such as Google Classroom, Gmail, Mathletics, IXL, Spellingcity, Front Row, Blogger, Google Docs, Google Forms, Picasa, and Google Slides can present challenges in terms of memorising many user names and passwords. Such applications also perform slightly differently on different devices such as iPads, Samsung Tablets, Macbooks, and PCs. For example, adding photos to blogs on a PC or Mac is dead simple. Adding photos while using the Blogger application on an iPad is slightly more complex.

At times, these differences can create frustration as we adapt and find what I like to term "work-arounds". However, it is my true belief that our students are amazingly resilient and quick to acquire understanding of new methods of using these technological tools, often with help not only from teachers, but from classroom buddies.

At school our tireless IT department is currently streamlining passwords and usernames for as many of these applications as possible, thus the challenges of working with different usernames and passwords are quickly decreasing.

In the world of technology, finding "work-arounds" never decreases, however. In truth I believe this leads to wonderful problem solving behaviours on the part of students (and teachers alike) as we discover issues, ask questions, test new methods, see the results, and adapt our practices.

Thank you for your patience and encouragement as students and teachers learn and become efficient with using these applications and devices. I guarantee that the ride gets much smoother after the initial "bugs" are worked out!


Important Note from PE Department About Uniforms!

Dear Parents,

This week we are distributing PE uniforms to students from KG to G5. Each student will get an ISPP T-shirt and a pair of ISPP Shorts.

We will try to ensure that students get the right size, however if you feel that the uniform that your child brings home is too small or big, please send it back to the PE department the following day and we will switch it.

Once we have distributed PE Uniform this week, we transfer the uniforms to the finance office, where you will be able to purchase extra items if wish. They will be on sale there next week. T-shirts are $15 and Shorts are $10.

As of next week, we will be expecting students to come to class dressed in their new PE uniform and wearing appropriate sports shoes. We appreciate your assistance in helping the students remember.

All the best,

Ben and Andy
Elementary PE

PS: For all the latest in PE Department happenings, check out the ISPP Elementary PE blog. (You can also find a link to this blog by looking at our "The Best Blogs EVER!!" gadget at the lower bottom right of this page.)

Music Blog Link Posted!

Do you have a son or daughter involved in this year's production of "Oliver"? Would you like to know the most up to date information about rehearsals and lyrics?

Are you just generally interested in music?

Would you like to know about songs your child will be singing in our assemblies?

Then the ISPP Elementary Music Blog is a must read!

Click on the link and take note!

(You can also find a link to this blog in our "The Best Blogs Ever!" gadget down in the bottom right corner of this page!)