Grade 5 Transition Field Trips Next Week on Monday, May 25 andThursday, May 28

Grade 5 Transition to Secondary next week

Next week all the Grade 5 students will have a transition day on the Secondary campus.
The students will come to Elementary in the morning of their transition day. We will mark the class roll and then bus the students across to the new campus.

The Grade 5 students that worked with Ms Melinda for Exhibition will spend Monday 25th May at Secondary. They will get the bus back to Elementary and will be back at normal pick up time. Some parents have elected to pick their child up from the Secondary campus at 2.00pm.

The Grade 5 students that worked with Ms Emily for Exhibition will spend Thursday 28th May at Secondary. They will be bussed back to Elementary and will be back at normal pick up time. Some parents have elected to pick their child up from the Secondary campus at 2.00pm.

What to bring on the day of transition?
Students need to bring a backpack with a water bottle, snack and lunch.
Please do not deliver lunch to the Elementary campus.
Students need to wear comfortable clothing and sports shoes.

Grade 4 Assembly on Friday, April 24 at 7:45 AM on the Basketball Court

Dear parents and guardians of all Grade 4 students,

You are invited to come see the Grade 4 assembly, "The Express Factor", on Friday morning. The Grade 4 students will be rehearsing this week to bring you a series of presentations based on what they have learned in their last unit, "How We Express Ourselves".

Students in our class will be sharing knowledge of different art forms, commentaries on how artistic creation is influenced by the societies in which it exists, and personal responses to the arts, as well as some dancing, singing, and reading of individual poems!

Looking forward to seeing you there,

The Grade 4/5 teaching team

Switching Classes Again OR Back to Normal?

Dear parents and Grade 4/5 students of Room 37,

I hope that you all had a fantastic and refreshing holiday and Happy Khmer New Year!

Please remember that starting tomorrow, Monday, April 20, all Grade 4 and 5 students go back to their original classes.

This means that Grade 4 students who were with me just for the past unit go back to their original class schedules with their original class teachers.

This also means that Grade 5 students who were originally with me begin our class schedule again.

Here is a reminder of what that means:

Monday: PE
Tuesday: Art and PE
Wednesday: Music
Thursday: Swimming and Library

Thank you,

Mr. Jon

Up and Coming this Week (March 30 - April 3) in Room 37

Welcome back from a refreshing weekend everyone!

Here are a few things to look forward to this week in Room 37:

Field Trip

On Monday morning at 9:45, grade 4 students will make a short field trip to secondary in order to view the artworks of the Diploma Art students. Grade 4 students will fill out response sheets about different works of art that they see. They will also ask the Diploma Art students how society has influenced their creations.

As we will miss morning break at elementary as a result of this trip, please send your child to school on Monday morning with a snack, as he/she will not be able to purchase one on this day. 

Mathematics

This week we will be adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators before beginning a study of adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators using the ideas about renaming and finding fractions with common units from last week.

Unit of Inquiry / Language Arts

This week during reading workshop, students are developing their proficiency with the reading strategy of visualisation. They will begin the week by investigating how descriptive language causes them to visualise images and scenes from texts that they are reading. During class, they will pick a descriptive passage from "Charlotte's Web" and sketch a scene based on what the text describes. This also connects to a weekly homework assignment that students had last week, in which they had to similarly pick a descriptive passage in the book they were reading and sketch it.

In writing workshop, students will be finishing drafting and publishing descriptive sensory poems about their bedrooms and school places. Students will publish these poems on photo collages they will be making by using Picmonkey.

Student Led Conferences on Friday, April 3 (No class for students)

Students will be discussing their learning with you while guiding you through their blog/portfolio. Your child will also take you to his/her specialist classes to share work from there. If you are unsure of your scheduled appointment, please ask Ms. Kaltrina in the office at kaltrinarexhepi@ispp.edu.kh.

Grade 5 Parents and Students are Invited to an Exhibition Information Evening on Tuesday, February 17, at 5:30 in the Media Center

Dear Grade 5 Students and Parents,

The Grade 5 Exhibition teachers would like to invite you to the Exhibition Information Meeting this Tuesday, February 17 at 5:30PM in the Media Center.

At this meeting, the Exhibition teachers will share important information regarding this year's Exhibition under the transdisciplinary theme of How We Express Ourselves.

Students and parents are both invited to this meeting, as some of the meeting will involved shared discussions.

Looking forward to seeing all of you,

The Exhibition Teaching Team
Ms. Melinda
Ms. Emily

Homework and Oliver this Week!

Students involved in the Oliver production will have very light homework this week as many of their afternoons/evenings will be taken up with rehearsals and performances.

If your child is involved in the Oliver Production, all he/she must do is complete the math and reading sections of his/her homework sheet.

While on the subject, please make sure to get your tickets fast for this utterly fantastic production!

Welcome Back to Room 37!

School begins anew for the year 2015 this Monday, January 12! 

I hope that all parents and students had a refreshing break!

You may want to check this week's coming homework and my previous blog post about semester two for the most up to date information about the coming weeks.

Specifically, please remember that there will be a special parents' meeting at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, January 13 in which the Grade 4/5 teachers will discuss and remind you of important changes that will occur in semester 2 for Grade 4/5 students.

Hope to see you all there!

Hot Off the Press!!! The Grade 4/5 Host Culture Week 2015 RESIDENTIAL TRIP!!!

Grade 4/5 Host Culture Week 2015 - Residential Trip

Dear Parents,

Host Country Week takes place when many of the Grade 5 students are on a barge trip in Thailand.  It is a time for the remaining Grade 4/5 students to learn about, and celebrate Cambodian culture, by taking part in a range of activities and field trips. In the past local experts have taught Cambodian dances, cooking, shadow puppetry, mask making, and kite making.  Field trips have included visits to the Palace and Oudong  Mountain. 

This year as part of the G4/5 Host Culture Week in January 2015, we are putting together an optional overnight residential trip for the students.  The main focus will be to participate in a 20-30km guided bike ride through villages, and local farms in the locality of Ang Ta Som, staying at staying the Meas Family Homestay.   It will be a great opportunity to learn more about Cambodian crafts, and culture.

The plan is as follows:

Day 1 - Tuesday 27 January - Depart from ISPP on a hire bus at 8am

Arrive at Meas Family Homestay in Ang Ta Som. This is  about 90 minutes south of Phnom Penh down Highway 3.

The main focus of the day will be to participate in a 20-30km guided bike ride through the nearby villages. We will stop to look at the local way of life such as the farms and silk weaving.

Overnight accommodation will be provided in shared rooms at the Meas Family Homestay. Rooms come with fans and shared bathrooms.

Day 2 -  Wednesday 28 January - Morning return to ISPP.

Students will need to have their own roadworthy bike and helmet in order to participate. We will transport the bikes to and from Ang Ta Som in a hired truck.

We estimate the the cost of the trip to be between $40-50 dollars (depending on the numbers participating). ISPP also requires all students participating in overnight trips to have accident insurance. If you do not have this we are able to arrange it for approximately $15.

If your child is interested in participating, we would like you to return the slip at the bottom of the letter, so that we are able to gauge the interest in the trip and plan accordingly. We would provide more details closer to the date of the trip as well as hosting a parent meeting.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Wiggins

Important Information about the Angkor Wat Run / Bike Ride from Mr. Ben!

Hi,

Couple of reminders here regarding the trip this weekend.

Medical Information

We will use the medical information that you have already provided to the school. If there is any thing additional that you feel as trip staff that we should know about please can you email me. This could include allergies, diet requirements, medical conditions not mentioned before, or just the details of any recent medical condition that you think we should know about (e.g. just getting over the flu), if applicable. If you are not sure if the school has certain information please let us know, as it better we get it twice, as opposed to not at all.

Can you also let me know about any medicine that your child will be bringing and the dosage. Please hand this into a member of staff on the Friday, with the student's name and the dosage written on it and we will ensure that it is given to your child at the correct time.

If your child gets travel sick, and I am hearing the road is extra bumpy this year, please can they come with 2 doses of travel sickness pills that you would normal give them. One to take just before we leave and one to hand into a teacher to look after until Sunday.

Information sharing with you.

We will be checking in with the school administration everyday to confirm we have got there etc.

We will also try to post on the PE Blog  daily posts, including expected time of arrival at ISPP on the Sunday (4-5pm).


Contacting us

For emergency contact only of the group please use the following numbers:

School Trip Phone: 017 555 127
Ben Wiggins: 012 897 992

Packing lists
Please refer to the parent's presentation, which can be found at the PE Blog.

We  are asking that students wear their PE kit when cycling and running. We have also given the students a red ISPP hats and t-shirt to wear so that we can spot them easily during the weekend. One drawback of this is that all the kit  is identical, making it easy for the students to mix them up. Can you please ensure that they get marked inside with your child's name. I expect we will collect a fair bit of lost property over the course of the trip. Naming items will help them get reunited with their owner!

Valuable items and pocket money - If these are bought, the students will have to be responsible for them!  A small amount of money in small notes is appropriate, ie for buying a ice cream.  Card games and books are great for the evenings and the bus journey.

Bikes
Please ensure that the bikes coming with the students are bought to school on Friday morning and parked in the designated area. We will hand out tags to the students to attach to their bikes so we know which bikes to take with us.

Can you also please ensure the tyres are pumped up and the chain is oiled.

Students who are cycling must bring a helmet.

Arriving back in Phnom Penh
We will try to email you on Sunday morning a time that we expect to be back at ISPP. It should be between 4 and 5pm.


Packed Lunch & Snacks
Students will need a packed lunch for Friday to eat on the bus.

Students, especially the cyclists, might also want to bring  some of their favorite snacks to eat during the bike ride. This should be kept separate from the packed lunch so it not accidently all eaten up by the time we have left Phnom Penh on Friday!


Please feel free to contact me with any other questions you might have.

All the best,

Ben

Barge Trip Paperwork and Deposit Reminder!

Dear Parents,

Thank you to those Grade 5 parents who have paid the deposit for the Grade 5 barge trip, and who have sent in the permission forms.

If you wish your child to go on the Barge trip, you must send in the forms and pay the deposit by Friday (to the Financial Office at the old Secondary Campus), as we have to confirm the numbers with the company that is organizing the barge trip.

Of course, if you have any questions, please email me, see me in person, or talk to your child's class teacher.

Kind regards,

The Grade 4/5 Teaching Team

Grade 5 Barge Trip Information Meeting for Grade 5 Parents, Thursday, October 30, 6 PM in Ms. Alison's Room

Dear Grade 5 Parents,

It is time to start planning for the Grade 5 barge trip. You are invited to an information evening to find out all about the Grade 5 Barge Trip, and ask any questions you may have before deciding whether or not to send your child.

Below is a brief outline:

Grade 5 Barge Trip

Where: Chao Phraya River, Thailand
When: 27 - 30 January 2015
Run by: Experienced teachers from the http://barge.threegeneration.org/
Who is going: Grade 5 students, three Grade 4/5 teachers
Why: to practice independence being away from home, to learn how to co-operate in a team when undertaking the different barge duties, to inquire into and learn about the natural river environment with hands on investigations, to visit and learn about Ayutthaya, Thailand's ancient kingdom, to have fun!

Please would you bring your child's passport so we can copy the relevant pages. (It makes it much easier, and safer, than asking for the passport to be sent to school another time).

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday 30 October at 6 pm in Ms. Alison's room.

Kind regards,

Grade 4/5 Team

Reminder of Angkor Wat Bicycle Training This Sunday, October 26

What is going on in Room 37 this week? (And call for ENERGY EXPERTS!!!)

As we come through the ISA test this week, we are settling back into some more normative class routines in Room 37!

In math, Grade 4s and 5s will be continuing their investigations into place value and base ten by comparing and ordering numbers this week. Grade 4s will be ordering numbers up into the millions and billions, while Grade 5s will be ordering decimal numbers going down into the thousandths!

Please keep in mind that although students have Mathletics homework this week related to these lessons, I will not assign this homework until we have a chance to go through a lesson on it. Up until I assign students Mathletics work based on these lessons, they can do Live Math on Mathletics, or work on Front Row, using our class code of 3t4jt5 to log in.

In terms of our Unit of Inquiry, we are unpacking our How Things Work unit on Energy.

The central idea for this unit is "Energy exists in different forms and is used in our everyday life."

The lines of inquiry for this unit are:

Different forms of energy (form)
The ways we use energy (function)
The impact of energy on our world (causation)
Environmental effects of energy choices (responsibility)

Yesterday, students rewrote our transdisciplinary theme of How the World Works in their own words as a group, while today students drew pictures illustrating their understanding of the central idea and the lines of inquiry with partners.

As we zoom into this unit, we are looking very much for experts in any field related to energy, or the affects of energy use on the environment. Please send me an email if you are at all interested in coming to speak to our Grade 4/5 inquirers. We would love to have you come in!

Important Reminders...ISA and School Photographs Next Week

Please remember that next week Grade 4/5 students will take the International School Assessment (ISA) on Monday, October 6 and Tuesday, October 7.

While students do not need to study for this assessment, it is very important that they eat properly and get a good night's sleep on Sunday and Monday.

Absent students on either of these days will take a makeup assessment on a subsequent day.

Also next week, the school photographer will be on campus to take both individual and class photographs. Each day’s shooting begins directly after roll call. Homeroom teachers and teaching assistants will accompany students and be on hand to ensure hair and clothing is neat and tidy. These photographs will be used for the ISPP Yearbook and also to update our school database.

The schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, 7 October:  Early Years students individual photographs

Wednesday, 8 October Elementary School students individual photographs

Thursday, 9 October All class photographs

If your child is absent from school on the day of the individual photographs, we will let you know the date of the make-up session and make every effort to ensure that your child has his/her individual photograph taken on that day. However, it will not be possible to re-shoot the class photograph.

Please contact the Elementary Office (Ms. Kaltrina or Ms. Chantha) if you have any further questions about your child’s school photographs next week.

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.

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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.

You Are Invited to the Elementary Curriculum Evening and the Elementary Assembly This Week

The Elementary Curriculum Evening will begin Tuesday, August 26 at 6 PM on the basketball court. You will then be directed to Ms. Alison's classroom for a short presentation by the whole Grade 4/5 team for general information about our curriculum. After this, you are invited to come back to our classroom for a short look around and questions and answers. See you all there!

Also, please remember we have an Elementary assembly at 7:45 AM on Friday, August 29. After this assembly, you are invited back to our classroom for a brief private tour by your child!

Have a great week everyone!

NGO Fair Reminder (Wednesday 7:45 - 3:45)

"Belgrade Book Fair 2" by Jovan Popović - Belgrade Book Fair Organization Team. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

This is a reminder that on Wednesday, August 20 all Grade 4/5 students will be visiting the new Secondary Campus to attend the NGO Fair.

Please note that students will return to the elementary school from secondary school by approximately 3:45pm.

During the day students will work in multi-aged groups to listen to speakers, do hands on activities, learn more about how NGOs help in Cambodia, and how the students can take action themselves to address issues they see in the world around them.

Zach Bonner, an inspirational young seventeen year old and CEO of the Red Wagon Foundation, will also be at the fair to talk about how he took action as a young boy to help provide water for disaster victims and aid for homeless children.

Our Grade 4/5 students will be viewing a biographical film about Mr. Bonner, "Little Red Wagon", on Monday afternoon after school.

On Wednesday, please ensure your child brings:

• a water bottle 
• food to last him/her for the long day (snacks and lunch) 
• hat 
• sunscreen

Thank you for your help in preparing our students for this special event!

Please help me get to know your child by filling in this short form about him / her!

Filling out this form should only take about 10 minutes. It helps me make sure that I have the most up to date information about you and your child from the very beginning. Many thanks in advance!

P.S. Please remember to hit "Submit" at the bottom of the form when you are finished.

Labels for This Blog

Dear Grade 4/5 Students, Parents, and Guardians in Mr. Jon's ISPP Grade 4/5 Class,

Welcome to our class' blog! It is my sincere hope that this blog will be a place where we can all read and post information, photographs, and examples of learning in Room 37 starting in August of 2014.

I am beginning work on this blog now, in June, but please keep checking in as the summer goes past.

Now, I would like to mention one thing important about how this blog works. This is going to be a searchable blog. What this means is that every post is going to be labeled. To find information easily on the blog, you will have to type the topic/label that you want to see into the search bar at the top of this blog.

You will be able to see appropriate labels for topics on the right side of this blog but here is a partial list of labels as well:

For Parents,
For Students,
Weekly Homework,
Exhibition,
Unit 1,
Unit 2,
Unit 3,
Unit 4,
Unit 5,
Unit 6,
Peace and Conflict,
Invitations,
Labels,
Important Announcements,
Photographs,
Math,
Number and Operations,
Measurement,
Fractions,
Geometry,
Forms

It is my hope that making this blog more searchable and less menu related will make this blog easier to use.

Have a great long holiday everyone,

Mr. Jon