4B Final Week 2014-15

The students have now packed their bags and headed off for the long holiday break. They have grown immensely during this school year and have come to understand that inquiry never stops. Their thinking skills are becoming more developed as they now understand the importance of justifying their own ideas and questioning others'. As they grow on their path towards life long learning and journeys of discovery they are in a good position to face any challenges that come their way. It has been a year of changes, particularly with the change of teachers in the first week of school, and again for these final few weeks, but their coping and  adaptive skills have been admirable. Well done 4B, you have been great to work with. Good luck to Will, Annika, Jacco, George H and Hoshina, as you move to new countries and schools. We look forward to seeing the rest of you back here in August. To everyone, have a great holiday and remember to keep both your body and your mind active.

Have a look at moments from our final week as 4B, 2014-2015.

Semester 2, Week 18

The recent week was a lot of fun. The Saturday picnic on the field was enjoyed by students and parents and was a good time relax together. While the students played football and water games the parents either joined in or chatted together. There was plenty of food shared between everyone and we all enjoyed a unique Sudanese style barbeque. Thanks to Annemarieke and Hege for all their collaboration and organisation for the picnic and throughout the year.

During the week we finished off a few things: position and direction in maths, mapping information that we had researched on Earth and the solar system using Inspiration, publishing explanations related to the unit, and teaching Year 5 about Earth's unique features for our summative assessment. We had a great time during the Swim Gala where everyone showed how well their skills have developed in the different strokes. Mr Brad also came to help us save some of our digital work onto our own folders on Moodle.

We are now into our final week of school and have numerous things that we will be working on. The aim is to continue to make learning interesting while continuing to lead the students towards greater depth of thought as they inquire, question, synthesise and evaluate all that they do.

Semester 2, Week 18

Semester 2, Weeks 16 and 17

Below are the slide shows from the last two weeks. We are currently wrapping up inquiring into Earth and the solar system, writing explanations and learning about position and direction. There still seems to be so much we can do but we have to remind ourselves that this is only one year of life's educational journey.

Semester 2, Week 16

Semester 2, Week 17

Semester 2, Week 15

As the end of year looms closer we are working hard to complete the many requirements of our syllabus. Even though it is getting hotter and the children are showing signs of tiredness, enthusiasm continues to run high. Our inquiries into the solar system and Earth are well underway and a lot of new knowledge has been gained in recent weeks. It is pleasing that different items are being brought in from home to add to our resources and this is an indication of the high level of interest. The experiments exploring Earth's uniqueness, that were sourced at home and shared in class, were a great way to consolidate understandings. We are moving on to individual inquiries now to answer questions that have been raised along the way. From the specific interest areas we will share our findings so that everyone can benefit.

A lot of reading is being done for the unit which helps to develop research and recording skills. This is very important in the process of learning how to identify and use key information. Maths has continued with fractions, including ratio and proportion, and understanding how these are used in real life situations.

Please view the video of last week's activities.

Semester 2, Week 15

Year 4 Transition Activities

Parents have received a transition letter regarding the process of helping students in Year 4 to move onto next year, with and without existing friends. After the initial stages that have been outlined to you we will move on to Stage 3. Activities and actions we will spend time on are:

STEP 3 - Both Departing and Students who are Staying – This will take place from Sunday 10th May until the end of the semester during class and break times.

Writing Messages, Taking Pictures, Creating an individual Leavers’ Book and Leavers’ Class Book and Final Leaving Activity.

Writing Messages

·      I want to say "Thank you" and "Good bye"(People, Places, Activities, Pets/possessions)
·      I want to say "Sorry" to…
·      My shared memory with…

Take Photographs and Paint / Draw Pictures

·      Take photographs of our class mates and friends, places, activities, possessions and pets;
·      Draw/paint pictures of our class mates and friends, places, activities, possessions and pets.

Leaver’s Book and Class Leavers’ Book

·      Each student who is leaving with create their own book to take with them with memories of their  time at KICS and in Sudan.

·      The students who are staying with create a class leavers’ book to remember the students who are leaving KICS.

Final Activity

·      Final school goodbye activity – The class will work with the Year 4 teachers to plan this activity.

Year 4, Semester 2. Weeks 13 & 14

Starting our new unit has brought about great excitement.  Connections to the central idea, "Earth is a unique planet within a complex solar system" are already being made and some great research and inquiry is starting to take place. Trying to draw the planets unaided was an interesting way to start the unit and brought about much discussion. This was followed by creating mobiles of the solar system where we needed to ensure the planets had the correct scale. To start our thinking about what makes Earth's unique we carried out a number of simple experiments. These helped to set up a long list of student questions which we hope to answer during the next few weeks.

In maths we have been working fractions: specifically, ordering them according to size, comparing equivalent fractions, finding fractions of quantities and recognising mixed numbers. We will look into these further next week and also find out about the connection between fractions and ratio and proportion.

Our written language focus is explanation and we have written explanations about things we have learned during previous units; the water cycle, how a civilisation develops, how we digest our food or how a company decides which goods to produce. The reading focus has changed from play scripts to identifying key information in non-fiction books. We are using our unit reading books to write fact files to show the key information about planets.

We visited Year 6 to hear about their learning journey and the action they have taken during their PYP Exhibition. It was interesting for our students to see how much can be accomplished by students only a couple of years older than themselves. Year 6 students have introduced action components that are truly sustainable and we encourage our younger students to follow their initiative.

Take a look at some the action in class during the past two weeks.

Semester 2, Week 12

This week we ended our inquiries into trading and all its variables with a Year 4 barter market. This involved no money and put students into a similar situation to the beginning of the unit when they were given 5 classroom objects to trade. This time they brought three gently loved items from home that they were prepared to part with and then had to barter with their peers to replace them. There was a lot of cross trading going on and everyone came out a winner. What was especially interesting was how calm and thoughtful the students were as they worked to get what they wanted. This was a real contrast to the earlier experience where there was a lot is demanding, grabbing and shouting. It was a true reflection of how much they have learnt in just 6 weeks. The children, themselves, can relate the steps through which they have passed to develop their knowledge and skills and it appears we have some budding businessmen and businesswomen in our midst.

In 4B we created and performed more plays for reading and learnt about probability in maths.

Look at this week's video to get a better picture of their learning and remember to visit our Edmodo pages to participate even further.

Semester 2, Week 12

Semester 2, Week 11

Last week was a lot of fun. It was exciting to see our students so involved in preparing for their Entrepreneur's Market.  They had many things to think about including; product, pricing, supply and demand, marketing and negotiating. The market was a great success financially and after paying back their loans there was a profit of SDG3700 which will go to Kids for Kids. Our students have learnt so much during this time and have developed a real understanding of the basics of business. We have to feel really proud of the maturity shown and the knowledge gained during the past few weeks. It was hard for them to be producers and marketers rather than consumers on the market day, and that was another big learning curve. This week we will finish the unit with a "win-win" situation for everyone when they will be bartering between themselves for "gently loved" items they have decided they can afford to trade. We want them to understand that sometimes this is reality but also want them to come away with new treasures.

Of course we have continued on with reading, writing and maths throughout all these activities. In 4B we have been producing plays, writing poems and learning more about data handling and dealing with money and decimals. This week we will continue in the same vein and also look at probability in maths.

Slideshow Week 11

Year 4 Weeks 9 and 10

Before the break, life became very hectic at KICS with many events taking place in and out of school. A highlight was our trip to Souk as Sha'abi to find out what the perceived value of 50 SDG is. In less than an hour our students needed to identify goods they would like to purchase and negotiate with stall owners to get the best outcome. Some interesting decisions were made, lessons were learned and the majority were pleased with their level of success.

We have come back to school after the break with full focus on becoming successful producers and marketers as we work towards the Entrepreneur's Market that will take place on April 1st. Many children have been very pro-active in determining how they can gain awareness for their product and ensure their success. Though they are working together to raise funds for "Kids of Kids" they are also working for individual profit as they each need to repay the loan they have signed for. We're hoping that parents are also assisting the children to understand the costs within a business by charging nominal fees for use of extra products, gas, electricity, time etc. This week Ms. Fadwa's daughter spoke to us about how she has developed a business making friendship bands. This helped create awareness of how you need to keep developing your market to sustain sales.

In maths, the focus has been on money; using different currencies around the world to learn how to apply the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to money. This has brought about the introduction of decimals and helped to make further connections between the base 10 number system and the real world.

In reading, 4B has been working with picture books that tell stories yet still relate to concepts within our unit. The discussions and questions taking place show how aware the students have become of specific market terms and their connections. We have also started to look at the differences between novels and plays. Through this we have read some shorter stories and are working on turning them into plays that we will perform to the rest of the class. Our written language focus continues to be poetry. We have written, haikus, free form poems using similes and quatrains. Next week we will learn about and create our own diamonte poems.

As we move into the final two weeks of our unit "The supply and demand of goods leads to trading" we encourage discussions to continue at home to foster deeper understanding of this central idea. A line of inquiry that is particularly relevant to living in Sudan as it impacts all of us and deserves some consideration is, "evidence of supply and demand in our society." There is still room for acquisition of knowledge about the different forms of trading, also.

Thoughts from parents and students are always welcome and sharing these on Edmodo encourages participation and interaction between all.

Look at what has been happening recently on http://youtu.be/d3UFK_VPbMc

4B Student Led Conferences

Thank you, to all parents who came to school this week to share in the learning journey of our 4B students. The children loved being in charge and showing how far they have come this year. The confidence and pride displayed was terrific to see and was a true reflection of their personal growth.

Our SLC conference slideshow can be viewed in 4B Student Led Conferences

Student Led Conferences_Arabic 2

Thank you to all the parents  who took part in the Arabic activities today in our Student Led Conferences. I hope you enjoyed watching your child lead the way and that the experience gave you a better idea and understanding of what we do in the Arabic classroom.
If you have any comments, feedback or questions please do not hesitate to contact me on lama.masri@kics.sd
نهاركم سعيد وشكراً جزيلاً

Have a nice day!
Mrs. Lama

Swimming

Dear Parents,

After the March break all students in Reception to Year 6 will begin swimming for PE.

Could you please send your child with a towel, swimsuit, sunscreen, flip flops and googles (if they wear them) on their PE days.

Swimming is an integral part of our PE programme at KICS and we teachers are looking forward to the students improving upon the work that they did in semester one.

I hope you all enjoy a restful but active March break!

Thanks as always for your support,

Mr Andy and Mr Branden

It's all about negotiation.

This week the students had the opportunity to find out about their own trading skills as part of the tuning in experiences for our new unit, "The supply and demand of goods and services leads to trading." We played our own trading game where each student started with 5 things the same, e.g. 5 pencils, 5 rulers, 5 books... and then they had 10 minutes to negotiate and trade with each. This was a real learning experience; some children quickly realised that not everything had the same value and even amongst themselves the perceived value of different items varied considerable. After the 10 minutes were over everyone compared what they ended up with and discussed what they had learned. It was exciting and noisy as is shown by the accompanying video clips but we did discover several prospective hard-nosed businessmen in our midst!

View the frantic activity in 4B!

Semester 2, Week 6

Celebrate Sudan has been a great way to end our study of ancient civilisations and the changes over time to the present.We have been able to enjoy, first hand, some of the traditional music, dances and crafts that are so important to Sudan's history and culture. This has enabled us to make further connections between the past and the present. It has also increased the realisation of the importance of learning about the past so that we can appreciate how things have started and the progress that has been made over many thousands of years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzJj-7Gh9aE&feature=youtu.be

Semester 2, Weeks 4&5

During these past two weeks we have delved more deeply into different civilisations and written reports on a selected ancient civilisation that we researched.  We also looked at where the six of civilisations studied were placed in time and created a timeline to show the periods covered by each. This helped us to understand how each of the civilisations was able to function and survive completely separately from the others. Throughout the unit we have constantly made links to between the past and the present and the changes from earlier models to present day items that we use. It is not easy to say what things will be like in the future, however, by considering connections they have already made the students have also been thinking about what life will be like in the future; the things people will use, things that will no longer be required and advances that may have been made in different areas. Though very fictional and hard to imagine the students put their ideas to good use and enjoyed using Minecraft to create what houses or classrooms could look like 200 years from now.

We completed our stories for the short story competition. These were fictional tales based in Sudan. The children were given three titles to choose between. Many had good ideas for the start of their narratives but it was clear that more thought about how to build up a story and develop ideas further is a skill that needs developing. We have been reading myths and legends as part of our unit and students are currently working in pairs in 4B to develop their own myth. We plan to publish these as graphic stories using Comic Life 3.

Recently we have been looking at time in maths. Understanding and reading time are important skills to have throughout life. By helping the children, at home, to read both digital and analogue time, as well as working out elapsed time (e.g. the time between an event starting and finishing) would be very beneficial. In numeracy we have continued to work on division and multiplication. Earlier on we learned strategies to help us with these and now we are able to apply the understanding to the more traditional formats.

We were lucky to have visiting Artist and Calligrapher, Hassan Musa, teach us the basics of calligraphy in art this week. It was very interesting to experiment with the effects that can be created using just a strip of cardboard and black ink. We're hoping that the tiles we create for the new cafeteria will be a good reflection of what we have learned.

Now we are looking forward to Celebrate Sudan Week, visiting author Sam Osman teaching us how to write myths and fables and Open Campus Day. There's never a dull moment at KICS!