Primary eNews – March 15, 2019
Check out upcoming events on the BIS Events Calendar
Lifelong Learners
Congratulations to Ibu Kristen (Grade 4) & Ibu Nadia (Gr 5) who have both recently completed their MSEd (Master of Science Education) from Walden University in the US. This is a huge achievement from both ladies as they balanced families, work and study. Look out for them both down at Sindhu Beach in the near future with Bali IS graduation gowns and mortarboards celebrating their achievements.
Congratulations to Ibu Ketut, our Pre School ITP and Ibu Wayan, our Grade 1 ITP who have recently successfully completed their Bachelor of Teaching in Early Years. Ibu Ketut & Ibu Wayan have been studying for this degree for the past 4 1/2 years and received their final results a month or so back.
Primary IISSAC Swimming Trials
Lunchtime trials will be held on Monday 18th of March and Tuesday 19th of March at 12.40pm @BIS. Age groups include: U/8, 8/9, 10/11 (ages determined as of age on the 26th April). The U/8 swimmers will complete 25m (1 lap) for each stroke. The 8-11 years will complete 50m for each stroke (2 laps). IISSAC Swimming is held on 26th-28th of April at Surabaya Intercultural School
Parents must accompany primary swimmers and are responsible for organising accommodation, flights and ground transport. The school will organise entries. Team members must train 3 times per week with the school swim team. In previous years costs have been between IDR 2.5 – 3.0 million per person.
Swimming Carnivals
Our Grade 1 – 5 students will participate in their swimming carnival from 8:00am – 12:00pm on Tuesday 26 March. Our Preschool and Kindergarten students will participate in their Mini Swimming Carnival on Wednesday 27 March. The Preschool students will be in the pool from 8:15 – 8:40 am and the Kindergarten students will be in the pool from 8:45 – 9:15 am. All parents are welcome to join and are asked to dress in their child’s house team colours on the day.
Swimming Lessons
It has come to my attention recently that an increasing number of students are not participating in swimming lessons because they have ‘forgotten’ their swimmers. PE and swimming are both important parts of our curriculum and all students are expected to participate in all lessons. If your child is sick and cannot participate in a lesson, parents are asked to email Pak Sam and copy in the class teacher. However, if your child is well enough to attend school, they should be well enough to participate in all lessons in most cases.
Student Led Conferences
Primary Student Led Conferences will be held on Thursday 28 March. Your child will have brought home your invitation with scheduled time. The RSVP slips are due back at school next Monday 18 March. Please note that this is not a regular school day and that there are no classes during Student Led Conferences. Please note students are expected to wear their BIS Batik during the Student Led Conferences.
Student Led Conferences provide children with a powerful and authentic opportunity to share, celebrate and reflect on their learning experiences across the curriculum. Conferences will be held in individual classrooms and will involve a number of student families simultaneously rotating through different stations. Each conference should take between 40 to 45 minutes. There will also be opportunities to visit Music, PE and Language A and B to enjoy some of the activities on offer.
We hope that you will be able to attend, engage positively and gently encourage your child to share, celebrate and reflect on learning. This should be an enjoyable occasion for everyone. Parents are invited to ask questions about their children’s learning experiences. Here are some typical questions that may help uncover some important thinking during the day.
- Why did you select this piece of work for your portfolio?
- If you could work further on this piece, what would you do?
- How is your work now different from your work at the beginning of the year?
- Can you show me an example of a learner profile or attitude you are developing?
- Is there anything you learned that made you take action? Why?
- Which pieces reflect one of your strengths?
- What are you most proud of? Why?
- What have you found challenging?
- What knowledge or skills have you learned from doing this piece?
- Have you achieved your goals? Explain? Do you have new goals?
Please remember that this is not a time for you to discuss your child’s progress with their teacher. If you wish to meet with your child’s teacher for this purpose, you should arrange an appointment to do this at another time.
Mother Tongue and Beginner Language After School Activities
If any parents are interested in leading a Mother Tongue and/ or Beginner Language After School Activity, please come to the school to speak with me to see what we can organise for Term 4. There is interest in this these activities, but as yet we have not been able to find someone to lead the activity.
What’s Been Happening in the Primary School Recently
Below is a summary of some of the fantastic learning that has been taking place across the school in recent weeks. Teachers post many of these things on their class blogs but by sharing them on the eNews it gives familes a chance to see what is happening in other grade levels.
Grade 4 STEM Challenge
In celebrating student understanding of structures and shape, Grade 4 organised a collaborative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education activity with students from Sanur Independent School (SIS). The challenge was to build the tallest free-standing tower with given materials and within a specified time limit.
The STEM collaboration promoted skills in problem-solving, communication and cooperation in the students. With a guided inquiry format: brainstorming, hypothesizing, testing, refining and reflecting, students designed, deconstructed, rebuilt their towers and had a lot of fun.
The classroom was filled with energy, excitement, pride and satisfaction. The process and team collaborations were so well enjoyed, that the final products (the tallest tower) paled in comparison to the fun they had creating.
Grade 4 aim to organise more STEM challenges to share the fun.
Grade 4 Excursion to Sindhu & Sanur Markets
As a provocation to the central idea, economic activity of production, exchange and consumption of goods and services, Grade 4 students visited local markets in Sanur. They observed the design and features of traditional markets, asked questions and engaged in transactions to discover how markets work.
Through their exchanges with vendors, students were quick to decide whether they needed goods or not and identified simple ways to help themselves get a better deal: larger quantities/ cheaper rates, pooling funds, modifying choices and sharing resources 🙂
Grade 4 used a visible thinking routine: SEE, THINK, WONDER to record their observations and interactions. Class wonderings:
- Why is some food expensive and some cheap?
- Do they plant their own fruit and vegetables, or buy it and then sell it to us?
- Who owns the whole market?
- Why do they sell all the same things?
- Are they all working together?
will be used to springboard personal inquiries throughout our new unit How We Organise Ourselves. Grade 4 has invited Mr Brown, the DP Economics teacher, to a Question and Answer session to get our finding out started.
Primary Language B Indonesian
Grade 4 has finished their unit of inquiry under the conceptual understanding of “Clothes have practical and cultural purposes”. We looked at how different situations require different clothes. We also discussed how the weather and seasons affect the clothes we wear. We developed our language skills through all activities we did in class. All students were very engaged and excited with class activities.
Students took a picture of different clothes that they usually wear for different occasions and they wrote the information in their slide show presentation. They showed their confidence and they were good communicators when presenting their work.
All students were enthusiastic when they presented a fashion show in class. They put on different clothes for different occasions and they described each other’s clothes.
Kindergarten Excursion to Mertasari Beach
Kindergarten has been learning about Earth’s natural cycles. We have been discussing how these cycles influence the activity of living things. One cycle we have been learning about it the tides. Students have worked to understand how the moon’s position affect whether we have high or low tide. They were surprised to find out that it is high tide not only when the moon is closest, but also when it is furthest away as well!
We went to Metasari Beach to see how the tides influence the way we swim and where we can sit on the beach. We were able to feel the tide coming in. As the tide came in, we made observations about how the ocean came up higher on the beach and how we could feel our bodies being moved by the waves more.
Upcoming Dates
22 March. After School Activities (ASA) Term 3 End
22 March. PTA Holi Festival Color
22 March. Upper Primary (Gr. PS, 2,4,5) Share
26 March. BIS Gr 1 – 5 Swimming Carnival
27 March. Pre School & Kindergarten Swimming Carnival
28 March. Primary Student Led Conferences. Students only attend school for their conferences
29 March. Last day of Term 3
1 – 5 April. School Break
8 April. First day of Term 4
10 April. PYP Exhibition Information Session for Grade 5 Parents
