Primary eNews – November 21, 2019

Parents are asked to view upcoming events on the BIS Events Calendar

Concept – Based Mathematics Workshop

All of our Primary teachers and a number of Secondary teachers will participate in a three day workshop from Thursday 5th to  Saturday 7th December on Concept Based Mathematics. We will be working with Math consultant, Jennifer Wathall for these three days and another three days in April 2020. Thursday 5th and Friday 6th will be regular school days for all students with our Indonesian Teaching Partners teaching the lessons that have been planned by our homeroom teachers. We will run a regular schedule with all PE, Music and Indonesian lessons taking place as normal. All After School Activities expect for MakerSpace will run on Thursday 5th December.

 

Semester 1 Reports

All Primary School reports will be published through Managebac on Thursday 12th December. Parents will receive an email inviting them to log into Managebac next week. We have decided to move our Primary reporting to Managebac as that is the online platform that our teachers use for their curriculum planning and mapping and is also used extensively by all Secondary students to support their learning. We hope that having a single platform for all reporting across the school will make life easier for all members of our school community.

 

Attendance & Punctuality

Please ring the Primary Office or email primary sec & teacher if your child will be absent. All students are expected to be at school and ready to learn from 7:45am. Students arriving after 7:45am miss start of day activities and instruction in addition to  interrupting the class and impacting the learning of other students. Any students arriving after 7:50am should stop by the Primary Office to pick up a late slip so that attendance can be adjusted. A reminder that teachers are on duty from 7:30am if students arrive early and want to play.

 

Sick Students

A reminder to parents to keep your child at home if they are sick. We have had a few children coming to school who are sick, and as a result other children and teachers have also become sick.

 

Lost Property

If your child is missing any equipment or uniform, please check at the lost property cupboard by the Nurse’s clinic. The upcoming holidays are a great time to relabel all of those items where labels have faded after washing and label any new items.

 

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 families a chance to see what is happening in other grade levels.

PE – Volleyball 

During term 2, students in PE have just completed their Volleyball unit. For students in Preschool and Kindy, this was small ball handling skills. BSSA Volleyball will continue to run until finals, which will be held on Wednesday, December 4th. It has been great to see the students working together, using communication to direct play, attending training sessions and showing sportsmanship at the end of each game, despite the result. This understanding of the game and flow that students are exhibiting has been great to watch. 

This week, we have moved on to our new unit, Gymnastics. This runs until the end of term and allows students to explore a wide range of gymnastics movements and routines. Beginning with floor, strength and core work work, we progress to the bar, low beam and vault.

 

Preschool’s Special Journey on a “Dokar”

“Dokar”, a Balinese horse and cart, is a very traditional transport system used by Balinese people before motorbikes and cars even exist. “Dokar” has just two wheels and a wooden and metal frame with a roof to shelter the passenger from the sunlight. As well as other decorations, the owner ties bells on the horse’s body, which jingle when it walks; this sound lets motorists and pedestrians know that it’s nearby. 3 people and a driver can ride one “Dokar”. Balinese people particularly the elderly, choose to take dokar because they are less expensive than other vehicles.

Started in the beginning of 2019, the Mayor of Denpasar decided to have “Dokar” as a vehicle to do city tour around the art space in Puputan. The “Dokar will be decorated in a way to attract the visitors. The visitors could find “Dokar” every day near Lapangan Puputan area in Denpasar. On Thursday, 14 th November, preschool has invited a decorated “Dokar” to come to BIS so the children could see what it looks like and have a ride on it. The children were so excited about it, they loved riding on the “Dokar” and having a special journey on it.

 

Grade 1 Scientists

As grade 1 learned about How To texts, a great interest was shown in completing science experiments. Following the students interest, we went to the secondary campus to conduct some experiments for starch, protein and fats. Grade 1 did a fantastic job! This provided an excellent base to discuss the scientific method which will be a key focus for our upcoming unit.