Primary eNews – April 17, 2020
Primary Student Learning Packs
Parents of the grades listed below are welcome to come to school between 9 – 10 am next Monday 20th April to collect new Learning Packs for their children. Parents should drive to the courtyard from the north car park end, stop at the courtyard to return any school resources, including library books and levelled readers that need to be returned and collect a new pack. Parents coming after 10:00 am can collect their child’s Learning Pack from the Security Office at the front gate.
Classes with new packs on Monday. Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2 & Grade 4
Classes without new packs on Monday as the teachers have provided enough resources for another two weeks of learning in the previous packs. Preschool, Grade 3 & Grade 5
Student-Led Conferences
Unfortunately, our Student-Led Conferences that were planned for 17th March were canceled and will not go ahead this year. Semester 2 Reports will be published on Tuesday, 9th June. Parents are reminded that they may request a Parent Interview with a teacher at any stage throughout the year should they wish to. If you wish to request an interview, please email the teacher and you can both organize a phone call, Skype, Zoom or another medium for the meeting to take place on.
Punctuality to Zoom Lessons
I would encourage you to ensure your child attends Zoom meetings on time if they are going to participate. I was in a Primary class this week in which two students arrived 15 – 20 minutes late resulting in two separate interruptions to the lesson and the learning of the students already in the group. Please aim to have your children ready for all Zoom meetings 5 minutes early so that your child can join in the greetings at the beginning of the lesson with their teachers and friends and then be ready to learn when the lesson starts. Thank you for your continued support of our Distance Learning Programme.
Half Day Teaching on Tuesday 21st April
This is a reminder that teachers will only be teaching / available to support students with their learning until 12:00pm on Tuesday 21st April. From 1 – 4 pm, all teaching staff will be working collaboratively to finalise our Council of International Schools (CIS) Report Writing in preparation for next year’s scheduled CIS / IB Evaluation Visit.
Grade 1 Inquiry
As part of their unit of inquiry, Grade 1 have been designing products and services. They have been learning about goods and services, needs and wants, producers and consumers and supply and demand. They have used their knowledge of economics to plan, design and create a product or service. Here are some advertisements for their very exciting goods and services. Well done Grade 1!
The Grade 3 Jokers! 
We are still enjoying sharing our jokes together every Friday in Grade 3. Click on the image to the right to see our latest edition of Distance Learning Joke Friday for you to enjoy!
Grade 4 How We Express Ourselves 
Inquiring into how text, colour, and images are used to influence audiences has been a focus for Grade 4 over the past week. Their Daily Colour Challenge was to highlight objects of different colours and write 100 words describing the emotions, memories and feelings that these evoke. Here is a Virtual Gallery of some of their discoveries.
While reading Matilda by Roald Dahl, students identified powerful verbs, strong adjectives and onomatopoeia. They are revisiting writing persuasive articles using the prompt “People could never live without machines!” We have had some interesting discussions in ZOOM and look forward to their final pieces, so watch this space.
New (and temporary) digital resources available for all BIS community members
Companies and vendors continue to offer high quality (and usually expensive) online and digital products for schools who are in the midst of distance learning. You can check out the BIS Library website and the left-hand side navigation bar for a comprehensive list, though I would like to highlight some of the more recent additions. This applies to parents as much as it does to students.
- ABDO Books – Legit high quality collection of thousands of ebooks. Have many of the same nonfiction paper books the Library owns and tha are top sellers across the world. Also features fiction. There is a primary/elementary collection as well as a secondary/middle and high school collection. Login information is on the site. Multiple languages offered. Available until June 30 2020.
- Rosetta Stone – The world’s top language learning software. Can take lessons in over 20 languages including Bahasa. Login information on the website (do not use the Google sign-in option). You will have to register, but it is free. You must also choose a language when login in, but you can choose a new language each time you enter the database. Available until May 13 2020.
- PebbleGo – One of the most popular younger Primary databases in the world. Login information on the website. Available until May 31 2020.
- eBooks from WorldBook – collection of eBooks form WorldBook, a leading database provider. A login may be required. It is: Username: baliishome Password : bis1234
- BIS Library ebook and audiobook collection – Curated collection of ebooks and audiobooks. Tens of thousands in total. Some of the top players in the industry such as Audible and Follett. All free with login information (where applicable) on the site.
-Mr. Marshall
From the PE Shed
Hello to all our families out there. I thought I would share with you some helpful links and resources that I have discovered that help to keep you and your family active and lead a balanced life while at home.
Meditation and mindfulness. This is a free resource that can be used online, via tablet and/or phone. It is straightforward to use and records your progress. This is a great one to do either alone or with other members of your family and then engage in discussions regarding pre & post feelings. Smiling Mind.
Physical workout. “The Body Coach” is an English gentlemen who supplies a wide range of free workouts, for young children, right through to 30 minute HIIT workouts. Easy to do, no equipment required and free. The Body Coach TV
Yoga. “Cosmic Kids Yoga” while technically designed for kids, this is a great resource that is free to use with your child/children. Most sessions involve an interactive theme e.g. Halloween, Frozen, under the sea etc. Cosmic Kids Yoga
If you have any further questions, or would like to share your success with any of the above resources, I would love to hear from you swatson@baliis.net
Stay healthy, stay active, stay happy!