Primary eNews – Aug 26th, 2022

Our First Parent Session of SY 22/23
Thank you to all of the parents that were able to attend our first PYP workshop of the year focusing on an Introduction to the PYP.

As promised, here are the slides for your own viewing. You can view them by clicking here. 

Parents started off by creating a headline to summarise their own schooling experience which can be seen below. This supported parents in understanding the importance of making a connection with what they know and identifying any misconceptions that they may have about education systems based on their own experiences.

After this, parents used a visible thinking routine called KWL to identify their prior knowledge and what they wanted to learn more about. 

Kickstarting inquiry in Grade 4
Grade 4 have taken their initial steps into our first unit of inquiry using a visible thinking routine to generate discussion, prepack unit vocabulary and prepare for their pre-assessment task. Students were asked to consider the key language of the transdisciplinary theme: Sharing the Planet, from their point of view. This thinking routine, Chalk Talk (Project Zero Harvard Graduate School of Education) encourages sharing and responding to ideas without discussion. This “silent conversation” gives all students time to consider their own and others thoughts without interruption. It encourages students who may find it challenging to have their voices heard in group discussions the chance to share and its a fantastic way to highlight perspective. 

Throughout this unit, students will be using the key concept perspective as they inquire into the challenges, risks and opportunities children worldwide face.  

Before inquiring into children globally, Grade 4 started by considering themselves. They reflected on their talents and challenges and used this to suggest ways to restructure the classroom. They formed groups designed and shared their ideas for Zones before working to construct these spaces. The Grade 4 learning space now includes reading, art, chillout, tech, interactive and meeting zones. 

Students established essential agreements for their new and shared space. They discussed what the Bali Island School Mission says, what is means to them, and what this might look like in our classroom. 

With partners, they created “We are…when we… “ statements from the collaborative word web, to show what it is our Grade 4 community values. Our next steps are to consider these values from different perspectives as we inquire into the rights of children.

Primary Reading Competition

At our primary assembly this morning we launched our first reading competition of the year. “Reader of the Month”. Starting from today until the 30th of September. The competition involves earning as many stars as possible on RAZ kids. The student with the most stars from upper and lower primary will win a special prize. Students can earn stars by logging in to RAZ kids and listening to and reading books. They get the greatest amount of stars by completing a quiz to test their understanding of what they read afterward. Best of luck to our readers this month!

Primary Highlights This Week:
This week, we had other Parent Information Sessions for Grade 4 – 10 EOTC Camps and Primary Open House. We also finally had our 1st Primary Students Assembly this morning, we introduced our Junior Primary StuCo, celebrated by singing to those who have birthdays in August, singing our school’s song & we launched our first reading competition of the year.

Thank you to all of the parents who were able to attend the parent sessions & Primary Open House this afternoon. If you are not able to attend it this afternoon, here is the slides of the Open House presentation in the MPR. Please see your child’s homeroom teacher for any questions about the presentation in the classroom, this slide has been shared on the teacher’s email update this afternoon. Here are the following slides and photos of our highlight this week. Have a great weekend…