Friday October 6th.
G2 – G5 Family Conferences and PS – G1 Parent/Teacher Conferences.
On this day, school is closed for the Conferences which will be occurring in all classes at the ECC and the Lower School. In all G2 through to G5 classes, the student should also be present at the conference. There will be very limited child care provision in room C306.
To help make the signup process as manageable as possible we request the following:
Sign Up Right Now (September 26th) – for families with more than one student at the Lower School or Early Childhood Centre. These families have first priority as they have to go to more than one meeting. Please note, if you have conferences at both the ECC and the LS please allow for travel time
Sign Up From Wednesday (September 27th) Onwards – families with one student at the school should sign up.
To make an appointment with your child’s German teacher, please email their German teacher directly. These appointments will take place in German classrooms.
If you wish to make an appointment with Ms. Henry (music), please email her directly on ahenry@zis.ch. These appointments will take place in her music room B208. Other music teachers will not be present on this day.
For Art and PE, please feel to drop in to meet the teachers, (the Lower School Gym for PE, respective Art classrooms for Art).
Here is the link to the sign-up sheet. You should be able to edit the page directly. Please take care not to change another family’s conference time. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Many thanks,
Jamie
Dear 5R Families,
Things are rolling along beautifully in grade five. In Math, we’re deep into our exploration of Place Value and will soon be transitioning into a further part of this unit, reviewing the four operations. In Writing after developing a number of strategies for story ideas and writing short “seed stories”, we’ve chosen particularly meaningful seeds to draft into longer stories, and will be revising and editing them over the coming weeks. In Reading, we’re learning to record our thinking while reading, focusing on character traits. In Unit, we’re launching our Genius Hour inquiry which will go strong for the next three weeks. For more on these, log in to zis.ch and keep an eye on the G5 Newsfeed.
Two main notes to this post: Agendas and Genius Hour
Agendas
Over the past several weeks a group of 5R students volunteered to trial and provide feedback on our agendas. The results are in and starting on Monday, Sept 25 every 5R student should have their agenda in their backpack each day going home and each morning returning to school.
Last week, fifth grade students were asked: “If you could learn about one thing (a skill, subject or passion), for three weeks, what would it be?”
This weeks sees the start of our Grade 5 Genius Hour projects. From gourmet meals, to shooting hoops, to building with Lego; we are in for a wide range of creative and thoughtful projects over the next three weeks!
What is Genius Hour? Have a look at this short video to get an idea, or this site to go deeper…
How will students get started?
During the first week, the students have the chance to meet with their homeroom teacher to plan out their project as if it were a mini unit. Together we will identify key questions and skills to be developed throughout the project and a timeline to help the students keep on track.
As this form of learning varies somewhat from what the students have done before, here are some guidelines for the process and answers to some questions.
Our first Genius Hour project will last just 3 weeks. There will be several hours each week at school to pursue this learning, but we encourage students to spend additional time at home in the evening working on their projects. Parents should feel free to enjoy researching and learning alongside their children.
Week 1: This is a research week. Having chosen their subject (e.g. soccer, origami, fashion, painting, baking), the students may wish to research something of the background or history of your subject area (e.g. how ladies’ fashions or make-up techniques have changed over the last 100 years, the history of origami, the life of a famous artist). Alternatively, they may wish to research material to support your personal inquiry in week 2 (e.g. 3 different recipes for baking chocolate brownies from 3 different chefs). The student are encouraged to look for primary sources (people in your family, people in your community) who might be able to help you with your research. On Wednesday, students will be “pitching” their ideas to the class.
Week 2: This week, the students will be investigating and creating. They might be baking cakes and bringing them in for taste tests, trying out basketball techniques, making different origami creations or painting in the style of a famous artist. Experimenting, investigating, taking photos, making notes and creating videos are all possibilities.
Week 3: In this final week, the students will share and reflect on their project, share their experiences with the rest of the class and post a final reflection on their blog. The following questions will give an idea of what this reflection might look like: What progress did you make towards your identified skills? Did you manage your time independently, or did you need reminders? What aspect of the process did you find challenging and how did you overcome these difficulties? What was the most exciting part of Genius Hour?
We are looking forward to an exciting three weeks.
Better late than never!
On Friday morning before we left Torgon, students had the chance to complete a final activity with their group, finishing the cycle and ensuring that each group had a chance to enjoy the same variety of options.
Over the week all of the ZIS staff and Torgon staff commented on the maturity and responsibility of the fifth grade students. This was a real demonstration of their growth as a year group.
And of course… There are photos to share! Enjoy this final folder of images from Torgon.
Last night, just before “lights out” one student clarified: “Is tomorrow already Thursday?”
This week has flown by and today has been our final full day at camp. Everyone engaged with the activities they hadn’t yet explored. The full list of activities, as described in an earlier post, include:
Tonight, for our final evening together, we marched into the woods to share a huge barbecue dinner, a campfire and skits and songs from each activity group. Tomorrow morning, we’ll enjoy our final group activities, before having lunch and getting back on our buses to Zurich.
See you at school on Friday at 4pm! If we expect to be significantly earlier or later than this, we’ll post an update to the classroom blogs, so keep an eye on it!
For now, please enjoy photos of todays adventures.
Day three started ominously… Clouds blanketed the mountains and rain threatened as we made our way to breakfast. But as we grouped to head off to our activities a bit of blue shone through. The day came on, the clouds cleared, the sun shone through, and we had another gorgeous day in Torgon.
Groups dove into the same range of activities as Tuesday with students having the opportunity to try new options from the rotation. Three groups made the full day hike to France and reported back that it was coooooold on the border ridge.
Another great day in the outdoors! Enjoy the folder of today’s photos!
Day two…
Our first full day of camp and our first taste of all the camp programs. Today activity groups had breakfast together, packed their lunches and headed out to follow their individual schedules for the day.
Activities ranged among:
A beautiful, sunny, full-on active day in the mountains!
Enjoy the photos in the linked gallery!
Torgon in the sunshine.
It’s hard to believe we’ve only been here a day!
After arrival, the students learned who would be there roommates and dropped off their bags, before joining their activity groups, meeting their counselors, and sitting down for lunch… Gnocchi with tomato sauce and cheese, with a salad bar, naturally.
After lunch, we all went together out to the big field, under the mountains, for some activity group and whole school games. The sun came out and we played games for hours.
Upon return to the camp, students had time to shower, we had a quick fire drill, then sat down for dinner: vegetarian tacos, pumpkin soup and a salad bar. Following dinner for the evening activity, all groups set off for a night hike in the woods.
At the end of the evening, each classroom group came together to have a chat about their day and share some excitement about the days to come.
A great first day in Torgon! Enjoy today’s photos in this folder.
Stay tuned for tomorrow!
Grade 5 has traveled across Switzerland, braved snack -time in Gruyeres, and climbed the twisty road, to arrive safely at our home for the week, Torgon!
We’re excited and ready for a great week of getting to know ourselves, each other, and coming together as a community.
Stay tuned for photo updates each evening. See you Friday!
