On October 5 you are invited to make an appointment to come to 5R with your child. This is an opportunity for your family and I to discuss observations from the beginning of fifth grade, and set plans and targets for the coming months.

Please click on this link and add your name to an available time slot. Further details on these conferences are included below.

Family Conferences and Parent-Teacher Conferences

Friday 5th October 2018

Dear Parents,

Family Conferences (for G2, G3, G4 and G5 students) and Parent-Teacher conferences (for KG and G1 students) will be held on Friday, October 5th. This is an opportunity to have a conversation with your child’s teacher about their learning and progress. There will be no classes on this day (also at the ECC).

Please note the following:

• In Grades 2, 3, 4 and 5 your child is required to join you for the conference. We feel it is important that they hear what their teachers have to share and that they have a voice in the conversation. Students in KG and Grade 1 are not required to attend the conference.
• Please sign up for a conference slot on the signup sheet published on your child’s class blog.
• On the day of the conferences, there will be  child care supervision at Waedenswil for children aged 5 and above. This is on a drop in basis and does not need to be pre-registered.
• Please try to be punctual for your conference. The schedule is very full, and we want to ensure everyone has their full 15 minutes with their teacher.
• 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 (please note Elif Raskin will not be present on this day) and PE, please feel to drop in to meet the teachers, the Lower School Gym for PE, respective Art classrooms for Art – (B203 for Ms. Reymond and the Maker Space at 150 Steinacherstrasse for Mr. Philpot).

Dear 5R Families,

Starting today, every 5R student should have their agenda in their backpack each day going home and each morning returning to school.

• To help students stay organized with upcoming responsibilities
• As a conversation starter/communication aid between home and school

My hope is that the agendas serve to inform the conversations you have with your child in the evening. There is no requirement to use that day’s information to prompt a discussion, however, if you do, I would love it if you could initial or sign at the bottom of that day’s column.

The agendas will come home with your child each day, and must return to school each morning.

Would you please:

• use their notes as conversation starters to chat about their day
• initial/sign at the bottom of the day’s column, if you have had a chat with your child about their school day

We hope this can be a valuable tool for improving home-school communication, and preparing students for the organizational demands of middle school.

We welcome your feedback on this learning tool!

Those of you who attended the Meet the Teacher night some weeks ago will remember this topic, but today we brought it to life in class.

Mr Kirkwood came into 5R to prompt an exploration of the Digital Dilemmas website this afternoon. Reflecting on his experiences as a parent, an educator and a digital user he walked the class through a discussion on the topic of disconnecting. Drawing on resources from the site, particularly the amazing photography of Eric Pickersgill, we discussed the way being on our devices can often make us feel “alone, together”.

The following text is from Mr Kirkwood, explaining your “family homework”, and introducing the Digital Dilemmas project.

While the digital world is a wonderful source of information, navigating the social and emotional implications of this online world can be challenging. We believe the best way to address the questions and concerns we all have about the digital world is by working together.

So, we are launching a new initiative with our Grade 5 students and their families. This initiative will involve conversations about the digital world in classrooms, in the library, and most importantly, at home.

Here’s how it works:

• We’ve developed a website to guide these important conversations. This website is the hub of this initiative (click here to access) and presents a number of “Digital Dilemmas” which many of us have faced.
• Beginning next week, we are asking each family to “work through” at least three dilemmas found on the website.
• After each section you’ve explored, there are a few questions for you to answer.

Our goal is to open this discussion, generate ideas, and share strategies. Your input will enable us to do this. Please plan to complete the work before the October Break.

Together, as a community, we can find ways to successfully manage our online world.

Let us know if you have any questions

We’ve left Torgon and are rolling down to the valley on our way home. Our buses have all left Torgon, and all classes are on schedule to arrive together. At the moment, we anticipate that all classes will arrive at the Wadenswil campus at 4:30. This is an update to the times outlined in the earlier email from the Lower School. 

We look forward to seeing you in a few hours! In the meantime, a final few photos from today’s adventures…

A final full day of activities in Torgon!

Today the drizzle continued on and off, but fifth grade put on our waterproofs and persevered with all of our planned activities, right up to and including our full grade bbq cook-out! At the end of the cook-out, each activity group performed a short skit they’d put together over the course of the week.

We’re looking forward to a final activity session tomorrow morning, before hopping on the bus back to Wadenswil. Our expected arrival time is 4pm. If we will be any later, we’ll post a quick update to these classroom blogs with our estimated arrival time.

In the meantime, enjoy this final batch of photos from today’s adventures!

Another great Torgon day!

Today fifth grade continued our activity rotations and the sky stayed clear and blue. Only two more sleeps until we roll back to Wadenswil. Enjoy some photos of todays adventures here!

A great day in Torgon! Grade five kicked off our activities today. Three groups went hiking to France, while others explored orienteering, shelter-building, rock climbing and other adventures.

Perfect weather, and a perfect outdoor day!

Please enjoy today’s images in this folder.

After a traffic-prolonged drive, and a long switchback climb into the mountains, we arrived safely in Torgon. Students received their room and activity groups, met their counsellors for the week, and went straight to lunch.

An afternoon of team-building games followed, in the lush grassy field under a bowl of peaks. Tomorrow, the activity rotation begins!

For today, please enjoy the linked folder of images. We’ll endeavour to post another folder each day, through the week. Each will be linked through a post like this one on the class blog.

After a great journey, we have arrived. Everyone is in good spirits and can’t wait to meet our counsellors and get our adventure started.