Today we were chatting in 5R about how to celebrate our year together. One suggestion that got a lot of enthusiasm, was having a sausage campfire lunch!

Here’s the plan…

Next Tuesday, June 12, we will not be having our normal lunch routine. At 12:30 we will head out into the woods behind the school to a campfire site. We will build a fire, cook our sausage lunch, share some desserts and other foods, and enjoy a couple hours in the woods together. We will return to class for 2:30.

Here’s what we need from you…

FOOD

1. If your child gets pre-paid hot lunch from the cafeteria every day, the ZIS cafeteria staff have agreed to pack a few sausages and some bread rolls for them instead of the usual menu.
2. Otherwise, please send a sausage or two from home (a good idea if your child has particular dietary requirements, they can be veggie, kosher etc.), they can be refrigerated from Tuesday morning at school. Please send only as much as your child will eat.

If there is a problem with this please let me know as soon as possible and we will problem-solve together.

Additional foods, like marshmallows, other desserts, easy vegetables (like baby tomatoes, vegetable sticks etc.), bread rolls, potato chips, mustard, ketchup etc., as well as paper plates and utensils, would be welcome in small amounts, to share. The students suggested a sign-up sheet for this. There is no requirement that anyone bring additional foods, I’m sure we will have enough. If you would like, you can sign up here.

One last food note… Please don’t send anything other than sausages/hot dogs to cook over the fire. We won’t be able to do steak or chicken legs this time! 🙂

WEATHER

At the moment the weather looks okay for next week. This may change however. If on Monday evening the forecast looks really wet for Tuesday, we will have to cancel the event. Please keep a look out for a blog post on Monday evening if we are cancelling. If we are not cancelling, there will be no update.

What Else?

Of course, we will be in the woods for a few hours. Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing for this. Mosquito repellant may be smart, and clothes/shoes that can get dirty would be good. As always, please ensure your child has a water bottle with them to take into the woods. A good-sized snack is a good idea as well.

KEY POINTS in this post:

• Plan for your child’s food for next Tuesday (either cafeteria if that is their norm, or packed sausages)
• Sign up for additional contributions if desired
• Keep an eye out for a possible rain cancellation post on Monday evening
• Water bottle, bug repellant and a snack on Tuesday

Thanks for your support! It’s going to be a great celebration!

Kris Paulson, our Middle School counsellor, recently visited 5R to speak with the class about being a “Welcome Buddy” for students new to ZIS at the beginning of sixth grade. Many 5R students have benefited from welcome buddies on their own arrival, and many were interested in supporting a newcomer in a similar way.

To participate, students need to be able to attend an orientation session on August 10. For more details, and to apply, families need to follow this link, and be signed into student ZIS email accounts.

Thanks for supporting new ZIS students!

Dear 5R Families,

Next Thursday is the second part of 5R’s bicycle training. Several months ago Herr Salierno, a local police educator, gave us a lesson in bicycle road safety theory. Next week is part two, the practice. Please find below the text of a letter from Herr Salierno that outlines how students, parents and bikes need to be prepared for next Thursday’s session.

Dear Parents,

The traffic and safety education team of the Kantonspolizei Zürich set the goal to educate students in grade 5 with practical assignments regarding biking on Swiss roads. The focus during this exercise will be important and challenging traffic situations, such as left-turn and special situations that might occur.

Practical bike training for G5 runs from 9:00 – 12:30 on the following days:

During this driver training responsibility for your child is up to me. But I can not take responsibility or the trip on the way to school. Not very experienced children should push their bike on the sidewalk to the school.

If your child can not ride a bike or for any other reason cannot attend this driver training course, please kindly inform the class teacher in writing.

We strongly recommend that your child will participate with his/her own bike which must be checked at home beforehand according to the following inspection list:

• two functional breaks
• reflectors: white front, red back
• reflectors on the pedals
• bell (recommended)
• front and back lights (only for the night or during bad visibility)
• tires (good profile, no cracks and pressure checked)
• bike helmet (see information below)
• private liability insurance

Your child will only be able to participate if the checklist is completed.

Be aware that driving a bike on the sidewalk is prohibited by Swiss law.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate and contact me (in German), phone 044-247 37 10 or email Sali@kapo.zh.ch

Kind regards,

Ciriaco Salierno
Traffic Instructor

On Friday was the final Child Protection lesson.

In this session, Ms Jill revisited the Body Safety Rules:

-Your body is your own and you choose who can touch you and when they may touch you – hugs, kisses, shaking hands etc

– You should have a Safety Network – 5 adults in your life who you can trust and you can tell anything to.

– You should recognise early warning signs – feeling sick, heart beating fast, breathing too fast – that are signals that things are not right. Trust your instincts.

– You should never keep secrets that make you feel bad or uncomfortable. Tell a trusted adult, though it can be a very difficult thing to do.

– Private parts are private. You should call them by the correct scientific names. You must tell a trusted adult if anyone asks you to touch their private parts or asks to see yours.

We read the book ‘Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept”

We talked about what the word ‘abuse’ means – trying to hurt someone over a period of time and not respecting boundaries.

Physical abuse – hitting, kicking, biting

Sexual abuse – involves private parts (the parts usually covered by swim suits).

This session concludes this series of lessons.

In today’s session we discussed boundaries. What does the word mean?

With personal space it is the invisible line or limit beyond which, if people cross the line, you feel uncomfortable. It is different for different people, for different relationships and depending on your mood. Boundaries can be the boarders between countries. A boundary can be the door to your home. We discussed doors. Which doors in school do you feel ok going through? Which do you never go through? Which doors do you need to knock at and which can you go straight through? Which doors at home do you need to knock at? When do you need to be invited in? We talked about boundaries for behaviour and showing respect for boundaries set by other people. We discussed the boundaries set for children by their parents and how it feels when different parents set different boundaries. We talked about how it feels if someone else crosses a boundary set by you.

Today we had our first Child Protection lesson with Ms. Jill.  The topic of today’s lesson was communication. The students discussed three types of communication:  aggressive, passive, and assertive.

These are notes the students made with Ms. Jill:

• Aggressive Communication:
  • Threatening
  • Disrespectful (words, tone)
  • Rude (words, tone)
  • Ignoring
  • Physical (punching, hitting, kicking, shoving, choking)
  • Takes care of ME (not taking care of other people)

• Passive Communication:
  • Avoid communicating
  • Ignoring (so that you don’t have to deal with something)
  • Letting people get their way
  • Takes care of OTHERS

• Assertive Communication:
  • Involves both what you say AND how you say it.  Tone of voice matters. Body language matters.
  • Uses “I” messages in order to communicate what you feel, think or need.  Ex: “I feel sad when I hear rude words because they hurt my feelings. I like playing with people who use nice words”, or, “I feel upset when you do not take care of my things because I then need to replace them. I need you to take care of my things like I do if you are going to borrow them.”
  • Includes active listening (listening with your whole self).  This means using good eye contact (not staring or glaring), speaking in a calm, even tone of voice, paraphrasing what you heard the other person say, clarifying anything that is not clear, and asking non-judgmental questions.
  • Can communicate a firm message in a way that gets the point across but helps everyone feel respected.
  • Takes care of EVERYONE

At the end of the lesson, we discussed ideas such as these:

• In these discussions, everyone has the right to say “no”.
• “I” messages work best when you’ve had a chance to calm down, rather than in an angry moment.  The breathing technique we learned at the beginning of the session is one way students can help themselves calm down to a level where they can use “I” messages effectively.
• When working to solve a conflict, don’t say “always” or “never” , i.e. “You ALWAYS say you’re going to give me a turn and then you NEVER do!”

Our next session with Ms. Jill will be Thursday.  I will blog again then so that parents stay informed of what we discussed in class.

Next week, G5 students will be participating in a number of lessons concerning Child Protection. Over the course of 3 lessons, the following topics will be discussed:

• Assertive Communication

• The Touching Rule – No one should touch your private parts except to keep you clean and healthy

• Safety Steps:

  • Say words that mean No

  • Get away

  • Tell an adult

• Using Assertiveness Skills in Unsafe Situations

• When and Whom to Tell

We will also review what we have already learned about online safety and discuss this from a child protection perspective.

Further blog posts will be made on the day of each lesson with more specific details as to what was covered in the lesson so that you can have conversations at home with your children.  We appreciate you speaking further with your children about this topic. It is important that we partner in teaching these important lessons to the children.

If you have further questions, please contact Jill Wagner, our counselor, at jwagner@zis.ch, as she will be leading most of these lessons.

Dear Parents,

We are really looking forward to our exhibition evening tomorrow.  As you know the topic for exhibition this year is innovation, and the concept of empathy was one of our points of emphasis. With that in mind, the high school Nepal Club has asked if we could help them collect children’s clothes for their upcoming service trip to Nepal.  Over twenty students will be traveling to Nepal in the first week of June. While there they will work with a school for street children in Kathmandu. This school was started by a former ZIS alumni.

The Nepal Club is asking for gently worn clothes, shoes, and flip flops. The students they work with are from the ages of 3-11. We will be promoting this throughout the elementary school, but we thought we would kick it off this clothing drive with our exhibition evening.  If you have any gently worn clothes, shoes, or flip flops your children no longer wear there will be donation boxes at the school entrance at tomorrow nights exhibition.  Thank you for your help in this endeavor.

Warm Regards,

Grade 5 Team