Author Archives: jzraskin@gmail.com

Exhibition Update!

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Dear 5R families,

We’re looking forward to welcoming you on Thursday to our celebration of Literary Essays!

I wanted to update you on our Exhibition work. Students are deep into their self-directed learning and the topics are fascinating. We have students inquiring into everything from the psychology of color, to agriculture on Mars, to carpentry techniques and designing systems for barter and exchange. So exciting!

While the exhibition itself is still over a month away, we’ve got a very busy road before then. This is very much a time of year when there will be ongoing work happening at both school and home. Students will need to regularly sign in to their ZIS accounts from home, so they can access their Google Drive and Classroom, to continue their work.

This week is the tail end of preliminary research. Students should have completed the bulk of this by the holiday. If not, it will certainly need to be completed over the holiday.

After the holiday, we will have a week of developing projects, the various websites, books, essays, presentations, experiments, lessons and more that students will use to experience and explore their topics in another manner. Then, we’ll have one week of developing presentation materials and plans, before we hit the exhibition itself.

In the meantime, please do continue to have an active conversation with your child regarding their exhibition research and progress. You are welcome to get involved in constructively supporting their deadlines and priorities. For a snapshot on the research questions they’re pursuing, and how they’ve described their research work, please find their information on this document, and speak with them about it!

All students will be pitching and presenting their work this Friday morning. I’m sure they’ll want to practice their pitch to an audience the night before 🙂 Pitches should be around 1 minute in length and include a brief outline of the topic, what students plan to learn, how they’ll learn it and what they think they may do about it.

Thanks for your support!

Writing Celebration – This Thursday!

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Dear 5R Community,

This Thursday we’ll be celebrating our inquiry into Literary Essays and we’d love you to join us.

Starting at 2:30 5R students will be sharing the opening paragraphs of their essays, followed by an opportunity to read and comment on your child’s entire essay, as well as those of other students. Finally, you’ll have a chance to visit other fifth grade classes, to read and give feedback to other essayists. We will finish by 3:20, in time for a quick wrap-up and dismissal.

We hope you can join us!

Digital Dilemmas – Homework for the Whole Family :)

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You will likely have read the post below on the Grade Five newsfeed last week. On Tuesday, Mrs Maley, our G5 Librarian, came into 5R to introduce the project to our class. While we’ve tried for years to address digital citizenship in school, we recognize that the same problems keep coming up. This is why we’d like to take a community approach, and ask families to participate alongside students. We’re all facing versions of these dilemmas together! The following are the details of the project/assignment, as posted to the G5 Newsfeed:

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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” three dilemmas found on the website.
  • All families will look at the section titled “Rethink” which is an innovative way to help address online bullying.
  • Next, explore two other sections of your choice.
  • 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 by April 8.

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

Let us know if you have any questions,

The Grade 5 team, Will Kirkwood wkirkwood@zis.ch, Jill Wagner jwagner@zis.chand Linda Maley lmaley@zis.ch

5R Update!

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Hello 5R Families,

I had such a great time in Davos last week with the fifth graders!  Your children represented our school so well.  They were polite, respectful, and well behaved.  Most importantly, though, they had a great time!  You can be very proud of them.

I wanted to give you a quick update on what we’re working on in class right now.

In math, we’ve begun our decimals unit.  We’re working on understanding decimal place value and reading, writing, and comparing decimal numbers.  Later in the week we will begin decimal addition and subtraction.

In writing, students are drafting their literary essays.  We’ll be having our writing celebration on March 22 at 2:30.  We’d love for you to join us.

Monday was a big day in the 5R community as we welcomed Yangyu Jin to our class family. He and his family have just moved from China and we are really pleased to have him. The class have been very welcoming and supportive of our new friend.

Students have all selected topics for their Exhibition research.  This week we’ll be doing background research and writing research questions. The primary focus of our in-class reading time for the next few weeks will be research. Soon the students will settle on an idea for their projects. The Exhibition is the evening of April 24, and all students and families should plan to attend. Expect some exhibition research homework over the coming weeks. Students will be recording it in their agendas, and supporting materials will be accessible through their Google Classroom accounts.

Thanks so much for coming out and supporting our class during our Student-led conferences. The class were very positive afterwards in discussing their experiences! Here are some photos of the event.

I will be out of school this Thursday and Friday, attending a math course, my fifth over two years in support of a certificate of math specialization in international schools. If you need anything urgently on those days or if you need to get a message to your child, please contact reception.

Have a great week, and please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Jamie

Easter Egg Hunt at the Lower School

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A message from the 5R Class Parents:

Please join us on Sunday March 18th for Easter Egg Hunt at the Lower School!

This year it will be for all the children at the Lower School Campus and we have exciting activities for all grade levels.

There will be an Egg Hunt, Bonnet Parade and Egg Decoration followed by other fun games.

Pre-registration is required by Wednesday March 14th.

Registration is 5CHF per child- registration and forms are available near the front desk.

We are looking forward to seeing you all on Sunday.

Polly, Liz and Ritu

Lower School PA

Davos – Day 3

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After a final, lovely, half day we’re on the bus and on the road home. All being well, we’ll be back at ZIS at 4pm. See you there! In the event of a delay, the ZIS Lower School reception will be notified and the G5 blogs will be updated accordingly. In the meantime please enjoy these photos of our final day!

Wednesday in Davos

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Day one has been gorgeous. The snow continued to fall all day, and the visibility wasn’t great, but there was tons and tons of fluffy white powder on the hills! After a short morning, and a hearty lunch, grade 5 enjoyed a full afternoon on the slopes, then returned to the hotel. We checked into our rooms, showered, had dinner and chose between a snow hike and board games or reading in the evening. At 9pm, it was lights out and everyone went peacefully off to bed. We’re looking forward to a full day in the snows tomorrow! Please enjoy this folder of photos from today!