Grade 5 have arrived in Davos.
The skies are blue and we’re ready to hit the slopes 🙂
Keep an eye out for photo share posts on Wednesday and Thursday evening, and we’ll see you back at ZIS at 16:00 on Friday!
Have a great week!
Dear 5R Community,
What an absolutely lovely first two weeks we’ve had. From the first days, when I challenged students to design ways to get to know each other and our learning environment, the 5R class has worked together to build community. Through a review of types of government, they decided that a direct democracy would be the ideal type of decision-making organizational structure for us. They’re now moving forward in creating and evaluating Class Agreements that work with our school’s Learn, Care, Challenge, Lead mission statement, and that we can all agree on. We’re setting the stage for a year of student agency, ownership and voice in learning.
Torgon
Please be sure to read last week’s post on the Grade Five newsfeed for all the pertinent details for our upcoming Torgon trip. Don’t miss the packing list and schedule details please!
Class Parents
5R is looking for a generous parent (or two!) to work with other class parents in the grade in running several events throughout the year. Please let me know if you’re interested in supporting us! And thank you.
Snapshot Conferences
If you haven’t yet planned a Snapshot conference, to meet with me to discuss your child and ask any questions about fifth grade, please get in touch. I’d be very happy to book a time together.
And finally, please enjoy the photo gallery below! We’re off to a great start!
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
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!
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!
The rain in Zurich has changed to snow in the mountains and Grade 5 have arrived safely in Davos. We’re ready to ski!
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.