Book and Bake Sale

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Dear parents

On Jan 23 or Jan 24 yoor kids will go with the teacher to the book and bake sale. They get to spend CHF5 of which 4 is allowed for books and 1 for a baked good.

To be able to have a good selection of books we need them in large numbers. We are looking for donation of all level children books. It is important that they are in good condition and that they are just children’s books. This year we have 1 week less to collect the books, so only 1 ½ week left. Last date you can donate books is on the 22nd of Jan.

You can win a popcorn party for your class, if your class collects the most books in the Grade. So please, if you hand in books, make sure that the class and the number of books donated is clearly written on the bag!

The books can be left outside the staffroom (on the Cafeteria level) this year.

Please also consider spending some time with the children during the sale or donating baked goods for the sale.

If you would like to spend an hour or more selling the books to our students, please register here ( Sales Volunteer Book and Bake Sale )

If you would like to donate baked goods, please don’t hesitate to sign up here ( Donation of Baked Goods )

Thank you in advance for your donations. We are looking forward to a wide range of books again this year.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Femke Groen at groenfemke@gmail.com

G5 Donations for Swiss Red Cross’ 2xChristmas Program

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The 5th Grade Winter Party will take place on Thursday, December 14th starting at 1:30 pm.  If you haven’t already, you will soon be contacted by your room parents about how your family can help contribute for snacks for the big event!

Additionally, this year we will be incorporating a small community service project into the Winter Party.  We are asking the 5th grade students to bring in non-perishable food items and toiletries for the Swiss Red Cross‘s 2xChristmas program – which offers a holiday distribution here in Switzerland as well as in countries in Eastern Europe.  This Swiss Red Cross has been distributing these items for 21 years.  In the 2016/2017 campaign, more than 66,000 parcels and CHF 200,000 were donated.

The students will view the following video that provides some insight into the program so that they can understand how their donations will help those in need.  This video is in German, but you can add Close-Captioning and Auto-Translate to English.

When deciding what to send in with your child for the community service project, please remember that foodstuffs must have a shelf-life of at least 6 months.  Toiletries such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, cotton wool, soap and shampoo are also very welcome.

Please make sure your students bring in their items on the day of the Winter Party!

Thanks for your assistance in making this a great 5th grade year for our children!

–5th Grade Room Parents

Message from the PA

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Dear Parents,

It’s the most wonderful time of the year-for our darling children! On the 6th of December, our children at the lower school will by visited by Samichlaus and his sidekick Schmutzli.

So we need your help to fill the Samichlaus bags for the “nice” children at the lower school on Tuesday the 5th of December.

Please sign up here:  www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E044CA8AC2AA5FD0-samichlaus2

if you are able to spare an hour or two and come help.

Due to this activity being about Samichlaus, may we please request you to not bring any younger children/babies to the bag filling. We don’t want to ruin the surprise for all the children who do believe in Santa. Thank you for keeping this event special for all of our children.

Thank you.

The Lower School PA Reps,

Liz, Polly and Ritu

Assessments Visiting Home

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This week your child is bringing home several assessment documents to share with you, and then return to school, in their orange assessment folder. They must be returned by this Wednesday, November 29, please.

These may include:

  • a several-part math assessment
  • their personal narrative writing
  • their genius hour unit rubric

Math

These assessments stretch back over the first few months of fifth grade and focus on concepts related to place value, and the four operations.

These assessments should be understood as being a snapshot of student understanding on a particular day at a particular time, in a particular way of demonstrating mathematical thinking. This particular way of assessing understanding may present an incomplete picture of student progress. It is for this reason that many forward-thinking institutions have moved away from written assessments as the sole way of testing and grading. ZIS is no exception and these assessments represent only one of several ways data on a student’s mathematical thinking is collected.

Personal Narrative Writing

Over the course of our personal narrative unit, students developed many writing seeds, and worked on many strategies for improving the quality of their writing. Eventually, they chose one seed to draft and evolve. In most cases, the writing in their folder is not to be considered a final “published” piece. It is instead the state this writing had reached by the end of that unit.

As writers, we value process heavily. For a piece of writing to have pasted on notes, parts crossed out or highlited, and other sorts of visible thinking is an integral part of our writing process. We often call these drafts our “Frankenstein drafts” for all these bits and pieces that hang off them.

Genius Hour Rubric

This rubric reflects the students’ first independent inquiry of the year. Those students who have still not yet completed blogging on their inquiry have not yet received their rubrics.

These assessments are being sent home primarily to enrich your conversations with your child about their thinking and learning. Please take the time to look at them with your child, alongside their reflections. Then, sign them (somewhere obvious) and return them promptly to school. They must be returned by this Wednesday, November 29, please.

Many thanks for your ongoing support of your child’s home away from home!

Warm regards,

Jamie

 

Kindness Challenge!

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In the lead up to the end of term, 5R was inspired by the gorgeous advent calendar created by Rebecca and Lisa, our class parents, to create our own calendar. This one, instead of containing treats, would contain instead kindness challenges.

The class started by watching this video:

Then students brainstormed “kindness challenges” we could take on as a class, for each day. We collected these in a form, and voted on them.

Finally, the ideas with the most votes were added to this calendar. We’ll open one door per day to read that day’s challenge. The next day, we’ll share some stories of the previous day’s challenge.


5R Update: Energy, Fractions and Field Trip!

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Learning Update

This week, students have drafted their first informational piece about energy!  They’ve been researching, reading nonfiction texts, and taking notes. They will use this research to revise their informational reports. During unit time, students have been creating demonstrations and performing experiments about energy. Then, they have explained how energy is transferred and/or transformed during these experiments. Most students have completed making videos of these and posting them to their blogs.

During math time, we’re learning about fractions.  This week we’re comparing and ordering fractions.  Next week we will find equivalent fractions in order to add and subtract.  If you would like to work with your child at home, there are some fractions games and practice on the Netvibes page.

Field Trip to Umwelt Arena

Tomorrow, on Thursday, as announced last week on the newsfeed, the students will visit Umwelt Arena, an environmental museum, in Spreitenbach. Students should bring a lunch with them that day. The cafeteria will provide packed lunches for students who normally order cafeteria lunch. We will depart the school at 9:00 and return by 3:00, so students do not need to arrive early or be picked up late.

5R Update

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Welcome back from break! We had a great first 3 days back last week, kicking off new units in reading, writing, and inquiry. Here’s an update of what we’re learning and doing in class:

Literacy:

In reading we have begun a unit on nonfiction reading skills. We will focus on skills that will help us as we read increasingly complex nonfiction texts. For the first few weeks, all students will be reading texts that support our unit on energy. Students can choose between nonfiction and fiction books for home reading.

In writing, we are wrapping up our unit on narrative. Students have written many seed ideas, and learned strategies for generating story ideas. They then chose a personally powerful seed to draft and evolve. Most students have reached the stage of having a “Frankenstein story”, built of bits and pieces of multiple drafts and revisions. We celebrated this work by sharing it with our class and our grade one buddies before the break. Next, we will begin a unit on research reports. During that unit, students will write reports on energy — first an “all about energy” report, and then later, researching one particular source of energy and the impact of our energy use on the environment.

Math:

Students will learn about division this week. They will learn a few ways to model division and the partial quotients algorithm. This algorithm builds conceptual understanding of division. Please ask your child to show you how to divide this way sometime later in the week. Toward the end of the week, students will be assessed on their understanding of the four operations. Our next unit (on fractions) will begin next week.

Unit:

Last week, we kicked off our energy unit. Each child visited four different classrooms to see four different energy demonstrations. The kids got really excited about these. It was a lot of fun for all of us. This week, we will begin learning about the different types of energy. On Thursday, students will make their own energy demonstrations.

On Friday, we celebrated our community and our first week back with a team-building hike upstream, and up the “waterfalls” in the woods. Thank you for sending in rain boots and jackets… It got wet 🙂 Enjoy a few photos of the event.

A Deep Dive into Multiplication – Videos to Show Understanding

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There are many ways to solve multiplication problems. The Area Model is one of the best strategies I know because it builds on using arrays and is very visual, which supports a deep understanding of the operation. It also connects well with the steps taken, and logical reasoning, in Partial Product multiplication. So if we use both to solve a problem we can see clear connections. In this video I try to do these two things. Students will have their own multiplication videos published to their blogs as well.

https://vimeo.com/239982540

 

 

ZIS Lower School Technology User Agreement

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At the Lower School we operate an integrated technology program where technology is used to support and enhance the student’s learning. Starting this year we are asking parents to complete a User Agreement which outlines some key points about how we use and our expectations when using technology. Many of you have already completed this but there a still a few people who still need to.
Please take a moment to read through and complete the form – click here

Family Conference Sign-Up

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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