Welcome, 5B Community,

It’s all on as we prepare for next week’s Exhibition Presentations.

Students spent all day Friday working on their PYPx presentation displays. Many thanks to parents who came and assisted their child and their child’s group.

A reminder for parents to complete the G5 PYP Exhibition After School Information Form to assist G5 teachers with planning for next Thursday’s Evening PYPx event.

A range of activities was had this week.

Back to Buddies

5B shared their “Dream Home” models and challenged G2 students to build houses out of playing cards. In return, G2 students shared the math games they had in store to share with their parents during student-led conferences.

5B Blue Dragon Field Trip

5B were invited to visit Blue Dragon this week to talk about human trafficking. Students were told that there are two main types of human trafficking in Vietnam and they are trafficking or labour and trafficking for marriage. Students were shocked to find out children as young as 12 are enticed away from their homes by skilled conversationalists who mislead families into thinking their child will be well looked after, given on the job training and returned home with a pocket full of money. Often these children are made to work 14-17 hour days with no pay, cut off from communicating with family and are kept in poor living conditions.

Girls as young as 16 are tricked into relationships with both boys and older women who promise to give them better lives. After a time they are taken to other destinations such as China to be sold as brides. These children are often unaware of where they are and as they don’t speak or read Chinese, can spend months trying to explain to Vietnamese authorities where they are.

The simple act of raising money for a walk-a-thon, to wanting to know more about the Blue Dragon Foundation has taken 5B on a remarkable journey of inquiry, knowledge, humility and understanding.

Short Animation Film Exploration

5B has been exploring short animation films as a way of expressing and experiencing issues and people’s life stories. One of these was about destiny and what can happen if get caught up in our own existence.

Working with G3

5B visited Ms Chris and her class on Wednesday to teach her students how to create graffiti art pieces. It is always a pleasure to see 5B students sharing their acquired skills in a way that develops the skills of younger students. Mentors in the making.

We look forward to seeing you next Thursday evening at your child’s PYP Exhibition Presentation.

Reminders

• 22nd April – Earth Day – Wear Green
• 25th April – Eventing PYPx Presentations
• 29th & 30th April –  No school – Vietnamese Victory Days
• 1st May – No school – International Labour Day
• 2nd May – Book Week Character Parade!! 8:10 am in the Sports Centre 
• 3rd May – MRISA assembly. Wear your UNIS gear to support our Volleyball teams.

Welcome, 5B Community,

Hope you all had a wonderful Spring Break. A sincere thank you to Ms Aga for taking such good care of 5B in my absence.

5B have jumped straight back into learning this week and are well on the way to making their learning goals come to fruition.

Math – Dream Homes

Students worked through a process of planning, budgeting, designing and building their dream homes. They presented these to the class on Thursday and Friday.

Literacy – AVAILLL – Holes

One of the most enjoyable stories ever written. Students worked in groups to unpack meanings of unfamiliar words within a context. Looked at values and how ancestry plays a part in our everyday lives.

PYPx 

Groups have finished their information reports. These will be available to read in the library from 18th April. There are a number of reports written in different languages and on different topics. Students have worked hard to present their findings, so take a moment when you’re at school to pop in and have a read.

Field trips are coming to an end and student action is well underway. The hope is that by students taking action, they become aware that they can make a difference to issues that affect them, others and the world. To have the opportunity to experience service to others, or change a narrow mindset, at this age is a valuable experience.

PYPx Sub-Committees

On top of their own PYPx inquiries, groups of students have volunteered to be on sub-committees to organise the Exhibition itself. These groups are in charge of invitations to families and other schools, organising assemblies, PYPx T-shirts and the parent evening. This year’s PYPx has been handed over to the students so they have a voice in how they wish to present their findings and actions.

PYPx Work Day

A reminder that next Friday is G5 PYPx work day and all G5 students are required to attend school. There are no student-led conferences for G5. However, parents are welcome to pop into G5 classes and spend time working with their child, as their group designs what their exhibit will look like. It is a full-on day for G5 students and any assistance is greatly appreciated. There are no music or art specials for G5 students on this day as they will be working with their coordinating teacher in preparation for the PYPx on the 24th and 25th of April. If you wish to see your child’s PE teacher please let your child’s PYPx coordination teacher know.

PYPx Parent Evening Event

Keep the evening of the 25th open. An invitation to attend will be coming from the Student Sub-Committee in due course.

Save the Dates

• 8th – 24th April-  Book Drive/sale
• 15th April – No school – Hung King Day
• 19th April – G5 PYPx Work Day
• 29th & 30th April –  No school – Vietnamese Victory Days
• 1st May – No school – International Labour Day
• 3rd – 4th May – Book Sale

The Week that Was

Welcome 5B Community,

A huge thank you to Agnieszka Schaffner for covering 5B’s learning schedule for the past week plus. 5B and I are so very lucky to have you in our class.

To 5B families, have a wonderful Spring break. If your family is travelling, stay safe. If you are staycationing, wishing you great weather and quieter streets.

ES Sport day

PYPX Week 5

The week that was:

Welcome 5B Community,

Being away from class is always difficult. I look forward to getting back into class after Spring Break. While I am away, Agnieszka Schaffner will be covering 5B learning. 5B students have worked with Ms Agnieszka before and they really enjoy her style. 

The plans left for 5B will be keeping them on their toes. Here is a peek at what they are getting up too. 

Dream House Challenge
In teams of three, students designed a floor plan, a financial plan and then proceeded to build a model from the floor plan. Lots of discussion around the purpose of math being used in real life. I’m looking forward to seeing the final results upon my return. 

The criteria for this Math Challenge is:

• Choose appropriate units of measurement for length and area.
• Calculate perimeter and area of rectangles using familiar metric units to draw a floor plan.
• Use numbers and place value to create a financial plan
• Use technology design to create a 3D representation (scale model) that accurately follows a floor plan.

PYPx Weekly Video

Examples of Community Time Tasks

The week that was:

Welcome 5B Community,

It may have been a short week but nonetheless, it was full of celebrating learning.

Video by Mr Brewster 

PYPx
Students have all met their mentors and begun the process of researching essential questions. Some students have gone on field trips already and others have made appointments to interview experts. Your child’s coordinating teacher will guide your child to start thinking about how they (and their group) will include a language element into their PYPx. The G5 coordinating teachers would welcome your expertise. The role could include anything from proofreading to helping with pronunciation. Please let your child’s teacher know you are interested in participating. Your involvement is always welcome.

Music Concert

Wow, what a morning. A huge thank you to all the parents who attended. G5 students have been working tirelessly to prepare for this moment. Behind the scenes, there was a huge team of people organising logistics and ensuring your child was set up for success. There were close to 200 students moving on and off the stage, changing instruments and reordering lines for different performances on stage. The students looked amazing in their new polo shirts which added to the polished performances. Congratulations to all who made this a successful event.

Art Exhibition

One of the most wonderful exhibits of the year is the Elementary Art Show. This display of creative pieces crafted by students always delights those who take the time to explore them. Too often we overlook the creative elements of our children’s minds as we ensure they are achieving in curriculum areas.

Open Classrooms

We opened our doors to parents this week so they could catch a glimpse of their children at work. If you joined us, we hope you had an interesting and productive visit and you developed an overview of where your child was in the PYPx process.

Spring Fair this Sunday

A reminder that the Spring Fair is on this weekend. Keep an eye out for some of our 5B students who are taking action by selling homemade products. They call themselves the UBK’s (United Business Kids) and have partnered up with ‘Project Sprouts’ who buy educational resources and clothes for children who are less fortunate. Go along and support these driven students by buying a treat or two to sustain your walk around the fair.

The Week that Was:

Welcome 5B Community,
Thank you for the wonderful turn out of parents this morning for our PYPx coffee information morning.

PYPx has begun!

Please view the PYPx web site as we will referring to it regularly over the coming weeks. PYPx web site.

Week 1:

The Week that Was:

Welcome, 5B Community,

Blue Dragon Walk-a-Thon Fundraising Results are
In and We are Proud!

5B raised 112, 425,000 VND (4,889 USD). A sincere thank you to the 167 sponsors who supported 5B students. Students have calculated that the money will send approximately 28 children to school for a year ($4,889 divided by $169 is 28.9). We are looking forward to seeing how much ES raised as in total.
* Most sponsors – BJ (22) – Number of sponsors for 5B (167)
* Most laps run – Endric (25) – Average Laps run (16)

“Taking action to make a change has huge benifits for our futures” Anonymous 

UOI
5B presented their Governance UOI understanding today. Many students had innovative ways of showing what they had learned over the past 6 weeks. Have a look at their Seesaw platform to view each presentation. Give your child some feedback.

We embark on the largest unit of the year next week; The Primary Years Program Exhibition (PYPX). You should have received a permission slip via email on Thursday requesting permission for your child to attend a mystery field trip on Wednesday 27th of February. Please sign or send me an email saying your child can attend.

A reminder that there is a parent coffee morning on the 1st of March to explain what PYPX is all about. Please be sure to attend so you can support your child during this very challenging unit.

Math
With excellent assessment results from our fractions and decimals unit and our financial plans for our governing system all done; 5B have been fine-tuning their mathematical explanation and visual representation skills along with new games (Yatzee and Find the Rule) being played to develop strategies and notice patterns.

Some students have been working on abstract problems in order to see if they can transfer their understanding of value and Volume and how these connect to decimals. Keep an eye out for their findings, coming soon.

Being a Transdisciplinary Class is Part of Learning; Math & Lit
5B took the opportunity to demonstrate how big they thought the largest crocodile might be after we read about them in a non-fiction text during AVAILLL. Knowing volumes and masses is important for the imagination, so we tested our thinking by estimating how long an 8.6-metre croc might be. 

AVAILLL – Audio, Visual Assessment in Literacy Language and Learning
The next topic in the AVAILLL program is reading fluency. Students will be introduced to team coaching, strengthening imagery and going beyond decoding, to reading larger chunks of texts. See if you can give an explanation for the following symbols (the first two have been done for you) and how often have you thought about what you do when you come across these symbols?

Dinner Time Talk:

• What does a financial plan show?
• Was learning about governance important? Why? Why not?
• What issue might you look at for PYPX?
• What might your next service action be?

Reminders:

• February 18 – March 1 – Art Auction

• February 23 SCO Fund Run

• February 27 Passion Speaker

• March 1 PYPx Parent Coffee Morning

• March 3 Aquathlon – Sign Up here

The Week that Was

Welcome 5B Community

UOI
We are well into the assessment process of our Governance UOI. G5 students worked to construct the success criteria (rubric) that would be used to grade their presentation. A rubric is a tool that students can refer to throughout the assessment process, as it guides the learner towards the required outcome whilst they develop their presentations. It is an effective practice that is becoming more common, as it makes sense that assessment is something that should be done ‘with students’, and not ‘to students’.

Math
Financial Plans; Students are learning how to create simple financial plans. This is an opportunity for students to use math in a real-life context, not to mention the benefits of students learning early how to earn, spend and save money wisely. Integrating math with UOI helps to deepen student understanding and provides opportunities to apply what they have previously learned in context.

Literacy

Developing and understanding the Discussion Text type continues. Hedging sentences, strong modal language, pros and cons, evidence and testimonies, are all elements of this text type. After students reviewed their pre-assessment, they identified areas for improvement and have been practising to make these areas a strength.

AVAILLL continues to develop reading strategies and skills that support the learning of content, oral fluency, reading stamina and enjoyment. Students are being exposed to new vocabulary and writing styles as they work through this program. This week students took a dictionary to the movies to connect specific words and meanings to context.

Blue Dragon Walk-a-Thon

The commitment to action was again demonstrated by 5B students who were away for the last day, before the TET break. Angel and Na both took to the track and ran as their peers cheered them on. Well done girls and what a fantastically supportive group of peers you have.

The sponsor money has begun to come in. It looks like another huge effort from 5B this year. The final amount will be shared once all monies have been collected. Many thanks for the support and encouragement you have given to this worthy cause. 

G5 PYP Exhibition

What are you passionate about?
What issues exist in this world that need your attention?
What are you going to do about it?

Our grade 5 students are about to launch into the culminating event of their time in the Primary Years Programme with the aim of answering all of these questions. Students and teachers have been busily preparing for this event all year. It is with great excitement that we are now ready to begin our G5 Exhibition otherwise known as PYPx.

PYPx is an opportunity for our oldest elementary school students to reflect on their time in the PYP and use the skills, knowledge and understandings that they have developed over the years to take action in an authentic and meaningful way.

This is very much a community project where we will involve students, teachers, parents and other members of the school community to support the G5 students work towards achieving their goals.

Parents and other community members are invited to join us for an information session on PYPx where we will share the Exhibition schedule, objectives and expectations.

Please join us on Friday, March 1st from 8:15 – 9:30am in the ES Creativity Space.

When? Friday, March 1st from 8:15 – 9:30am in the ES Creativity Space.

What?  Parent Information session on PYPx

Who?  All interested community members with a passion, skill or area of expertise to share with our students

Reminders

• February 18 Snack Sale – bring in 10,000 – 20,000VND
• February 18 – March 1 – Art Auction
• February 22 Blue Dragon money due
• February 23 SCO Fund Run
• March 1 PYPx Parent Coffee Morning

March 3 Aquathlon – Sign Up here Get Information here

Sign up Quick – Limited Numbers for the Aquathlon

Dinner Time Talk

• What feelings did you experience when the sponsorship money for Blue Dragon started to add up?
• How do you feel about the ISA testing you had this week? Did you feel confident, concerned, nervous?
• How would you describe the new game you learnt this week?
• What was the funniest thing that happened this week?

The Week that Was

Chúc mừng năm mới
Happy New Year from 5B

Have a safe and happy break.

Năm mới, thắng lợi mới
New year, new triumphs