Parent News

Elementary School Mathematics Workshop

Mark your calendars for the morning of Wednesday March 2nd.   We hope to build on the success of last year's math day.  So please join your children in their classrooms for our second parent –student math open day.

You are invited to participate in one of our regular math workshops sessions. During the session we will play some of our interactive math games on the computers and the whiteboard. This is an opportunity for you to deepen your understanding of our constructivist approach to mathematics as your children move through the school. We hope to do this in a way that will be informative and fun for you and your children.

We will offer two sessions. The first will be from 9:00-9:40, when prep, grade one and grade two will be open for parents. The second will be from 9:45 - 10:25, when grades three, four and five will be open for parents

For parents who arrive early or who finish the session early we will be serving coffee in the foyer from 9:00-10:30.  This will be a good opportunity for you to socalise with other parents. Please check out our in-house television screen over your coffee. You will see some of our budding mathematicians demonstrating their learning.

 We look forward to seeing you there.

Teresa Coffey

 Deputy Principal

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Teresa Coffey
Deputy Principal
International School of Düsseldorf
Niederrheinstrasse 323
40489 Düsseldorf

phone: +49 211 9406708
fax: +49 211 9409799

K21 & Mr Carston trips

Well, a very busy but exciting week has gone past! Included are some pictures of our trip to K21 and some comments on the various pieces of  art  that we saw!  We did not see ALL of the exhibits, however, if at any time your family is able to go and visit the Museum sometime that would fantastic - we would appreciate hearing your impressions.

Today I have included some photos taken when we were illustrating "what an artist looks like" at the end of the Unit will the ideas  have changed?  Also photos of K21 plus our visit to the senior school to hear and see the Art work of Mr Carston ( Head of the Art department at ISD)

I liked the stairs most of all because it was imaginary escaping stairs broken!   Kenneth 

I saw people looking like sand or mud monsters. Olivia

Yesterday we went to the museum. First I thought everything was going to be boring but then it was starting to be interesting. I thought the stairs were going to be something different. My favourite part was when we saw the made crystals. I would not think of just picking rocks up and making it Art.  Maxime.

We made sculptures of clay. I saw many sculptures but I didn't see many paintings. Agnes

I liked the painting on newspaper that was a 3D box. I thought the one of broken cars was the most intersting. Thomas

I saw this picture and I couldn't tell what it was, I didn't like it, but I still appreciated it.  Sonya

I liked the stairs because it looked scary and intersting, they also went up as a spiral    Hermann.

I liked K21 because there are lots of different stuff that in interesting like the polished rocks.  Brooke

Art can be anything. Art usually show hoe you feel and art looks amazing if you just make random lines or splots and it can turn into the most famous piece in the world.  Nina

Yesterday when we went to the Museum K21 we saw apinting and sculptures, we made our own in a studio and I made a clown. The paintings were "NOT" how I expected it in a frame, they were painted on the wall!  Estefania.

I get inspired by my dreams to do my art. Gabrielle

I saw people looking like sand or mud monsters. Olivia

Yesterday we went to ta Museum called K21. before we went inside we ate our snack and we went in and put our jackets in the jacket toom The the guide cane and told us about art. Then we talked about what you would see in the Art Gallery. We went up these really old fashioned stairs. Then we saw these mud monsters but they were made out of metal. We went to this studio and made our own sculptures, I made an airplane. Sanjiv

We went to the Art teacher on the other side of the school. We learnt that he loved to draw and when he was in 3rd grade he did a very good picture and it looked like he was 30 years old, but he was 9 years old when he did it. There was one painting that looked lie a photo but when I got closer I saw the lines. Natasha.

When a painting has light colours the artist is showing that he is happy. I learn that when you touch a painting, 20 or 19 years later it ruins the painting. Nature and animals inspire me because I have two bunnies. when I walk around in a forest it is like I am walking with animals. Jules.

Literary Journals

OUR NEW LITERARY JOURNALS......
At the beginning of the year, the children started using a small red book to review a book they have read and I  or Mrs Rana replied to these reviews.  The choice was the children's as to WHEN or WHERE they filled in the review, however, I was not very  happy with the response, both with the consistency of reports & the range of books the children were reading, so I  looking for another style of task. 
I found the following "setup" and after discussing this with our Librarian, Mr Owen, this will be the process for the rest of the Semester. I decided to wait until the start of the 2011, to begin the process as we could then be starting our Unit 4 with fresh minds.
 The first important aspect to note is that we shall use our LIBRARY session as "the deadline" for having our review written / drawn about / talked about and signed in by DAY 5. As many children  have several   After School Activities during the week, they do not have many free evenings, however, this way there is a weekend involved for them to be able to "catch up" and you may wish to be involved with this review.
The genres that we will be looking at range and many children will more than likely not have read some of them, it is an opportunity to "expand" their thinking and learn about new writing styles.

The genres are:    Biography,   Historical Fiction,     Poetry,           Short Story,               Play
                           Mystery,      Nonfiction,               Fantasy,         Science Fiction,         Realistic Fiction
                           Myth/Legend,  Tall Tale,         Folktale/Fairy Tale,     Fable,                Auto - Biography,
                           Picture Book,   Adventure,         How-to Book    Art /Music               Award winner
                           Humour,        Animal Tale,          Classic,            Diary/Memoir           Newspaper.


Your child will be bringing this grid to look at and see how we wish to keep ourselves to "a deadline"

I would appreciate your assistance in this reading adventure, including a gentle  reminder of DAY 5.

Many thanks
Mrs Preston

Parent News

We have a new tab on our Blog!!  It is called Parent News as it will be the letters sent from Mr Lorenzini or Mrs Coffey.   Now you should be able to read ALL of the letters from June until the latest one. Please browse through and find out any details that you need to know...  I shall keep it JUST for those letters and use HOME for our other news.

We have now begun our latest Unit - "People express ideas and emotions through the arts".
We have started off the Semester by doing basic research on a "famous artist" and we shall share this research by the end of the week on a Power Point.   The children have found many interesting facts about their artist and when we share our Power Points they shall go up on the Blog! After we have talked  through our Mind map, we shall begin to investigate what other areas of "the arts" we can research.
We have also discovered that there are quite a few talented people out there, so I am hoping that I can use their talents in this Unit.

On Wednesday, January 19th the entire Grade 3 group will be going into the K21 Museum.
As our grade will be split into two groups ( one going early, the other later ) and  both timeslots  shall CLASH with RECESS & LUNCH break times, can I ask for EVERYONE to bring along a packed lunch that day please.

Latest Parent News

On Wednesday January 19th, ALL the Grade 3 classes will be going to the K21 Museum for a guided tour and a mini workshop. This is our initial "provocation" for Unit 4 - "People express ideas & emotions through the arts".
On this particular day it will be necessary for ALL 3.1 children to bring a packed lunch as our class will  be going to the Museum over the usual lunch break. So many thanks for your help in this regard.