Parent Letter

                                                            February 25th, 2011

Dear Parents,

Here are some announcements to consider before we break up for Ski Week.

Math Open Day: Please join us on Wednesday, March 2^nd for our Mathematics Open Day. You are invited to join

• Prep to Grade 2 between 09:00 and 09:40
• Grade 3 to Grade 5 between 09:45 and 10:30.

The children will share some of the math games that are used during the school day.

Lost Property: Please check the lost property containers before we break up for Ski Week as everything will be donated to Frauenhaus during the holidays.

Elementary Extension: As many of you know, the construction of the new Elementary Extension will begin during Ski Week. This means that when we return from the holiday a significant section of our playground and car park will be fenced off. Half of the parent parking spaces will disappear temporarily so many of us will either need to park further away from the school or use the drop-off system.

From next week onwards, students who normally exit via the Art/Music room stairwell will exit down the central stairwell at the end of the day. I would ask that all parents wait in the playground to collect their children as it will be too congested inside the school at this time of day.

Even though we are temporarily losing some playground space, we will proceed with our plan to introduce table tennis tables (courtesy of the parent volunteer fund) and swing ball poles to enrich recess opportunities for our students. We will also use the holidays to secure the bicycle stands and re-arrange the playground bins into colour-coded re-cycling stations.

The construction project is scheduled to be completed in time to begin the new academic year in August 2011, however no internal work will begin until the end of this academic year. The extension will house our new fifth grade wing. The library will be relocated to where the current 5^th grade classrooms are, allowing Reception to move into the space where our current library is situated. We will become a 3 section school from Prep to Grade 3 and a 4 section school in Grades 4 and 5. In addition to this, there will be a multi-purpose room that can be used for movement, music and drama.

Sodexo Price Changes: After Ski Week Sodexo will be increasing the prices of their food and drink tickets. Upper Elementary Children (Grades 3 – 5) will only be able to use pink tickets. Lower Elementary Children (Prep – Grade 2) will only be able to use yellow tickets. Please remember that no money is exchanged in the cafeteria. All purchases are made with tickets. These can be bought at the snack bar in the front foyer before or after school. The food prices are as follows.

Pink (big meal) 3.50 euros

Yellow (little meal) 2.00 euros

The price of cappuccino in the front foyer will also increase to 1.50 euros. Please direct all inquiries to Mr. Andreas Tegeler. He can be contacted at isd.3107@sodexo.de

Thank you for your patience and understanding in the coming weeks. We will do all we can to ensure that the construction project has a minimal impact on our students' learning.

On behalf of all the teachers and staff at the school, I wish you all a relaxing and enjoyable Ski Week.

Warm regards,

Alan Lorenzini

Elementary Principal

International School of Düsseldorf

ASSEMBLY

Wow, our Assembly has come and gone - in between our activities last week, the children had the opportunity to practice for the Assembly. Enjoy the video taken on the morning by one of the students sitting in the audience!!
Just click on the link - it should open......

http://voicethread.com/share/1768158/

Circus Video

The children have been practising their circus skills over the past few PE sessions - here is how some of the children have been performing - Mr Kok is going to video their last effort on Monday 21st Feb and we shall have the FINALE on the blog as soon as possible.

HAIKU

Last week we have enjoyed the new experience of Haiku with Mr Fred Schofield, here is the beginning of our week and the children will add to the information during the week with their reflections. As well as working with  Mr Fred the children also spent several sessions with Mrs Borofsky ( Drama), Mr Thompson ( Music) and Mrs Gunn (Art) so it was quite an artistic week! You will need to click on the link below to see the powerpoint..

http://voicethread.com/share/1755421/

World Maths Day

It is coming...

World Maths Day - March 1st, 2011

You can participate from school, home and now also by

downloading an app for your iPod Touch, iPhone and your iPad.

The free App is called:

WMD2011

World Maths Day 2011

Everybody can use their normal mathletics username and password to join Maths Day.

Here is the link for World Maths Day:

http://www.worldmathsday.com/ 

 You can go to that link NOW and practice, practice, practice before the BIG DAY comes!! 

Enjoy ;-)

Ms Kashkari

Mr Hall

Yesterday Mr Matthew Hall, Music teacher over at the Senior school visited grade 3's. He shared how his tuba works then he played  his tuba. At the end he encouraged the classes to think about objects that could be used to make some sounds. Objects like buckets, plastic or wooden spoons  because  on Friday he is coming back into our rooms to  see how we can get some rhythms and "make some music with our instruments!" On 'You Tube" there was this great video of an orchestra using vegetables have a look.......

Parent Letters

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your responses to the feedback sheet you received at Parent-Teacher Conference day.

I promised you I would publish the answers to the two questions.

To the first question, " Were you able to get a clear picture of your child's progress from reading the report card?" the responses were as follows:

91% of those who responded, answered, "Yes" to this question with a small number adding that having the conference helped them to clarify their understanding and ask questions. A small number also asked for more clarity over the use of the descriptors, "thorough, sound, basic and limited."

5% of those who responded, answered that they, "Would have preferred some sort of grade".

4% of those who answered found the information "Difficult to understand".

1% simply answered, "No".

To the second question, "Do you think it is a good idea to have a conference immediately after you receive the report card?" the responses were:

100% of those who responded, answered, "Yes" with many adding that "Having the conference so close to the report cards allowed them to ask for further explanations and to have questions answered."

The teachers have received your feedback and spent part of their Professional Development day on Friday discussing your feedback and also sharing their own experiences with each other.

We were delighted by the overwhelmingly positive nature of your responses and we thank you for taking time to share your thoughts with us.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to remind you of our Math Open Morning on Wednesday March 2nd. We look forward to welcoming you into the classrooms on that morning.  Prep, Grade One and Grade Two are from 9:00-9:40 and grades Three, Four and Five are form 9:45- 10:25.

We will also be serving coffee so that you can spend some time socialising with other parents.

Kind Regards,
Teresa Coffey
Deputy Principal

DRAMATIC READINGS

Dramatic Readings
This past week we listened to Mrs Coffey recite "Cinderella's Tale" and then during the next few days the children choose thier own poem to dramatise and perform for our class, either individually or with a partner.
After Mrs Coffey came into the classroom and helped individuals or groups to add some "dramatic touches" on Friday we shared our poems . Over the week we were able to borrow the Grade 4 IPod touch and the children were able look at themselves doing their poems and then improve on actions, loudness and props!!
Here are our efforts on Friday.....

Here is Estefania & Agnes

FATTEN UP BOY

DON'T YOU LIKE PRIME RIB?

THEN YOUR HOSTESS SHE WILL ROAST YOU GOOSE!

HAVE ANOTHER CHOCOLATE.

EAT ANOTHER PIECE OF GINGERBRED.

A BONE FEELS LIKE YOUR FNGER WHEN YOU HOLD IT OUT.

FATTEN UP, DON'T KEEP HER WAITING........

I LIKED THIS POEM BECAUSE IT IS FUNNY

AND USING PROPS HELPED ME A LOT.

Next came Alex....
What did ?
What did the carrot say to the wheat?
" 'lettuce rest I'm feeling beet.' "
what did the paper say to the pen?
"I feel all write my friend"
what did the teapot say to the chalk?
Nothing you silly . . . teapots can't talk!

I thought it was fun doing the dramatic reading
what helped me,was to use actions
and props.

Now we have Izak.....
Well when I did the story it was very exciting and I was thinking "something is going wrong".  But nothing was wrong.

Kenneth was a Lolly Pop!

The Lolly's last request

I am an ice cold Lolly

with a joke upon my stick

I 'm a getting- warmer lolly

with a disappearing trick!

I'd rather drip inside you

                                                              than be a drip beside you
                                                              so please lick me quickly
                                                              quickly lick me
                                                              quickly quickly
                                                              lick me lick me
                                                                    lic
                                                                    L
                                                                    L
                                                                    !

On the second time around Jules & Matthew got themselves organised....

Olivia & Gabrielle were joined by a turtle!!

Sanjiv tought hard about the actions to his poem,

Thomas of course loves any opportunity to perform, and we hope this isn't like our own cafeteria!

It was a bit odd, having to preform such a silly poem in front of the class (not that I was embarrassed or anything) but that was sort of odd, because that is not a normal thing to do.

These three girls worked with Mrs Coffey, so they were able to show how you needed to work with each other, which was so different to working on your own poem.....