NEWSLETTER NO. 9
MON. 8 OCT. 2018
REMINDERS FOR THIS WEEK & EARLY NEXT WEEK:
Mon. 8 Oct. - day 4:
Tues. 9 Oct. - day 5:
Dr. Teh Kok Hoi presentation from 2:00-2:45pm in the G5 common area. Dr. Teh is the head paediatrician at KL Children’s Hospital Cancer Ward. He was not able to attend the SCMC on Thurs. 11 Oct. so we were able to book him earlier. Before Dr. Teh’s presentation at 2:00pm, I will share a slideshow with all G5 students from 1:30-2:00pm about our Sunday morning hospital visits, also in the G5 common area. Students will be able to sign up for Sunday hospital visits shortly. More information will be sent home to you shortly.
Wed. 10 Oct. - day 6:
Thurs. 11 Oct. - day 7:
G5 Melaka Trip Parent Information Meeting & Slideshow and Q & A in MPR4, from 9:15-9:45am.
**Please note the change in venue - the meeting will take place in MPR4 - not the ES Community Rooms as previously advertised.**
Our first 6 presenters will present at our Social Change Maker’s Conference - SCMC, from 10:30am to 12:30pm in the G5 classrooms and common area. Parents are invited to attend. Our final 6 presenters will present on Thurs. 4 April 2019.
Fri. 11 Oct. - day 7:
TEMPORARY GUARDIANSHIP
From the ES Admin:
Parents, please remember - if both parents are traveling and leaving their child/ren in someone else’s care, you must complete a Long or Short Term Guardianship Form and deliver it to the ES main office prior to departing.
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS ASSESSMENT (ISA) INFORMATION
G5 students completed their ISA tests last Mon. 1 & Tues. 2 Oct. The makeup day for students who were absent on the testing days was last Wed. 3 Oct. Since the test booklets have to be sent to ACER in Melbourne Australia, your child’s results will not be available until early in 2018. When we receive the students’ results they will be shared with you.
HOME LEARNING WORK SHARE & THREE-WAY CONFERENCES THANKS
A big thank you to students and parents for conducting a work share last Mon. or Tues. at home in preparation for our three-way conferences. I hope seeing your child’s work samples, learning reflections, assessments and goals before our conference ensured that you had an accurate picture of your child’s strengths and areas of challenge. At the conference, we took a more detailed look at the contents of the pink manila folder and looked at your child’s goals, to see if they are the most appropriate goals at this point in time. We also made some adjustments to the goals or created more appropriate/immediate goals as required. I also hope you had time to look at your child’s electronic work samples on their Google Drive. Some of you took home your child’s pink manila folder after the conference so your child could share the contents with a parent who was not able to be at the work share early last week. Please return the pink folder and contents to me this week so your child can keep adding work samples, learning reflections etc. to it. The pink folder and contents will be used again next March for our student-led conferences and sent home at the end of the school year.
G5 SOCIAL CHANGE MAKER’S CONFERENCE (SCMC) DETAILS
One of the highlights of our previous school years in G5 has been the SCMC. I’m very excited to announce this year that we have received a generous grant once again from the ISKL Inspiration Fund to conduct the conference. We conduct the conference to coincide with our first two social studies units: ‘Red Hats: Leadership’ and ‘Government’ and also to prepare the students for our second semester social studies unit titled: Social Change. Our presenters expose the students to ordinary people doing extraordinary things to help others in the local community of Kuala Lumpur. We have 7 confirmed presenters for part 1 of the conference. The conference will be held in the G5 classrooms and common area from 10:30am-12:30pm, this coming Thurs. 11 Oct, although our first presenter - Dr. Teh - will present this Tues. 9 Oct. from 2:00-2:40pm. Our list of presenters is below. Please note that parents of G5 students are invited to attend the presentations. Students will rotate around the presenters in groups of approx. 15-16 students. They will spend 15 min. With each presenter. Each group will get to experience all the presenters.
Tuesday 9 October from 2:00-2:45pm:
Dr. Teh Kok Hoi - works at the KL Children’s Hospital as a paediatrician - tehkokhoi@gmail.com in G5 common area
Thursday 11 October from 10:30am-12:30pm:
Janine Williams - volunteers at the CWO (Chin Women's Organization) School - cjmcnamara55@gmail.com - in 5DH
Suan Tan - works for WWF Malaysia - stan@wwf.org.my - in 5KC
Naima Ismail - HEI (Health Equity Initiatives), -'Somali Women's Association' Malaysia - Naimapublichealth@outlook.com - in 5CC
Siti Kasim - volunteers as a legal advocate for Malaysian indigenous people - the Orang Asli - sitikasim@gmail.com - in 5JV
Munirah Hamid - set up and volunteers at the Pertiwi Soup Kitchen - pertiwisoupkitchen@gmail.com - in G5 common area
Ana Popovich - volunteers in ‘Trash Heroes’ - a group of ISKL High School students who do neighborhood street clean-ups - apopovich24@iskl.edu.my - in 5CB
Schedule for Thursday:
10:30 - 10:45 (Session 1)
10:50 - 11:05
(Session 2)
11:10 - 11:25
(Session 3)
11:30 - 11:45
(Session 4)
11:50 - 12:05
(Session 5)
12:10 - 12:25
(Session 6)
12:35-1:25
Presenters have lunch in the faculty lounge
12:35-1:00
Students go to lunch recess
1:00-1:25
Students have lunch in the cafeteria
1:30-2:00
Thank you presentation in the G5 common area
CLASS WORK LAST WEEK
Language Arts: Reading, writing, speaking & listening:
Last week, the students continued reading and discussing their realistic fiction books in their book club groups and using thinkmarks to guide discussion. They also continued creating their own sequence brain frames to record the important events happening in their books. At the start of this coming week, the book club groups will be rearranged and new books started. Writing workshop was suspended this week because the students shifted their focus to preparing for their three-way conferences. They completed various learning reflection checklists and worked on four learning goals. The students did, however, continue their year-long ‘Free Choice Writing Project’ where they continued the process of writing and publishing their own realistic or fantasy story on their laptops using a Google doc. Students were also involved in daily read-to-self sessions, where they worked on building their reading stamina. I also continued reading our read-aloud titled, ‘Home of the Brave’ by Katherine Applegate.
Math:
Last week, the students began the next math unit, titled, Unit 2: Adding & Subtracting Fractions. The students completed a tuning-in to the unit slideshow and ‘Fraction Museum’, where they built fraction exhibits (models) with labels from various classroom manipulative materials. Included in their fraction exhibits was a mystery exhibit, where students conducted a gallery walk and they had to work out the fraction being displayed as the mystery exhibit.
Social Studies:
Last week, the students continued their second unit, titled, ‘Government’. They continued to look at three types of government in detail: monarchy, dictatorship and democracy. This week, to prepare the students for our Melaka trip, using a slideshow and Melawati Library online resources such as Encyclopedia Britannica and World Book online, the students will be introduced to the various waves of leaders and governments that came to power in Melaka and why Melaka was so important, historically. As a read aloud, I will begin reading ‘A Children’s History of Malaysia’ by Tunku Halim, which introduced Parameswara, the first ruler of Melaka in 1400. Parameswara originally came from Palembang in Sumatra, Indonesia. The students will also learn about the voyages of Admiral Zheng Ha (Cheng Ho) from China to Melaka in 1409 and the arrival of the Portuguese more than a century later in 1511. The students will also learn about the arrival of the Dutch, the British and the Japanese and they will place events and dates on an electronic timeline from the readwritethink.com website.
UPCOMING OCT. & NOV. CLASS & SCHOOL EVENTS
Tues. 16 Oct: Final Melaka trip parent information letter will be sent home with your child.
Fri. 19 Oct: Next Red Hats Free Dress Day. Students can bring a RM5 donation.
Mon. 22 Oct: Faculty Inservice Day - no school for students
Tues. 23, Wed. 24 & Thurs. 25 Oct: G5 Melaka overnight trip:
5DH & 5KC will go on Tues. 23 & Wed. 24 Oct.
5CB, 5CC & 5JV will go on Wed. 24 & Thurs. 25 Oct.
Wed. 31 Oct: ES Halloween Dress-up Day
Mon. 5 Nov: No ES ASAs due to the Deepavali holiday the next day
Tues. 6 Nov: Deepavali holiday - no school
Fri. 9 Nov: ES International Fest Flag Parade, from 8:15-9:00am. Details TBA.
Sat. 10 Nov: International Fest at the ISKL Ampang Hilir Campus from 3:00-7:30pm. Details TBA
Wed. 14 Nov: Parent Workshop: ‘Learning in the ES’ from 8:15-9:45am. Details TBA.
Tues. 20 Nov: Prophet Mohammed’s Birthday holiday - no school
Fri. 23 Nov: Deepavali Cultural Day. Assembly from 10:50-11:30am
Fri. 30 Nov: Red Hats Free Dress Day. Suggested donation - RM5.
ES Semester 1 ASAs end
Until next week,
Best regards,
David
