Newsletter no. 15 Mon. 19 Nov. 2018

NEWSLETTER NO. 15
MON. 19 NOV. 2018

REMINDERS FOR THIS WEEK & EARLY NEXT WEEK:
Mon. 19 Nov. - day 8:

Tues. 20 Nov: Prophet Mohammed’s Birthday holiday - no school

Wed. 21 Nov. - day 1: Mr. Hector Ingram will conduct a presentation on ‘Wind Energy and Biomass’ to all G5 students in the common area from 1:45-2:30pm.

Thurs. 22 Nov. - day 2:

Fri. 23 Nov. - day 3: Deepavali Cultural Day. ES students are invited to dress up in traditional Deepavali clothing click HERE for examples, parents are encouraged to sell gently used Deepavali costumes on ISKL Want Ads click HERE to join, subscribe, buy and sell. Deepavali Assembly from 10:50-11:30am

G5 CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS
Each school year in late Nov. our G5 Room Parents help our students create their own Christmas tree ornaments, which are then placed on the grade level Christmas tree in the ES Foyer. In recent years, the Room Parents have tried to make this fun activity more sustainable by having the students make ornaments from recycled materials. If you have any magazines and/or other suitable materials to recycle, please have your child bring them to school before Fri. 30 Nov. On that date, our G5 Room Parents will set up an ‘assembly line’ in the G5 common area from 1:30-2:30pm, so the students can create their ornaments.

STUDENTS LEAVING ISKL AT THE END OF FIRST SEMESTER
If you know that you are leaving KL and moving elsewhere at the end of this semester, please let me know and also contact Uma Esvaran in the Admissions/Student Services Office. (Her Panther Apps email address is uesvaran@iskl.edu.my) The ES Administration is trying to get a handle on who will be leaving in December to help plan for second semester. Thanks for your attention to this.  As you know, the first semester ends on Friday 15 Dec. If you are planning to leave early on your end of semester break, please also let me know, so I know how many students will be at school for planning purposes.

CLASS WORK LAST WEEK
Language Arts: Reading, writing, speaking & listening:
Last week, the students continued our second reading unit titled: ‘Tackling Complexity: Summarizing & Synthesizing Nonfiction’, which focuses on text structures and how these structures help support the main ideas in nonfiction books. In their book club groups, students have been reading and discussing a variety of informational texts.  This unit is integrated with our second writing unit titled, ‘Informational Writing’ and our first science unit, titled ‘Sustainable Energy’, so students are also be using texts on this topic to improve their nonfiction writing. The students also continued 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. I also continued reading our current read aloud titled, ‘Refugee’ by Alan Gratz. The students also continued daily typing practice from 7:50 - 8:10am using the www.typing.com program.

Math:
Last week, the students continued Unit 3: The Coordinate Plane. Lessons completed were:
Lesson 1: Locating Points on the Coordinate Plane
Lesson 2: Ordered Pairs on the Coordinate Plane
Lesson 3: Naming and Plotting Points on the Coordinate Plane

Science:
Last week, the students continued our first science unit titled, ‘Sustainable Energy’. They continued working in partnerships in science lab. 3 on our ‘Electrical Circuits Explorations’, where they solved various electrical circuits puzzles. They recorded their learning in an ‘Electrical Circuits’ booklet. The students also continued watching various Brainpop energy videos and taking notes using the two-column method. They also had to complete the video review quiz and also write a topic sentence on the content of the video. Our Info. Lit. teacher - Steve Katz - took the students for a lesson last Wed. titled, ‘Makey Makey’. A Makey Makey is a small electrical circuit board. The students worked in groups of 2-3 and used their knowledge of electrical circuits to connect their Makey Makey to a laptop to play a tune on an online keyboard. They also used it to test the conductivity of various fruits and vegetables. The students had a lot of fun using trial and error and their problem solving skills. The next day they each wrote a blog entry so you can read more about the Makey Makey experience on your child’s blog.

COUNSELING LESSONS
Stephanie Stone, our G3-5 Student Counselor, conducted her regular counseling lesson last Fri. morning. The topic was ‘Growth Mindset’. Stephanie’s next counseling lesson will be on the next day 7 - Thurs. 29 Nov. at the usual time: 8:30-9:00am.

UPCOMING NOV. & DEC. CLASS & SCHOOL EVENTS
Fri. 30 Nov: Red Hats Free Dress Day. Suggested donation - RM5.
G5 Christmas Ornaments Assembly Line in the common area from 1:30-2:30pm.
ES Semester 1 ASAs end

Sun. 2 Dec: KL Children’s Hospital Visit from 9:30am-12:00pm

Sun. 9 Dec: KL Children’s Hospital Visit from 9:30am-12:00pm

Mon. 10 Dec: Grade 5 will begin a Science Design Thinking project focusing on sustainable energy in the Maker Space and science labs starting Dec. 10-21st. Students can bring in cardboard, recyclable materials or other odds and ends (buttons, toilet roll tubes, take out containers, egg cartons, old fabric - anything really) to use for their sustainable energy projects. 

Thurs. 13 Dec: Christmas Around the World from 8:00am-2:00pm in the ES Theater

Fri. 14 Dec: Red Hats Free Dress Day. Suggested donation - RM5.

Fri 21 Dec: Last day of semester 1. Students’ semester 1 report cards will be available online in PowerSchool from 2:45pm

Mon. 14 Jan. 2019: First day of semester 2

Until next week,

Best regards,         

David