G5 Weekly Newsletter

Weekly Newsletter Grade 5
Dates: December 17-21 2018

Curriculum Information for the Week:
Literacy:
This week students will wrap up their informational writing, focusing on sustainable energy. Information paragraphs follow the same format as all good paragraph writing, starting with a topic sentence, followed by FRED’s, and concluding with a “So what?” This week students will show what they know in their Writing on Demand Assessment.

Math:
As we move forward in our decimals unit, students are learning to add and subtract decimals.  We have multiple tools and strategies to help students develop conceptual understanding.  Students will show what they know about decimals by adding, subtracting, and rounding while shopping for a meal on Tesco.com

Unit of Study: 
Design Thinking is in full swing. Students have started making connections to energy consumption and climate change, and have begun their designs of a prototype to help reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, in order to reduce carbon emissions that lead to greenhouse gases and global warming.

For more information and ways to support your child please visit the Parent Learning Connection page.

Parents, please also check out the SERVICE CHANNEL, which is a forum for the ISKL community to share ideas and information about how we can contribute to our community and planet.

Important Reminders/Information for this week: (also see GLC Updates):
Last week of school before break!

Highlights from last week:

• Students have been working hard on their nonfiction writing pieces throughout the week.  Ask them to share their work with you!
• Design Thinking is in full swing!  Ask your child about their idea, the prototype they will be building and HOW it will positively affect the environment!

Newsletter no. 19 Mon. 17 Dec. 2018

NEWSLETTER NO. 19
MON. 17 DEC. 2018

Dear Parents,

This is my final class newsletter for the first semester. Thanks for your support at home this semester in helping your child to work towards achieving their academic, social and personal goals. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I would like to wish you and your family a Happy Christmas. My wife and I will be visiting family and friends in my hometown - Warrnambool in Victoria, Australia. Hopefully, we’ll also be spending some time on the local beaches as well. There’s no white Christmas in Australia. It’s beaches, barbecues and spending time in the great outdoors with family and friends. I hope you’re also able to spend some time with your family and friends. If you’re traveling - safe travels and also a Happy New Year to you all. School resumes on Mon. 14 Jan. 2019. It will be a day 1 on our 8-day schedule. When school resumes for the second semester, the students will continue our math unit titled, ‘Place Value and Decimal Operations’, they will begin their third reading unit titled, ‘Fantasy Book Clubs’ and writing unit titled, ‘Fantasy Writing’ and begin a brand new science unit titled, ‘Properties of Matter’. I’ll share details of each unit in my next newsletter.

REMINDERS FOR THIS WEEK & EARLY NEXT WEEK:
Mon. 17 Dec. - day 3: G5 assembly from 2:15-2:45pm in the common area. Suan Tan from WWF Malaysia - one of our Social Change Makers’ Conference presenters, will attend to receive a Red Hat’s donation. We will also acknowledge and farewell G5 students who are leaving ISKL at the end of semester 1.

Tues. 18 Dec. - day 4: 

Wed. 19 Dec. - day 5:

Thurs. 20 Dec. - day 6: PS-G2 Run Jump & Throw Day. 30 Red Hats - approx. 6 students from each class - will volunteer to help supervise the younger students during the program from 8:00-10:45am.

Fri 21 Dec. - day 7: Last day of semester 1.
Final Red Hats Free Dress Day for the semester. Suggested donation - RM5.
G5 ‘Design Thinking Challenge Prototype Share’ in the G5 classrooms from 1:30-2:30pm.
Students’ semester 1 report cards will be available online in PowerSchool from 2:45pm.

SEMESTER BREAK READING LISTS
Our librarian - Suji DeHart - has prepared the reading lists below. Please note that quite a few titles are in the ES library book collection. Here are the links:

http://www.sspl.org/children/booklists/grade5/

http://kids.nypl.org/book-lists/fifth-grade

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/5th-grade-reading-list

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 21 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 information book clubs were suspended, while the students worked on their Design Thinking Challenge, which was to create a prototype (model) of an invention to reimagine sustainable energy and work on the problem of climate change. The students used the design thinking process and Google draw to create a prototype. Last Thurs. Morning, Steve Katz and Max Wright introduced them to the equipment and materials in our ES MakerSpace. On Fri. morning in the spare ‘shell & core’ classroom opposite our classroom, the students began building their prototype, with recycled materials brought from home and tools from the MakerSpace and classroom. Prototype building will continue in the early part of this coming week, culminating in a whole G5 share on Fri. 21 Dec. from 1:30-2:30. To prepare for the prototype share, the students will also prepare an ‘elevator speech’ to explain their prototype. 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. To conclude our information writing unit, the students will complete an information writing on-demand essay this week on a Google doc, where they will have the opportunity to showcase their information essay writing skills.

Math:
Last week, the students continued Unit 4: Place Value and Decimal Operations. They completed the following lessons:
Lesson 2: Powers of 10.
Lesson 3: Standard, Expanded and Unit Form
Lesson 4: Comparing Decimals

Science:
Last week, the students continued our science unit titled, ‘Sustainable Energy’. See above ‘Language Arts’ paragraph for details.

COUNSELING LESSONS
Stephanie Stone conducted her regular counseling lesson last Tues. 11 Dec. from 8:30-9:00am. Stephanie’s next lesson will not be until semester 2 on Tues. 22 Jan. - the next day 7.

UPCOMING JAN. & FEB. 2019 CLASS & SCHOOL EVENTS
Mon. 14 Jan. 2019 - day 1: First day of semester 2

Mon. 21 Jan: Thaipusam holiday - no school

Wed. 23 Jan: ES Parent Workshop: Learning in the ES, 8:15-9:45am in the ES Community Room.

Fri. 25 Jan: Red Hats Free Dress Day - suggested donation RM5

Sat. 26 Jan: Community Recycling Program in the Cell Phone Car Park from 9:30-11:30am

Mon. 4,Tues. 5, and Wed. 6 Feb: Chinese New Year holiday - no school.

Until next semester,

Best regards,         

David

G5 Weekly Newsletter

Weekly Newsletter Grade 5
Dates: December 10-14, 2018

Curriculum Information for the Week:
Literacy:
Students will finish their informational writing, focusing on sustainable energy. Information paragraphs follow the same format as all good paragraph writing, starting with a topic sentence, followed by FRED’s, and concluding with a “So what?” Students will write a variety of non-fiction paragraphs: sequencing, compare and contrast, cause and effect, just to name a few!

Math:
As we move forward in our decimals unit, students are learning to add and subtract decimals.  We have multiple tools and strategies to help students develop conceptual understanding.  As the week continues, they will choose ways that are most efficient to them.

Unit of Study: 
Design Thinking planning will start this week! The students will start making connections to energy consumption and climate change, and design a prototype to help reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, in order to reduce carbon emissions that lead to greenhouse gases and global warming.

For more information and ways to support your child please visit the Parent Learning Connection page

Parents, please also check out the SERVICE CHANNEL, which is a forum for the ISKL community to share ideas and information about how we can contribute to our community and planet.

Important Reminders/Information for this week: (also see GLC Updates):
*Christmas Around the World is Thursday, wear your red and green! G5 time is from 11:40-12:20
*Please send in your clean recyclables for our design thinking project. We are looking for plastic, ribbon, fabric, cartons, bottles etc.

Highlights from last week:
*Students have been working hard on their nonfiction writing pieces throughout the week.  Ask them to share their work with you!
*The band performance went very well. Hard to believe most students had not even picked up their instruments prior to August!! Well done!
*Congratulations to our ISAC swimmers who competed last Friday!

Newsletter no. 18 Mon. 10 Dec. 2018

NEWSLETTER NO. 18
MON. 10 DEC. 2018

REMINDERS FOR THIS WEEK & EARLY NEXT WEEK:
Mon. 10 Dec. - day 6: G5 students will begin a Science Design Thinking project focusing on sustainable energy in the MakerSpace, classrooms and science labs. Students can bring in cardboard, recycled 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 design thinking projects.

Tues. 11 Dec. - day 7:

Wed. 12 Dec. - day 8: G5 Students Eco Walking Tour of five sustainable energy sites around the new campus, from 10:30am-12:30pm, conducted by Dave Perrau, Director of Project Operations and Brad Knowles, Director of Facilities, Katie Milton, ISKL Transition Coordinator and Fabian Jong and Izyan from the Facilities Dept. 

Thurs. 13 Dec. - day 1: Christmas Around the World (CAW) from 8:00am-2:00pm in the ES Theater. It’s also ‘Red and Green’ dress up day. 5DH students will be attending CAW from 11:40am-12:20pm. Eight 5DH student volunteers - 4 girls and 4 boys - will also help teachers supervise students from PR-G2 at CAW at various time slots during the day. 

Fri. 14 Dec. - day 2: Red Hats Free Dress Day - cancelled - moved to CAW Day on Thurs. 12 Dec.

2018 CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD ARRANGEMENTS
We are very pleased to announce that the PTA-sponsored ‘Christmas Around the World’ (CAW) will be conducted in the ES Community Room on Thurs. 13 Dec. Twelve stations from various regions/countries from around the world will be set up, plus, it’s also red & green free, free dress-up day! (The free dress day on Fri. 14 Dec. has been moved to coincide with CAW on Thurs. 13 Dec.) Students may come to school dressed in red and/or green or Christmas styled clothes. G5 students are scheduled to attend the CAW stations from 11:40am- 12:20pm. The class will be split into 2 groups. There will be a 5DH class photo with Santa at the start of the 11:50-12:00 block.

G5 STUDENTS ECO WALKING TOUR
In conjunction with Brad Knowles - Director of Facilities, Dave Perrau, Director of Project Operations, Katie Milton, ISKL Transition Coordinator and Fabian Jong and Izyan from the Facilities Dept, G5 students and teachers will be participating in an ‘Eco Walking Tour’ of five sustainable energy locations around the new campus on Wed. 12 Dec. from 10:30am-12:30pm. As I said, we will visit 5 locations in rotation with one of the above people leading at each location - see below, so each of our 5 classes would start at a location, spend 15 min. there and then move to the next location. We will have a 5 min. transition between locations. All of the 5 school locations feature technologies designed to conserve energy.
1. Eco Garden - Composting and zero waste plan - with Izyan
2. Grey Water system and condensate recovery system in the carpark - with Fabian
3. Chiller plant room on the way to the FM training room for Energy Management - with Brad
4. Rainwater retention tank and syphonics system - with Dave
5. Chilled slabs and the room lighting (natural and sensors) - with Katie
I’ve informed the students about the walk and they’re already very excited! Of course, the proposed ‘Eco Walking Tour’ complements the students learning about sustainable energy in their current science unit.

SEMESTER BREAK READING LISTS
Our librarian - Suji DeHart has prepared the reading lists below. Please note that quite a few titles are in the ES library book collection. Here are the links:

http://www.sspl.org/children/booklists/grade5/

http://kids.nypl.org/book-lists/fifth-grade

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/5th-grade-reading-list

 
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 21 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 information book clubs were suspended, while the students continued to synthesize their online research on one form of sustainable energy to complete the writing of an information essay on a Google doc. 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 completed Unit 3: The Coordinate Plane. They reviewed the unit and then completed the end-of-unit written summative assessment. Last Wed. the students began Unit 4: Place Value and Decimal Operations. They completed the tuning-in activity titled, Decimal Designs and Lesson 1: Decimal Place Value.

Science:
Last week, the students continued our science unit titled, ‘Sustainable Energy’. Even though the unit will continue until the end of the semester, the students completed the written summative assessment because the students’ learning results are required by me so I can complete their end-of-semester report cards. This coming week, the students will begin their ‘Design Thinking Challenge’, where they will work in small groups and use recycled materials in the MakerSpace, classroom and science labs to design a prototype of an invention to combat climate change.

Info. Lit:
Last Tues. afternoon, our Info Lit Teacher - Steve Katz - took the students for a lesson titled, ‘Hour of Code’ where they tried a variety of activities on the website that required them to apply their computer coding skills. Here is the website they worked on www.code.org
The students are also able to continue practicing their computer coding skills for home learning since it’s one of the choices on the home learning choice board under ‘Skill Builders’.

COUNSELING LESSONS
Since there was no day 7 last week, the students did not have their usual Counseling Lesson with Stephanie Stone. Stephanie’s next counseling lesson will be on the next day 7 - Tues. 11 Dec. at the usual time: 8:30-9:00am.

UPCOMING DEC. 2018 & JAN. & FEB. 2019 CLASS & SCHOOL EVENTS
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 - day 1: First day of semester 2

Mon. 21 Jan: Thaipusam holiday - no school

Wed. 23 Jan: ES Parent Workshop: Learning in the ES, 8:15-9:45am in the ES Community Room.

Fri. 25 Jan: Red Hats Free Dress Day - suggested donation RM5

Sat. 26 Jan: Community Recycling Program in the Cell Phone Car Park from 9:30-11:30am

Mon. 4,Tues. 5, and Wed. 6 Feb: Chinese New Year holiday - no school.

Until next week,

Best regards,         

David

Newsletter no. 17 Mon. 3 Dec. 2018

NEWSLETTER NO. 17
MON. 3 DEC. 2018

REMINDERS FOR THIS WEEK & EARLY NEXT WEEK:
Parents, please be aware that Semester 1 ASAs finished last Friday, so all students who travel home by bus this week will leave the campus on the 2:45pm buses, except for those involved in AquaPanthers. If your child is involved in AquaPatners, please be aware there are no ASA buses for this group.
Mon. 3 Dec. - day 1:

Tues. 4 Dec. - day 2: Music Concert Rehearsal for participants only from 8:15-9:00am

Wed. 5 Dec. - day 3: Music Concert Dress Rehearsal for the ES in the Melawati Theatre from 8:30-9:00am

Thurs. 6 Dec. - day 4: Music Concert for parents in the Melawati Theatre. This year the program will be split into two sections:
6:00-6:30pm for gamelan, strings and choir
7:30-8:00pm for gamelan, recorder and band

Fri. 7 Dec. - day 5:

Sun. 9 Dec: KL Children’s Hospital Visit from 9:30am-12:00pm conducted by David Herbert. This will be our final visit for semester 1. Semester 2 dates will be available shortly.

G5 CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS THANKS
Special thanks to our G5 GLC - John Beattie - and Room Parents and other volunteer parents for organizing our ‘Christmas tree ornaments assembly line’ in the common area from 1:30-2:30pm last Fri. afternoon. The students’ ornaments will now be placed on the G5 tree in the ES entrance foyer.

G5 STUDENTS ECO WALKING TOUR
In conjunction with Brad Knowles - Director of Facilities, Dave Perrau, Director of Project Operations, Katie Milton, ISKL Transition Coordinator and Fabian Jong and Izyan from the Facilities Dept, G5 students and teachers will be participating in an ‘Eco Walking Tour’ of five sustainable energy locations around the new campus on Wed. 12 Dec. from 10:30am-12:30pm. As I said, we will visit 5 locations in rotation with one of the above people leading at each location - see below, so each of our 5 classes would start at one of the locations, spend 15 min. there and then move to the next location. We will have a 5 min. transition between locations. All of the 5 school locations feature technologies designed to conserve energy.
1. Eco Garden - Composting and zero waste plan - with Izyan
2. Grey Water system and condensate recovery system in the carpark - with Fabian
3. Chiller plant room on the way to the FM training room for Energy Management - with Brad
4. Rainwater retention tank and syphonics system - with Dave
5. Chilled slabs and the room lighting (natural and sensors) - with Katie
I’ve informed the students about the walk and they’re already very excited! Of course, the proposed ‘Eco Walking Tour’ complements the students learning about sustainable energy in their current science unit.

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 21 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 using texts on this topic to improve their nonfiction reading and writing. Last week the students concluded their online research of one form of sustainable energy. While conducting their research they took notes, including who invented it, when, how does it work, the pros and cons and the future. They also included their sources. They also began to synthesize their research in an information essay. Later this week, they will use their essays to create a script for a PSA (Public Service Announcement) or a podcast, which will feature their chosen form of sustainable energy. 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 5: What’s the Rule? (Using ordered pairs to interpret rules involving the x and y axes)
Lesson 6: Generating Patterns on the Coordinate Plane
Lesson 7: Line Graphs on the Coordinate Plane
Intro to Lesson 8: Reading & Interpreting Line Graphs
Early this week, the students will review the unit and complete the unit 3 written summative assessment.

Science & Info. Lit:
Last week, the students continued our science unit titled, ‘Sustainable Energy’. Our Info. Lit. teacher - Steve Katz - took the students for two lessons last Mon. and Tues. titled, ‘Intro to Google Draw’ and ‘Reliable Sources/Evaluating Websites’. The evaluating websites lesson helped the students to conduct their research into a chosen source of sustainable energy - mentioned above in the language arts section. The Google draw lesson will help the students add diagrams to their information essays.   

COUNSELING LESSONS
Last Thurs. Stephanie Stone conducted her regular counseling lesson. The topic was ‘Integrity’; showing you’re a Red Hat role model everywhere around the school, even when there is no adult watching you. Stephanie’s next counseling lesson will be on the next day 7 - Tues. 11 Dec. at the usual time: 8:30-9:00am.

UPCOMING NOV. DEC. 2018 & JAN. & FEB. 2019 CLASS & SCHOOL EVENTS
Mon. 10 - Fri. 21 Dec: G5 students will begin a Science Design Thinking project focusing on sustainable energy in the Maker Space and science labs. 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.

Wed. 12 Dec: G5 students & teachers 'Eco Walking Tour' from 10:30am-12:30pm. 

Thurs. 13 Dec: Christmas Around the World from 8:00am-2:00pm in the ES Theater. It’s also ‘Red and Green’ dress up day.

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 - day 1: First day of semester 2

Mon. 21 Jan: Thaipusam holiday - no school

Wed. 23 Jan: ES Parent Workshop: Learning in the ES, 8:15-9:45am in the ES Community Room.

Fri. 25 Jan: Red Hats Free Dress Day - suggested donation RM5

Sat. 26 Jan: Community Recycling Program in the Cell Phone Car Park from 9:30-11:30am

Mon. 4,Tues. 5, and Wed. 6 Feb: Chinese New Year holiday - no school.

Until next week,

Best regards,         

David