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:
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
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