Newsletter no. 30 Mon. 8 Apr. 2019

NEWSLETTER NO. 30
MON. 8 APR. 2019

Dear Parents,

REMINDERS FOR THIS WEEK & EARLY NEXT WEEK:
Mon. 8 Apr. - day 3:

Tues. 9 Apr. - day 4:

Wed. 10 Apr. - day 5:

Thurs. 11 Apr. - day 6:

Fri. 12 Apr. - day 7: Deadline for return of reply slips for G5 & HS Drama Workshops on Sat. 27 Apr. See below for further details.

G5 DRAMA WORKSHOPS
G5 students took home a hard copy of a parent letter last Friday, which explained our plans for the Night of the Notables presentation on Thurs. 9 May and also our plans for our drama workshops with Tim Howe and his HS drama students on Sat. 27 Apr. The drama workshops will help all our students perform at their best on Thurs. 9 May. We expect all G5 students and teachers to attend their class Saturday drama workshop on Sat. 27 Apr, so please complete and have your child return the reply slip to their class teacher by this Friday 12 April, so we have a firm idea of student numbers for the workshops.

CLASS WORK LAST WEEK
Language Arts: Reading, writing, speaking & listening:
Last week, the students began our next reading and writing units. The reading unit it titled, ‘Unit 4: Informational Reading to Guide and Support Research’ and the writing unit is titled, ‘Unit 4: Expository Writing (information and opinion). Both literacy units will be integrated with and support our social studies unit titled, ‘Social Change’. The students also began new historical fiction/biography books in their Book Clubs and for writing, they 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. For read aloud, I began a new book titled, ‘A Long Walk to Water’, by Linda Sue Park. The students also continued daily typing practice from 7:50 - 8:10am using the www.typing.com program.

Math:
Last week, the students began our next math unit titled, ‘Unit 6: Order of Operations’. Lessons completed:
Lesson 1: Why do we need order of operations in math expressions/equations?
Lesson 2: Numeric Expressions
Lesson 3: Tricky Answers
The students also worked on order of operations problems using the online platform ‘Studyladder’. Students can also work on the Studyladder website at home by clicking on www.studyladder.com

SOCIAL STUDIES
Last week the students continued our social studies unit titled, ‘Social Change’. They reviewed/discussed human rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHRs). They discussed - What is discrimination? by viewing a Brainpop video titled ‘Civil Rights’, they read a book with Amy Schneider on Jackie Robinson, an African American Major League baseball player from the 1940s and they also looked at the Ruby Bridges story, titled ‘Through My Eyes’. Finally, the highlight of last week was part 2 of our ‘Social Change Makers’ Conference on Thurs. 4 Apr. from 10:30am to 12:15pm, where we had four more social change makers present to our students. Here’s a list of our presenters:
Dr. Hartini Zainudin - works for UNRWA (United Nations Relief Work Agency for Palestine refugees  and volunteers at Yayasan Chow Kit in KL (Street Kids of Chow Kit)
Arief Fauzy - works at the Selangor SPCA
Mareena Yahya Kerschot - co-founder of Tak Nak Straw - an organization dedicated to protecting the environment by reducing the use of plastic straws
Suji Dehart - our ES Librarian - is an advocate for minimizing waste in landfills and composting
Schedule:
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 Thank you presentation in the G5 common area
12:05 - 12:35 Students completed a debrief with their class teacher.
All G5 students were divided into 4 groups and they rotated around the 4 presenters according the above schedule. **Ask your child what they have learned about human rights, discrimination and social change makers last week.

COUNSELING LESSONS
Our G4&5 Counselor - Stephanie Stone - conducted her usual counseling lesson last Tues. 2 Apr. Stephanie’s next lesson will be on Fri. 12 Apr. - the next day 7 - from 8:30-9:00am

UPCOMING APR. & MAY 2019 CLASS & SCHOOL EVENTS
Fri. 19 Apr: Good Friday. School is in session. Red Hats’ Free Dress Day.

Sat. 20 Apr: Community Recycling Program in the Cell Phone Car Park from 9:30-11:30am.

Mon. 22 Apr: ES Earth Week begins.

Tues. 23 Apr: Earth Day Assemblies: PR-G2 from 8:45-9:30am and G3-G5 from 2:00-2:45pm in the Melawati Theatre.

Fri. 26 Apr: MAP Test - Reading from 10:30-11:30am.

Sat. 27 Apr: G5 & HS Drama Workshops from 8:00am-5:30pm in the Melawati Theatre.

Tues. 30 Apr: MAP Test - Math from 10:30-11:30am.

Wed. 1 May: Labour Day holiday - no school

Thurs. 2 & Fri. 3 May: MAP Test make-up days (for any students who are absent on previous testing days)

Fri. 3 May: Schoolwide Parent Volunteer Appreciation Brunch in MPR4 from 10:00 - 11:30am.

Mon. 6 May: Ramadan begins

Thurs. 9 May: G5 Night of the Notables Presentation for parents in the Melawati Theatre from 5:00-6:00pm.
ES semester 2 ASAs finish.

Fri. 10 May: Next Red Hats Free Dress Day. Suggested donation - RM5.

Tues. 14 May: ES Music Concert from 5:30-7:00pm

Mon. 20 May: Wesak Day holiday - no school

Tues. 21 May: Faculty Inservice Day - no school for students

Wed. 22 May: Nuzul Al-Quran holiday - no school

Fri. 24 May: ES Wet ‘n’ Wild Day. More details TBA

Mon. 27 May: G5 students orientation visit to the Middle School from 10:30am-12:30pm. More details TBA.

Until next week,

Best regards,         

David