YEAR 3
This week the children had the opportunity to visit the BMW mobile school. They were shown some basic first aid and some basic rules of the road. At the end they had a bike riding competition to see who could reach a traffic light without any accidents. Only Anastasia was able to complete the course. I think we might need some cycling practice!
In Maths, all groups continued learning about fractions. “Adding fractions with the same denominator was challenging when the sum was bigger than 1,” said Maxim, “but I did it.” The group worked cooperatively and completed their learning accurately. There were lots of “ah ha” moments with the other group who were shading, finding and naming fractions in a fraction circle.
In Topic we have begun a new unit learning about Sustainability and how we can Reduce, Recycle, Reuse and Refuse (plastic). It was a little grim looking at The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and seeing how currents move plastic rubbish into a patch in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean. The children understand that plastic they use and drop, can make their way down the drains into The Moscow River and into the oceans. We are going to find out how we can make changes to help protect our planet.
A very happy Spring festival or “xin nian hao” to all families who are celebrating.
YEAR 4
It was a very special week for Daniel, who celebrated his birthday on Wednesday, 10th February.
In the ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ this week, we read chapter 5 in which Jared finds out about a range of faeries in the Field Guide he discovered in the attic. He reads about boggarts who ‘delight in tormenting those they once protected and will cause milk to sour, doors to slam, dogs to go lame, and other malicious mischief’.
In Mathematics, we used function machines to multiply and divide numbers, and continued finding fractions of amounts. Again, we practised our skills in recognising equivalent fractions, playing the Abacus computer game, ‘Bingo’.
In Science, we watched a videoclip that demonstrates how to make a homemade thermometer out of a plastic bottle and tube, and coloured water.
In our Topic lessons, we looked closely at the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international agreement reached thirty years ago by world leaders to promote the rights of children.
In our PSHE lesson, we looked at our rights as children and linked them to our responsibilities. For example, we have a right to be educated; in turn, it is our responsibility to learn.
We also enjoyed a visit of the BMW Group Junior Campus to our school. We participated in an interactive workshop and learnt how to move about safely and responsibly in road traffic. How to apply first aid to an injured patient was also demonstrated to us.
YEAR 5
This week was dominated by bad weather - this did not imply that the students had a boring week indoors though. We used the opportunity to learn more about the topics we covered during lessons. The Year 5's are studying the Life Cycle of Plants, and as extension to this topic we started growing our very own peas. Great was the excitement as we watched the peas first grow in size, and when the roots appeared, we were amazed at the way in which the roots always find a way to grow downwards!
In English we finished "Oranges in No Man's Land", a journey which left some of us sad as our main characters had to say goodbye to friendships formed during the hardships of war. We had a few battles with 6-digit numbers, but, like our characters in the story, we overcame even the most difficult 6-figures!
The bad weather did not put a lid on our excitement over the skiing trip and Valentine's day either. The organizing of both these events brightened even the gloomiest days. Exciting events were planned for those who could not attend the skiing trip, and no-one left school on Friday afternoon without feeling invigorated with a new energy and love for our great school, family and friends!
