This term, we welcomed new friends into our class. We are incredibly happy to have you with us. We also said goodbye to a wonderful classmate who returned to Brazil. We will miss you! It’s been a wonderful three years with you at Forest International School.
Through a rich and diverse curriculum, we continued to make excellent progress during this term. We also sang, danced, played, explored, learned and enjoyed being together. The icing on our cake was our Christmas show where we all worked as a team to create the magic that was ‘Hey Ewe!‘ We hope that you enjoyed our production.
Marvellous Maths
This term, we learned to name two and three-dimensional shapes. We learned that 2D shapes are simply flat, drawn on a piece of paper while 3D shapes can be picked up. It was marvellous to discover shapes all around us; our favourite was the cylinder (with the action to go with it) ! We also applied our learning to create repeating patterns as well as 2D and 3D art.
Tangrams 
Creating Patterns 
Building with 3D Shapes 
Exploring Shape and Size 
BUMP – Game-based Learning about 2D Shapes
Maths + Art = Mart. Can you spot the 2D shapes in our drawings?
Birchers also extended their understanding of place value to two-digit numbers up to twenty. We learned how ten ones make a ten, to count forwards and backwards between zero and twenty and write numbers in words. We also recapped our learning about addition and subtraction and are getting even better at adding and subtracting within ten!
Ordering Numbers 
Counting to 20 
Counting down from 20 – Blast off! 
Game-based Learning about Addition and Subtraction 
Decomposing numbers 11-20
Wonderful Words
This term, Birch class have continued to develop their writing skills and have begun to write for a purpose. The children have applied their reading and phonics skills to write longer sentences. They have also role-played scenes and created new characters to include in stories that they have already read.
We have also been working on building our reading skills by exploring a range of books and playing games. This has helped us to become more independent learners.
International Primary Curriculum
Our topic for this term was ‘Push and Pull’. We learned about different forces and looked closely at how forces act upon an object. We also applied our learning to create art as well as engineering designs! Never forget the great scientist, Isaac Newton, who taught us about forces; we learned that forces are measured on newtons. This was such a fun and interactive topic for us.
Smart Scientists
In science, we learned about types of forces, the role of friction, gravity, speed and magnetism. Through lots of hands-on learning and experiments, we built our understanding of forces all around us and their importance.
We focused on making hypotheses before an experiment, recording our results and drawing conclusions. We also tried our best to ensure that our tests were fair. We believe that that’s what smart scientists do.
It was a blast spotting things that we could push and pull at school.
We explored friction by spinning a spinning top on different surfaces. We learned that friction slows down motion and can makes things stop moving. Friction is more on rough surfaces compared to smooth ones.
Next, we performed experiments to see how far a marble rolls on slopes of different inclinations. We learned that steep slopes allow for higher speed.
We were walking in the air when we explored gravity. We learned that gravity pulls everything to the ground, but air resistance slows it down. Everything moving through air experiences some air resistance. Air resistance is more on wider things. Our small parachute dropped quickly, but our larger one floated for a bit longer.
We particularly enjoyed watching a sheet of paper “see-saw” to the ground as air resistance “wrestled” with gravity.
After that, we explored magnetism: understanding it to be a non-contact force, finding magnetic and non-magnetic items and noting how the poles of a magnet react to each another – attract and repel. We even built structures using magnetic tiles.
Magnetic Paperclip 
Magnetic Scissors 
Magnetic 5 cent coin 
Like Magnets Repel 
Magnetic Tin 
Building with Magnetic Tiles
Paper airplane anyone? We learned about how the shape of an item can affect how it travels through air. Which paper airplane floats for the longest? Which one travels the furthest? We loved the speedy dart-shaped airplane and even made our own to take home!
Delectable Design and Technology
Stick Man with Mr Kralka
Linked to our learning in Science based on ‘Push and Pull’, we measured, estimated and solved real-life problems. We worked with different materials and carpentry tools to create our own Stick man.
The children read the story of the stick man and then drew their very own. They all had very different designs and were encouraged to share and discuss their ideas with each other before agreeing on the final version.
We estimated, measured, re-measured, sorted, cut and hammered different materials and now are very proud of our achievement. In order to accomplish our mission, we learnt how to use a variety of carpentry tools safely. We collected and sorted different natural materials to make each part of our stick man.
The finished result was a stick man with a range of moving parts for all to play with when on the school playground. In this task, we applied our understanding of pulleys to build a puppet from natural and up-cycled materials. Our stick man can shake your hand and kick a ball out of your hands.
Crazy about Christmas!
The children continued to develop their carpentry skills by applying them to creating and building their very own Christmas tree. Both Walnut and Birch classes were challenged to work as a team to create this Christmas masterpiece.
Walnut class supported Birch class by taking the lead and ensuring that clear instructions were given throughout the task. Walnut children were asked to conduct a risk assessment as well as apply their knowledge and understanding of how these tools work.
Once we had finished building our Christmas trees, they were proudly displayed at the entrance of the school for all to see.
‘Hey Ewe!’ – Interdisciplinary Learning
Interdisciplinary learning extended well beyond the International Primary Curriculum (IPC). Our whole-school drama production provided a rich opportunity to create art, sing to music, dance, create our own costumes and become sheep, wisemen and shepherds. We worked as a team and had a brilliant time together.
Design and Technology – Creating Angel and Sheep Costumes
We even learned to sew a bit.
Collaborative Art
We worked collaboratively to create backdrops for “Hey Ewe!” We also enjoyed drawing for pleasure. This magnificent face was drawn by a highly talented Bircher.
Music and Dance
“Hey Ewe” was rife with beautiful songs. Thank you to Ms Ida for helping us with our choreography and Ms Kareen for supporting us as we learned to sing for our play.
Drama
We practised our lines, actions and movements. It was interesting working with the whole school.
We hope that you enjoyed our performance on the 4th of December.
Forest Exploration
Forest exploration is a huge part of Forest International School. It is particularly rewarding for the children to enjoy free play in the forest. Birchers choose a variety of play types – social games, pretend games, climbing and simply exploring. We have made “fireplaces” out of sticks, swept our “living room” and learned about safety as we visited the woods.
Fabulous French
We continued to build our vocabulary in French, exploring everyday words that describe our habits and environments as well as some inter-disciplinary learning (IPC) in French.
Click on the link below for our learning in French.