We are now officially an Eco-Ecole. We were awarded this status in recognition of our pursuit of ecological practices and for involving our pupils in projects that promote the values of sustainability and environmental responsibility.
Our projects include the E-Baobab plastic sculpture in the playground, built to raise awareness of plastic waste. The children are conscious of the need to conserve energy and have made posters encouraging the saving of water and electricity; they recycle paper whenever possible and use old paper, plastic and other materials in Art and Design Technology projects.
Built our E-Baobab tree,
And have earned “Eco-School” label.
Will hang our flag up high,
It will fly in the wind but we will fix the pole well, will make it quite stable.
Behaved well enough ,
And did not get in detention.
Visited Science Museum,
and saw many inventions.
And then went kayaking,
Did put our oars in the water,
There was no need to worry, mums,
We did not lose your daughters.
…boys came back safe as well.
Prepared for the Summer Fête,
And left important messages on the wall.
Summer is here,
Where is my good friend? I am ready to play ball.
Worked on our Pinball machine,
But it wasn’t all easy.
Tried hard, got stuck, put our backs into it,
and now feel quite dizzy.
Did open our business,
And made tons of profit.
Will give half to a charity,
And half for the “Escape Game”, but I will get out of this closed closet.
In English
This term Elm studied War Horse by Michael Morpurgo. The story is told from the point of view of a farm horse purchased by the army to be used by the cavalry. We learnt a lot about the role of horses in the First World War, and why the cavalry, once so devastating against infantry, became much less effective in trench warfare and against machine guns, fast-firing rifles, artillery and barbed wire.
Elm reflected upon what it must have been like to be a young man at the outbreak of war; they listened to first-hand accounts of the mood at the time, of the recruitment campaign and of reactions to Kitchener’s famous posters and wrote short descriptive passages from this perspective.
We learnt about letter writing, formal and informal, and used our letter writing skills to ask for bank loans for our Young Entrepreneurs businesses.
As part of the war theme, we read letters sent by soldiers from the front and learnt about the conditions they endured in the trenches. Elm then wrote their own letters, imagining themselves in the trenches and writing to friends and family about their harrowing experiences.
ICT
The IMYC Theme this term was “ Young Entrepreneurs”. Elm pupils had a one-of-a-kind life experience; they had to run their own businesses. They had to think about what kind of business to focus on, learn how to calculate benefits and expenses and design a logo. For this reason, they started to familiarise themselves with Excel.
Later, they applied their knowledge of Excel to solve some daily business problems. Pupils identified, gathered, input and edited data into a spreadsheet.
“Did you say challenge?”
Elm class had to present information about a trip to the Olympics Games; a choice of countries – Greece, Spain, South Africa – and their relevant stadiums appeared. The class applied their knowledge of a variety of software , such as Excel, Power Point, Libre Office and Google Earth, and visited a range of websites to undertake their creative project.
The Olympic Games trip allowed the class to put into practice their ICT learning – to identify, gather, input and edit data into a spreadsheet – in this case the information about a city and its stadium. Also, to construct formulae and functions in order to calculate mathematical operations (expenses of the trip; for example, fuel expense depending on the number of kilometres travelled, etc).
To give their company an identity, Elms created an emblem using their technological skills. The software Canva was used as the perfect tool to develop brand recognition.
Also, in order to increase their chances of having a successful business, Elms created business cards to share personal information with their contacts or colleagues.
Spanish
As part of our daily routine, Elms start Spanish lessons by introducing themselves. Each week, we introduce new information about ourselves in self-presentations: favourite sports, food, weather, our month of birth, and so on.
A different way to enrich their vocabulary!
For ten minutes, pupils have to deal with daily situations in Spanish: ordering food in a restaurant, asking someone for help, calling a taxi, asking for and giving directions.
In one lesson, in order to test their knowledge, I placed some cards around the room with daily situations written on them. The pupils had to read and solve them. For example: I’ve just landed at the airport in Madrid and I want to know how to get to my hotel. What can I do? They had to solve this problem in Spanish.
PLAYING BY LEARNING!
Pupils played ball while practising the use of personal pronouns and adjectives. Each time a player threw the ball they had to say a sentence using a personal pronoun, verb and an adjective; for example: Tú eres alto ( You are tall).
KAHOOT
Pupils were able to put into practice their knowledge of Spanish as well as to review Spanish in different contexts through playing Kahoot. They answered questions related to family, food, parts of the house, classroom objects and family members and at the end of the lesson, they could see the winner of the contest!
¿LA CUENTA POR FAVOR?
What is the best way to enrich our vocabulary about food?
The class imagined that they were in a restaurant in Spain, specifically in Valencia.
They were provided with a real restaurant menu, and they had to read and understand it to order their food. At the end, they calculated the amount of money that they spent on their meal!
History and Geography
The theme of Young Entrepreneurs led Elm to look back at the development of trade through the ages, with a focus on the ancient Silk Road. The class looked at the great cities that lined the route and the products that were traded, from East to West (silk, tea, dyes) and from West to East (horses, glassware, the grapevine and grapes). They chose cities to research and prepared brief presentations of the key information.
In Geography, Elm researched the extreme landscape of the route. They used atlases to locate the great mountain ranges and deserts that traders had to cross and plotted them onto maps.
“Young entrepreneurs”
We have learnt:
- how to create a product or service which serves people’s needs and wants
- how to persuade investors to finance calculated start-up costs
- how to cooperate as a team in planning, production and sales
- how to create advertisements
- how to sell our products
The Business Process:
- We got our idea
- We turned it into a plan
- We finalised our details and got a plan ready for the bank
- We showed the plan to the bank hoping that they would like it and invest in our business
- We made our products using the loan money the bank gave us
Calculated my expenses,
and then my profit.
Did a lot of work to sell my product,
Now I am a young entrepreneur, young businessman boffin.
What are my expenses?
And what is my interest rate?
Worked closely with my friend,
He is my business mate.
Polaroid pictures and hand-made flowers,
Mint tea and beautiful jewellery,
And waterless carwash,
Oh yes, we have the business superpower.
Sock puppets, entertaining games,
And school logo caps,
Those tunes played on the piano,
I am ready to run laps.
Business card and beautifully made leaflet,
And then Excel spreadsheet.
I am proud of my business,
It is not a secret.
I‘ve learnt new things,
Know what worked well,
And what I would do differently,
Next time I will open my business, I will do it skilfully.
“Promenade in Vétheuil“
Went kayaking in Vétheuil,
And it was all quite pretty,
We were so happy to escape,
from the noise of the big city.
We saw waterlilies,
And free flying birds.
If only you were there to hear that music,
And nature’s beautiful words.
Claude Monet was here once,
And painted 200 paintings.
It is rather beautiful here,
And Oaks and Elms do concur, it is quite amazing(s).
Sports Day
… summer
I then received my certificate,
Because I’ve achieved so much this year.
I have definitely matured,
I have learnt from my mistakes, it is quite clear.
I am ready for summer,
See you soon friends.
We’ll enjoy our holiday,
And will meet again in September, just as our summer ends.
I will always remember:
Joyful Josh and his love for “Go, Go Nature”,
Unbelievable Uttara and her ability to be mini Maths Teacher.
Reliable Robin and her passion for Art,
Quick calculations made by Jean and his efforts to be Super Smart.
Loving Lila and her passion for reading,
Clever books read by Liam on a quest for deep meaning.
Free spirited Frédérique and her eye for the detail.
And let’s not forget Superstar Sofia,
Who went back to Brazil but remembers that we are still here.
All the best ELMS,
You are simply the BEST!
Enjoy your summer,
Have tons of fun and well-deserved rest!