English
Oak class have been celebrating the arrival of Spring in their Nature Journals. We have taken the time to stop and look at the growing world around us, the natural beauty we generally walk past without a second glance. We have been collecting quotations and proverbs about the season, as well as poetry.
We finished reading The Firework Maker’s Daughter, which besides being an entertaining story, led us to learn about the art of pyrotechnics and the beautiful islands of Indonesia and also tied in with our study of volcanoes in Geography.
As part of the school Garden Project, Oak class researched some of the common insects we find in our gardens and presented them, discovering that these often vilified creatures – such as slugs and beetles – have an important role to play in keeping soil fertile and flowers pollinated.
French (Beginners Group with Joanna)
Learning a new language can definitely be more fun than one thinks. This term we worked a lot on what can be a rather daunting theme: telling time in French. We chose to make it more fun to learn by working in pairs and asking each other questions and also playing educational games to make the task less daunting. We also watched a report on the daily schedule of students in a French school and we were able to see the differences / comparisons with our school. The students learned and presented their Poésies de Printemps (filmed hereunder) and we also celebrated La Saint Patrick and learned how we celebrate Pâques (Easter) in France. The last day of term all three French classes got together to make their own ‘déjeuner fait maison’ including healthy starters, pizzas and cakes. We read instructions & recipes in French and had a déjeuner gastronomique all together.
French (Intermediate Group with Christine)
Vega and Sophie went on working with their own learning supports such as books, texts with questions, grammar and writing exercices…. It allowed them to expand their vocabulary, master the structure of French sentences, understand, and apply the construction of the verbs, which help in speaking more fluently. That’s why one of them learned how to write and recognize the complex sounds, while the other trained to master one of the past tense, recognize the masculine form of adjectives from the feminine… Learning a poem contributes to expanding vocabulary and has it part in the oral expression. That’s why they learned the poem « Pique-nique » they say together as shown on the video. Aside to their own program, each Monday, they have the possibility to be part of the oral time of all the class, when each one speaks about his weekend and answers questions the others students may ask.
French ( Advanced group with Marie)
Cette quatrième période a été consacrée principalement à la mythologie grecque. En effet, les élèves ont continué d’intégrer les notions de français en articulant leurs apprentissages autour de cette thématique :
en grammaire: natures et fonctions des mots, les compléments de phrases (lieu, temps, manière)
en conjugaison: le futur simple et le plus que parfait (avec révision du passé composé)
en orthographe: le champ lexical, les familles de mots, les homophones grammaticaux, les mots invariables
en mémorisation: 2 poésies ont été apprises et récitées
en littérature: la mythologie grecque avec le choix d’un livre de lecture (l’Odyssée d’Homère ou Ulysse et le Cyclope) puis différentes fiches de lecture, lectures silencieuses.
2 dictées et 2 évaluations ont eu lieu pendant cette 4ème période.
French IMYC
Cette période a été consacrée aux origines des céréales. En effet, les enfants ont étudié la manière dont elles ont évolué et voyagé au fil des ans.
Après avoir vu l’émission “C’est pas sorcier: du blé au pain”, les enfants ont répondu à un questionnaire puis ils ont produit leur propre farine à partir des grains de blé à l’aide de mortiers et de tamis:
Puis, ils ont fait leur propre pain:
Après avoir pétri la pâte, les enfants ont formé des “miches de pain”:
Et voilà le résultat:
Nous avons aussi abordé différents thèmes tels que la journée de la femme (8 mars) et la Saint Patrick.
Pour le dernier jour d’école, les enfants ont préparé leur repas (entrée salade de tomates concombres, plats pizza et desserts gâteau au chocolat et quatre quart aux pommes):
Ils ont appris la chanson “La vie c’est comme un jardin” des Enfantastiques:
Geography
In Geography, Oak class continued to learn about the natural phenomena of volcanoes and earthquakes and the effects of these disturbances to the earth’s surface. They charted on a map some of the world’s most famous volcanoes, discovering them to be regular occurrences across continents. This term we also studied tsunamis, their causes and how they develop out at sea and present themselves on land.
History
During this term our Oaks had the opportunity to visit the Egyptian antiquities at the Louvre Museum, looking at many different artefacts created by the Egyptians, like jewellery, pots, and sarcophaguses! They had fun reading the hieroglyphs and acknowledging the precious materials with which the Egyptians artefacts have been made!
The Oak class also started to look at the beginning of Greek civilisation, looking at how Ancient Greeks settled in both the islands and the continental land. Our Oaks also began to look at the main events that characterised the Ancient Greek civilisation, discovering the importance of towns like Athens and Sparta. Oak students explored also the food eaten by Ancient Greeks, researching the products that they grew and the animals that they bred.
Art
Over the course of this term our Oaks worked on colour theory and explored the work of the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. Each student looked at the feeling and the emotions that different colours could represent, creating a small canvas with a grid composition of different concentric shapes. The students worked on the importance of shapes and experimented the creation of many and different colour gradients.
Creative Writing Workshop
Over the course of the term, the Oak students worked on a story set in a natural landscape. Each student worked on characterisation, creating their animal character, and working on the description of his emotional traits and physical appearance. After having chosen a picture of a natural landscape – mainly gardens and fields – in which their animal character could live, the Oak students developed their story, drafting, editing, and proofreading their work.
Global Perspectives
Over the course of this term the Oak class looked at different countries from around the world, researching their culture, their traditions, and their lifestyle. By looking at global and national perspectives, each student carried out research on a specific country, designing very creative posters to present the outcomes of their work.
Science
Oak students explored this term that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object . They identified the effects of air resistance, water resistance and friction, that act between moving surface and recognise that some mechanisms including levers, pulleys and gears allow a smaller force to have a greater effect. They Also had the opportunity to look at a human food cell on the microscope and plant seeds.
Mathematics
During this term Oaks worked on solving different money and time word problems. We practiced adding up totals for our pretend shop and calculated given change. We matched time on the analogue and digital clocks and used the number lines to solve time problems. We dived into problems where the starting time, finishing time and the duration of our favourite TV shows had to be calculated. We also worked on multiplying and dividing whole and decimal number by 10, 100 and 100 and consolidated the written methods for addition and subtraction
D and T
Planted runner beans,
In an old and cracked rainboots.
We are sure they will have some strong,
healthy roots.
Collected some stinging nettles,
And conjured our own plant food fertilizer.
No need to go to the Jardiland, parents.
We have a solution that is wiser.
Explorer Pythagoras,
Fibonacci and Newton,
Still plenty to go through,
Will start with Darwin’s evolution.
Found Mathematics present all around us in nature.
On the house of the snail or the beautiful sunflower.
Better start designing that
rain water collecting tower.
Compost box, windchime,
wormery and the birdfeeder.
Observed how seeds are growing
and my fingers get greener.
Trellis for the runner beans
and horse manure for potato.
Just wonder of Mona Lisa
knew about that Golden Ratio.
Green and brown for our compost box,
Apparently it is all about the balance of Nitrogen and Carbon,
Something important
like a pair of socks.
Types of soils
and different climates,
Greenhouse effect.
Ohhh no, I have cut my finger, not a big deal,
But I better wash it well and disinfect.
We are off on our holiday,
But plants shall continue to grow.
Automated watering system,
Will look after them,
And it should be quite easy,
Cos we planted those plants in a row.
Drama Workshop
Over the course of this term our Oaks worked on drama scripts, learning how to write a collaborative script representing a short scene. By choosing between some different scenarios, students worked in small groups to write their own script, editing it while rehearsing for their performance. At the end of the term, each group performed in front of the class and explained how the script was developed from the chosen prompt.
