From the Principal

March 2012

ISB Lower School Specialists’ Newsletter

Inside this issue:

French/Spanish 2

Art 3

Serbian/Serbian MT 4

Music/EAL 5

EAL 6

PE 7

A great example of this is when your children ‘connect’ their school learning with something that happens when they are at home or out and about with the family. Our specialists teachers work alongside our classroom teachers to develop lessons and learning opportunities that are both interesting and connected to the classroom Units of Inquiry. Our specialist teachers work alongside our classroom teachers regularly to find connections between subjects and even participate in field trips when the connec-tion is natural. For this reason, we think it is important that we keep our parents informed about the teaching and learning taking place in our specialists’ classrooms. You will receive our specialist newsletter six times during the school year. As always, if you have any ques-tions about your child’s education, feel free to contact us. Enjoy the Spring season and our upcoming Spring Break. I look forward to seeing you all here on the Lower School campus, Brian H. Lettinga

Gr. 2

Welcome to the sixth edition of our Specialist Newsletters! Our specialist teachers (also re-ferred as single-subject teachers) play an integral and important role in the Primary Years Program. The arts, physical education, and lan-guage study are essential elements to a comprehensive and holistic pri-mary school education. The content of these subjects is transdisciplinary in nature, meaning that the skills and concepts developed by special-ist teachers have relevance through-out the Lower School curriculum and our students’ lives beyond school.

French

Page 2

Newsletter Title

Dubravka Kostanjsek

French Teacher

Milica Rkulovic Spanish Teacher

Spanish

Dear second grade parents,

Here is our sixth newsletter from the French class.

Since you’ve last heard from us, we finished learning about games and expressing

our preferences regarding various types of activities and moved on to our new

Unit about cities and villages. So far, we introduced vocabulary regarding different

types of buildings and services one can encounter in a city or a village. The stu-

dents made two different posters that we have been using in class through differ-

ent activities in order to practice description and spatial orientation. We will also

work on different possible everyday communicative situations and basic struc-

tures one might need in these situations (such as shopping, for example).

Thank you for your time and please feel free to contact me if you have any ques-

tions.

Grade two Spanish students recently began learning the names of different

body parts in Spanish. After a quick pre-assessment game of Amanda Manda

(Simon Says) in which the students realized how many body part names they

already know in Spanish, we moved right into learning new vocabulary. The

students enjoyed labeling the life size outline of Elizabeth, the new Spanish

student we created in class, and drawing in the missing features such as eyes,

nose, hair, etc. Soon we´ll start creating monsters and aliens with numerous

body parts as we practice our listening and reading comprehension skills, and

from there we´ll move right into describing ourselves physically.

Page 3

Art

Svetlana Spasic-

Glid

Art

In the previous weeks, we had successful conferences. Grade 2 students were engaged in

drawing, painting, and making forms while learning about patterns, color, and form.

Students finished learning about Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists with great suc-

cess! We have seen student-initiated action in the art room: the children wanted to learn

how to paint the sky in different ways as well as to paint the wind and you can see them

proudly displaying their works of art! The children also worked on projects with pipe clean-

ers while exploring making forms of their interests, and on drawing projects while deepen-

ing their understanding of pattern.

Grade 2A students have classes on Tuesdays.

Grade 2B students have classes on Thursdays.

Serbian as a Foreign Language

Page 4

Newsletter Title

Ivana Jovanovic

Serbian language Teacher

Second graders wrapped up the unit about body parts by working on the poem Lav by

Dusan Radovic, a renowned Serbian poet. The poem depicts strange-looking and scary

lion that, by the end of it, disappears in an unexpected way.

Students enjoyed creating and presenting their posters illustrating this poem. In April,

we connected to Grade 2 homeroom unit about the city and the village. The city diora-

ma we’ve made is a very busy place that helps us combine and practice all the words

we have learned so far, compose simple descriptive sentences, and improve our un-

derstanding through listening and answering questions. We also practiced how to ask

for the bread in a bakery, or a piece of meat in the butcher store. Using bubble.us,

students classified city buildings into three categories: services, stores, and places for

fun. We are currently working on our village diorama which will help us expand our

vocabulary and compare and contrast the city and the village.

Serbian Mother Tongue

Milena Jovanovic

Serbian Language

Teacher

U proteklih par nedelja drugi razred je vredno radio na časovima srpskog jezika

čitaući priče i analizirajući ih. Pročitali smo Ljutito meče, Branislava Crnčevića. Ovu

pesmu smo pretvorili u priču i razgovarali o tome kako se priča razlikuje od pesme.

Saznali smo i da je ova pesma posvećena pesnikovoj ćerci, koja se ljutila jer nije

želela da ide na spavanje. Učenici su napisali svoje priče o tome kada su se i zašto

oni naljutili. Naučili smo i šta su zagonetke, poslovice, brzalice i razbrajalice.

Pročitali smo priču o „Senici i drvetu“, „Pile“ i pesmu „Malo slovo“. U ovoj pesmi je

brat ime svoje sestre napiseo malim slovom i objasnio da je to zato što je ona vrlo

mala. To smo iskoristili da obnovimo kada sve upotrebljavamo veliko slovo.

Pročitali smo i knjigu o Mišku i pundravcima i o njoj napravili postere sa sopstvenim

izmišljenim pundravcima.

Page 5

Music

Visnja Plecas

EAL Teacher

Ljudmila Janicijevic

Music Teacher

Second grade students had a significant part in the ceremony celebrating unveiling of the book depicting 60 years history of ISB. They sang the school anthem Coming Far From Many Nations displaying their ability to sing in unison while following a steady beat. In class, combining voice and kazoo, students sang and played Somebody Stole My Cow and I Feel Good. For both tunes students also created authentic dance choreography. Using boomwhackers and sound blocks students played Wacky Do-re-mi using the color coded system of note identification. Building on that they learned how to name and write notes using lines and spaces and were introduced to treble clef.

EAL

Grade 2 students have been listening to Franklin stories and other children’s

literature read aloud. Franklin is now a favorite character in this class and the

children never seem to tire of him. We regularly talk about our experiences out-

side school and the children enjoy sharing stories about their weekends and hol-

idays. In this way the children practice their oral language skills, both speaking

and listening, and focus on using the past tense. In addition, we play language

games, write recounts, and illustrate our stories.

Page 6

High Beginners/Low Intermediate Group

In April we continued supporting the trans-disciplinary theme How the World Works – the Weather unit, and its central idea: People use science and technology to explore, under-stand and predict weather. We introduced vocabulary related to weather and practiced using it in context. We focused on describing weather conditions, as we described different pictures using present tense. The inquiry led us into reading about the weather, and interpreting weather forecasts. In addition, we read non-fiction stories, and talked about characters, focusing on the con-cept of pattern and prediction. We talked about clues we use to make predictions while reading a story. We thoroughly enjoyed reading like detectives, predicting the next move of a character in the book. In addition, inquiry led us into discussing different types of winds, and students practiced finding a main idea in a paragraph. We continued our focus on sentences and writing con-ventions: capital letters and basic punctuation. Pull-out support included a guided reading station for Serbian EAL learners. Supporting the Unit of Inquiry, we continued reading leveled books. Students showed particular interest in the book titled: “Twisters and Other Wind Storms”. We focused on developing reading flu-ency and comprehension. In addition, we enhanced contextual understanding by reading illustrated books with more sophisticated vocabulary, providing word explanations and de-veloping dictionary skills.

Grade 2 Beginners:

We used the Big Book to review vocabulary and themes covered so far, focusing on oral language development - describing various pictures. We focused on introducing vocabulary related to home – types of houses, rooms in a house, furniture and basic home appliances. We had a number of exercises and matching activities that helped us remember new words. In addition, we practiced creating our own sentences using newly acquired words. We continued developing reading fluency and comprehension, as we read EAL leveled books. We focused on answering Wh-comprehension questions (who, what, where, when, why and how) in complete sentences, paying attention to writing conventions (capital letters, and basic punctuation).

EAL

Divna Stakic

EAL Teacher

Page 7

Physical Education

Marija Dimitrov

PE Teacher

Throughout March, aside from enhancing their gross motor skills, Second graders fo-

cused on team work. Since good communication and cooperation are very important

for all team games, most of the activities we did were in pairs or groups/teams. Using

a variety of props, such as jump ropes, sponge balls, basketballs and the cooperative

blanket, students were exposed to different challenges in order to complete a com-

mon goal. Since bad communication or no communication at all did lead to failure,

these activities really encouraged students to share their ideas in a nice manner, to

listen and respect each other and try to find the best solution together. Later on,

along with improving our throwing, catching and shooting skills, we were fostering

our team spirit through games we played - Benchball (a variation of Basketball),

Scoopball and Knock-down, to name a few.