Here is a petition about anti-whaling doing the rounds at the moment. Signing it is up to you but as it is an environmental issue we have discussed in class I thought you might be interested. There is also a game you can play at this site. Whether or not you sign it I would love you to blog about your opinion on this matter.
Space Project
Here are the assessment rubrics for the Space Project. Students are assessed on how well they complete each of the criteria as well as a separate rubric for how well they do as a team to present their information to the class.
The students will be completing these tasks between now and Christmas. They will finish the bulk of the work by then; research is being completed this week and now they are preparing for their powerpoint, blueprint and brochure. After the break they will be presenting their project in full to each of the other groups in the class.
Laptops have a place in the classroom but are the teachers ready?
Hi
I read an article in an Australian Newspaper this morning that sums up some of the problems we teachers face being digital immigrants in a classroom full of digital natives…our students!
The article warns that simply providing the laptops is not enough, we must also provide extensive teacher training to get our educators up to speed. Even then we are facing an uphill battle. Have a read and see what you think.
Newsletter Nov 28th
Dear Parents and Students
Thankyou so much to those of you who came along to the assembly this week to watch our ‘squakaholics’ in action. I am sure you agree that they did a fantastic job.

5KP Newsletter      Â
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Wednesday November 28th
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What’s up in 5KP?
We are successfully working on our Charlie writing projects and the students are very enthusiastic about it. We have completed the first 3 chapters and will be doing the 4th and 5th this week. Currently we will be completing the rough draft of a chapter every two days so that we can do the good copies after we finish drafting. I have changed the deadline for the project until after the break. It will be due on the last day of the quarter which is January 11th. I do not expect the children to work on it over their holiday and as I did not want to work on my holiday either I thought it was more realistic to extend the deadline. It would be ideal if the students had finished all of the writing before the break and in the last week were able to focus on the editing, decorating and fine tuning of their story.
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Math is moving along and students are working hard on the use of fractions and percents. This is an important skill and it comes up two more times this school year. Please ask your student about their understanding. We have missed a few lessons during the last week due to assembly practice so now that is over we will get stuck into the rest of the unit.
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Our Unit Study focused on Space and the Environment has gotten off to a great start. Students have begun the second phase and are researching current solutions to environmental issues to aid them in their planning on our class goal to colonize Mars. Please be prepared to support your child with at home research. The goal is to complete all research this week and then to begin developing presentations to present to the class.
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Please email me if you have any questions kimbra.power@saschina.org
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Giving Tree Reminder
Please remind your son or daughter to bring in a gift for a child less fortunate than we are. Only 5 students have donated something to the bag so far.
We are giving to:
A 12 year old girl who is 145 cm tall and weighs 37kg
and
A 9 year old boy who is 140 cm tall and weighs 28kg
As Christmas is a special holiday for Western children, so also is the Spring Festival a magical time for Chinese children. Like our own small ones, Chinese boys and girls look forward to the gathering of family members, feasting, visits to friends and relatives, and gifts. There are many children in Shanghai, however, whose families cannot afford to give them new clothes, and for whom toys are a rare luxury.
The Giving Tree.
Helping you share Christmas with a child in need.
Happy Holidays and Thank You!
‘Tis the Season
With the colder weather upon us it is important that your child dress appropriately for the cooler weather. All students are expected to go outside for recess, even when the temperatures drop considerably, as it is important that they get fresh air and use up energy out in the playground during recess.
I have also noticed that some students are a little tired during the school day so please encourage your child to get a good night sleep and be refreshed for school the next day. This will help keep the winter colds away as well. If your child does happen to pick up a cold or flu please keep them at home, we can’t afford to have these symptoms passed on to other students.
Winter Music Concert
The Grade 5 winter concert is being held on Wednesday 5 December in the auditorium. Come along and support the Band and Strings as they treat us to some fantastic music. Students are expected at 1 o’clock so parents should plan to arrive by then. More details to follow with your students.
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What’s on?
Wednesday 5 Dec.         Grade 5 Winter Concert
Thursday 13 Dec.           Grade 5 Christmas Party
Friday 14 Dec. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Winter Vacation starts. School ends 11:30am.
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Regards
Kimbra Power
Spelling with flickr
Hi
Many of you have commented that you wanted to know how I did the big KIMBRA down the side of my blog. I will give you a prize if you are the first 5KP student to have completed this activity on your own blog.
Use this link to get you started or read this post if you need more help.
Good luck!
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Oral assessment for students
Speaking and Listening task for quarter two
After several e mailing attempts I have decided to put this task on my blog too.
Latest newsletter
November 9th Newsletter for 5KP
Hannah, Simon and Kimbra Power…Family of Pumas
Soccer Day a great success…
The only thing bad about soccer day this year was that Jun could not join us due to his broken collarbone…poor Jun, he missed a great day of running around in reasonable weather at the Dulwich field in Jinqiao.
We had a wonderful time and ended up playing seven games during the day, the kids really slept well that night I bet!

Creating your online profile.
I have just spent some time this morning reading over the great blogs my class have been doing. They are really learning so much through this technology. Some students are embracing it more than others and that is only natural but while reading Ben’s blog this morning, I noticed something that I could use as a small teaching moment. Ben hopes that Mr Utecht will be able to teach him how to delete blogs and I know through my netvibes that Mr U. has been talking about this very idea in the middle school. So I suggest that not only Ben, but all bloggers out there, take a look at this post to see what Mr U. has to say about creating your online profile. The main message is…take what you put online seriously, really think about what you want people to know about you before you press publish because once it is out there, it really is out of your hands.