Tag Archives: soccer day

Marvelous May

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In 7 years in Shanghai, I’d never been to Jinshan before, and I think the whole 5th grade found the trip really worthwhile. Thank you to Ms Rekate for organizing the day for us; you can read more about the Village and its history on her blog, and we have details of how you can get there as a family if you’re interested; it would be a great trip to take with visitors to Shanghai.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615

My 14th and Final Soccer Day as a 5th grade homeroom teacher was AMAZING!
Not only was the weather fantastic, but we WON EVERY GAME, which is a first…the kids were scoring all over the place!

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615

Sensational Soccer Success

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I don’t know how many goals were scored… I don’t know whether we won or lost… I just know there must have been some tired and sore bodies heading off to be early last night; your kids ran hard! Thank you to the few parents who were able to make it here on the day, and thank you to those who brought in fruit and drinks for us to share, we really appreciated them.

As a classroom teacher, it is such a pleasure to see the kids in a different environment on Soccer Day. Witnessing them at swim meets, art shows, PE class, debates, music eisteddfod’s or dance concerts is equally exciting; you get to see your students in a completely different light. For some students, the whole idea of soccer day is daunting; they just don’t like it. For others, it is an amazing opportunity to show skills off that are normally unseen in an academic environment. I have respect for both of these groups of students however it is the ‘other group’ that I am especially proud of. These are the students that are a bit scared of the ball, but want to get out and have a good time anyway. I am impressed by their courage, their team spirit and the way they go after the ball even though it may result in a kick in the shins. Yesterday we had many of those ‘other kids’ on the team; they supported the stronger soccer players, they encouraged the more careful players to take risks and they embodied what the day is about. Thank You 5KP.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=107931

Have a great weekend 5KP and don’t forget to put the finishing touches on your Healthy Balanced Meal Project as it is due on Monday.

Big Weeks Ahead

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36 more sleeps until the first day of Summer Vacation… so little time, so much still to do. Keep an eye on the calendar to the left of this notice so that you don’t miss out on any of our future events.

Next week will see our students taking part in a wonderful series of activities for our China Alive celebrations. During the week there will be many, but hang on, why should I take time to explain when Claire does a much better job of it here…

http://portal.saschina.org/video/flv_player/Main.swf

Thanks Claire.

Well done to all of our students for completing the challenging Map Tests last week. I can testify that the tests saw some of our students pushed to their limits; but also that our students exceeded their expectations. It will take some time before I am able to fully share results with you however in nearly every test for every student a high level of proficiency was achieved. On that note, with recent Eisteddfod’s, Map Tests, Track and Field Days and upcoming soccer days, dance performances, DRA tests, writing competitions, string and band concerts, and dodgeball tournaments, I want to reinforce that EVERY CHILD HAS STRENGTHS IN DIFFERENT AREAS. I wish I knew at ten, what I know now at nearly forty; I have strong skills in some areas, and lesser skills in others, and THAT IS NORMAL AND O.K. instead of worrying when I was not the fastest, smartest, most popular etc. It is sometimes difficult in a competitive environment to realize that you are not going to be strong at everything but it is a lesson that is best learned young; it can surely save a lot of pain in the future.

winners

On May 27th, I’d like to invite you all to our one and only Writer’s Party to celebrate our recent Literary Essays and our nearly completed Memoirs Unit. I realize what a busy time of the year we have coming up, so I am trying to cut down on your trips to the school by having our celebration on the same day as our Band and Strings Concert. The students and I only decided on this today, so details are still to come, but plan to be out at school around 12.40 that day, or earlier for lunch if you like, and we will celebrate before the musical festivities begin at 2.15 that day.

October Break and IOWA Testing

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Students, I hope you are enjoying the wonderful weather in Shanghai or wherever you are for your October Holiday. Sadly, my holiday is now over and I am back in class getting ready for your arrival on Monday and doing some of my own learning.
Finally, I have had the time to upload the soccer day clip to the school portal. Apologies to those of you that don’t star this time, remember, it wasn’t me actually taking the photos!!!

http://portal.saschina.org/video/flv_player/Main.swf

IOWA TEST INFORMATION

Dear Parents,

Students in grades 3 – 8 will Iowa Test of Basic Skills during the week of October 25th.

Shanghai American School provides many different sources of assessment throughout the year. One source of information is our program of standardized achievement testing. The test series we use, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, is a norm-referenced test. This means that a student’s scores indicate how he/she compares with a representative sample of peers (the norm group). This gives us an idea of how our students’ academic achievement compares to students at public and private schools from the United States and other international schools.

The following is a list of subject areas students are evaluated in:
• Vocabulary
• Reading Comprehension
• Language: Spelling, Capitalization, Punctuation, Usage and Expression
• Mathematics: Math Concepts and Estimation, Math Problem Solving and Data Interpretation, Math Computation

Reading comprehension includes: understanding factual information; drawing conclusions; inferring feelings of characters; and determining topic, viewpoint, attitude, structure, and style.
Math Concepts and Estimation includes: numeration and operations; measurement; fractions, decimals, and percents; and equations and inequalities.
Math Problem Solving and Data Interpretation includes: single step addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems; multiple step problem solving strategies; reading amounts; comparing quantities; and interpreting relationships.

Important Suggestions and Reminders:

• Students should get a good night’s sleep and eat breakfast before coming to school.
• It is important to remember that any individual’s test score is only a measure of how well he/she performed on a single assessment on a given day. The score may be different another day due to testing conditions and the physical and/or emotional state of the individual student.
• The IOWA is only one source of data the School uses to measure student achievement.

If you have any further questions, please contact your classroom teacher or the elementary administration.

Thank you,
Sacha McVean
Elementary Principal, Pudong Campus

That’s all for now 5KP, make sure you do some work on your Shelfari widget if you are able.
See you Monday, don’t forget you are our star student Mrini!
The hamsters say hi and they can’t wait to see you again!!!

Introducing our Boston Buddies!

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Hello Parents

It was very exciting last week to approve this comment on my blog:

Hi Kimbra,

My name is Cathy Chiavarini and I am a Grade 5 teacher in Dover, Massachusetts, which is located just west of Boston. I am enjoying exploring your blog!

My students and I are trying blogging for the very first time. We are all very excited about it. I see you’ve already got a lot of connections, but I was wondering if the students in your class might enjoy joining my students in reading and commenting on each other’s blogs? We have a class blog, and each student is just developing their own pages–these are linked to the class blog.

I think we may have some common interests–readers’ and writer’s workshop, we LOVE to read, looks like a similar math curriculum (we use Everyday Math)…and others, I’m sure.

We’d love to have you visit. Here is the link to the class blog http://gr5blogs.edublogs.org/

Look forward to hearing from you.
-Cathy

We certainly do have many shared interests

Our reading and writing units of study

Our Everyday Math program

We both agree that we have had wonderfully talented writers and readers in our class this past school year.

A surprise bonus is that a student in Mrs C’s class, Jake, has parents who are friends with Mrs Cole in 4th grade here. We only found that out after Mrs C sent out an e mail to the parents and Jake’s mom contacted Mrs Cole wondering…’isn’t that the same school you work in?’ What a small world the internet has created!

Today we matched up the students in each class which also went wonderfully as our student numbers and genders matched beautifully without any ‘boy or girl germs’ being transmitted across the globe.

Here is the list of student names from both sides of the world. If you go to Mrs Chiavarini’s blog you will her students listed by initials in the blogroll on the right. Your children have been asked to write to their buddy through their blog by Friday and that is their homework for tonight. Thursday Readers also need to complete their Readers Notebook entry and all students need to return library books for tomorrow as well as bring their goggles etc for swimming in P.E.

Shanghai-Dover Blogging Buddies

Picture 1

If only we had found each other sooner… however there is nothing to stop long-lasting relationships being formed and some of 5KP and Mrs C’s class have already swapped e mails and begun corresponding; there is no stopping them now.

Cathy Chiavarini is a 5th grade teacher at Chickering School in Dover and we welcome her and her students to our SAS online community.

The Chickering School in Dover Massachussets

Today 5KP impressed me yet again with their amazing soccer skills but even more so their sense of fair play, team spirit and determination. I will certainly miss my 20 wonderful 5KP students when the time comes in 4 weeks from now to wish them the best on their middle school journey.

Thank You 5KP

What’s Happening in 5KP?

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Grade 5 – Upcoming Dates and Curriculum

Weds. May 12 – Soccer Day – Please bring a packed lunch, a hat, a water bottle, sunscreen and remember, no cleats. Our team is Pudong Team One and we are playing 5 out of 6 games between 10.00 am and 1.30 pm on the soccer fields by the high school; you are welcome to join us.

Here is the schedule for the day’s play.

5th Grade Elementary Soccer Days May12th

Here is the list of positions the students will be taking on for the day.

5KP SOCCER DAY Day 2A GAME SHEETS

Monday, May 17 – Band Bonanza – Band student go to Puxi campus and String students stay on the Pudong campus. If you have questions, please direct them to Ms. Dentor at joy.denton@saschina.org or Ms. Hu. at linda.hu@saschina.org
Please help me remind all the band and string students that for the Bonanza concert, they need to wear:

Nice white top
Black pants/skirt, black socks and black shoes.

Weds. May 19 – MS transition day – 8:10-9:30

Science Unit – ‘Inventions are all around us’ for our Invention Convention Phase Two:  Students will engage in several activities in class and at home as they build up their knowledge of the invention process to participate in creating their own invention or modification of something already in existence.

Homework Tonight or tomorrow night you need to do a blog entry on your Invention Convention Page where you write a 300 word summary of your favorite ‘New Inventor’ invention so far. Include some of the things we have discussed in class or written about on our response sheets such as usefulness and price if you remember them. Try and include a picture of it and/or a link to the New Inventor site. Check out the New Inventor site while you are there, it has some great ideas and is on ABC television in Australia.

Math – Having recently completed Unit 10, we have 2 units of study remaining. Unit 11 = Volume, Unit 12 = Probability, Ratios, and Rates. Unit 11 is a short but important unit and so far the students are making steady progress but I continue to encourage them that revision should be done every night; not just the evening before a unit test.

Writer’s Workshop – Memoir: The Art of Writing Well

Reader’s Workshop – Inventor Book Clubs and Reader’s Theater

From the PTSA

The Eagle Shop-A Great Opportunity for You: Do you like to meet new people? Do you enjoy seeing your kids at school? If so then volunteeing at the Eagle Shop is the perfect place for you! Shop discounts given to those who vonunteer. Please come to the shop or contact Hina Haris at eagleshopPD@saschina.org    The Eagle Shop-A Great place to buy your last minute end of the year gifts! Still looking for that perfect gift before leaving for the summer? The Eagle Shop has great gift items for everyone! School Pennants, Key Chains, Sweatshirts, T-shirts, Sweatpants and more. New sale item-Stadium Blanket just reduced to 200rmb while stocks last.

Finally…. something for all of you who go “Oooooooooh, how cute” when you see something like this…

Science and Soccer and Super Savvy Students

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HI 5KP

First of all, a sticker to the first student who responds to this blog telling me what literary device I have used to catch your attention in the heading of this post…

Secondly, well done today. All 20 of your did your best to play six very exciting games of soccer, sometimes under difficult circumstances. I appreciate your commitment and enthusiasm and I hope you sleep well tonight and are not too tired tomorrow…Try and find a few minutes there to study for tomorrow’s math test!

Upcoming Events

September 30th – House Spirit Walk
October 1-11 – No School:
October 15th – Treat Day
October 16th – Family Literacy Event
October 17th – (12-4) Fall BBQ
November 12th – Treat Day
November 20th from 3-5ish – Family Literacy Night

Readers, when you have the time check out this great wikipedia site for a fantastic list of young-adult fiction writers.

Scroll down the page (or read it, it is interesting)  til you get to this sub-heading :

Popular contributions to young-adult fiction

and check out some of the authors and book titles.

How many of them do YOU know? How many have you read? Were there any people you think were left off the list? Who and Why?

Write a detailed blog post telling me your thoughts.

Here are some of my favorites from years gone by…now I am getting ready to read some of them to my daughter which is very exciting…

I can’t wait to see the sort of list you come up with and what you think of the titles on the site.

Enjoy the photos of your last science class on Mixtures and Solutions and your wonderful day on the field today.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

Currently in 5KP…

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Writer’s Workshop

The students have all been paired up with another student in the class who will be their writing buddy for the year. This will continue to be a very important relationship for the students as they will share work, conference, draft and edit writing together. Students will now choose from the small moment stories they have been generating  and turn that into their best piece of writing. I have been impressed with the writing that students have come up with and can’t wait for them to publish their writing on their blogs. Talk to your child about their writing and ask them questions about it. We have just focused on paragraphing and structure after originally looking at generating ideas.

Reader’s Workshop

We are continuing with Readers’ Workshop. Students have focused on choosing ‘just right’ books to improve their reading. Students have really been encouraged to think about their reading and write their thoughts about their reading. Students have started to write responses about their reading so ask your child to share some of their responses with you. Incorporated into our Reader’s Workshop has been our interactive read aloud time with the book Nicholas. The children are really enjoying this book and are using it to make text connections with other books they have read and other real-life experiences they have had. Here is some information about the book and why it is such a hit with the children.

Le petit Nicolas (Little Nicholas) was created by René Goscinny and illustrated by Jean-Jacques Sempé and it was published for the first time in 1959. Nicholas is an illustration of an ideal childhood and a nostalgic memory of the 1950s.

The humor of the books derives from their unique story-telling style: the adventures of Little Nicolas are told in the first person by Nicolas himself. On the one hand, the books are a parody of the story-telling habits of little children; for example, the author makes frequent use of stylistic features such as run-on sentences and employs an egocentric, naive point of view. On the other hand, adults are the targets of the books’ humor when the straightforward and uncomplicated worldview of the child narrator exposes the flaws of adult perception. The subversive element in the Petit Nicolas thus made it an early example of modern children’s literature that is centered around the experience of the child, rather than an adult interpretation of the world.

As I know your child really enjoys this book, here is a list of other books that amazon.com recommends they may also enjoy.

* The Caliph’s Vacation: Iznogoud 2
* The Wicked Wiles of Iznogoud: Iznogoud 1
* Iznogoud and the Day of Misrule: Iznogoud 3
* The Daltons in the Blizzard: Lucky Luke 15 (Lucky Luke Adventure)
* Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
* Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons Restaurant
* Sempe: Nothing is Simple
* Brave Story

Math

We are well under way on unit 2 focused on Estimation and Computation. The skills that will be assessed for unit are:

*write and solve open sentences for number stories
*round numbers to designated places
*make magnitude estimates
*find the product of multi-digit whole numbers and decimals
*know place value to billions
*find the sum and difference of multi-digit whole numbers and decimals
*identify the maximum, minimum, median, mode, and mean for a data set

We will be doing this test before the October Break.

Unit Study

The students recently finished our science unit, Mixtures & Solutions and enjoyed the experiments very much. Today we will start our new unit on Cultural Studies which promises to be relevant to each and every student and encourage lots of interesting conversation and thought so stay tuned.

Open House

Thank you to those of you who attended Open House. It was great to meet many of you face to face. If you didn’t attend Open House, don’t worry too much because I’m sure we will get to meet at the parent conferences coming up in November. It was a chance for parents to see where their child spends eight hours of their day and also to hear about the expectations of fifth grade and curriculum that will be covered over the year.

After School Activities

Your child may have started ASA’s (After School Activities) yesterday, these will continue over the next 6 weeks on either Monday, Tuesday or Thursday after school depending on the activity your child has chosen.

Soccer Day

The Grade 5 Soccer Day will be held on Thursday 24 September. Come out and enjoy a fun day here at SAS Pudong. Our main goal is to meet other fifth graders from Shanghai but most of all FUN! Please remember to pack a nutritious and filling lunch for your child as they will not be going to the cafeteria that day and also…NO cleats please.

House Shirts

Mr Thornbury will be selling house shirts starting this Wednesday Starting this Wednesday at lunch and continuing until Friday. He will be selling House shirts for returning students only who have worn out, lost or grown out of their existing House shirt. Could you please tell your child that they must bring 50rmb and he will be situated by the playground.

All new students will be getting their House shirts during the Pre-Spirit Walk Assembly next Wednesday at 1pm.