InSPE Gazette
Issue 3, 8th February, 2013
It has been a great start to the new year here at InSPE. All of the classes have settled back into school with
many different activities to keep them focused during the second term. On the 23rd of January all of the classes
at InSPE took part in a Science day based around the theme ‘Investigating Science’. Let’s find out what happened.
The nursery pupils enjoyed exploring with
their senses. In Orange class we used our
sense of smell, taste and touch to investigate some interesting materials. In Green
class plastic bottles were filled with a
range of materials from water and oil, to
coloured paper, seeds and feathers.
Criminal Mastermind
rd
On 23
January, Primary
3’s
classroom
was
‘vandalised’ and eight golden
cups were found to be missing. Children from Primary 3
to 7 investigated the clues
to solve the mystery. In the
morning at 7am, Mr Davidson arrived at school to
hear an unusual noise. When
he came to the classroom to
Primary 1 and 2
worked together
in teams . There
were several exciting
activities
for the children
to
investigate
such as how volcanoes erupt, which hand is the strongest
and how sugar disperses paint. They also
had to identify
items by touch
and smell and see
how many smaller
containers would
fill a larger container.
investigate,
a person
pushed past him and fled
down the stairs. Later in
the morning, the children
arrived to a cordoned off
room with police tape. A
brave group of children entered in safety suits to
check the area for dangers.
There were many clues to
investigate. After investigat-
interviewing suspects, the
children predicted that Mr
Dickinson was in fact the thief
but they were shocked because they thought he was too
nice. The children came up
with their own theories before
giving their verdict. Mr Dickinson pleaded guilty. He has
since returned all of the prizes and given a public apology.
ing fingerprints, footprints,
bite marks, types of ink and
By Eva and Harry
(Primary 6/7)
Primary 3 to 7 participated
in a forensic science day. The
children had to use scientific
enquiry skills such as observation, prediction and gathering
results in order to solve the
mystery.
Inside this issue:
Science Day
1
From the Headteacher
1
Class News
2
Pink, Orange, Green and
Primary 1
Class News
From the Headteacher
Dear Parents and Friends,
There have been a number of
exciting events happening already
this term which I am sure you will
enjoy reading about. As you will
see our Science Day was a huge
success and the recent film night
organised by the Primary 6/7
pupils was extremely well attended and enjoyed by all. As the chil-
3
Primary 2, 3, 4/5 and
6/7
dren progress through the school
there are more opportunities for
them to compete against similar
aged children from other schools.
One such event was the Public
Speaking Competition held last
month and I was particularly
proud of Tudor and Phoebe from
our Primary 4/5 class and the
success they enjoyed. Congratulations to both of you.
Speech Competition
4
Donation for Orphanage 4
and Hospital by Parents
Sensory Room
Friendship Day
Iain Davidson
Head of School
4
Page 2
Pink Class
The Farm Animals topic that Pink Class started to
focus on two weeks ago has proven to be a great
success. All of our pupils have shown a love for
animals. Through this topic they were able play together and share in their first peer cooperative
experiences. It has also allowed them to become
more actively involved in the many new learning activities taking place in Pink Class.
InSPE Gazette
Orange Class
Ollie, Thomas,
Alexandra and Liam
getting messy with
shaving foam
Lara and Dimitris
cleaning teeth
This half term in Orange Class we have been learning
about "People who help us" focusing on Doctors and Dentists. The children experienced different types of play
medical equipment and they had fun pretending to be
doctors and patients. We also talked about being
healthy, what type of food we should eat, and the exercise we can do to stay healthy. In our Physical Education
sessions we loved practising children's yoga.
Green Class
Primary
Green class have been following the story of
‘Princess Lidia’ for the last few weeks as part of our
‘Storyland’ topic. The children have been busy
painting princesses and knights, casting spells with
their magic wands and acting out the story with
puppets and figurines. Princess Lidia herself has
been visiting the houses of some of the children as
well.
It has been an exciting
We have built a castle in our classroom for Princess
Lidia to live in. However, after a visit from the
wicked fairy the Princess has fallen asleep. We
hope the Prince will come along soon!
us to rebuild Fairyland
time for Primary 1.
When we got back
from holiday we found
that a dragon had visited our classroom. He
left us a letter asking
for him.
Jana, Zola, Alejandro, Demi, Nicholas,
Cristian, Caitlin and Vincent listening
to the letter from the Friendly Dragon
We started by making
a castle for the dragon to protect. The castle even has a
drawbridge that you can pull up and down. We also made
a giant dragon to help guard the castle.
We have been reading many fairy tales. After reading
the Princess and the Pea we also tested to see what
items we can feel under a
mattress. We are now reading Hansel and Gretel and
we are looking at healthy
food.
We are looking forward to
other exciting adventures
Painting our Fairyland Castle
with our dragon.
Issue 3, 8th February, 2013
Primary 2
Tudor painting a
Pentaceratops
Page 3
Primary 2 are learning about
dinosaurs. They have been
making their own information
books and finding out some
amazing facts. For example,
did you know that Pterodactyls
were not dinosaurs, they were
flying reptiles? The children
have been doing observational
paintings from books and they
are even making a life size
model of a Dimorphodon!
Primary 3
Pola and Hannah
Victor making the
painting their dinosaur
Dimorphodon’s body
This term Primary 3 have been learning
about ice and fire.
We have had lots of fun investigating ice,
making ice decorations, creating pictures
using frozen paint and we even got to
make and eat ice-cream! We created ice
balloons and experimented with them,
finding out the effects that salt, washing
- up liquid and food colouring can have on
them and looking at them through a magnifying glass and using a torch.
Ana, Delia, Filipos and
William enjoying ice cream
We have also found out about volcanoes
and have learned a little
bit about the different
parts of a volcano and
created our own mini
volcanic eruptions using
bicarbonate of soda and
vinegar. It was very
exciting! We also made
fire pictures by melting
Watching the
wax crayons - they look
volcano eruption
very effective.
Primary 4/5
Since January P4-5 have
been learning about European explorers from the thirteenth century. The children found out how the Europeans loved silks, spices
and porcelain from China.
Unfortunately the prices
were very high. It was the
Portuguese who eventually
sailed to Asia via Africa and
were able to buy products
more cheaply. Christopher
Columbus changed history
when he sailed west to find
a quick route to Asia but
found the Americas instead.
The children enjoyed learning about different food
groups, spices and the exotic fruits that came from
the ‘New World’, fruits we
take for granted today.
Primary 6/7
Primary 6-7 are currently
learning about mountains. We
were very excited to make
large geometric pictures of
mountains using spray paint.
Luckily it was sunny and we
could do this on the roof. We
are also learning about Buddhism and are making our own
window rock gardens and Buddhas made from clay.
Continuing with our fundraising
towards our trip to England, we
held a cinema evening for the
Primary children on Friday, 1st
of February.
Other events to look out for
are the Mum's Morning which
we will hold in March and The
Rewarding Fun Run to be held
in Herastrau Park in April.
Eva and Harry spraypainting on the roof
Issue 3, 8th February, 2013
On Saturday 19th January Phoebe
Crocker and Tudor Serbanescu (P4-5)
went to the International British
School of Bucharest to participate in a
public speaking competition open to all
children in Bucharest between the
ages of 8 – 11.
Phoebe and Tudor had to talk, in English, for two minutes around the theme
“Not everything that glitters is gold.”
They had spent over a month trying to
analyse what this might mean and then
developing talks. Phoebe chose to
speak about “Winning isn’t the most
important part of a competition” and
Page 4
Tudor talked about how “Fancy birthday
presents are overrated”.
There were approximately fifty participants in the competition and the standard was very high. It was difficult for
the judges to choose winners, but it
was felt that the pupils from InSPE
demonstrated clear deliveries, content
that was well structured, arguments
that were supported by strong evidence
and the ability to respond to questions
from the audience. Phoebe received a
second place award and Tudor a third
place. They performed extremely well
Last week representatives from the ‘Centru de primire a
urgentelor’ and IOMC hospital came to the school to collect the donations and gifts given by the pupils, parents
and staff of InSPE. This collection involving numerous nappies, wipes and toys was organised by our Parents’Association and special thanks must go to Keren Temelie and Brindusa Scrieciu-Vlanga for all their hard work in coordinating this. There were so many donations given that
two collections were required, so thank you to everyone
who helped support these very worthwhile causes.
and were excellent ambassadors for the school.
Tudor Serbanescu
and
Phoebe Crocker
We’re on the web
www.inspe.ro
and on Facebook!
Parents Association
International School for Primary
Education
72 Petre Aurelian,
Greenlake Residences, Bucharest 1
Phone us on: +40 21 380 3535
Send a fax to: +40 21 380 3838
www.inspe.ro
E-mail: [email protected]
At InSPE we endeavour to meet the needs of all the students
of the school. So this school year we have introduced a sensory room, located right next to the library. This is an area that
is fully accessible and suitable for all ages. It enables the children to develop their senses using a multitude of fun activities. It is specially designed to stimulate and increase the use
of all the children’s senses.
A comfortable bean bag chair helps students to relax, a light
box is provided to stimulate visual and physical senses, and
other types of equipment and activities are used to enable
sensory development.
Maria Tomescu
SEN Co-ordinator
Upcoming Events Calendar
12th February—Orange Class Bake Sale
14th February—Friendship day
15th February—Last day of the half-term
25th February—First day of the next half-term
7th March—World Book Day
8th March— Mum’s Morning
22nd March—Last day of clubs
28th March— Eco Fashion Show and last day of
Term 2