December - January 2014
Gr. 1
ISB Lower School
Specialists’ Newsletter
From the Principal
Welcome to our fourth edition of our Specialist Newsletters!
Our specialist teachers (also
referred as single-subject
teachers) play an integral and
important role in the Primary
Years Program. The arts,
physical education, and language study are essential elements to a comprehensive
and holistic primary school
education.
Inside this issue:
Art
2
SMT/French
3
PE/EAL
4
Music/SFL/M&D
5
Spanish
6
The content of these subjects is transdisciplinary in nature, meaning that the skills and
concepts developed by specialist teachers have relevance throughout the Lower School
curriculum and our students’ lives beyond school. A great example of this is through the
multiple field trips our students enjoy throughout the school year. This year we have
seen all our classes on field trips inquiring into the Units of Inquiry throughout the city
of Belgrade. Our specialists teachers do work alongside our classroom teachers to develop lessons and learning opportunities that are both interesting and connected to the
classroom Units of Inquiry.
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 the
specialist newsletter six times during the school year. As always, if you have any questions about your child’s education, feel free to contact us. Enjoy the February Holiday
and travel safely. School resumes for all ISB students on Monday, February 24.
Hope to see you all around campus soon,
Mr. Lettinga
Lower School Principal
Art
In the previous weeks, students were working on a single subject Unit of Inquiry How the
World Works – Elements and Principles. Throughout this unit, students explored the use of
line, color, form, and texture in their works. Children enjoyed creating their forms with play
dough and clay, drew whenever they had some time left from the inquiries related to the
unit, and mixed colors while expressing the themes of their interest.
This unit is developed for all the grade levels with differentiated instructions, expectations,
and the use of different elements and principles of art. The goal for this unit is for children to
get many opportunities to learn about the function of elements and principles so they can
use that knowledge for unpacking the concepts taught in class. I hope that this will help
them to be more successful in the following unit of inquiry: Where We Are in Place and
Time.
Grade 1A students have classes on Mondays.
Grade 1B students have classes on Tuesdays.
Page 2
Svetlana SpasicGlid
Art
Newsletter Title
Serbian Mother Tongue
Milena Jovanovic
Serbian Language
Teacher
Na časovima Srpskog jezika privodimo kraju učenje ćiriličnog pisma. Naučili smo slova
h, f, c i nj, a nakon njih nam ostaju još samo dva slova da završimo azbuku. Pročitali
smo priču Zunzarina palata, Brane Cvetkovića i u njoj se upoznali sa jednom muvom
plavoruhom koja je stekla divan lonac u kome je rešila da stanuje. Ubrzo su joj se
pridružile druge životinje sa kojima je uživala u zajedničkoj palati sve do pojave jednog
trapavog mede koji je dvorac srušio. Da bismo se pripremili za obeležavanje dana
Svetog Save i naučili nešto o njemu, pročitali smo priču Svetlane Velmar Janković
“Zlatno jagnje.” U ovoj priči smo upoznali dečaka Rastka Nemanjića koji je živeo na
dvoru svoga oca Stefana Nemanje i plašio se vukova sve dok se jednog dana nije suočio s jednim. Kroz priču su učenici saznali dosta informacija o njegovom životu kao i o
tome zašto je on tako značajan za naš narod. Ukoliko još uvek niste imali prilike da
pogledate film koji smo snimili kako bismo deci koja nisu iz Srbije ispričali šta smo
naučili o svetom Savi možete ga pogledati na ovoj adresi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI5XVYIL5kU
French
Dear first grade parents,
Here is the fourth newsletter for the French class in order to keep you informed about
the things we have been learning during the last period.
Dubravka Kostanjsek
French Teacher
Since you’ve last heard from us, we finished working on orientation in time and started
learning about clothes. We are working on this vocabulary, and will also add some of
the materials clothes are made of (wool, cotton, nylon, leather). We will also introduce
I am wearing; He/She is wearing (Je porte…; Il/Elle porte…), as well as the structures
such as It’s cold/ It’s hot, so I put on… (Il fait chaud/Il fait froid, alors je mets…).
Through all of the activities, students are encouraged to combine all of the elements
we have been working on since the beginning of the year.
Thank you for your time and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Page 3
Newsletter Title
Physical Education
Dear Parents,
Our first grade students started their new year with a new unit in one of the three basics
sports: gymnastics.
We stressed the importance of being safe while performing gymnastic elements; which
students took very seriously. They realized that they can contribute to a safe environment by putting safety mats on the floor before practicing and through assisting their
partners by checking on their position.
Marija Dimitrov
PE Teacher
At the beginning of the unit we reviewed the elements that we worked on last year, such
as the “bridge”, the “candle” and the “bracelet” position, as well as the forward and backward roll.
Apart from improving their skills through the performance of rolls over mats and stances,
the students faced new challenges, such as linking two rolls in a row, keeping their balance in various poses, while using different body parts on mats and on the balance beam.
We practiced keeping our body still in a tripod pose (where hands and forehead form a
triangle on the mat and balance is maintained and while knees are on elbows). Then we
practiced a headstand pose, with hands and forehead forming the same position while
legs are stretched upwards, above the head. We also worked on the handstand with the
same positioning of our upper body and legs but placing only our hands on a mat.
Although some students had doubts and worries at the beginning, they were risk-takers
and committed themselves to overcoming them. We can proudly announce that a great
majority of first graders are able to see the world up-side-down now, while keeping their
body still in those stands.
EAL
It has been a great start to our New Year with Grade 1. Students completed their
winter story books and decided to have Ms. Rada put them in the library for check
out. Hopefully students had the chance to check them out and bring them home
to share! Currently our focus is on process writing using the simple present tense.
This supports a writing skill they will be doing later in the homeroom classroom
during their new units of inquiry. Each student has written a recipe and we are
now at the editing stages! Over the coming weeks we will begin a new story that
focuses on simple past tense verbs and begin writing activities that focus on the
same.
Page 4
Kelly Campbell
EAL Teacher
Music
January was an action-packed month in Music class. Students returned from the winter break recharged and ready to learn. During this month we recognized Mozart’s
birthday. We watched a new documentary that revealed many new interesting things
about this master composer. Students were especially interested in BBC’s animated
version of the Magic Flute, which also led us to discussion and learning about opera.
Students showed keen interest and appreciation for Mozart’s work. Grade 1 students
played mouth pianos. Focus was on B and A sounds and on proper fingering techniques. In addition we continued working on our singing skills, this month with challenging songs such as “ We sing Gloria.”
Ljudmila Janicijevic
Music Teacher
Our songs of the month came from Disney’s movie “Frozen” and they were “Do you
want to build a Snowman”, “Let it Go”, and “Frozen Heart.”
Serbian as a Foreign Language
Grade 1 students learned about the places and traffic around the city. They’ve created and labeled a city diorama that we use in our daily routine to review the
names of various buildings and means of transportation, and to practice composing
simple descriptive sentences using adjectives malo/veliko (big/small), colors and
prepositions na (on), u (in), pored (next to), and između (between).
Ivana Jovanovic
Serbian language Teacher
Movement and Dance
During January, Grade 1 students continued to work on the PYP unit Amenities.
We watched various dances: Serbian kolo, classical ballet and Korean arirang
dance. Then, we discussed similarities and differences between these dances as
well as the organizational parts. We tried to determine the role of the audience in
a dance performance and describe the relationship between the audience and
performers.
We continued to practice short choreographies and added two new songs to our
repertoire. Grade 1 students are now an organized dancing group. Working on
Amenities helped students grow mature in their perception of what dancing in a
group really means.
Page 5
Spanish
Dear first grade parents,
Welcome to our fourth Spanish newsletter! In this letter you will find out all the
exciting learning activities taking place in our Lower School Spanish class.
After learning weather vocabulary and weather circumstances phrases, in the month
of January we started working on Classroom Unit. We started with the school
materials vocabulary (el libro- book, el lápiz- pen, la mochila- backpack…), and later we
added school furniture vocabulary (la pizarra- board, la ventana- window, la mesatable…), as well as some of the adjectives we use to describe them (size and colors).
We are systematically reviewing numbers while describing the classroom items (how
many items there are). As for the structures we are learning and practicing, we are
focusing on differences between the singular and plural form, as well as the genders
(masculine and feminine).
We will continue to incorporate classroom vocabulary in our daily classroom routines
and we will work on this unit also in the month of February. We will learn some of the
prepositions in order to be able to say precisely where these objects are situated (La
goma está al lado del cuaderno – The eraser is next to the notebook) and we will learn
to say what kind of different actions we can do in the classroom.
The goal for this unit is that grade one students are able to recognize the meaning of
the next questions and to answer to them:
¿Qué es esto? - What is this?
¿De qué color es ….? – What is the color of….?
¿Dónde está ….? – Where is the….?
¿Cuántos/as ….hay en el aula? – How many …are in the classroom?
¿Qué haces en la escuela? – What do you do in the school?
I am happy to see that all students were actively engaged and showed enthusiasm to
learn Spanish.
Page 6
Sonja Jecmenica
Spanish Teacher