From the Principal

Grade 4

May/June 2013

ISB Lower School Specialists’ Newsletter

Inside this issue:

French/Spanish 2

Art 3

Serbian/EAL 4

Music/SMT 5

PE 6

cation, and language study are essential elements to a comprehensive and holistic primary school education. The content of these subjects is transdisciplinary in na-ture, meaning that the skills and concepts developed by specialist teachers have rel-evance throughout the Lower School curriculum and our students’ lives beyond school. 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 with our classroom teachers regularly to find connections between subjects and even participate in field trips when the connection 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 questions about your child’s education, feel free to contact us. Enjoy your summer holiday. I look forward to seeing you all here on the Lower School campus, Brian H. Lettinga

Welcome to final edi-tion of our Specialist Newsletters. We have had a great school year here at ISB! Our specialist teachers (also referred as single-subject teachers) play an integral and im-portant role in our Pri-mary Years Program. The arts, physical edu-

French

Page 2

Newsletter Title

Dubravka Kostanjsek

French Teacher

Milica Rkulovic

Spanish Language Teacher

Spanish

Dear fourth grade parents,

Here is the last newsletter for the French class for this school year.

Since you’ve last heard from us, we continued working on orientation in time, daily

and weekly routines and organizing activities with friends. Until the end of the

school year, we will spend our time reviewing the most important contents we

have covered since September.

Thank you very much for all of your support and collaboration throughout this

school year.

I wish you nice and exciting summer holidays!

See you next year!

Grade four Spanish students spent the month of May discovering the Hispanic

world. We began by completing a whole class sample project on Spain and then

moved to working in partners on projects about different countries of South and

Central America. The students put a lot of effort into researching and presenting

general information and interesting facts about a country of their choice. Currently

we are looking at vocabulary and expressions associated with preparing trips and

going on vacation. We’re studying different means of transportation, pros and

cons, discussing things we like to take with us when traveling and talking about

activities usually associated with different destinations. In this unit we’ll review

and practice expressions used to give personal information and learn to ask and

recognize various questions associated with traveling and discovering new places.

Page 3

Art

Svetlana Spasic-

Glid

Art

Over the past weeks, the students spent time working on the standalone unit of in-quiry entitled How We Express Ourselves – Stories About the World, during which they looked at the works of the Expressionist artist Aleksey Jawlensky, the work of David Hockney, and Kazimir Malevic. They studied the ways well-known artists saw and presented the world, combined the ideas of the mentioned artists with their own, and expressed them through drawing and painting. The students reflected on their learning during the third trimester.

I wish my students a great summer break! Grade 4A students have classes on Wednesdays. Grade 4B students have classes on Fridays.

Serbian as a Foreign Language

Page 4

Newsletter Title

Ivana Jovanovic

Serbian Language Teacher

During May, Grade 4 students focused on reading and understanding. We read a set

of four stories about two friends, Bojan and Dejan. The stories describe situations

and dialogues from everyday life. The students practiced reading and translating;

upon completing each story, they answered related questions. Our main focus was

the dialogue. After reading each story, the students used www.pixton.com to create

a comic that would match the plot.

At the moment, we are reading Azbukvar Srbije, a booklet of facts about Serbia. It

was written for Serbian native speakers and it is full of complex sentences and new

phrases. This is a good opportunity for students to learn some more things about

Belgrade and Serbia as well as to improve their comprehension.

EAL

Visnja Plecas

EAL Teacher

Grade 4 students had the opportunity to listen to stories read aloud and were then

involved in discussions about the theme, characters, plot and settings of the stories.

After reading Henry and the Kite Dragon, we touched upon issues related to migra-

tions. The story was linked to the Gr 4 unit of inquiry on Migrations and brought to

light issues about migrations that are not obvious – why people change names, why

they live in the same neighbourhoods, what traditions and habits they bring with

them, how they adapt and survive and continue life in a new country.

Page 5

Fourth graders were able to put it all together and finish the school year on a high

note. Our focus was on learning the difference between chromatic and diatonic me-

lodic patterns in C scale. Playing keyboards, they practiced fingering techniques and

have created accompaniment for “Sunrise Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof. Song of

the month was “Diamonds on the soles of her shoes” by Paul Simon for which the

students created accompaniment using melodic patterns on xylophones.

Music

Ljudmila Janicijevic

Music Teacher

Serbian Mother Tongue

Učenici četvrtog razreda su na časovima maternjeg jezika nastavili sa čitanjem

najpoznatijih bajki koje pripadaju našoj narodnoj književnosti. Pročitali smo priče

„Usud“ i „Baš Čelik“. Razgovarali smo o tome da li bismo voleli da postoji mitsko

biće kao što je Usud koje svima određuje kako će živeti i koliko će sreće u životu

imati. Pričali smo i o tome koliko se jezik i svakodnevni život ljudi razlikovao u

vreme kada su ove bajke nastale. Podsetili smo se i proširili ono što znamo o Vuku

Stefanoviću Karadžiću. Sada znamo da je on pored sastavljanja naše azbuke

napisao i prvi rečnik i prvu gramatiku našeg jezika, kao i da je zapisivao narodne

priče, pesme i izreke i obajvljivao ih kako bi ostale sačuvane. Iz pravopisa smo

naučili da ne pišemo slovo j između slova i i o. Takođe polako obnavaljamo sve što

smo iz gramatike i pravopisa do sada naučili u četvrtom razredu.

Milena Jovanovic

Serbian Language

Teacher

Page 6

Physical Education

Our students took advantage of the sunny spring weather at the beginning of the

month to work on their track and field skills, outdoors.

We started with running events, such as running middle and short distances. The

main focus was on proper running technique, including our foot position and arm

motions, as well as on the importance of proper breathing. Students were involved

in individual and pair activities in order to improve their technique and endurance,

as well as gain better speed and agility.

Since a good start is crucial for any race, especially for short distances, we practiced

starting on signals from different positions. Later, we ran many races from standing

starts and sprint start positions. We focused on our arm motion to help students to

realize the importance of the arms’ swing during the run, especially in the very first

moments of a race.

We continued with relay races; practicing running with a baton along with a hand-off

technique. Students were very excited about relay races. They all participated whole-

heartedly, while being very supportive to their fellow runners and displaying great

sportsmanship towards other teams.

The biggest challenge was probably running hurdles, which were higher than the

year before. After spending some time exercising the lead and trail leg, we got used

to the height of the hurdles and dared ourselves to run races. Although some of the

students had doubts about completing the run, they all faced the challenge bravely

and asked when they would do it again!

We also worked on improving our jumping skills by practicing the broad, the long

and the high jumps. Our focus was on take-off and landing techniques, as well as on

the approach to the take-off area.

The end of the year Physical Fitness test is ahead of us. We

have been working on our stamina, strength, agility and flexi-

bility, thus we all believe that we have improved throughout

the year!

Stay healthy through sports!

Marija Dimitrov

PE Teacher