A sneak peak of our Spotlight on the Arts

Just a little snapshot of something you will see at our Spotlight on the Arts on Friday January 19th

Kindergarten's Spotlight on the Arts will be in January. Ms Danielle has been coming to practise with the children. We can't wait to show you what we have been learning in Art and Music. Our Spotlight in January will be our 3 way conference with you, sharing what we are doing and enjoying in both of these areas. More information will follow after the break.

The busy week ahead

 This week is looking like it will be very busy and event filled.

Tuesday -3 way conferences -December 12th

This is a special day -your child will come with you at your allocated time and leave with you.
Your allocated time was on the note sent home last Wednesday afternoon.
If it has been misplaced, please let me know.

Wednesday- Sports Morning- December 13th

EY, KG & Grade 1 Sports Day  

8:00am • School Field

Children are to wear their HOUSE TSHIRTS, ISPP cap and appropriate closed shoes.
Don't forgot WATER BOTTLES.
You are more than welcome to come and enjoy the fun that is planned.
We will still have LIBRARY in the afternoon so please send along library books in the
BLUE LIBRARY BAG.

Friday December 15th

Elementary Assembly (Last Day of Semester 1 (Term 2) 7:45 am • Black Box Theatre Please join us for assembly straight after drop off. Our Grade 1 students will share their learning about their latest unit of inquiry. We have a few new students to welcome on the raft, and lots of students to farewell. All parents are welcome. DRESS UP DAY organised by the Student Council

Friday 15 December - 1 January 2018 • Semester BreakSchool & Offices Closed

Offices reopen Tuesday 2 January and school re-opens on Tuesday 9 January 2018.

Wishing you all a safe and relaxing break.

A message from a Secondary Student

"Hello, I'm Rattana Hok and I'm a 10th grader. In 10th grade, every student has their own personal project (PP). My PP is about enhancing ISPP's school spirit and branding. I plan to achieve this by releasing a new merch collection which consists of t-shirts, sweaters and drawstring bags. The t-shirts and sweaters won't be out until the PP exhibition night (January 17-18). HOWEVER, drawstring bag pre-orders have been open since November 18 and will close on December 7 (Thursday next week!). Click here for more information on how to order. 

Thanks

Healthy snacks!

Today during our Kindergarten meeting (all 3 classes meet together every week!), Miss Paula and Miss Liz came in as our super special guests. We have been talking over the last week and a bit about how Miss Paula had sent home a note about healthy snacks, and inquiring into what that might mean. Well, Miss Paula and Miss Liz came in with props!

They spoke about how a healthy snack usually doesn’t come in a package. Fruit and vegetables are great healthy snacks, and perhaps you might include some crackers, but only in small portions. We had lots of questions. One child asked about peanut butter, which he likes to eat with apples, and Miss Paula commented on how it was a balanced snack. They talked about not sharing snacks too because we don't know if someone has an allergy. Chean Hor mentioned his sandwiches, and we spoke again about balance and how a small sandwich, with some fruit or vegetables, might be balanced.

Last but not least, we also spoke about drinks. Miss Paula and Miss Liz said that at ISPP, we only drink water.

We’re going to be working towards healthy snacks in the next few weeks, so you may find that any chocolate biscuits or cakes or milk cartons will be coming back home with your children. We spoke about how this might be something to enjoy at home.

Thanks for your support! I’m looking forward to seeing what comes in!

Pushes and Pulls

Our current unit of inquiry is under the Transdisplinary Theme,

The key concepts that we are focusing on in this unit are 
Function, Change and Causation

We are inquirying into;                        
How we use forces
Forces can create change
Forces act on objects

We will be using Research and Thinking skills to help us in our inquiries
The Learner Profile and Attitudes that will be highlighted in this unit are;
Knowledgeable and Thinker and
Curiousity and Confidence

If you would like to come in and share an experiment, read a book etc. related to the concepts in this unit, let us know.

Important information about International Day

Getting ready for International Day February 10th

Sign up to host a country booth A highlight of International Day each year is visiting the country booths of many of the nations represented here at our school. If you would like to host a booth to showcase your country, please sign up using this form. Please note: Country booth hosts must be an adult (parent, faculty or staff member).

Ready to take to the stage? Represent your country through music, dance and cultural performance! All are welcome to participate in the shows throughout the day. Please register your interest or find out more details by emailing events@ispp.edu.kh.

Parade of Nations Get ready to march with your country’s flag at the popular Parade of Nations. Register yourself and your children by signing up here! It’s important to register so you can keep up to date on the parade route and also to ensure we have your flag.

?	Questions? Want to know more about International Day and how to participate? Email communications@ispp.edu.kh and we’ll let you know!

Book Week

Book Week 

Book Week started with a special assembly with our visiting author David M. Schwartz. 
He shared with the children how his love of big numbers as a child inspired him to write books. 
What some children remembered was how he told the audience he would ask lots of questions and use the word IF. 

Later in the day we had a special audience with him in the library with some EY2 students. 
He shared another of his passions,  his love of animals.

We also had a mystery reader come into our room...

                               It was Mr Matt.

He read us a book called, 'We found a hat' by Jon Klassen and then took a picture of us and put hats on our heads!

EXCITING NEWS about Tumblebooks...
An easier way to listen to quality books

To log in to our Tumblebook account, please visit

www.TumbleBookLibrary.com Username: ispp Password: books OR, you may use the below Direct Link: http://www.tumblebooklibrary.com/auto_login.aspx?u=ispp&p=books Also, be sure to check out the iTunes App Store and Google Play to download the new APP! The app will greatly simplify the way your child can log in from mobile devices like Tablets and Smart Phones!

Happy Reading

Happy Book Week

Book Week at ISPP next week

How exciting! We are getting ready for Book Week next week.
Thinking about our door decoration..., booking mystery readers, creating a page for one of the 3 collaborative books that every class is joining together to make.
A few things might be different for Kindergarten and a few things might be the same as all the others so look closely...

Monday- we will attend an assembly to launch book week.
Later on Monday we will have a special workshop with the visiting author.
Monday through to Friday, children can listen to stories read in different languages at playtime and lunchtime.

Tuesday is our Poem in our Pocket day.

Wednesday- Doors will be judged by our visiting author

Thursday- we are booked into going to the BOOK FAIR from 7:30 to 8:15.
I will do the register and we will go straight away if you want to come with us.
If you cannot come please send  money in a labelled envelope and we will visit the fair on the ground floor of the Knowledge Centre.
6-7pm- Candlelight read aloud. Come back to school dressed in your pyjamas

Friday- COME dressed as your favourite character.
After a short assembly we will parade around in our costumes
MYP students will come over and read to us in the afternoon

Reading in Kindergarten

There are many ways that we can foster a love of reading at home.

At this age it often involves interpreting the pictures and trying to make sense of what is happening.

Listening to stories and discussing what can be seen and heard can give you an insight to your child’s thinking.

ISPP is fortunate enough to have subscriptions to many services. There are many free online resources available too.

Below are some of our favourites:

StoryOnline  http://www.storylineonline.net/

Youtube also has a great resource of read alouds- Look up your child’s favourites!

We sent home the RAZ Kids log ins before the Water Festival break, we hope you found it in your child's bag! If it got lost along the way, please let us know and we will resend it.

You will need to download the app.

Remember we have access to great books in our school library as well.

Your child can return and borrow new books every day.

Class photo

I hope you enjoyed looking at the individual photos that are in your child's bag today!
Here is a preview of our Class Photo.

If you want to order any photos, please fill out the form that was attached to the little individual samples.

If you need something to do over the holidays ...

I hope everyone is having a great break and enjoying themselves.

If you want to get out and about there is a Photo festival on at the moment in Phnom Penh with photos all around the city.

Our last unit was about using the Arts to share our ideas and explore our imagination and these photographs are very creative.

See you back at school on November 6th.

Water Festival

Ms Neary and Mr Pheap told the children about the Water Festival.

They told them this special celebration happens every year, in October/November.

During this festival people come into the city from different provinces. Celebrations are held at the riverside, where 4 rivers come together.

People gather near the Royal Palace to watch the boat races.

It’s fun, you might get splashed.

At night there’s also special things going on.

Ferries decorated with lights glide by on the river and there are fireworks to make it even more special.

Why do we celebrate this festival?

We celebrate to honor the victory of Cambodian Naval force in the region of king Jayvarman 7 during the Angkor period at the river front- just right in front of the Royal Palace and to mark the reversal of the flow of the Tonle Sap River.

We give thanks to the river because water gives us a lot of things like fish, water to drink and for the crops.

Ms Sokun was creating some paper boats during Exploration Time and Jason and Vuth Vuth sat with her and made their own.

Enjoy your time with your family.
We will see you back at school on November 6th.

Imagination

During this unit we have been reading many books that have sparked our imagination. On the last page of this book, it was written, ' Close your eyes and imagine. What would you most like to be? The children thought for a minute and then drew their idea.

'What would you be if you could be anything?'

The big idea in our unit is about being creative, showing, doing, making something we have never seen or heard before. Everybody here started with an oval shape but look at all our original ideas.

Thinking about our Central Idea

Our new unit How we express ourselves is about using the arts to share our ideas and explore our imagination...
We shared what we thought we knew about some of the words in the Central Idea-the arts, ideas and imagination- as our thoughts were scribed into the letter K - what did we think we know about our unit.

But what are the arts?

We know what art is- 'we go to Art with Ms Dana.'

We went back to explore the words we shared when we talked about how we like to express ourselves. We were prompted with another question; How can we share our ideas?
The children took this further and illustrated their preferred form of expression.

Today we added more words of how we can share our ideas.
We then sorted them into groups we thought were similar.

What label would you give these groups?

We are still thinking about the labels we might use to describe each group and in turn work out what the arts are.

How we express ourselves

We have started tuning into our new unit under the transdisciplinary theme
How we express ourselves.
The Central Idea is:
We can use the arts to share ideas and explore our imagination

The Lines of Inquiry and Key Concepts that will be driving our inquiries are;
How we use the arts to share our ideas- Function
The ways our imagination  affects our ideas- Change
The uniqueness of our imagination- Perspective

The attributes of the Learner Profile and that will be highlighted in this unit are
Open Minded and Risk-Taker and creativity, enthusiasm and appreciation.

Our unit will end with the children sharing a portfolio of their ideas; displaying them in at least 4 ways.
We can't wait to see what they will create.

If you have a particular interest in this area, please let us know.
We would love to have guest speakers!

For this unit we may create sculptures with boxes and loose parts.
Please send in any boxes- from food and toiletries, cardboard rolls that you no longer need.
You just never know what it could be... or where our imagination will turn it in to.

Pchum Ben and ...

We are back and enjoying ourselves after the Pchum Ben holiday.
It was so good to see all the children so enthusiastic to share about their travels and what they had done over the break.

We have had a guest reader come into read to the children.

If you would like to come in and read a story, just let me know.
WE LOVE STORYTIME in Kindergarten and the children love seeing their parents in the classroom too.

Just a few reminders...

We have swimming every Tuesday.
It is important to help your child remember their swimming things, especially towels.
Putting what they need into an appropriate sized bag is also important as it allows the children to be independent.

Snacks
We have noticed children bringing lots of sweet biscuits to school for snack.
At ISPP we encourage the children to eat healthier options, such fruit or vegetables.
You can supplement this with a small sandwich if you feel your child needs more.