W E E K L Y U P D A T E

Dear Parents,

Our week started with the students hearing the candidate

speeches for the Lower School Student Counc i l . I t was a

stressful time for all those risk

takers to get on stage in front of hundreds of their peers and

deliver a persuasive speech. Congratulations to the sole 5A

candidate, Patricia, who earned a

place on the Council.

Another very special event this

week was the Grade 6 PYP Exhibition. Please refer to the

Flash for details. From the Grade

5 perspective, the students had an excellent opportunity to

experience the culminat ing activity in which they too will

participate next year. As a PYP

teacher, I was simply amazed with the knowledge, skills and

understanding that the Grade 6 students demonstrated. I really

cannot wait to see our Grade 5s

up there, demonstrating as much next school year. You can watch

some videos of the Exhibition in action at the following site:

http://www.justin.tv/samuelko/

videos

Engagemen t s w i t h t he

curriculum this school year are

beginning to wind down.

Students will no longer be r e q u i r e d t o c o m p l e t e

r ead i ng l ogs o r w r i t e summaries. This shouldn’t

be interpreted as students

not feeling the need to read each evening. By this age,

students should be reading independent ly at least

30-40 minutes per evening

and I hope this good habit can continue throughout the

summer break.

In Math, students are

w r a p p i n g u p t h e i r

exploration of area and per imeter (which have

included decimals). We’ve completed our Literature

Circles and are involved

with some culminat ing tasks. In our inquiry, we

have identified the various parts of the body systems

and have discussed puberty.

Next week we’ll complete the unit with a test! We

don’t often see tests as a summative, but we’ve been

discussing and working on

study skills. Students will r e f l e c t o n h o w t h e y

approached/prepared for the test.

Rob Stewart, creator and

d i r e c t o r o f S h a r k wa t e r premiered his movie in the

LLAC to an audience of CDNIS students. It was amazing

movie that lead to some

excellent discussions on the theme of our environmental

responsibilities. If you have a m o m e n t , I s t r o n g l y

recommend you explore the

site above as well as discuss the movie with your child.

Beach Day will be on June 14. Please, if you have not

already, contribute some

goodies through our Google Doc, which has been sent to

you three times already.

Congratulations to Glenn, A d r i a n , A l i , I r m i n a , Christian and Henry for receiving the 5A@CDNIS awards this week.

donaldmacpherson@cdnis.edu.hk

http://

djmacpherson.edublogs.org/

The Human Body, Literature Circles Wrap-up and Solving Problems with Area and Decimals

GRADE 5A @ CDNIS

Dates to RememberJune 11: Grade 5 AssemblyJune 14: Beach Day (please contribute some goodies on our Google Doc)June 15: Last day of school for students

JUNE 4 2010