Issue 29 12th June 2016

In This Issue Page 1

Everyone Smiles in the Same Language

Page 2

Foundation Stage Magic Moments

Page 3

Key Stage 1 Magic Moments

Page 4 & 5

Key Stage 2 Magic Moments

Page 6

PE and French Magic Moments

Everyone Smiles in the Same Language French Day was a much enjoyed day of language based activities

recently, and the children involved were happily engaged in a

range of exciting tasks and games. It’s great that our children

have the opportunity to learn French as it adds strings to their

bow and introduces them to international possibilities in the

future. Many of our children already speak 3 or 4 languages,

which is an incredible feat, but the language that we all have in

common, and abounds through this newsletter, is that of smiling!

Despite the heat and fasting for Ramadan, our children are as

enthused and happy as ever, and it’s great to see them giving

everything they’ve got to life and learning at MES Cairo!

Issue 29 : 12th June 2016 Foundation Stage Magic Moments

In FS1 Blue…

2

…we have really enjoyed choosing our own topics for the last few weeks of school. Last week we had a

‘Dinosaur’ week and this week we have changed to ‘The Three Little Pigs.’ It’s a story we have all really

liked hearing over the year and we love to reread it whenever we can. To incorporate this story into our

topic, the children have used a ‘Three Little Pigs’ small world, which we have used to retell the story in our

own words. We have also experimented with different types of materials to try and make the strongest

house. We then took turns pretending to be the Big Bad Wolf’ to see if the house was strong enough or

whether it would blow down! In Phonics, we have been learning the letter ‘f’ and started the week making

fans decorated with the letter ‘f’. In Maths, we have revisited ordering items by height or length and this

week went on a hunt around the school taking pictures of different sized objects on the iPad’s and

discussing if they were taller, smaller, longer or shorter than the previous object they had spotted. As well

as this we have also been trying to read numbers on rulers and tape measures.

In FS2 Blue… …we have been learning all about

‘Green Eggs and Ham!’ After reading

the story, we went to the cookery

room and whisked up some lovely

green eggs. It was surprising how

delicious they were and everybody

loved them. Next, we wrote about

whether we would eat them again or

not. We made up some really lovely

rhyming sentences to go with Dr.

Suess’ story. Back in class, we also

did some egg experiments, such as

walking on a box of eggs. Finally, we

had the chance to see what comes

out of an egg when we visited the

very cute chicks that were in the

Pod. It really has been a very ‘egg-

citing’ week!

Issue 29 : 12th June 2016

Key Stage 1 Magic Moments

3

In Year 1 Blue…

In Year 2 Blue…

…we have completed some amazing writing this week! We read the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and

used a story mountain to help us identify the story structure. Using our story mountain plans, we then

wrote the story, making our very own books with a cover page, blurb and illustrations! We enjoyed sharing

our stories with Violet class. Next, we put our Science knowledge in action to help us grow our own

beanstalks. We knew that seeds need space, sunlight, soil, oxygen and water to grow. We carefully planted

our seeds, leaving some space between each seed, gave them some water and left them in the sunshine.

We are hoping our beans might be magic just like Jack’s!

…we have very exciting news; we have a new virtual learning

environment coming our way for the 2016-17 school year, and the

Year 2 team are currently undertaking the task of piloting the use

of Moodle, for innovative home-school learning. Not only does

Moodle house most of the eTools we use to learn across the

curriculum in Year 2, but it’s a safe e-space for us to collaboratively

research, share, and build ideas together at school, as well as at

home. Violet Class and Blue Class decided to team up this week to

challenge our skills in Computing Class, using Moodle to build our

very own blogging spaces together through an application called

Weebly. Investigating the variety of eTools, we worked side-by-

side at school to start building our Home Pages in class, and

continue building after school from the comfort of our own homes.

Creating is by far the best way to practice and challenge skills and

both classes had an amazing time enriching their Computing skills

and using teamwork to create our very own web spaces! Ms. Helen

and Ms. Dean cannot wait to see the incredible webpages that will

soon be scrolling across our screens. There are some very exciting

times ahead as we continue to embrace 21st

century teaching and learning at MES Cairo!

Key Stage 2 Magic Moments Issue 29 : 12th June 2016

4

In Year 3 Blue…

In Year 4 Blue…

…we have been studying forces as part of our Science lessons, and have had lots of fun along the way. Examples of forces are: pushes, pulls, turns and twists. We have started to become more aware of the forces around us. We have been focussing on friction this week; friction is a force that is found whenever two objects slide over each other. We used our toy cars to experiment with different surfaces and to see which material helped our cars to move the furthest. Friction can also happen as objects move through water, this is called water resistance. We experimented with making boats out of clay and tried to make the best shaped vessel so that it could float and travel through the water easily. We were very competitive and a lot of fun!

…last week our class spent some time completing practical experiments and developing our knowledge about electricity. With help from Mr. Matt (who is a Scientist), Year 4 blue built their own circuit boards and some of us even created our own parallel circuits. The class learnt how these electrical circuits help our electrical systems at home. We will be using these amazing ideas to help plan, design and build our own inventions. These inventions will face The Dragons, in Year Four's Dragons Den contest.

Key Stage 2 Magic Moments Issue 29 : 12th June 2016

5

In Year 5 Blue…

…we really showed off our creative and

business skills when we prepared exciting

Olympic themed games for Years 1 to 6 to

take part in at the annual Summer Fete. We

were raising money in aid of the Adopt-a-

School Project, developing our

independence and teamwork, and of course

having a lot of fun at the same time! Stalls

included a gymnastic forfeit game, target

practice using Minions as the targets, knock

the balloons off the line, a dartboard

challenge and cup skittles. Never have

children worked so hard in the heat to

attract customers, encourage them to

complete the challenges and then amply

reward them with all sorts of exciting prizes.

Well done to all of Blue Class for putting in

maximum effort on the day and helping to

make the fete such an enjoyable experience

for all those involved!

In Year 6 Blue… …we have finished all our tests and assessments, and yet we are still working as hard as ever. In English, we are studying Biography; we have reflected on our own lives and experiences so far and have also studied the life of Quentin Blake, the illustrator of Roald Dahl’s books. Miss Annie had the brilliant idea of transforming our Biography study by making it a multi-media extravaganza. We watched the episode of ‘This is Your Life’ that featured Muhammad Ali, the world’s greatest boxer, whose achievements stretched beyond the boxing ring. Several of the class were well informed about Muhammed Ali and we enjoyed seeing his old school teacher, his aunty who cut his hair and his family. We then looked at the format of the show and decided to draft a plan. We needed a narrator, a star, parents and friends who knew the star before they were famous. Our drama skills were put to the test as we became a variety of different characters. There were squabbles (“I don’t want to be Justin Bieber’s mum!” and “Why can’t I be Michael Jackson?”), there were tantrums (mainly when Mr. Andrew banned Lionel Messi for being too dull) but mercifully no tears. We had a great time putting it together. You don’t have to be a genius to realise that if you’re having fun when learning you’re already a long way down the road to success.

PE, Library and French Moments Issue 29 : 12th June 2016

In French…

In PE… …this week, we have been

exploring yoga and meditation.

Yoga is a physical, mental, and

spiritual discipline which

originated in India. Children

have learnt about how to

breathe with control and adopt

different body positions to help

them relax more. They have

explored a variety of different

poses including ‘the cat’, ‘bound

angle’ and ‘baby’.

Coming Up Next…

Thursday 23rd June

Last Day of School for Students

Monday 27th June

All Reports Issued

Tuesday 28th June

Parents Meetings

…we enjoyed yet another fun packed French Day last week. Years 3 and 4 imagined that they were on

holiday in France and designed their own postcards to send home to their parents. They used their

French writing skills to talk about themselves and their artistic skills to design the front part of the

postcard. At the end of the day, teachers chose the top four postcards in the year group and the winning

pupils were awarded a certificate and a French dictionary to take home during the pod assembly. Year 5

pupils were extremely busy in the days leading up to French Day, creating games for all children to play

during the Summer Fete. Malak and Maya in 5Y were the creators of the game ‘Shoot the Word’, where

pupils had to pick out an English word and shoot at the equivalent French word. Hamza, Ahmed and

Youssef in 5V created the ‘Baguette Challenge’, where children had to say French words with as many

pieces of baguette in their mouths. Children seemed to find this challenging and yet very entertaining.

Year 6 spent their time recreating famous art work by well-known French artists, such as Monet and

Cézanne. Some groups chose to use oil pastels whilst others used colouring pencils. By the end of the

day, pupils had created some excellent art work, some of which has been put on display in the Year 6

pod. All in all, it was a fantastic French Day and the children really enjoyed immersing themselves in

French- and France-based activities; many thanks to Miss Theodora for all her hard work in making

French Day possible!