International School of Paris

'Where the world goes to school'

Grade 3 Newsletter January 2013
Dear Grade 3 Parents, Happy New Year! We hope you had a relaxing holiday. We look forward to an exciting year ahead. We have been really impressed with the childrens enthusiasm in coming back to school as well as their organisational skills and ability to follow the rules and routines in the classroom.

Unit of Inquiry
In our current unit, the students have expressed a clear sense of what they feel could be changed and made better in the world. They have enjoyed investigating the logos of different organisations and working as detectives to name each organisation and figure out the type of action each one takes. This month, we will pay particular attention to the Jane Goodall Institute as an organisation, exploring the work they are trying to do, the roles and responsibilities within the organisation and ways that the group will know if they are successful. In fact, Jane Goodall will be here in Paris next month to promote a new film in collaboration with Disney about chimpanzees. Even more amazingly, the lady herself will be spending a morning at Ranelagh with the Primary School students. At the end of this unit, the students will form small organisations of their own to try and take action and make a difference to something they care about. Please do contact us if you would like to share your experience of working in, or belonging to, an organisation that tries to make a difference in the world.

Language
Students will continue to learn the art of persuasive speech and writing. They will explore the features of this writing form by deconstructing examples of good and bad advertising, where they will discover how visual texts provide alternative means to convey a message. They will look at letters, poetry and different organisations promotional literature as examples of persuasive texts. When researching, we will encourage the students to think ahead to what they are trying to find out so that they are able to select relevant reference materials. They will use the words and techniques they have learned to create a promotional poster to persuade their audience to support a helpful organisation they will set up. Through drama, they will learn how to argue persuasively and justify a point of view. Students will use graphic organizers to plan writing, for example, Mind Maps and storyboards. By re-reading and editing their writing, students will develop their ability to express more clearly what they want to say.

Mathematics
The children of Grade 3 are continuing to work on their knowledge of multiplication and division and are learning different written strategies for each. They will continue to work on these strategies and will go on to learn how to make predictions through identifying and using number patterns. Students will also learn that multiplication is repeated addition and that division is repeated subtraction. They will work on understanding the inverse relationship between multiplication and division and will use fact families to reinforce this understanding. In addition to learning strategies for multiplication and division, students will also develop their mental strategies such as working on memorizing their times tables for easy retrieval of number facts. All students should be working on memorizing their times tables at home and it is important that each child moves on at their own level. Please practice times tables with your children at home by having them say them out loud, use flashcards, use visual pictures, songs, poems and ICT. Students will also use mental and written strategies for multiplication and division in real-life situations.

ICT

Throughout this term, the students will continue to develop their touch typing skills. If possible, please encourage your child to use the Dance Mat Typing programme at home in order to hone these skills further. During our weekly ICT lessons, Grade 3 will learn how to create flow charts using Microsoft PowerPoint 2007. The students will develop the skills to manipulate shapes and elbow connectors, in order to create flow charts. They will then use these skills to design and produce their own flow chart to depict classroom roles and responsibilities they identify while inquiring into their new unit Helpful organisations.

French
Sara: In November and December, the students were particularly interested in discovering all the information they could get from the dictionary and they reflected on how they could use them in context. In January, the advanced group will start a theater workshop in French. It will take place on Tuesday every two weeks. The students will understand French concepts, such as character, narrator, portrait, etc. through acting. In parallel, the students will reinforce their practice of the pass compos and work on the agreements. They will explore the construction of travel diaries and create their own. Through the reading of Une histoire quatre voix by A. Brown, they will also work on the concept of narrator and they will understand its impact on the story (point of view). Franoise: Happy New Year! I hope that you and your family had a wonderful vacation and that you are ready for the new year! For the beginning of the year, the students are going to learn the time. They will also learn how to use conjugations to speak more fluently. Christine: In January, the children will focus on some sounds like (g, j gu) in order to read more fluently and to improve their writing. They will learn and read about the French tradition la galette des rois. On Thursday, January 17, during French time, G3 will welcome a speaker from the organisation UNICEF for the unit Helpful Organisations and the children will prepare their visit. Agns: The first week we will talk about a traditional French celebration la galette des rois with a film roule galette, read the text that goes along with the audiovisual and explore sounds and the spelling of words. The students will also learn some vocabulary about the unit Helpful Organisations and meet some representatives from UNICEF on Thursday, January 17. We will discuss about what it means to organize, to get organized as a group and why family is important.

PE
This month, Grade 3 will begin a unit on orienteering. During this time, they will be introduced to mapping and inquire into the ways maps can be used effectively. The students will also use a compass and learn the main compass points. We will also focus on cooperation and social skills when working in a small group. This term for on-campus PE with Ms. Ryan, Grade 3 will be working on acro-dance. The students will be working individually on basic body core strength and how this can be combined as a group to maximise performance. The students will work cooperatively on the dance cycle of plan, perform and reflect to improve their compositions. Students will aim to create a bilingual or French written dance plan to accompany their performance and help them practice using their French in a PE context.

Art
Last month, Grade 3 students experimented different mediums such as drawing, water colours and sawing. This month, we will concentrate on a new technique, printmaking! Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing on paper. The process is capable of producing multiples of the same image, which is called a print. The approach to printmaking is not chosen only for its ability to produce multiple impressions, but rather for the unique qualities that each of the printmaking processes lends itself to. The students will be able to manipulate a small printing press and explore the infinite possibilities of this medium.

Music
During the month of November/December, the Grade 3 students began to focus on basic solfege notation using the Kodaly method to develop their aural and staff notation reading skills. They also focused on preparing songs to sing at the end of term assembly. This month, Grade 3 students will continue to take music twice a week. However, one session will be with their class group and the second will be in rotation. This means that the students will be

divided up across the grade into their music ability level and will be studying recorder in these rotation groupings. They will continue with this for the duration of the year, affording them the opportunity to learn and develop their music reading fluency, playing technique and performance skills. Rotation groupings are determined by the level of experience your child already has in music and they will be tested for this during the week. A letter will be included in the Contact in the coming weeks with details of cost for those students who need to purchase a recorder at school.

Library
We would like to wish you all a wonderful new year. At the end of last term, the children enjoyed exploring texts written by Alan Say. His stories about the challenging concept of migration were interesting and provoked a lot of discussion, sometimes revealing new words and ideas with lovely illustrations and personal text. Many students enjoyed taking these books home as well as exploring other texts by this author-illustrator. This month, we will be delving more deeply into the organization of the library and particularly the Dewey decimal system. The students will be encouraged to explore the various sections of the library and we hope this will lead to new discoveries and for many, eventually extending their reading spectrum. Once again, we have included the Tumblebooks information. This is a great way to listen to stories read aloud and enjoy eBooks with your child. To access the site you will need this link: http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/auto_login.asp?U=isparis&P=books. You will then need to put in the username: isparis and password: books. Please do not hesitate in contacting Michelle Metail should you have any queries concerning your childs library time at mmetail@isparis.edu.

Eco Ecole
The Eco Ecole students earned almost 250 Euros selling used books at the Holiday Bazaar. They realized that re-using books means we are able to save valuable resources as well as earn money. The money earned will go to a charity chosen by the students. We will continue to explore ways to re-use valuable resources. There are so many wonderful uses for yarn, paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, toilet rolls, etc. We are planning on making games, creating useful items as well as art work. We will also inquire into why batteries must be recycled properly. Thank you to everyone who has so generously supported our efforts. The Eco Ecole Students.

English Language Support

It is lovely to see all the happy faces of those students who, just a few short months ago, began school with little or no English. We will continue to support the students as they become increasingly able to follow and take part more independently in the class assignments. The English Language Support Team

Discuss with me
different types of helpful organisations the purpose of the organisation what action organisations take and why how multiplication and division are connected how we can be persuaded to join or purchase things ways to work in a group effectively

Communication
Should you need to communicate with any of the Grade 3 team, our emails are as follows: Erin Oliver eoliver@isparis.edu Sean Walker swalker@isparis.edu Eileen McAteer emcateer@isparis.edu Fiona Kemp fkemp@isparis.edu

Upcoming dates

Tuesday, February 5: Student-led conferences (conference times will be emailed soon)

Vocabulary
organisation, responsibility, action, quotient, fact family, remainder, persuade, convince, advertise Best wishes, Fiona, Erin, Sean, Eileen, Christine, Agnes, Franoise, Marianne, Sara, Anna, Adivije, Michelle, Barbara, Florence
International School of Paris (www.isparis.edu) 'Where the world goes to school' Tel: +33 1 42 24 09 54 Fax: +33 1 45 27 15 93