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The International School of Azerbaijan

P4 Newsletter, Issue #1, September 2016

P4 NEWSLETTER
Unit Of Inquiry
Where We Are in Place and Time
We will be starting our new unit of inquiry next week. We will begin
with tuning in with a provocation allowing the students to experience
an old classroom environment, old films and looking at artefacts.
These different activities will help the children to discover our
central idea. We also have a fantastic trip organised to Qala on
Thursday 15th September, where we will be looking at old household
artefacts in their two museums, learning how to make bread,
weaving and experience making pots. All these activities will enable
the students to question and think about what it would have been
like to live there a long time ago.

We have just come to the end of

our first unit of inquiry, Who We
Are. The students have been
looking at their responsibilities to
making TISA a safe and secure
environment. For their summative
assessment they had to chose two
areas around school and describe
their responsibility to making it a
safe and secure environment and
present their ideas to the class.

This new unit of inquiry looks at how peoples work and play have
changed over time. The children will be looking at old objects,
pictures and videos as well as consulting reference books to help
them find out about the past. We hope that this will develop their
understanding of change over time. We will also create timelines,
showing how we have changed.

Central Idea
Peoples work and play change over
time.

A job for parents: Please email your class teacher with a

photograph of your child from each year from birth to present
day. Please discuss the photographs with your child before
sending them.
If you would like to come and talk to the children about your own
experiences at school, we would love to hear your stories. If you
have any old objects that you could bring to school for the children
to observe, we would be very grateful.

Language
In our language sessions, we will begin by looking at the differences
between fiction and non-fiction books. We will be using non-fiction
books to find information about the past. We will be learning to
recognise the text features of a report and use these features to
write simple ones of our own, thinking about change, connection
and causation. We will be looking at the questions:
What does it look like?
What is it made of?
How has it changed today?
Why has it changed?

L INES O F IN QUIRY
how toys and games have changed
changes in homes and daily life
how school has changed
K EY CO NC EP TS

change
connection
causation

The International School of Azerbaijan

P4 Newsletter, Issue #1, September 2016

Mathematics
In our number work, we will be continuing counting
forwards and backwards to 50, developing the childrens
understanding of place value and estimating numbers to up
to 50.
We will be looking at different strategies when adding and
subtracting, including adding on, using number lines,
making a ten and counting in tens.
We will also be continuing our Data Handling using Venn
Diagrams to look at the similarities and differences of
artifacts. We will also be making graphs and interpreting
the data.

Please do not hesitate to contact us

regarding any questions you may have.

Important Information
Clothing for school
The weather is now on the turn. Please make sure that your child
comes to school equipped for the change in temperature. It might
also be a good idea to leave a spare change of clothes at school in
case your child gets wet at playtime.
Please ensure all clothes are named. There is a large collection of
jackets in the lost property cupboard. Please look for anything that
might belong to your family.

Pick up arrangements
Please could you let us know in writing if there will be a different
arrangement at pick up time. We also need to be introduced to any
new drivers or nannies who will be picking up your children. Thank
you for your understanding.

Important Dates
September
Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th: Gurban Bayram: School closed
Thursday 15th: P4 Field Trip to Qala
Monday 26th: Constitutional Referendum (Non working day)
Thursday 29th: Maths Parent Session 8:30 9:30 (Michael Wymer)
Friday 30th: Teacher Planning Afternoon: 12:30 finish for students
-

October
Friday 7th: Whole School TISA 20th Birthday
Monday 10th Sunday 16th: October Break
Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th: PD Days

Regards,

THE P4 TEAM
Ms Lucy & Ms Jamilla A,
Ms Maria & Ms Enna,
Ms Lynsay & Ms Gunnel
lnorton @tisa.az
mhamblin @tisa.az
lflowers@tisa.az