October 2009, Issue 3

Current Events
Welcome to the Second Quarter for grade 5s!
Friday, October 30th- no uniform day – Halloween Dress Up! 5 baht please
Hearts for Health Lunch time Soccer games start Monday, Nov. 2nd
Tuesday, November 3rd Grade 5 field trip to Bangkok Planetarium
Saturday, November 7th, under 11 BISAC
Tuesday, November 17th Q2 Progress letters issued

Language Arts
This month students can be found engaged in narrative writing pursuits, responding to reading
assignments, practicing grammar and pronunciation lessons. This quarter, we will be focusing on
organization, voice and conventions through 6+1 Writing Traits. Reading regularly aloud with your
child and participating in rich conversations will help your child improve his/her English skills.

Mathematics
Numeracy is the focus for grade 5s this quarter, multiplication of whole numbers, decimals,
dividing by 1 or 2 digit, dividing decimals by whole numbers and problem solving will be
explored by students. Presently, students are creating models to help them understand multiplying
decimals. Take a moment and have your child show you 2 x 0.6=1.2 through a model.

Social Studies
Geography is all around us. This quarter we will be studying the 5 themes of Geography- place,
location, regions, human interaction and movement. A text book supports students through this
unit. Some students can find graphic text confusing. Maps create a challenge as well. You can
help your child by going through a map and discussing the key and scale explanations.
 Thai
In the second quarter, Gr.5 students will learn about the importance of energy to environment
and human. They will find the way to save the energy and how to take care of our environment.
Please talk to your child about how they can take care of the environment or read them some
books about the environment. Thank you so much.

Science Laboratory

This month students are immersed in Mixtures and Solutions explorations. There will be a
number of hands on activities throughout the unit. These inquiry based lessons can have some
challenging vocabulary. Take a moment a review key terms with your child and go over the
scientific method too.

Elizabeth Library

Hi Everyone.
October was a time for a well earned break from lessons. As well as engaging in
healthy outdoor activities, I hope our kids were curled up somewhere comfortable
with good books every time it rained. I know I was!
The news for KG, grade one and grade two parents is that we are arranging a new
area with easy books for beginner readers. Don't worry too much about the level
written on the book if it comes from a reading series. Just focus on what are "just
right" books for your own children. And remember that children don't all develop at
the same rate, so just do what is right for your child in order to support his or her
reading development. Remember that "Reading teaches reading". That means if you
can get your child to love reading, the job is half done!
Mr Rick
 P.E.
In PE, Mr. Brian’s classes have been acquiring basic soccer skills such as passing, trapping, and
dribbling. Mr. Brian has organized a lunchtime soccer tournament involving all 5 grade 5
classes. The tourney starts next Monday.
In another week the students will move to Godbout Hall where lessons in badminton and later
floor hockey will take place.

Counselor Corner
During our Second Step lessons we have bounced between being talking about Bully Prevention
and Study Skills. Empathy skills are vital to preventing bullying. Empathy focuses on
understanding and respecting other people’s feelings. If we can do this, than we will be less
inclined to bully because we would think about what it would feel like if it happened to us! Talk
to your child about what empathy means in relation to bully prevention, they should be able to
really describe it to you.
We want our students to be academically successful, that being said, I am working with them on
developing age appropriate study skills. You may see a Study Skills Notebook come home from
time to time. Have fun reviewing it with your child.
Thanks, Mrs. Pascale

ESL
In the last newsletter, we described how reading with your children can help increase their reading skills, vocabulary
and knowledge of English structure. We hope you have enjoyed reading with your children. Another way to help
children improve their English is to find ways to extend their interaction with English beyond the regular school day.
There are several ways of doing this, but perhaps one of the most effective is to enroll them in one of the activities
in the RIS Extended Day Program. Many of the activities provide students with the opportunity to engage in fun
learning experiences, learn a new skill, and make new friends across grade levels, whilst also extending their English
practice beyond the requirements of the day-to-day classroom. Take a look at the Extended Day Program schedule,
and consider enrolling your child for the next session.

In addition, this month some classes have been working on Subject and Predicates in Grammar class.
Here are some fun online activities your child can do at home!

http://www.quia.com/rr/36765.html

http://www.dowlingcentral.com/MrsD/quizzes/grammar/AlphaExer/compsubandp

http://www.kwiznet.com/p/takeQuiz.php?ChapterID=1834
 Music

We are gearing up to the second quarter of the school year and we are now on our third unit
“Vocal Music”. The focus of this 3rd unit is for the students to further develop and observe basic
techniques to attain good singing skill. The other topics to be discussed are Melodic Phrases,
Dynamics, Tempo and the Changed and Unchanged Voices. They will also experience singing
songs with harmony in 3-4 part round songs, countermelody, partner songs and 2-3 part chordal
harmony.

Art

We just completed our work for Halloween. Scary face. Some spooky sample artwork to go with
Halloween season:

Artist: Float 5-1 Artist: Flint 5-2 Artist: Ken 5-3

Artist: Satyum 5-4 Artist: Jenny 5-5

Theater Arts
THEATER ARTS - NEWSLETTER #3 (October 28, 2009)
FOLK DANCING IS FUN! (Gr. 5)

Our lesson in folk dancing had made a strong impact in the way these fifth
graders learn and work together as a team. I was really impressed on how
fast they’ve learn this highly skilled folk dance called “Tinikling”. They’ve tried
very hard to move with perfect timing, rhythm and coordination. Each team
has shown enthusiasm and took turn in learning the dance steps. Although
very risky and scary according to others they were able to help each other
and manage to avoid accident while hopping in and out of the two long PVC
poles (supposed to be bamboo poles.) Everyone was challenged and really
enjoyed participating in one of the most popular folk dances from the
Philippines. They had so much fun in learning and performing the role of
dancers and clickers. Well-done boys and girls!

Please give them a round of applause especially the children who participated
in our Cultural Dance and Song Show entitled, “Children of the World” during
the PA Food sale. It was not only fun but it was also a great opportunity for
our students to learn about and celebrate the rich diversity of people from
different backgrounds learning and working together through music, songs
and dances. Excellent job everyone!

Mrs. Nimfa

Religion
The Retreat, “We Are One Body” for grade 4 and 5 on October 9th were fantastic!

We have just completed the unit on Mary and the Rosary. Our final products were to make the
Rosary bracelet and the PowerPoint presentation.

Our next unit will focus on the “SAINTS and US”. HAPPY ALL SAINTS DAY! (Nov. 1) and
ALL SOULS DAY (Nov. 2).

Values
First of all, the ES Values Team would like to acknowledge and thank all parents for the
donations to the Philippine flood victims.

The Grade 5 classes are learning the importance of Respect. As we celebrated cultural week we
focused on other cultures.

As part of our community service program, we are doing an online loan through kiva
organization. The students are very engaged in our fundraising activities. We are looking forward
to be able to loan to as many people in need.
 Computers
The next quarter is very exciting for Grade 5. As we moved into a unit on Countries of the
Asian/Pacific rim, students will continue using Web 2.0 tools like VoiceThread and
SurveyMonkey to create an interactive lesson and quiz. Parents are invited to comment on their
student’s work after the project is completed. As always, I’d like to send a reminder out to parents
to make sure their children are using computers at home in a public place in the house…
especially when we start using more and more internet resources in the classroom. Be sure to
check out the student webpages also at Posterous. Stay tuned!