International School of Paris

'Where the world goes to school'

Grade 3 Newsletter, April and May 2013
Dear Grade 3 Parents, We hope that you are enjoying the sunnier weather after a long winter. The children are certainly happy to be out in the fresh air. The students are enjoying our new unit. They have been working very hard and we hope that you will enjoy reading about their progress in their report cards. We have an exciting couple of months ahead of us. We look forward to seeing you at the upcoming Glass Class. Please find information about April and May below.

Unit
We have started our 5th unit "It's Not Fair!" and already the students have been thinking critically about times they and others have been treated unfairly, and what fairness actually means. The central idea that we will be hoping the students will develop an understanding of is: "Access to equal opportunities depends on different factors." Through the use of fiction, personal experiences and historical case studies, we will be exploring the big idea of equal opportunities, and investigate opportunities such as education, health care, free time and voting. In doing so, we will investigate how factors such as gender, race and age are used to discriminate and treat people differently. The students will be encouraged to reflect on and make up their minds about how fair each case study was/is. This will help the students to understand the concepts of prejudice and stereotypes. Through the unit, the students will be exposed to many people who took action to strive for a fairer world and we hope that the students realise that their words and actions when interacting with others have the potential to promote or deny access to different opportunities. Do you have knowledge about a specific geographical or historical event or person that relates to fairness and equal opportunities, or is your work connected to this unit in some way? We would love to invite you in to share your knowledge and expertise with the students. In May, we will start our final unit of inquiry about energy. This will be a science-driven unit in which students will be able to experiment with electricity and different forms of energy. They will be encouraged to develop scientific process skills such as making predictions, observing, gathering data and forming valid scientific conclusions. The students will have the chance to learn about different forms and sources of energy and evaluate their advantages and disadvantages in the real world. Again, if you are knowledgeable about energy and would like the chance to work alongside the students, please do contact us.

Language
In language, children will learn how to discuss issues of unfairness by writing a personal response to a controversial issue (justifying their personal opinion) and looking at it from differing viewpoints. They will be encouraged to support each viewpoint presented with reasons and evidence. They will critically analyse each others arguments and presentations. To help them to do this successfully, they will be encouraged to respond to a range of texts, visuals, scenarios and issues they themselves have raised, from which they will give and defend a personal opinion/response. In our final unit on energy, children will learn how to write a detailed science report related to the concept of energy using subject specific vocabulary. They will write a question, hypothesis, method (where they will sequence instructions in a logical manner), results and a conclusion where they will explain their findings.

Mathematics
Students have now finished working on time in Grade 3, but please continue to have your children tell you the time to reinforce their learning. Children should continue to work on their times tables and number bonds in order to reinforce their learning and prepare for Grade 4. Students have moved on to learn about fractions and decimals where they have been working on using the language of fractions, such as numerator and denominator. They will be learning how to

read and write equivalent fractions, and compare and order fractions in related families. Students will also begin to learn how to add and subtract fractions with related denominators and will use real-life situations to deepen their learning. Students will learn to use decimal fractions in real-life situations through the use of money and will use money to begin to add and subtract numbers with decimals. They will then go on to read measures that fall between numbers on a scale. In combination with our upcoming unit on energy, students will learn that different graph forms highlight different aspects of data more efficiently. Students will go on to experiment with Tree, Venn and Carroll diagrams to explore the relationships between data. In addition to graphing, students will also be learning about 2D and 3D shapes, symmetry, rotation, transformation and the properties of regular polygons. More specifically, students will sort, describe and model regular and irregular polygons and analyse and describe 2D and 3D shapes, including regular and irregular polygons, using geometrical vocabulary.

ICT
During ICT this past month, the children have been creating their animations and stories, using 2Animate and Story Kit. They have practised adding images, text and sound and then uploading their work onto the class wiki. They have shared their work with their peers and with others in the school community. For the current unit Its Not Fair, the students will be using Audacity. They will learn how to record, edit and manipulate their voices, then import and merge two different recordings, about two points of view on an aspect of unfairness. The students will also continue to practise their word processing skills including typing, editing, using tables and inserting images.

French
Saras group: Last month, the students enjoyed entering in Anthony Browns world analysing the text and the illustrations of Histoire quatre voix. They understood that the events reported in a story differ from one narrator to another. In April and May, they will continue to develop their understanding of the connection between the nature or the role of a word in a sentence and its spelling. They will, then, practice the grammatical homophones. The students will read a new book called Le journal du chat assassin by Anne Fine. They will try to avoid the narrators traps and study some French expressions. Through the theatre workshop and the reading, they will think about what makes a good reader. They will realise that it is important to be prepared and to understand the story very well in order to give meaning and feeling to their reading aloud. Regarding their writing, as they understand that they should check, re-read and correct their own writing, they will start to develop a self-assessment sheet. Agnss group: The children will begin to investigate Its not fair and learn the vocabulary about feelings and which situations make them feel that way. They will interview some people in the school to know what sort of problems they can think of as being unfair. We will watch some comic films and read some stories about unfair situations. Students will write a short illustration about their own ideas in French. We will learn the verbs tre and avoir, together with some other verbs, in the present tense. We will also talk about spring. Christines group: In April, The children will continue to investigate the French sounds. They will learn the past tense (pass-compos) through texts and exercises. In class, they will read aloud a small book called Tartarin de Tarascon. They will discuss and do activities around the story and improve their understanding. Franoices group: In March, the students learnt about time and understood how it works in French. They enjoyed having some video sessions to master the grammar structure. In April, the students will continue to have video sessions to speak more and more and will write a few sentences to express their thoughts. They will continue to gain vocabulary through language games.

PE
This term at the stadium, the grade three students will begin their unit on athletics. They will participate in four events, where they will build their skills and develop an understanding of the specific techniques needed. The events will include inquiry and skill development into: throwing (shot put, discus, hammer and javelin), 60 and 400 metre running, long jump, and relay events. At

the conclusion of this unit, the children will have the opportunity to measure and judge each other on distance and speed. They will also participate in the Mini Athletics Olympics in their final lesson for the year.

Art
Grade 3 students have enjoyed drawing facial expressions and are now ready to move on to the next unit. This time we will start by making a journey into the past and we will look at cave paintings. Why did people make these paintings? What was their motivation? What were they hoping to achieve? From here we will move on to contemporary art and ask the same questions to see if there is any connection between the two. Later we will focus on contemporary artists whose art is intended to fight for animal rights. Florence

Music
During the months of February and March Grade 3 worked on their unit Effective Communications in music. Through this work the students saw how it is essential for musicians to communicate effectively with each other in order to perform properly. This work culminated in the class creating their own story and adding musical sounds to it in order to communicate the story to an audience. Grade 3 has also been working on the recorder in their rotation groups this term. This work affords them the opportunity to learn and develop their music reading fluency, playing technique and performance skills. During the months of April and May Grade 3 will finish work on their Effective Communications stories. They will follow this with some vocal work focusing on posture, breathing and appropriate singing style. They will also continue working on recorder and are strongly encouraged to spend 5 minutes practising at home each day.

Library
The children have enjoyed reading, sharing and seeing poetry being performed in conjunction with their unit on communication. Some children have even thought about ways in which they can perform and have shared a poem with their group. The children will continue to explore ways in which a poem can be performed as well as starting to think critically about what they are reading. The children will be encouraged to think of ways they can respond to what they have read and whether this is something they would recommend to others. Together we will develop a way of sharing these reviews.

Cross Cultural Events

Thanks to all for the wonderful feedback and support for International Day. It was, once again, a huge success. Last week we celebrated the Indian holiday of Holi. Holi is a Hindu celebration of colour, as well as an opportunity to welcome springtime. In India and Nepal the people walk around throwing coloured power at each other. Our students had great fun throwing paint around in true Holi style. As part of our Cross Cultural learning we will be hosting a shared lunch on Wednesday May 22. More details will be sent to parents closer to the date.

Eco Ecole
The Grade 4 students are re-using materials to make attractive items which they will sell to raise funds. They were inspired by the recent visit of Jane Goodall and want to help support a chimpanzee. Grade 3 students have had the responsibility to investigate areas that need addressing around the school. They have identified a number of ways we can assist with making our school more eco-friendly and they are working on how to do this. The Grade 2 students went on a short field trip to learn how to properly ensure that our batteries are properly disposed of. They have also been re-using magazines to create wonderful wall displays. We will continue with all these projects in the weeks to come, as well as begin to explore possibilities in the garden.

EAL News
It is such a pleasure to work with and share the English language learning with the students who began the year with no English. They are all now talking, participating and their command of English continues to grow daily. Parents should continue to support their children by discussing the learning that is going on at school in the home language. Please also ensure that you are either reading to them or having them read to you. All students borrow books from both the library and the classrooms but if you need additional reading material please contact us.

Discuss with me
Fairness and equality Unfairness in the news Bills New Frock Equivalent fractions Different opinions about a relevant issue

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 Adivije May amay@isparis.edu Fiona Kemp fkemp@isparis.edu

Vocabulary
Equality, inequality, justice, tolerance, gender, race, democracy, decimals, Carroll diagram, transformation, polygon, kinetic, simulation, transform Best wishes, Fiona, Erin, Sean, Adivije, Christine, Agnes, Francoise, Marianne, Sara, Anna, Adivije, Michelle, Barbara and 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