Friday 7th June 2019
5/6/2019
Thank you
So the final day of the year is here! A HUGE thank you firstly to the wonderful learners in Milepost 3 for making this such a great year of learning, cooperation and fun. A GIANT thank you also to the families who have supported the learners and staff all year by attending sports events, Exit Points, assemblies, sending in yummy food, supporting your children with costumes for Book Week and International Day and so many more things. The Milepost 3 team wishes you all an amazing holiday and says good luck to those families leaving us for exciting new adventures.
Fairgrounds – Exit Point
And we have now finished out last unit for the year. Milepost 3 have been amazing and through this unit they have been cooperative, resilient and adaptable making their amazing games. Thank you to Milepost 2 for coming to play our games and thank you to families who also came to support us. Enjoy the photos below.
Friday 31st May 2019
28/05/2019
Year 6 Dinner
Year 6 had a wonderful dinner on Wednesday to celebrate the end of their time in Primary. We also made a video to remind the learners of all the fun they have had together over the years. Thank you for all the delicious food you sent in to help us celebrate.
Enrichment Reward Day
On Friday 24th May, Milepost 2 and 3 had a reward afternoon for all their amazing enrichment tasks. Have a look at the photos to see how much fun we all had.
iCAN’s Got Talent Final
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the final. We saw a huge range of amazing talent and everyone had really raised the bar from the semi finals. We were all really impressed at what huge risk takers you were getting up in front of such a large audience. Well done to our winners the Coo Coo Nutz.
Learning Journey
After much hard work, the fairground games are done. This week we reflected on what had gone well and what we would improve. We also evaluated the learning, which was to: design using step by step plans, use tools effectively and be able to evaluate a finished product. Overall, the games have been a great success and we are looking forward to getting feedback from Milepost 2.
Maths
In Year 5 this week, we have been fantastic thinkers whilst learning about improper and mixed number fractions, as well as how to find fractions of amounts. Next week we will be consolidating our Year 5 learning by looking at different word problems (involving all four operations) and different units of measure.
In Year 6 this week, we have been continuing to look at data handling. We learnt to read and interpret pie charts. We then had a go at doing our own data survey and putting this data onto a pie chart.
Literacy
In Year 5 we have been preparing for our Exit point by planning and writing exciting and captivating adverts to show off our amazing fairground games. We can distinguish between fact and opinion, and used this understanding to include a variety of sentences in our ads. We used emotive language and hyperbole to convince the viewer that they should play our games!
In Year 6 this week, we have been writing our advert scripts for our amazing fairground games we made in technology. We used what we learnt from watching adverts to make our adverts persuasive and engaging. This included using exaggerated language. alliteration, persuasive language and being really positive about the game. We then filmed and edited the adverts. We will share these with you next week in our Exit Point.
Dates to Remember
Wednesday 5ht June – Exit Piont 2pm
Friday 7th June 2019 – Last day of school (finish at 11am)
Friday 24th May 2019
20/5/2019
Transition Day
Year 5 and Year 6 enjoyed finding out about who their learning facilitators would be next year and getting a chance to ask questions. We know learners can worry about new learning facilitators and moving up to the next class so it has been a good opportunity to address these.
Learning Journey
After a lot of hard work, we have finished our fairground games this week. We have been really resilient as most of our original plans needed to be adapted and ideas we had didn’t always work. Some of the tools were harder to use than we thought but everyone has been really principled by using them safely. We are looking forward to sharing these with families in our Exit Point in Week 7.
Literacy
Year 5 have been working hard in literacy this week by practising note taking skills. We are going to write a non-chronological report on Bald Eagles. We watched a video that told us lots of information and practised taking notes using bullet points. We know we don’t have to write full sentences; this helps us to write faster. Then we transferred our notes into a spider diagram, putting the facts under different headings. This will support us to write our report, as our notes are now gathered into specific topics about the eagles for our paragraphs.
Year 6 started the week with one last debate about the controversial decision to make women athletes, who have elevated testosterone, to take a drug if they want to compete in the 400m – 1 mile races. Mr Shannon and Miss Victoria have been really impressed and proud of how maturely the learners have debated over the last week. We were also really impressed with the confidence everyone showed to stand up, and speak formally in front of an audience. We then moved onto investigating adverts using persuasive language.
Maths
his week in maths, Year 5 have been continuing to learn about fractions, decimals and percentages. We have been learning about equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages and how to convert between them. We have also been learning about improper fractions and mixed number fractions. We have been great thinkers and resilient learners whilst learning about this challenging topic!
This week in maths, Year 6 have been recapping their knowledge of different types of data charts. The aim is to be able to interpret an understand information from a chart but also be able to make our own charts for data we collect. We have also been revising topics from earlier in the year.
Stars of the Week
Dates to Remember
Tuesday 28th May 2019 – MP2/MP3 Disco at 5-6pm
Wednesday 29th May 2019 – Year 6 Dinner at 5:30pm
Thursday 30th May 2019 – iCAN’s Got Talent Final at 7:45 in the hall
Friday 17th May 2019
10/05/2019
iCAN’s Got Talent
Wow, what a morning! A huge well done to all our Milepost 3 contestants. We had dancers, comedians, singers and musicians. Everyone was such an amazing risk taker as (we all know that) getting up on stage is scary. We really enjoyed the performances! Afterwards, we went back to our classes to vote for our favourite act.
We’re all looking forward to the final acts in a few weeks.
Mental Health Awareness
This week, we have been talking about mental health and thinking particularly about body image. We have done lots of small activities in our classes and the Learner Council has been promoting affirmations at lunchtimes.
Together Time Friday Fun
Every Friday we end the week with a Together Time fun activity. It is a nice way to wind down, after a week of working hard; we get to chill out with our friends by doing something active, creative, or collaborative. Here are some pictures of last week’s activities.
Learning Journey
This week we have continued to work on our fairground games. We have all impressed our learning facilitators with how sensible and safe we have been. Everyone has been evaluating, as we have gone along, and made changes to our plans when we have found that things were not working. We have needed to be particularly collaborative, adaptable, and resilient in this project.
Maths
In Year 5, we have been recapping how to multiply and divide by 10, 100 and 1000. Then we have been applying this learning to convert between different currencies, using scaling. Later, we began to look at comparing and ordering decimals.
In Year 6 we have been continuing to learn about coordinates and using the skills of translating, reflecting and rotating shapes using all four quadrants.
Literacy
In Year 5, we have been extremely resilient this week when re-writing a short story. We have been consolidating our knowledge of punctuation and grammar features by peer-marking each other’s stories. We then wrote feedback to our partners and re-drafted the stories to improve our work.
In Year 6, we have had one more debate looking at the new sports ban for women who have too much testosterone. It was a tricky topic so we looked together at lots of facts and opinions, to make sure we really understood the topic, before planning our points. Everyone was able to debate in a formal and mature manner and some of us were able to ask question to challenge and weaken our opponents points.
Stars of the Week
Dates to Remember
Wednesday 29th May 2019 – Year 6 Dinner
Thursday 30th May 2019 – iCAN’s Got Talent Final
Friday 7th June 2019 – Last day of school year
Friday 10th May 2019
9/5/2019
Reward Time
Over the year, classes get rewarded with 5 minutes of extra play time for having the most caught you being…tickets from the LSAs when the learners are using their personal goals, and generally being awesome. Year 6 also had 30 minutes from winning the best door competition for Book Week. We decided to use some of this time to cool down in the hot season with a BIG WATER FIGHT. You can see from the photos it was a LOT of fun!
Learning Journey
This week in Milepost 3 we have all been working on our fairground games projects. We have three weeks to design, make and evaluate a game. The games have to have: a moving part, use a force (or a circuit) which we have learnt about in science, and be fun! We are using tools such as: box cutters and saws, so we have talked lots about safety and proper handling of these.
Maths
This week in Year 5, we have been learning about money. We have been sharing our experiences of different currencies and how money is used. We are focusing on dollars and cents this week- ready to start learning about Cambodia’s dual currency next week. We have learnt that: there are 100 cents in a dollar, as well as, how to add and subtract money (remembering to line up our decimal points), and how to solve word problems involving money.
In Year 6, we have been learning about coordinates. We recapped how to read coordinates in all four of the quadrants. Then we learnt how to translate, reflect and rotate a shape.
Literacy
In Year 5, we have been working very hard this week to consolidate our knowledge of different grammar and punctuation points. We revised our knowledge of plural noun rules, different types of sentences and how to use different types of punctuation, (such as dashes, brackets and apostrophes.) We are practising showing these skills in our writing.
n Year 6, we have been having debates. Miss Victoria and Mr Shannon gave the class a proposition (statement) and we had to research our arguments, and then have a formal debate. Each team took part in two debates and was, proposition (for) and then, opposition (against). Some of our debate experts, who had taken part in the ASA, also got a turn being the chair (the person who leads the debate).
Dates to Remember
Monday 13th May 2019 – The King’s Birthday ( no school)
Friday 3rd May 2019
2/5/2019
Child Led Conferences
Thank you to all the families who came to share the children’s learning on Wednesday. It was really inspiring to see how much ownership they took over the session and how confident they were to share their learning with all of you. We hope you enjoyed yourselves and a huge well done to our wonderful learners.
Enrichment Tasks
We really enjoyed seeing some science presentations and reading some stories and comics today for our last Enrichment Task. Everyone did something different and we had comics as well as written stories. Well done, MP3!
Learning Journey
This week we have started our (three week long) technology project. The learners have been given the task of designing, making and evaluating a fairground ride. This must incorporate a force which they have learnt about in our science learning and include a moving part from our technology skills learning. We have already decided on our teams and started thinking about our designs and the materials that we will need. Next week we will start to make these- which will be lots of fun!
Maths
This week in Year 5, we have been continuing to learn about time. We have been looking at adding and subtracting time intervals. Then we moved on to learn about reading different timetables.
This week, Year 6 reflected over all their fantastic learning from this year. We use rubrics in our books to assess our learning, we thought about what we were the most proud of and we reflected on what learning had been the most fun.
Learning Journey
This week, Year 5 have been amazing thinkers when learning how to use a variety of homophones correctly. We can now use homophones correctly in our writing and can explain when and why different homophones are used. We showed our understanding by writing homophone poems! Some of us wrote homophone poems use the incorrect homophone to make them even funnier!
This week, Year 6 has started looking at their new topic, debates. We already have some experts in the classes as several learners have done this for an ASA. We thought about why debating is such an important skill and how it fits into the genre of persuasive writing.
Stars of the week
Dates to Remember
Wednesday 8th May/ Thursday 9th May 2019 – Bugsy Bong Performance 8pm
(Learners in the show to arrive at 5pm)
Monday 13th May 2019 – King Birthday (no school)
Friday 26th April 2019
25/4/2019
International Day
Learning Journey
We are now learning though the lens of technology. This week we focused on the skills needed to use different tools. We made safety rules for different tools and practiced using them correctly in the lead up to our project next week. We hammered, sawed, glued, twisted and sliced with precision and accuracy! We also built simple machines including: wheel & axel, levers, and pulleys.
Maths
This week in Year 5, we have been doing a fantastic job of learning about time! We have learnt how to read analogue and digital clocks, use 24 hour time and add and subtract time. We have used model clocks to help us throughout these lessons.
This week in Year 6, we have been completing our learning about shapes and measures and reflecting on what we have learnt this unit
Literacy
This week in Year 5 we have been learning about homophones and how to spell them correctly. We have been using different homophones to write funny poems.
This week in Year 6 we have started to look at persuasive writing. We looked at a variety of texts and thought about what they key features were and who these texts were written for.
Stars of the Week
Dates to Remember
Wednesday 1st May 2019 – Child Led conference
Remember no usual school on this day. We look forward to seeing you and your child/children for your time slot to enjoy reflecting on their learning.
Friday 3rd May 2019 – Last Enrichment Task due
Wednesday and Thursday 8th and 9th May – Bugsy Performances 6pm
We look forward to seeing you there to enjoy the show.
Friday 12th April 2019
10/4/2019
Learning Journey
For our final science task in this unit, we learnt all about sight! We considered why sight was so important at the fairground. How would our experience be different without this sense? Then we learnt new knowledge about the parts of our eye and how they work so that we can see. Finally we investigated an aspect of light, concentrating on asking and answering scientific questions through our investigation.
Maths
In Year 5, we have been great thinkers and cooperators when collecting continuous data. We know that we show continuous data in a line graph and have been practising our skills when creating the graph from scratch. We then chose our own data handling project idea and came up with a method to record the data. We were able to do this in teams working hard to communicate and cooperate. We really enjoyed doing this and created the line graphs to display our chosen data subject accurately.
In Year 6, we have moved onto learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We recapped how to describe these shapes. We then made nets of shapes like triangular prisms, square based and triangle based pyramids and a range of prisms.
Literacy
In Year 5 this week we have been investigating how we can use prefixes and suffixes to change the meaning of a root word. We also enjoyed a brilliant lesson from Natalie, Kunnika, Wadi and Tina who taught us about different tenses. The girls have been working hard with Mr Shannon to prepare the lesson and we really learnt a lot! Well done girls for being such great risk takers as teaching to the other learners can be a little scary.
In Year 6 this week we edited our awesome fantasy stories. As it is hard to see mistakes in your own work, we worked in pairs to highlight spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes for each other. Then, we used this to improve our work. We then did a Big Write using the Dreamgiver.
Stars of the Week
Dates to Remember
Monday 22nd and April 2019 – Start of learning Block 6
Wednesday 1st May 2019 – Child Led Conference (CLC)
Friday 5th April 2019
2/4/2019
Learning Journey
For our next task we were learning all about magnets. Lots of us had not learnt about magnets since we were in MP1 so needed a refresher on some basic knowledge before we began!
We then worked on our investigative skills, especially our skill at posing scientific questions and explaining our findings. We needed to plan and conduct a scientific investigation, posing scientific questions, all based on the properties of magnets. We are making great progress with our investigative skills and ensuring that we are conducting a fair test which is both reliable and accurate!
Our next learning was all about electricity. We consolidated previous learning on this and recalled the different symbols that are used when drawing circuit diagrams. We focused on asking scientific questions and came up with our own experiments using circuits. It was an enlightening experience…
Maths
This week Year 5 have been learning how to represent and interpret data from tables and graphs. We consolidated our knowledge by reviewing what discrete and continuous data is. We have improved our understanding and can show this by explaining why we would use a certain type of graph – bar or line – for these 2 different types of data. We have practised creating line graphs and are going to gather our own continuous data next week to show in a line graph!
In Year 6 this week we have continued to learn about the area and perimeter of shapes such as parallelograms, rectangles and triangles. We then moved onto learning about 2D shapes. We looked at how to classify them using their properties and recapped vocabulary like quadrilateral and polygon. We looked at what angles shapes had and how we could use these. Lastly, we created flowcharts so other learners could use these to work through step by step to identify what shape they had.
Literacy
This week in Literacy in Year 6, we have planned our own fantasy stories. Before we wrote them, we learnt how to plan using notes and then acted out our ideas so we were clear before we wrote them. When it was time to write them, we focused on using the correct tense, using a range of punctuation or connecting paragraphs depending on where we were in our learning. We all used a checklist to make sure we had included all the key features of a fantasy story. In Year 5, the children have produced brilliant explanation texts. They have been using thesauruses to find synonyms and practising using a range of punctuation for parenthesis.
Stars of the Week
Dates to Remember
Friday 12th April 2019 – International Day
Friday 29th March 2019
27/3/2019
Enrichment Task
Milepost 3 brought in another amazing selection of enrichment tasks but this has to be the yummiest task so far. We learnt loads about Khmer food as well as lots of treats from other learners’ home countries. It was so interesting to hear about how the learners had made the food and what ingredients they used. A big thank you to families for sending in sensible portions and remembering plates, forks, chopsticks,etc. We also enjoyed seeing all the creative resorts that had been designed.
Learning Journey
Continuing to learn through the lens of science, we have learnt about more forces this week. We learnt about the difference between mass and weight, how we can measure force using a forcemeter, and the unit Newtons. We then had a go at using these to measure the force it took to lift or move objects in the classroom.
The next part of our learning was all about floating and sinking. What role do these have at the fairground? Why are these important? We investigated water displacement and how the shape of an object can help determine its buoyancy by changing the amount of water it displaces. We found that while the mass remained the same, the shape the mass was in played a large role in determining the amount of water it displaces.
Maths
This week, Year 5 have been fantastic thinkers and problem solvers when deepening their understanding of volume. We estimated amounts, and then measured accurately using measuring cylinders and jugs to see how close our estimates were! Most of us guessed that the containers contained way too little water. For Family Learning Day we completed 5 tricky challenges about volume where we had to use a variety of equipment and work as a team to solve the questions! We thought it was really fun and challenging and we enjoyed working with our family members who came to join the (splashy) fun!
This week, Year 6 were very resilient while learning about how to find the area and perimeter of compound shapes, parallelograms and triangles. On Family Learning Day we practised our verbal maths skills, making sure we were using a range of maths vocabulary and explaining clearly and accurately our mathematical processes and ideas to other learners.
Literacy
This week, Year 5 have begun looking at explanation texts. We have thought about the features of explanation texts, including learning about modal verbs and causal conjunctions. We have also practised verbal explanations, where we designed our own invention and then explained it to the rest of the class.
This week, Year 6 has continued to explore fantasy genre stories. We watched a short film called The Dreamgiver. The first time we watched it we predicted what we thought would happen next, using what we knew already about the characters and story. We then looked in depth at the main character and used a thesaurus to make sure we were using precise language to describe him (as opposed to general adjectives that don’t give a clear picture.)
Stars of the Week
Dats to Remember
Friday 12th April – International Day and Last day of the learning block.
Friday 22nd March 2019
21/3/2019
World Maths Day
Making and selling Our Products
Calculating Our Profit
This week Year 5 have been applying their learning across real life contexts to cost, produce and sell our cushions at the Maths day fair. The total profit calculated for Year 5 was $71. We used our personal goals whilst buying and selling items at the fair- being respectful communicators and cooperating together. Great work year 5!
Year 6 had an awesome time by first using data to find out what colours the primary learners would want for slime and also what price they would be willing to pay. We presented the information as bar charts and pie charts and then analysed the data finding the mean, mode, range and median. We used a huge range of other maths skills such as calculations, measuring and estimating. Year 6 were awesome at being entrepreneurs and as a result made a profit of $196 on their slime.
Learning Journey
This week in learning journey we continued our science investigations by learning about a new force – CENTRIPETAL force. Centripetal force is a centre seeking force which changes the direction of the object by pulling/pushing it toward the centre of rotation. The combination of velocity and centripetal forces cause the object to spin in a loop. We went to the roof to try this out for ourselves…
Literacy
This week Year 5 have been continuing to write, edit and improve their Twisted Fairy Tales. We have been focusing on writing interesting and ‘attention grabbing’ openings, characterisation and using amazing descriptive vocabulary within our writing.
In Year 6, we have continued with our theme of the fantasy genre and looked at comparing and discussing books, We have also looked at how authors grab our attention.
Dates to Remember
Wednesday 27th March – Family Learning Day please sign up on the sheet at the classroom door.
Thursday 28th March 2019 – 11.30 Finish
Friday 12th April 2019 – International Day
Friday 15th March 2019
15/3/2019
Learning Journey
Task 2
We had a bead and some plastic tubing and needed to observe what happens when the bead is dropped into the tubing. Did the height of the curve make a difference? What forces were acting? We wrote what we observed.
Task 3
We continued to use our plastic tubing and bead to investigate loop the loops! We needed to investigate what factors are important in achieving a loop the loop. Does the position of the loop make a difference? Does the angle of the tube going into the loop need to be a certain size? Does the size of the loop matter? We recorded our attempts and considered the forces that were acting to achieve a successful loop the loop.
We then moved on to learning about the force of friction. We needed to conduct investigations into which material would be the most appropriate to use on the sack ride at the fairground. The material with the least friction would be the best choice. We tested different materials and took extra care over being systematic and accurate in our measurements. Plus it was fun sliding down the slides!
Maths
Year 5 has had lots of fun this week designing our cushions ready for maths day. We have used a range of real life maths skills including measuring, calculating amounts, scaling and data handling. We are looking forward to making and selling our cushions next week!
Year 6 has continued their work on measures and focused on problem solving where we converted units of measure and had to apply the skills we have already mastered. We continued to extend our mental maths skills and we are getting excited about our Maths Day next week.
Literacy
Year 5 has really wowed our learning facilitators this week with our brilliant imaginations and amazing drama skills! We have been planning, acting and writing our own ‘twisted fairy tales’.
Year 6 has started learning about fiction books written in the genre of fantasy. We looked at examples online and thought about what ingredients make a fantasy story such as magic, dragons and imaginary worlds. We also compared two fantasy stories and thought about how they were similar and different.
Stars of the week
Dates to Remember
Wednesday 20th March – Maths Day
Families will be invited to come and support our Maths Day Market from 1.15- 2.15pm.
Friday 22nd March 2019 – Enrichment Task 3 due in
Friday 8th March 2019
8/3/2019
Learning Journey
For our first science learning we were using our observation skills. We took a range of different sizes/shapes/weighted balls outside. Here we threw them up and bounced them. We needed to observe what happened when we did this. How did it change with the different balls? Were we able to identify the forces that were acting on the balls in each of these circumstances? We then attempted to make this more accurateand reliableby measuring the bounce.
In the next lesson, we had a bead and some plastic tubing and needed to observe what happens when the bead is dropped into the tubing. Did the height of the curve make a difference? What forces were acting? We wrote what we observed.
Literacy
In Year 5, we have been having lots of fun in literacy this week comparing traditional fairy tales to Roald Dahl’s versions in Revolting Rhymes. We have been making predictions and comparisons as well as acting out the fairy tales. We are looking forward to planning our own ‘Twisted Fairy tale’ next week.
In Year 6, we have carried on reading The Jungle Book and asking inference questions as well as learning new vocabulary as this book has some excellent language. We also recapped our possession apostrophe skills.
Maths
In Year 5 this week we have been learning how to calculate the area of rectangles and applying our learning to investigate the area of compound shapes.
In Year 6, we have been learning about measures. We have recapped our measuring skills for length and mass. We used our knowledge of what common objects measure to make close estimations and we learnt how to convert between different units of measure.
Stars of the Week
Friday 1st March 2019
1/03/2019
For Book Week, Milepost 3 has focused on Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. We started the week with a whole primary assembly where Miss Rosie shared all the exciting activities the learning facilitators had planned.
On Monday, we started to plan and decorate our class doors in a jungle theme to go with our book. If you come and visit the Milepost 3 corridor you’ll find you have to dodge monkeys, tigers and bear, oh my!
During the week, different learning facilitators shared stories at lunchtime that the learners enjoyed. On Thursday morning, the learners had the opportunity to choose to visit a different class and hear a story in a different language. We had Chinese, Bahasa Malaysia, Dutch, German, Spanish, Khmer, French and Sinhalese. Here are some of the things our learners said about the experience:
Tina: I liked how at the end I got to speak in Chinese to other people who can also talk Chinese (Miss Mei).
Signe: I liked how Ms Beverley wrote down the words first and then when she read we knew some of the words already.
Daffyd: I liked that it was a book I kinda knew but in a different language (Miss Sofia).
On Friday, the whole school paraded our amazing costumes and WOW! We had all sorts of costumes and a huge well done to all the learners and families for making such an amazing effort. Everyone looked amazing and it was so much fun seeing each other dressed up. We had superheroes, manga characters, fairy tales, animals, witches and all sorts.
Congratulations to our Milepost 3 costume winner, Nina dressed as Gangsta Granny.
Learning Journey
We all know that fairground rides are designed to thrill our senses, through fear, excitement and the unexpected. How are these rides powered in a way which enables them to speed up and slow down at just the right moments, whilst staying on a track that twists upside down? These mysteries will be revealed as we learn more about the science behind energy, forces, sound and light.
For our Entry Point we worked in our home base teams to create fairground rides out of junk. We were really imaginative and creative with our ideas and created some great rides! We are now very excited to learn about our new unit!
During our Knowledge Harvest we thought about: our senses at the fairground; what forces might act on the rides; any questions we would like answered this unit and what connections there are between different rides. We know some things already but there is SO much more still to learn!
Friday 15ht February
15/02/2019
Learning Journey
On Tuesday, Milepost 3 visited the National Museum of Cambodia as part of our Here and Now, There and Then topic. We started the day with a fantastic dance workshop where we learnt about the different traditional dances and saw professional dancers in their costumes performing. We also got to see examples of traditional Cambodian music. We all got an opportunity to go onto the stage and we all tried out some of the warm up routines as well as some of the special hand movements.
After a snack, we moved to the museum and did an artifact hunt. We have been learning about primary and secondary sources so we enjoyed seeing such a range of Cambodian primary sources. It was exciting to see such old and beautiful work as well as some strange items like a moon rock and a world record breaking loom.
All the learners were very principled and respectful of the artifacts and the other visitors so we felt very proud of how they represented iCAN. Well done Milepost 3.
This brings a close to the
Creative Arts Week!
What a Creative Arts Week! MP3 have been having a ball with the circus theme! We have participated in juggling workshops, balloon shaping, mask making, face painting, carnival games, trampolining & gymnastics, devil stick creation and performance, music, clowning and then showed all of our new found skills in the CAW assembly! Phew, MP3 you need a holiday. Take next week off ;- )
Dates to Remember
25th February : First Day of Learning Block 5
25th February – 1st March : Book Week!
Friday 8th February
7/2/2019
Learning Journey
We are now almost at the end of our Here and Now, There and Then unit. We have looked at where we have come from, where we are now, and all of the things that we bring with us when we move around the globe.
We have looked at the physical differences between home and host countries in Geography, and the current and historical links in History. This week we have been looking at how one event can cause an impact all over the globe. In Society and International mindedness were have studied the stories of refugees fleeing war and oppression in search of safety.
Literacy
this week Y5 have been learning about balanced arguments. We learnt to identify the different features of a balanced argument and then planned our own- is it better to be a boy or a girl? We all had different opinions of this topic but are learning to respectfully consider other people’s opinion and view an argument from both sides. Next week we will be writing our own balanced arguments on this topic.
This week Y6 have made up characters so we could use our biography writing skills to write autobiographies. This is when a person writes about their own life. As we are still quite young, we made up characters who had done lots of exciting things. We had footballers, dragon trainers, superheros and other interesting people. We used very similar skills to our biographies but the main difference was we wrote in first person rather than first person. We wrote these in our Google Drive accounts so feel free to ask your child to share their learning with you at home.
Maths
Year 5 have been super thinkers when consolidating our skills and understanding of perimeter. We know that to find the perimeter you have to add up the measurements around the outside of a shape. We have been using different strategies to do this in our heads – such as doubling, bridging to the nearest 10 and using our number bonds.
In Maths, Y6 are being superb enquirers! We have applied our knowledge of algebraic equations and we can now simplify an equation by collecting like terms. We worked together on these questions: Express this equation in its simplest form: 5a+4b-2b+3a-5b+2a. Next week we will be finding the nth term in a sequence. We’re looking forward to the challenge!
Stars of the Week
Dates to Remember
Creative arts week: Wednesday 13th – Friday 15th February
End of LB4: Friday 15th February
End of LB5: 25th February
Friday 1st February
29/1/2019
Learning Journey
This week in Learning Journey MP3 have been reflecting on the number of different sources of information that they have used to find out about Cambodia. So far we have used: internet, books, photos, video clips, interviews, audio archive, documentary, and art. We also thought of a number of possible sources of information that we have not tapped into yet, including artifacts and music.
Using the information gathered, MP3 set to making either a poster or a leaflet about Angkor Wat. They needed to ensure that their work was factual, included pictures and a timeline, and was from a number of different sources. I think they did pretty well…
Literacy
This week Y5 have finished reading Bill’s New Frock and sharing our opinions about the book. Most of us enjoyed the book because we thought it was funny and interesting to think about the different experiences boys and girls might have. Next week we will be learning how to write a balanced argument.
This week in literacy, Year 6 wrote a biography about someone they were interested in. We had a really interesting range including Neil Armstrong, Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, Messi, Jackie Chan, Neymar, Kobe Bryant, some famous anime illustrators and some other really interesting people. We used all the features we had been learning about from the examples we had looked at and these are now on display outside Year 6 if you would like to come and read any of them.
Maths
Year 5 have been great thinkers this week in maths. We have been practising our translation skills when moving shapes on a coordinate grid. We know that the shape cannot be changed or altered once it has moved
In Maths, the children have progressed from Ratio to Algebra! For their introduction, the children had to be mathematical ‘thinkers’ to solve equations using a formula. Why don’t you have a try at our challenge? It’s great fun as well as testing our previous knowledge. Challenge: If a=4, b=5, c=6, d=7. Calculate a + b + c . Here’s another challenge: 3a + 2b =
Stars of the Week !
Dates to Remember
Friday February 8th: Year 1 – Year 9 Sports Day @NISC
February 13 – 15: Creative Arts Week
Friday 25th January
22/1/2019
Kite Flying Day
Kite flying day was a marvellous way to spend a Saturday morning! Thank you to all those families who came along and attempted to launch their kites in the light breeze on a beautiful Phnom Penh morning. Despite the intermittent puffs of air, a number of kites managed to soar up and around the Olympic Stadium!
Learning Journey
It was a most exciting week in MP3! King Suryavaraman II came to iCAN to speak to us all about Angkor Wat. King Suryavaraman II was responsible for building Angkor Wat in the 1100s! His Majesty told us his story and then was gracious enough to sit for questions from the MP3 learners. Before King Suryavaraman II arrived we needed to prepare ourselves;p coming up with relevant questions to ask a 900 year old King responsible for a number of wars and building the largest religious monument to ever exist, is not as easy as you would first think!
Literacy
This week Y5 have been finishing off our brilliant diaries from the perspective of Bill. We proof-read them carefully and edited and improved them. Next week we will be continuing to read Bill’s New Frock and thinking about whether we believe it is better to be a boy or a girl and why. We will be giving our opinions respectfully and preparing for a class debate.
This week in literacy, Y6 has been learning about biographies. This is when a person writes a book about someone famous. We studied examples of biographies about Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling, Usain Bolt, David Walliams and a few others. The learners started by looking at these texts with no clues and they used their enquiry skills to see what they all had in common. Through this, they found out the key features of the text such as using formal language, using third person and past tense. They also identified common facts like when the person was born, how they became famous, what inspired them, etc. We ended the week by researching someone we would like to write a biography about.
Maths
this week Y5 have been learning how to read and plot shapes on a four quadrant coordinates grid. We enjoyed challenging our partners to draw shapes using given coordinates. We have begun learning how to translate shapes and we will continue with this next week.
In Maths, Y6 are really progressing their understanding of Ratio and Proportion. They are now applying their skills and making a representation of a building using Scaling and Ratio. It’s easy to understand the mathematical concept of Ratio when we use concrete apparatus and work together!
Stars of the Week !
Dates to Remember
Dates to Remember
Friday 1st Feb: Planning Day, Learners finish at 11:30am
Friday 8th Feb: Sports day for Y1-Y9 learners at NISC
Friday 18 January
16/1/2019
Learning Journey
This week in Learning journey MP3 continued to research about our host country, Cambodia. We visited the Bophana Centre to use their archives. The Bophana Centre is a audio visual archive. It is full of videos and films from Cambodia’s past, we even saw a film of Apsara dancers dancing for King Norodom in 1890!! In addition to all of this research MP3 looked into how our host and home countries are linked. Some were linked through trade, war, sport, investment, or tourism – just to name a few.
Maths
This week in maths Y5 have been deepening their understanding of angles. They’ve been practising finding missing angles on a straight line and around a point (360degrees). Next we are going to use these skills to work out missing angles in quadrilaterals. FUN FACT! The important knowledge we need to know to do this is that all the interior angles in quadrilaterals add up to 360 degrees!
This week Y6 have been learning about Ratio. Here’s a challenge! If I need 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to make shortbread for 6 people, how much cinnamon would I need for shortbread for 5 people? Y6’s have been resilient as well as cooperative with each other whilst re-writing recipes using their knowledge of ratio. We have also had to use our knowledge of equivalent fractions as well!
Literacy
This week Y5 have continued reading Bill’s New Frock. We have been empathising with the main character,Bill, and thinking about how he would be feeling after waking up and everyone thinking he was a girl! We have started writing some amazing diary entries from Bill’s perspective. We have done a fantastic job of using a thesaurus to find adventurous new words to make our writing interesting.
This week in literacy, Year 6 continued to work on skills linked to books and reading. We read about Roald Dahl on his website and thought about the common themes across his books such as using children as the main character, using magic and often having a problem his characters had to overcome. We worked in pairs to discuss the books we were reading. Our partner would ask us a set question, listen to our answers and then ask a follow up question to test our understanding about characters, settings, genres and the author’s intent. We continued to extend our vocabularies by looking up new words we read in our books in the dictionary and seeing if we could use these correctly in a sentence.
Stars of the Week !
Dates to Remember
Dates to Remember
Saturday 19th Jan: Kite flying day @ Olympic Stadium 8:30am – 10:30am
Friday 25th Jan: Year 1 -Year 9 Sports day @ Northbridge
LB4W1 Friday 11 January
9/1/2019
Learning Journey
This week in Learning Journey MP3 embarked on the History part of our Here and Now, There and Then unit. We looked at how Cambodia, in particular, how Phnom Penh had changed over the years. In order to do this we split into teams and looked at a variety of sources to answer questions. Each room was set up with one of the following sources:
– photos
– video
– internet
– books
Learners rotated through the rooms gathering as much information as they could. Phnom Penh has certainly changed over the years. Below are pictures of central market from the 1950s, 1970s, 1990s, and 2018. What information about how Phnom Penh life has changed can you ascertain from these pictures?
Maths
This week Y5 have been super thinkers when investigating the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. We have been practising describing and classifying shapes by their properties and learned lots of new information! Did you know that a circle is not a polygon? Also, a square is a rhombus, but a rhombus isn’t a square! A rectangle is a parallelogram, but it isn’t a rhombus.
In maths this week Y6 began looking at ratio. Ratio is a tricky concept to master, and this was a new concept for all of us. We learnt that In mathematics, a ratio is a relationship between two numbers indicating how many times the first number contains the second. We practised this using diagrams and lego to help us.
Literacy
This week Y5 have begun a book study of Bill’s New Frock by Anne Fine. It is a funny novel about a young boy who wakes up one day and everyone thinks he is a girl! We have read the first two chapters and focused on answering a variety of different questions. Next week we will be writing a diary entry from Bill’s perspective and then continuing reading the story.
This week in Literacy, year 6 has focused on reviewing books, spellings and homophones, We recapped over different genres and wrote a book review of a book we have recently read. We revisited root words, prefixes and suffixes and looked at how these help us to spell a range of new words correctly. We looked at the difference between a homonym and a homophone and set ourselves a target to identify a common homophone we often mix up like two, too and too or there, their and they’re.
PSHCE
In PSHCE Y6 talked about appearances and how the media, the internet, music and films can often make people think they should look a certain way. We also talked about gender stereotyping and how boys and girls should not be limited to what people think girls should like or boys should like.
Stars of the Week !
