2nd & 3rd Grade Class Update ...
For our most recent field trip, we went with the kindergarten and 1st grade class to visit a village called Makomba. This village has been working with an organization called Heifer International, and we got to see how they take care of the sheep and goats that this organization has brought them. We also met with the village development committee and visited the public elementary school. It was a special day for all of us!
Of course, very exciting things have been happening inside our classroom as well! All 2nd and 3rd grade students have been members of book clubs, meeting regularly to share and discuss the chapter book they have been reading. Students have been assigned the job of either Summarizer, Discussion Leader, Story Connector or Real-Life Connector, to help facilitate the discussions at each meeting. Recently, book club members have worked together to write and perform skits dramatizing an important scene from the books they had recently finished. The clubs planned, wrote and rehearsed these skits with very little teacher assistance, and the results have been outstanding!
An exciting event coming up for all preschool through grade 3 students is Author’s Tea, which will take place at the school on June 4th. Author’s Tea is a chance for our student authors to share their work with other students, parents and teachers in a social setting. This year, our 2nd and 3rd grade authors will write nonfiction books based on research they are currently conducting. The 2nd graders are researching famous people to write biographies, and the 3rd graders are each researching a different country. We hope you will have a chance to check out these informative books!
As we get near the end of the school year, we are returning to one of our favorite activities that our class began learning at the beginning of the year: gardening! Now that the rainy season has come, it is the perfect time to plant corn in the garden behind the security post. Keep an eye on our garden to see how it grows. We can’t wait to return to school in September for the harvesting!
Mr. Caleb, 2nd & 3rd Grade Teacher
Have you heard about the exciting activities that have been happening in the 2nd and 3rd grade class lately?
In the past two months, we have gone on two memorable and exciting field trips. First, we visited a recycling site at Leicester village, right next two the U.S. Embassy. After spending a week collecting aluminum cans, we brought them with us to see the members of the community recycle these cans into cooking pots. It is a fascinating process, and I encourage you to learn about it by asking a 2nd or 3rd grader.
Another Year Gone By ...
Year THREE at the American International School of Freetown and in Sierra Leone has just blown by and so I reflect back. It has been a full and busy year in the 6-7-8th grade class with much to look back on, so enjoy 2009-2010 episode of Another Year Gone By.
Ten things I learned from my students this year:
1. To be open to listening to different types music. (“Who is Akon?”)
2. Taking a deep breath and stepping back is a good thing to do.
3. There is no way one can do all the things they want to in the amount of time you are given.
4. When cooking out toast and spaghetti is the best food know to man.
5. It totally rocks sharing what you love with others, camping anyone?
6. A classroom is like a roller coaster. There are highs, lows and better done as a group.
7. Play to one strengths but know ones weaknesses.
8. Strength as very little to do with being strong and a lot to with being wise.
9. Pushing yourself in new directions is very rewarding.
10. Planning is needed but doing is way more fun.
Ten things I learned by living in Sierra Leone this year:
1. Knowing ones neighbors and being part of a neighborhood is rewarding.
2. That I love having NPA!!!
3. Friendships come and grow in different ways. They also get better over time.
4. Ninety degree weather can become almost normal it only takes three years to do so.
5. There are many, many, many things one can not control so just go with the flow.
6. Mice are not at all cute, especially when they use your clothes for the nests.
7. It is great to get away but much nicer coming back “home”.
8. That being self reliant is good but everyone needs to know how to ask for help.
9. The best conversations happen at the weirdest places. Islamic philosophy at the egg shop, politics in taxi’s, the deeper ramifications of history at Balmaya…need I say more.
10. That I still have a lot to learn.
Patt Mills, Class Teacher 6th-8th grade
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WHAT ABOUT THREE-DIMENTIONAL ART FORMS? ...
The theme for this quarter’s visual arts coursework is directing us to undertake an in-depth approach into progressing and producing three-dimensional artworks. Can we hold on a moment and consider how this is done for the beginners Kg -2nd grades, second category 3-5, and finally the third group 6th-8th graders?
The beginners as we comparatively classify them are building on their prior knowledge on one-dimensional art attributes like points and lines, combined with the two-dimensional arts like geometrical and organic shapes. We combined these shapes to create three-dimensional art painting on two-dimensional surface. Stick- figure have started bearing flesh. ‘Tadpole’ human figures are gradually being transformed to appear realistic.
The 3rd.to 5th graders are creating cutout shapes and folded papers to create images in-the-round. Weaving paper strips, and modeling from plastic materials. Realistic figures and perspective drawing form parts of our learning goals for this final quarter.
Social studies and Visual art are collaboratively working on creating attractive banners and desirably design shields for the sixth grade students’ make-belief Kingdoms. How is that done? Well sketches of prominent landmarks of their chosen Kingdom are initially sketched and finished on a wooden board. Seventh and eighth graders are heading for perfection and detail studies in chosen themes.
Our annual visual art exhibitions and quilt show flayers will soon be sent out to parents. This year, we have two themes that geared toward the same focus. Kg-third grade have; ‘How can we make a better world?’ While fourth grade-eight grade have ‘The Effects of Climate Change. What do we do?’ It will be remarkable for you to come and see how children at AISF unfold these global issues with acrylic paint on stretched canvases. Some gara, batik and quilt products done during after-school will also be on display. Pre school after-school Art products will keep you gazing for true meaning.
Art is functional at A.I.S.F, please help to tap these talents for the sake of improving creativity and making learning meaningful and interesting.
Alpha Conteh, Art Teacher
THE ELEMENTS OF GEOMETRY...
If the algebra we studied in the third quarter can be likened to detective work, then let us try thinking of geometry as Art Appreciation. It is about seeing some fundamental laws of nature, through points, lines, segments, rays, plane, polygons and solids. If the other branches of math made you wonder whether you would ever need them in the real world, basic geometry shows up every where you look. From maps to paintings, from pools to stadiums, from construction sites to classrooms, this branch of math has a powerful relationship to the way we look at things. Geometry is for every one. Geometry is the oldest, purest and most carefully thought – out – branch of math. Who do we thank for all this fabulous Geometry? His name is EUCLID.
Because this man was ambitious he started with 23 definitions, 5 common notions, and 5 postulates. This is just where our geometry for the 4th quarter started. We started by defining points, lines, planes, angles, line relations, polygons, etc.
A lot of people tend to like either algebra or geometry. If you are not a fan of geometry, it can be really scary business, too many shapes and definitions, lines and line relations, too many triangles, quadrilaterals, and polygons, so many exotic names and esoteric facts and formulas to remember in so little a time. But in fact, once you have the names and definitions under your belt, all which follow logically, becomes easy. One has to know the lingo. There is no getting around it. Fortunately the meanings of many geometric terms are pretty obvious- polygons: pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon, and decagon. For geometry 4th – 8th grades, students work with plane geometry concepts. They learn about properties of lines and angles, and then they classify angles by according to their degree measures. Upper grades further investigate angles by constructing angle bisectors. Next they work with triangles, quadrilaterals and other polygons concluding the first part by focusing on circles. In the second part on geometry part of geometry, students build on their knowledge of geometric concepts to estimate and find areas of plane figures; find the circumference of circles as well as the surface areas and volumes of solid figures.
Edward Gembeh
4th – 8th grades Math Teacher
Preschool Is Awesome ...
Read! Read! Read! It’s Book Month again, and the Preschoolers have joined the rest of the school in this spectacular celebration. Story time, picturing-reading, retelling stories, and role-playing of favorite Fairy Tale characters are all part of our daily reading activity.
They are participating in some of the school-wide activities such as the DEAR, (when they drop every thing and read) and making their contribution to the READING TREE. Already quite a good number of their orange cut-outs have been posted on the giant orange tree displayed outside the library. The reading target is 500 books.
A Book Month activity has also been incorporated into our science lesson on Living Things. The children have compiled three mini books: Living Things Grow and Change. The Needs of Living Things, and Animals Have Skeletons Too. Definitely, livings do grow and change. Our silent listeners have now become vocal, and the less active students are now very active.
As Fledging Authors, the students in preschool 2 are assiduously working on their individual story books which will be launched at the Authors’ Tea in June.
Away from the Book Month activities, they are making rapid progress in Math. They have completed our unit on Graphing. They have constructed Concrete and Picture Graphs using everyday experiences to identify and use the terms more, fewer and same.
In Language Arts Prek 2 are working on phonics. They are reviewing beginning letters and sounds of objects and forming upper and lower case letters of some initial consonants t, f, b, c, d, p and h. Prek 1 are also recapping on letter recognition and sounds of letters Aa-Zz and writing their first names. A lot of learning has been achieved this year. Bravo to all!
Audrey Mason, Teacher, Preschool
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