NOVEMBER 24TH 2017 ISSUE 5 SUIS NEWSLETTER

Shanghai United International School Hongqiao - Guibei Primary Campus

From the Principals

Firstly, we would like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. We hope your children enjoyed the delicious treats provided by our school. We would like to say a very heart warming thank you to our admin team and caring Ayi's who worked hard to prepare gifts for the children and our staff.

This week saw the exciting and creative display of work put on by our Grade 4 students at their Invention Convention. The children worked collaboratively with their peers to design and make their own inventions. These were showcased and shared amongst the school community and showed the students skills. Many classes took time to visit too and this gave the Dates to Note students opportunities to share their learning and for others to assess their peers.We were both very impressed with the inventions and praised students hard work and dedication. We hope you enjoyed coming in and experiencing the event. Nov 30

Our Grade 1 students put on a fantastic Rice Exhibition to G5 Musical Performance demonstrate their understanding about the rice culture in China using a variety of expressions including diagrams, art Dec 8 crafts, poetry and songs, videos and even a puppet show. All Phonics Presentation to students were confident in articulating their ideas in mother Parents(PR-G1) tongue Chinese or whatever level of Chinese they are at. We were thoroughly impressed - well done Grade 1's! Dec 9

Next week we will be having our five year IB Evaluation visit. Winter Fair It is our moment to celebrate our developments and achievements since the time of the last visit. We are proud Dec 13 and excited and can't wait to share our practices with the team. G1 Musical Performance

We would like to say a very sincere apology for the lateness of the unit 1 report. We appreciate your understanding and SCHOOL ENDS DECEMBER patience during this time. Hopefully the unit 2 report will not 15TH 12PM encounter the same problems.

Many Thanks！

Ms Jenny & Ms Kim Vice Principals

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Inventions are all around us, but do we ever wonder how they were made? Who thought of them? Exploring How the World Works, groups of grade 4 students designed and built inventions they felt would have an impact on society. Work on this unit required a great deal of cooperation and our enthusiastic students rose to the challenge, creating fantastic inventions and presenting them in our annual Invention Convention.

Philosophy for Children (P4C): From PYP to DP

Have you heard your child talking about P4C and wanted to know more? SUIS introduced P4C school-wide in early 2017 with more than half of our teachers being trained in this model of learning where children speak philosophically about concepts in the world around them.

It supports the development and depth of questioning, reasoning as well as critical and creative thinking skills. The practice of these types of lessons complements our IB Primary Years Programme and we feel it is important in the development of skills necessary for this future generation. Teachers have noted that students are able to think and question in a more complex way and have developed stronger collaboration skills.

We are excited that our Gubei campus is also involved in delivering P4C lessons so that students can continue once they graduate to Gubei. For more information please read this article which appeared in the Shanghai Daily in September:

http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KJLK7uCmo9Ft4ImHFftvsw

P4C Coordinator P4C Coordinator Karen Mathieson Sally Li

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unit of inquiry In the second unit of inquiry, we looked into food systems. We visited Zotter Chocolate Factory to help us look into how food is made and shared in a system. Students got to find out how chocolates are grown from cocoa beans in a pod/fruit. They were all surprised that the cocoa beans were white in the beginning and it is through fermentation that turned the beans brown. After fermentation, there are still different processes to go through; ingredients to add that will turn it into the chocolates we eat. Of course, the most exciting part of the trip for the students is that they are able to custom make their own chocolate which they brought home to share with their families.

G2 enjoyed a wonderful piano performance by Will Pickvance as a start to their inquiry into sound and how it allows us to express creativity. He took us on an adventure of how he started to play the piano and where the piano actually comes from. They also learned about the anatomy of the piano by hearing the strings being plucked and hit with the hammers. The different kinds of pianos and similar instruments all have a different pitch and can be played with varying volume and tempo. The students saw that sound waves create vibration that travels through space and let us hear many beautiful melodies. It was an inspiring start to our learning of sound.

G3 had an exciting second unit about Earth features. We learned a lot about what is inside the Earth and inquired into volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and more. Many of our students have become very knowledgeable. We did exciting science experiments and hands on activities about the structure of the earth, erosion, weathering and tectonic plates. We even did plate tectonics yoga! Students also had the opportunity to dig deeper into the unit at the science and technology museum. We have focused hard on developing our research and presenting skills this unit and have presented using posters, non-chronological reports, I movies, stop-gap animations and powerpoint. We have shown good growth in our knowledge and skills this unit.

G5 started off with a memorable trip to Chinese language Moganshan where students confidently Inquiry Unit worked their way through many “RICE”— detailed challenging activities that instilled in report is coming on them the attitudes of collaboration next issue… and cooperation. In week 3, the students spent a taster morning at our Gubei campus where they experienced the excitement awaiting them in middle school. They showed curiosity when they visited the various learning rooms, used their research skills in the science lab to solve a crime and became thinkers when they made and sold their Christmas cards.

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Developing Language ECA Spotlight - Today’s ECA spotlight is on our French Skills and Mother Tongue Club, run by our Grade Three teacher Mairead Penston. She within our Curriculum has been working on developing and extending French language skills within her French club. Our school is always working towards deepening language connections not only for second language acquisition Mother Tongue Mondays but also for students whose mother tongue is not Mandarin or English. Our We will be offering our second round of Mother Tongue Mondays ECA’s offer students opportunities to in January. During our last school year we had a team of parent connect with both of these language volunteers offering mother tongue lessons to our students during aspects. Some of our language ECA’s lunch hour. Languages offered last school year were Japanese, currently running are Shanghai Korean, Italian and French. We hope to continue to offer these dialect, Korean, Japanese, Chinese languages and add in more, particularly Chinese dialect. If you calligraphy, French and sign language. are interested in volunteering to be a part of our Mother Tongue Mondays this school year please contact Karen Mathieson [email protected] and Apple Zhang [email protected]. Look for more details to be released in December’s newsletter!

SPORTS NEWS…

GIRLS' FOOTBALL A TEAM TAKES FIRST PLACE AGAIN! ⚽ On Saturday, November 4 at the Hongqiao campus, our SUIS Girls' U-11 football team once again took first place. They came up against their own B Team in the semi-finals, and beat them 1-0. Later the championship was fought against Soong Ching Ling's A Team and the two top teams from both schools battled to a tie. A shootout determined Hongqiao the winner.

It was our B team's first tournament, and for having almost all new players, they did well and came in 4th out of 7 teams. Coaches Ciaran and Sondra would like to commend the girls on good sportsmanship, and thank Coach Virdee for his help running the tournament, and Team Mom Rainbow for her support with the girls.

TEACHERS RUN IN GREAT WALL MARATHON

On Sunday, October 22, 2017 four teachers from SUIS Hongqiao participated in the Great Wall of China Marathon in Beijing. Held on the Badaling section of the wall, it presented a strenuous climbing and running challenge due to steepness of slope in many parts. Runners from our school were Ciaran McCallan, Maria and Will Anderson, and Suhyun Chun. Ciaran got first in half marathon, Maria first in women’s, and Suhyun Chun first in 10k race. Congratulations marathon runners!

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G2 MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

nd was the first concert of this school year and was a November 2 fantastic performance by the Grade 2 classes. Our Grade 2 students were confident and courageous as they took the stage to the delight of a large audience of enthusiastic parents.

started with 2D and 2H. They began with a very quiet Te concer version of “You Are My Sunshine and gradually built up the sound until all 50 voices filled the theatre with their singing. Their second song was one that the children composed themselves in class. It was called “The Song of Life” and included lyrics written by the students and a variety of tuned and untuned percussion parts that were also devised by the students.

It was then time for 2E and 2G to perform. They began with a song of unity called “We Are One” starting with small group singing and then the whole group joining in. After that stirring performance the group performed a body percussion piece with well synchronized movement patterns and lovely singing voices. The song, called “The Tribe Song”, was about everyone working together as a team.

2A and 2C then took the stage and created the sound of a rainstorm using just their bodies and their voices. They then sang beautifully in a song about rain called “April Showers” and finished with a loud and energetic version of “Rain, Rain Go Away” complete with freestyle dancing and a strong drumming section.

The concert continued with more dancing as 2B and 2F started their performance. They sang and danced to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and “I’ve Got No Strings”. Their terrific singing and great movement was a favourite with the crowd.

All the Grade 2 classes then took the stage for the final two numbers. Students started “The Syncopated Clock” with the sound of a ticking clock and then sang the song enthusiastically. After a warm thank you to parents and students from Miss Sahi and Miss Jenny the group of 150 singers finished with a roof raising version of “Mr. Sun”. The event was enjoyed by everyone, performers and audience alike, and was a terrific start to the SUIS Music Department’s year of concerts.

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