Update - various info

1. Haiti earthquake

A massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake has struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The death toll is expected to rise to 500 000 people and over 3 million people are believed to have been affected in total.

In light of our Unit of Inquiry - Peace begins with me - I wonder what peace would mean to the Haitian people at this difficult time and who could/would play the role of 'peacemaker' amongst all this devastation? Aid workers? The UN? America? Perhaps this would be a good point of discussion with your children. Visit the links below to look at a site which explain eathquakes for children.

Earthquakes for kids

If you would like to make a difference to the people of Hiati at this time, please visit whitehouse.gov to donate or find out more information.

The picture below is of a school in Haiti which collapsed as a result of the quake today.

2. Year 4, 5 and 6 Disco

On a lighter note there will be a School Disco held this Friday (15 January 2010) in the Old Gym from 6pm - 8pm for children in Years 4 to 6. The entrance cost is 2 euros per child/person and there will be snacks on sale too. The funds raised will be put towards a trip for secondary school children who will be going to do some charity work overseas. Childen can bring friends or family to the disco if they are in Years 4 to 6 or equivalent and of cours parents are welcome too! Please ensure that if your children attend that they are fetched by 8pm sharp.

3. Headlice in Year 4

Unfortunately, we have had various infestations of headlice in Year 4 this term. We would like to request that you check your child's hair carefully and regularly for lice. (See link below) If your child does have headlice please do not send them back to school until this has been properly treated. All children whose hair is shoulder length or longer will now be required to tie up their hair to avoid catching or passing on lice. I am sure you understand why we have to enforce this rule! See link below for how to check a child's hair for lice. Please see Rosarinho, the school nurse, if you have any questions.

How to check a child's hair for lice

4. Commenting on and subscribing to blogs

It's much easier than you think to subscribe to our blogs and to comment on posts. All you need is an email address to create a google account. You do not need to get a new 'Google' email address - just use the one you already have. It's quick and easy - try it! That way you can ask any questions about posts or make comments. It would be great to get feedback.

5. Thank you Miss Bodfish

We would like to thank our lovely Miss Bodfish for the fantastic presentation she gave to parents on the Maths happening at St. Dominics this morning. Mr Thompson has already posted the powerpoint that was used in this morning's presentation on his blog for those of you who weren't able to attend.

Junior School Blog - Mr Thompson's blog.

That's all for now!

Miss Lamb

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
                                                   Martin Luther King, Jr.

Language Homework

This week's Language Art's Homework is simply a continuation from class. We are learning how to create descriptive reports (for our Peacemaker Projects). We are starting by drawing a picture of ourselves and then writing adjectives that describe our personality traits. Since we have a picture in the middle we don't need to use adjectives to describe physical appearances. Students need to colour in the pictures with coloured pencils. This is due Friday.

Math Homework will be sent home on TUESDAY rather than the usual MONDAY.

Researching Peacemakers!

Researching a Peacemaker
Due: Thursday January 14th

Task:
In our current unit “Peace Begins with Me” Year 4 is doing an exciting project where they must research a famous peacemaker from history. Students have chosen at random a peacemaker in class. Students (with parental help) are required to bring in 1-2 pages of age-appropriate information on their peacemaker. The information may be from print sources as well as from the internet. During Thursday’s classes the students will be given time to read their material and write notes. They will begin writing their papers Friday.

Tips for searching the internet for age-appropriate material:
1- Avoid using Wikipedia as a main source
2- Sites ending in “.edu” or “.pt” are more reliable than “.com”
3- Read the material carefully and “cut and paste” appropriate information (always copying URL and title) into a word document to avoid printing unnecessary information

The report must contain the following information:
1- A basic personal history of the peacemaker.
2- The conflict that was occurring during the time the peacemaker was active.
3- The strategies that the peacemaker used to promote peace.

You may find these search engines useful (you may use other reliable sites that you are familiar with):

gardenofpraise.com/leaders.htm

BBC - Schools Ages 4-11 - History Sites
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/history.shtml

resources.kaboose.com/kidslinks/.../people/People_links.html

http://www.biography.com/bio4kids/index.jsp

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/explore/biography.htm

kids.yahoo.com/

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1983/index.html

Homework due Tuesday 12/01/10

A reminder that the 'peace symbol' homework is due in tomorrow or Friday.

This term we will be teaching the children how to 'join' their handwriting in the cursive style font so if they found this a little tricky - please do not worry. We will be focusing on joining during this term and we look forward to awarding 'pen licences' to those children who we feel have mastered the technique.

I will take this opportunity to mention the Unit of Inquiry homework due Tuesday 12th January.


Children should choose 5 words which they do not understand from the vocabulary list for our unit which can be found on the left hand side of the blog. They should write the word neatly and underline it. Then they should write the meaning of the word from a dictionary, below the word. Below this they should write a sentence which includes this word to show that they fully understand the meaning of the word. Remember capital letters and full stops for sentences.

Please feel free, children and parents, to ask any questions you my have or comment on any of our posts!

I look forward to seeing you all at school tomorrow.

Miss Lamb

Peace begins with me!

Happy new year to everyone! I hope you have all had a very restful and joyful holiday. I look forward to keeping you up-to-date concerning the Units of Inquiry that Year 4 will be covering for the rest of this academic year.

I will provide you with a weekly update, which will include a brief summary of what we have done in class plus the homework for the week. The UoI (Unit of Inquiry) homework is set on a Wednesday and we expect it in the following Tuesday.

During the last few days of last term, before Christmas, we started our new Unit of Inquiry which is called ‘Peace begins with me’. Here is some more info about it:

Unit title: Peace begins with me

Central Idea: There are many ways to resolve conflict peacefully

An Inquiry into:

1. What peace means to me

2. Peacemakers throughout history

3. Conflict resolution strategies

The children have already written some beautiful ‘Peace is...’ poems inspired by a book entitled 'The Peace Book', written by Todd Parr.

Over the holidays the children were asked to design their own ‘Peace symbol’ and write a paragraph as to why this symbol represents peace to them.

After the holiday we will be discussing and sharing our peace symbols and then we will move on to inquire into famous peacemakers throughout history. Some particular figures we will be learning about will include Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela, amongst others.

You can support your child through their inquiry by:

• regularly visiting our blog and reading the posts together with your children

• asking probing questions about the meanings of certain words or phrases

• sharing with your child what peace means to you

• helping your children to research famous peacemakers for interest at home

We are all very excited about this new unit as we have lots of fun and exciting activities planned for the next 5 weeks!

I look forward to seeing you at school on Thursday.

Until next week,

Miss Lamb

Something to think about:

"If we are going to bring about peace in the world,
we have to begin with the children."
Mahatma Gandhi