KISU Newsletter

Number 501 ........................ 20th November

Director's Message

KISU has a long and strong tradition in CAS. Our students are always creative and, prior to COVID, had always been very active but for me the strongest element has always been service. Our students have made a big difference to many different communities both in school and outside. As we move towards the festive season we have traditionally organised a collection of either money or food for our ancillary staff - without whom our school could not function! A small group of DP2 students will be organizing the collection from students who are back in school so that each member of the ancillary staff will receive a small hamper to make their holidays a little better. For students who are not in school we are not expecting any contributions BUT if you would like to contribute then that would be really appreciated. Any donations can be dropped off at reception and the sorts of things we are looking for are rice, sugar, soap etc. We want to continue to make KISU a community that cares.

After cancelling some of our social activities last week we will be reintroducing some next week but avoiding places with larger crowds and concentrating on more home based activities. Sports clubs will also resume. All are welcome to attend but please make your decision purely on keeping your children safe.

Big feelings

Did you ever hear phrases like this as a child?

“Go to your room until you can come back with a smile.”

“Stop crying. It’s not a big deal.”

Many of us heard something like this growing up.

And it didn't feel so great...

Not that long ago, it was very common to push feelings aside like they didn’t matter.

The reasoning was that children are being “overdramatic” or “too sensitive”.

Well, today, we know better.

Now, we have different ways to help children process big feelings and grow into resilient adults.

Instead of telling your child to bottle their feelings or trying to distract them with treats or screen time......we can turn to research that tells us that allowing children to feel sad is the best way to help them cope.

While it’s human to try and distract ourselves from negative feelings (at any age), suppressing them can cause them to fester.

Our children need us to hold space for their emotions—to let them be sad when they’re sad.

By allowing them to experience sadness, you’re giving them a lifelong gift of not being afraid of big feelings.

zoom_out_map

PUZZLING!

Last year in the newsletter we talked about the importance of BOARD GAMES and how they can aid children’s development in a variety of ways.

Today we are looking at puzzles.

Dr. Verdine of the University of Delaware has found that playing with blocks, puzzles, and shape games helps develop spatial skills. These play a fundamental role in the development of spatial awareness and later come into play when topics of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are addressed.

How else can puzzles be of benefit to children?

§ Cognitive benefits: Puzzles help develop perception, organization and concentration.

§ Physical benefits: Although it does not seem like physical exercise, making a puzzle requires motor coordination and controlled use of the hand, which leads to the development of the "fine gripper".

§ Emotional benefits: Puzzles also teach patience, self-confidence, and self-control. Making a puzzle takes time and effort. When finishing a puzzle we feel admiration and recognition for achieving it, especially in children. Puzzles are fun to do!

§ Puzzles are also used in occupational therapy, after traumatic injuries to the fingers and hands and also after suffering brain injuries in which we must re-educate the brain and improve coordination with the arms.

With the festive season approaching maybe you have an idea of what you can buy your child?

zoom_out_map

Primary Award Winners

In ICT - Raphael Sumbu for creating a lovely model to represent a room in a building.

In Art - Gabriella Elamrousy for a lovely sketch of still life shoes.

Sports People of the Week are Helma Memarian and Raphael Museke for always participating with enthusiasm during online PE sessions.

French Speaker of the week is Kahaan Raval for his confidence to always have a go!

Musician of the week is Johannes Esche for always being so creative in performance. He listens well to pitch songs correctly and performs with confidence to the rest of the class (sometimes in a costume which makes his performances amazing!)

Certificates this week are for Knowledge and the children who have exceeded in demonstrating this quality are:

Y6 – Kirabo Museke

Y5 – Myra Ashaba and Anjola Windapo

Y4 – Michael Coetzee and Miia Merrifield

Y3 – Abba Ogwang

Y2 – Riya Kotecha and Anaya Goel

Y1 – Blaise Coetzee and Rebecca Peters

Reception – Aciwin Charles

KG3 – Hannah Nono

KG2 - Arie Sakaria Ruparelia.

Next week’s certificate theme is all about taking risks! Who will have the confidence to step out of their comfort zones and have a go?

Maths Week

Next week, November 22-26, KISU will be holding its annual Math's Week. The aim of this annual celebration of Maths is to deepen our appreciation of Maths and its role in our every day lives. This year, the Primary and Secondary school will share the theme of ‘Saving the World through Maths’. The theme attempts to link the use of Maths to solve some of the environmental issues facing our planet.

zoom_out_map

Year 6 take the lead

As the ‘leaders’ of the Primary school, the Year 6 students took it upon themselves to play a large role in next week’s activities. Students came up with some fun challenges to share with the rest of the Primary School for each morning next week. In addition, Year 6 students made some tutorial videos to share with their younger Primary school peers.

The Year 6 students also have a fun riddle for you… the parents… to get you into the spirit of Maths Week.

‘How can you make 8 + 8 = 91 correct without changing any numbers or sign? ‘

Stay tuned for next week’s newsletter to find out!

zoom_out_map

Primary Maths Riddle

Using only addition, how can you add eight 8’s to get the number 1,000.

Reading, Reading and More Reading

The more that you read,

The more things that you’ll know,

The more that you learn,

The more places you’ll go… (Dr Seuss)

This week in Primary, teachers have been extremely busy, not only teaching but also writing children’s end of term 1 reports. These reports are a reflection of your child’s learning over the past 13 weeks, with all but Year 6’s education being completely online.

Report writing naturally provides our reflective teachers with the opportunity to think deeply about each subject area and in doing so, one curriculum subject and aspect of teaching and learning that teachers have felt quite emotional about and have really missed, is reading. Reading Comprehension has and is being taught as it should be and as frequently as it should be, however, the experience of physically sitting together and sharing a book with a child or with a group of children is what we desperately want to return to as soon as is physically possible!

To be able to explore and interact with a text alongside friends is a special shared experience. Of course, there are many benefits to reading, however, the benefits of actually reading together are powerful, like going on a journey together, experiencing things together and learning together.

Keep reading at home, but more importantly, keep sharing books together…

Here are 10 benefits of Reading.

1. Children who read often and widely get better at it.

After all, practice makes perfect in almost everything humans do, and reading is no different.

2. Reading exercises our brain.

Reading is a much more complex task for the human brain than watching TV, for example. Reading strengthens the brain's connections and builds new connections.

3. Reading improves concentration.

Children have to sit still and quietly so that they can focus on the story when they are reading. If they read often, they will develop the skill to do this for longer.

4. Reading teaches children about the world around them.

Through reading a variety of books children learn about people, places and events outside of their own experience.

5. Reading improves vocabulary and language skills.

Children learn new words as they read. Subconsciously, they absorb information on how to structure sentences and how to use words and other language features effectively in their writing and speaking.

6. Reading develops a child's imagination.

As we read our brains translate the descriptions we read of people, places and things into pictures. While we are engaged in a story we are also imagining how a character is feeling. Young children then bring this knowledge into their everyday play.

7. Reading helps children to develop empathy.

As children develop they begin to imagine how they would feel in that situation.

8. Reading is fun.

A book or an e-reader doesn't take up much space and is light to carry, so you take it anywhere so you can never be bored if you have a book in your bag.

9. Reading is a great way to spend time together.

Reading together on the sofa, bedtimes stories and visiting the library are just some ways of spending time together.

10. Children who read achieve better in school.

Reading promotes achievement in all subjects, not just English. Children who are good readers tend to achieve better across the curriculum.

Reading can take you to other worlds and meet people that don’t even exist!

Where is the most unusual place that you have been caught reading?

Send a photo to your class teacher of yourself, or you and a family member, reading in the most unusual place.

Let's see who KISU's most extreme readers are!

Reception News

The Reception Class is having Literacy fun playing around with the story of ‘The Little Red Hen’. Look at our journey from the past weeks and see how we started to reach where we are now.

We first enjoyed reading the story and deepened our knowledge by learning about important elements of the story.

We drew characters from the story and added speech bubbles to them.

zoom_out_map

Then we drew a farm setting to show the time and place where the story took place.

zoom_out_map

We also designed and constructed a cozy barn for our lovely little farm animals and made 2D and 3D models of the barn.

zoom_out_map

Drawing a story map helped us to recall the events and retell the story.

zoom_out_map

We then altered the main events of the story and planned a new story outline that goes like this- ‘One day, the little red hen wanted to plan a birthday party’.

We helped the little red hen in making a list of jobs that needed to be done before the party.

zoom_out_map

And drew them on flashcards to put them in order of priority.

And that’s how we got a new story of ‘The Little Red Hen’. Look at our innovated story map.

Hurray! Our new story outline goes like this:

Once upon a time, there was a little red hen who wanted to plan her birthday party. She wanted to write the invitations, do the shopping, bake the cake, put on the lights, blow up the balloons and lay the table. But every time she asked her friends for help, this is the response she got- “Not I”, said the dog. “Not I”, said the pig, “Not I”, said the cow. “Oh very well, then I will do it myself”, said the little red hen. And so she did all the work by herself.

We can’t wait to add captions to these pictures and make a story book of our own. We will proudly call ourselves, young Illustrators and Authors.