The wait is over....

The children are very excited about the expo tomorrow. They have been building, designing and researching their houses and are now ready to share their learning experience with you.

EXPO - will start at 1:15pm

Please start with your child. They will share with you their house and process journal. Then you are welcome to visit any of the other children's exhibits in the class.

The expo will end at 1:45pm

From 1:45pm to 2pm - photos and songs

From 2pm - 2:20pm - Picnic Tea Party

Everyone is welcome to stay for the whole afternoon or for as long as you have time available.

Looking forward to seeing many of you tomorrow.

Mystery Reader

A very big THANK YOU to Brenden Arnold (Floyd's Dad) for coming to read to us today. Floyd was over the moon when his Dad arrived to read to us. 

Brenden read "The Outback" written by Annaliese Porter. What is really amazing about this story is that the author Annaliese was only 8 years old when she wrote it! The children throughly enjoyed the story which was based on the Australia outback and concentrated on Aboriginal art to illustrate it with. 

The children were very excited to know that someone as young as 8 can make a book. They all said that they would now like to write their own books too!

Our Week

On Wednesday we were very lucky to have two guest speakers Anne and Christoph Oldenburg (Benjamin's Mum and Dad from Ms Ishbel's class). They came to share with us lots of information about Phnom Penh and the changes that have happened over the years. We looked at the architecture of buildings in and around the city and how the materials that they were built with have changed. Also how fast the country is developing and how the buildings are growing taller and so many more are being built. It was very interesting and the children really enjoyed the fantastic photos they had to show.

3D Shapes

We have been having lots of fun in Maths trying our very best to draw 3D shapes. 

We also had a go at making 3D shapes out of tooth picks and blue tack.

Buddies

As always every Friday we see our buddies which is a highlight. This week our buddies showed us through their blog and all the things that they have learnt this year. There was a lot to see.

Picnic Tea Party

Please don't forget to sign up for what treat you will bring to our celebration. 

Picnic Tea Party - Sign Up

You can't add to the sign up by phone or Ipad it must be by computer. So if you are having any problems just email me and I can sign up for you.

The children are very excited and are putting their finishing touches on their houses and process journals. They look great! The children are all really looking forward to sharing their learning with you.

Have a great weekend everyone!

All books back to Library

Just a gentle reminder:
As you may have noticed there are many signs around the school reminding all parents about returning library books and home reading books. All books have stopped going home this week. Please ensure that you have returned all books to the school library or classroom teacher by this Friday.

From the Library:

Friday 22 May - all student library books are due back.

Unfortunately because of the move, there will be no borrowing for the summer.

Please note that any lost books will block the report card until found and returned or paid for.

Picnic Tea Party

As you all know we are very excited to invite all families to our "Shelters Expo" next week

The children are working very hard on their progress journal which you will see at the expo. The progress journal will show you the research journey they took to gather all the information needed to build their model house. The model house is based on the real house that they have been researching. The children will present their model home, explain how they made it, how they researched and gathered information and why the house is built the way it is.

We hope to see you all there!

Also we will have a shared picnic tea party - please follow the link to sign up for bringing treats to the party.

"Picnic Tea Party"

It will be a great afternoon and end of year celebration.

Buddies

We always look forward to Fridays when our buddies come to join us. Today we had our buddies help us do some research on our shelters with us. They helped us search on the internet and look through books and read some of the big words we didn't understand. We have been recording lots of information for our progress journals (which you will see at our shelters expo) We don't want to show you too much as it is a surprise so here are some pictures of all the children hard at work. 



Next week we are starting the construction of our shelters. There are some very excited little architects in our class :-)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Guest Speaker

We were very lucky today to have Ms. Tara Mar come into our class to talk to us about architecture in and around Phnom Penh. Tara works for a company called "Space for Architecture." We learnt a lot about some of the buildings that we see around Phnom Penh when we are out and about. We talked about the Central Market, the post office, some universities and many other places. We looked at the designs of building and why they are built in such a way. We knew that buildings had to be built with materials that work well with the climate and environment. Also that they are designed for different reasons and have cultural influences. The children were very interested and learnt a lot!

Important Event!!

Today you will receive a very special invitation from you child!! 

We are very excited about this up and coming event so please save the date. 

More information regarding the picnic tea party to come next week.

Gentle Reminder

There is no school tomorrow - Thursday 14th May

School will be open as usual on Friday 15th May

Our week!

We travelled around the world this week with our passports to look at different houses. We had a lot of fun flying from one destination to the other. We looked at the climate in the countries we visited and the different styles of housing they had. We chose a house to draw and looked at the differences and similarities between them.

Mystery Reader

A very big THANK YOU to Nhak Seng (Edwin's Dad) for coming in and reading to us a great book on Thursday. It was a very special day because it was also Edwin's birthday. What a great present!

Nhak read - "The runaway pancake"  retold by Mairi Mackinnon. The children loved the story and recognised that it was very similar to the book "The gingerbread man" They all said that they loved pancakes and they especially loved chocolate chip ones. It is a great tale about a pancake that runs away from all sorts of people and animals that want to eat him but unfortunately he is tricked and things                                       don't end so well fro the pancake!

We helped Edwin celebrate his sixth birthday. A very happy birthday to you Edwin. Thanks for the delicious cakes :-)

Buddies

As always we had a great time with our buddies this week. We have started to reflected a lot abut all the things we have learnt and done this year. I can't quite believe how fast it has gone! Our buddies also talked to us about how some of them have been at this ISPP Elementary campus for 4 or 5 years and that some are feeling a bit funny about the change to the new campus. Of course we are all very excited about our lovely new building but it is an end of an era. So they wanted to document some of our memories of this Elementary campus. The children went around the school and drew one or two pictures of things that really stood out to them that they will remember. They also had a great time making a Lego movie of the campus.

We had certificates this week . A big congratulations to Charvy and Edwin on receiving a very special award each.

Charvy showed that she was a real RISK TAKER. Charvy took on a leadership role on Tuesday when we were over at the Early Years campus. She shared her ideas of how to build the sand shelter and explained to the group what they were to do. Great job Charvy!

Edwin showed that he has been an INQUIRER. Edwin has enjoyed all of our tuning in activities for our new unit of inquiry on Shelters. He has been asking lots of questions and looking in books and on the internet to research and find out more information. Fantastic job Edwin!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Trip to Early Years Campus!

Yesterday we had a fantastic afternoon over at the Early Years Campus. We were very lucky to be able to use their equipment to build three different types of shelters. The children worked in groups of 6 and moved around 3 challenges. The children found the first one to build a bit difficult but by the time they got to the second and the third shelter they were experts.

What I really noticed was how the children kept talking to each other and saying "Let's work together" It was really great to hear such positive comments. I asked each group as they came around my activity what makes a good team? 
Here are a few quotes from your amazing children....

"Being in a team is really fun!"

"It takes a lot of work"

"You have to listen to others"

"You need to take turns"

"You need to share your ideas and build on them together"

I was a very proud teacher today :-)

Sand Shelters:

Block Shelters:

Box Shelters:

We did such a great job that we thought we deserved a bit of fun....

Nepal earthquake fundraiser on Wednesday

NEPAL EARTHQUAKE FUNDRAISER ON WEDNESDAY

After the devastating earthquake in Nepal, ISPP will hold a white, red or blue dress up fundraiser tomorrow. Both the Elementary and Secondary campuses will support this fundraising effort. We ask students to dress up and bring a donation. (Any colours are fine, too.) 

DONATION COLLECTION

Ms Alison and Mr Andy will be collecting donations at both Elementary gates from 7:10 - 7:30am. 

In addition to this collection point, homeroom teachers will also collect any donations and send to the appropriate people.

Donations will be going to Cambodia for Nepal - Solidarity Group. Updates can be found via their Facebook page. 

Thank you for your support on this.

Field Trip & Guest Speaker

We had a great time on Wednesday moring on our field trip. A very big THANK YOU again to the three fantastic families that hosted us:
- Rebecca Konrad and Faisal Ahmed (Renia's Parents)
- Xay and Craig Tippins (Champa's Parents)
- Ingo and Brigit Strube (Carla's Parents)
and Erin Lucas (Anna's Mum) who volunteered her time to be the parent helper on the trip!

The children were very professional with their clipboards and had to find out lots of information about each house. We looked at the materials the houses were made from (bricks, plaster, concrete, wood etc) and we looked for what shapes are used to build houses. Since we have been learning all about 3D shapes in Maths we were especially looking for these! Each child asked a question relating to the house to gain more information. It was so nice to be out of the classroom and the children said that they had "a great time!"

I have so many photos! 

Renia's House:



Champa's House:

Carla's House:


When we got back to school we made a list of all the things that were similar about the houses and the things that were different. We also talked about how houses can look different in Cambodia and around the world.

Guest Speaker

A very big THANK YOU to Faisal (Renia's Dad) for coming in and sharing with us what some houses in the country side of Bangladesh look like. The children really enjoyed learning about mud houses and asked lots of really interesting questions.

We looked at mud houses and how they are built. It was really interesting to learn that Mud houses will only last 5 or 6 years in Bangladesh because of the rain. They then need to rebuild a whole new house! We also learnt that mud houses are very good in hot climates. They take a long time to heat and a long time to cool down. So they are cool in the day and when at night it is cold outside the mud house is nice and warm from the day of sun. 

We also got to take a tour of a mud house:

The children also got to see my family's house in New Zealand. We talked about some of the things that were different about my house to the houses we saw on Wednesday. We noticed that there was carpet throughout my house in New Zealand but here we have tiles. The reason being, they decided was because it is far to hot here to have carpet on the floor in Cambodia.

Please send in any pictures or email me with the pictures of a house you may have lived in before in any part of the world. We are looking at all different kinds of houses and it would be great if you could share your home with us.

On Wednesday 6th May ISPP will hold a fundraiser to support the Nepal Earthquake Relief. Please come dressed to school in red, white or blue (if possible).  ISPP will be taking a collection - more details to follow next week. Thanks in advance for your support and for helping a very worthy cause.

Have a great weekend everyone!