BIC Sant Agustí News (09/16/22)

A message from Janice Short, Principal

Dear families,

Welcome to our first full newsletter of the new academic year 2022-23! You will see the children have settled in so well and day by day we are getting back fully into routines, watching the children make friends and starting the year with enthusiasm and excitement. The school is full of life again after a few weeks without the children and I am delighted to see the different activities happening in school as I walk around, from Early Years on scooters, to maths activities, making globes, Egyptian models and English grammar - I was thrilled to see that I am a proper noun in Year 3! With the various languages and developing friendships we see and hear both in school and on the playground, we really are an international family and community.

Since the last newsletter we have had the sad news regarding Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty was the epitome of dedicated service and loyalty to her role as ruler of Great Britain and the Commonwealth and she will be remembered for her dedication and upholding of values as well as her life -long service. On Monday, the day of her state funeral, we will be having a short commemoration in school to mark this historic occasion.

During the next few days the children will be having team building activities - this is an excellent way for them to get to know each other and their teachers in a different way, so I hope they have lots of fun and make the most of this and every other opportunity which will come this year!

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Short

Principal

Baleares International College, Sant Agustí

Nursery Starfish Class

And just like that…we look back at the first two weeks of a new school year. The insecurity and unknown feelings belonging to those first days have made place for excitement and the little people who came into their new classroom for the very first time not that long ago, have now adapted to this new classroom environment and truly enjoy it as their own domain. Over the past two weeks we have used our time to get to know each other, as well as the new areas we use throughout the day as a Starfish class. We enjoyed playing in our classroom, making use of the new soft play area as well as the roleplay corner and we explored the different outdoor areas, using the water play area, planting seeds in our planting areas and scooting on our new scooter square. In summary, we have had a lot of fun!

Moving forward, in the next weeks we will be focussing on getting used to the classroom routine, introducing structured activities such as circle time, phonics and numeracy activities and creative art sessions.

Well done Starfish children, we are really looking forward to the school year ahead!

Reception Seahorses Class

Welcome back everyone! It has been so nice to see some familiar faces and meet all of the new Seahorses friends that have joined class this year.

We have started this year off by getting to know each other as well as learning our way around the school.
And even though there have been a few initial tears, which is to be expected, these soon made way for positive energy and a confident attitude towards walking into school. The Reception Seahorse class children are definitely growing up. They are independent and love coming to school.

Now that the first introductory weeks are behind us we are going to focus on building our classroom routine up. Alongside the topic ¨All about me and my little world¨ we are going to get involved with some fun activities and we are really looking forward to it!

Well done Reception Seahorse class!

Year 1 Seals Class

WELCOME BACK to school and WELCOME to Year One, Seals Class. We have had an amazing past couple of weeks in class, the children seem happy to be back with their friends both old and new! The children from last year are being very kind and helpful to those that are new and not just Year One children but the whole school. WELL DONE EVERYONE!!!!

We have already made a big start with Phonics and English. Everyday we have been learning a new letter and sound, matching objects and playing fun Phonic games. Our classroom is now starting to look like a classroom with all the children's work being put up on the walls. Lovely to see!

We are reading a fun story book for English called Little Rabbit Foo Foo, it's about a naughty rabbit who gets changed into a Goonie. Yes, lots of funny discussions are happening about what a Goonie really is… I can already see from the children's learning that we are a class with a big sense of humour.

During Maths we have been looking at numbers to 10 and beyond, concentrating on the way numbers are formed and being careful not to get them all mixed up when writing them.

The children have been working in small groups, supporting each other with tasks. During carpet Maths, as a whole class, we have been completing number games. Maths is fun and seems to be the favourite session so far in Year 1!

We have an interactive whiteboard in the classroom which allows the children to use their fingers, rather than fussing with a mouse. Much easier to use and of course, super fun! During lessons the children all get the opportunity to have a go on the board. A great incentive to get work finished!

This has proven to be great fun with the class!

Science seems to be another favourite subject and this term the children are looking at Animal and Human Bodies. To start this topic we chose two children to draw around before labelling all the different parts of ourselves….AMAZING!!! The children are very aware of themselves and have shown this through the different activities. For this activity the boys worked together and the girls worked together. After drawing around someone, both groups coloured the person in before placing the labels correctly. We now have them hanging up in our classroom and each day we add new labels to new body parts.

In the next coming weeks, we will be looking at Óur Senses´. There will be lots of fun experiments included within this topic, so watch this photo space!

So as you can see we have been busy…. The children have had lots to learn, routines to remember and subjects to complete over the last few weeks and they have managed it all so well. Here are a few more photos of Seals Class just having some friendly, pair, group building time together…….

Oh! and some amazing Lego and creative masterpieces!

Year 2 Turtles Class

Welcome and what a great start to the year in Year 2. Our class has grown in size and everyone has made some new friends. We had lots of discussions about where everyone had visited over the summer break and it was lovely to hear that so many people had a chance to catch up with families they have not seen for so long. We have spent time getting to know each other and working on our class routines and rules, which the children made up themselves.

In Maths we have started working with numbers - on our number bonds and also numbers before and after up to 100. We use lots of games and activities to help support this learning in class as well as using workbooks!

We have been looking at Poetry during our Literacy lessons and read some very funny poetry about ¨Families¨. I think the class favourite was ´When Daddy fell into the pond¨, although a few of the children did point out it wasn't very nice to laugh at other people. We enjoyed discussing the poems and looking at rhyming patterns.

In Science, our topic is Feeding and Exercise so we have started looking at the foods we eat and the source of our foods - plant, animal or both. We also looked at healthy and unhealthy food choices that we make. Our favourite foods are not necessarily the healthiest but are fine as an occasional treat.

We have also been busy practising our handwriting as in year 2 we will learn to write in joined up lettering. We practise on whiteboards whenever we get a chance!

In Art we have started by learning some painting techniques and colour mixing. By using our brush and some everyday items such as corks, and cling film, we were able to create a number of different effects on the paper.

A busy couple of weeks but a great start to the year - well done Turtles, keep up the hard work and enthusiasm!

Year 3 Dolphins Class

The Year 3 children have made a fantastic start to a new school year and are beginning to settle back into the routines of school life. We spent our first week getting to know each other and bonding with new members of the class.

The children were given a creative writing task in which they had to discuss and write about if they could have any superpower which would they choose and how would they use that power to change their lives and help other people.

Here are some of our ideas that we shared as a whole class.

We worked with a partner and then read out our ideas to the rest of the class. We really had some wonderful ideas and worked collaboratively with each other. It was great fun!

This week, we have been revising the different types of nouns and walked around the school to find different objects, places and people and deciding whether they would be classed as a common noun or a proper noun. We also sorted a variety of words under the correct heading using our understanding of nouns.

Our topic this term is The Globe. We have started to learn the names of the different continents. We followed some challenging instructions on how to create our own model globes for our classroom. We studied images of different landscapes (one from each continent) and tried to match it with the name of the continent that it was in. We absolutely loved this activity.

Year 4 Jellyfish Class

Welcome back to both Year 4 Jellyfish classes. It has been a very productive and fun two weeks to our first term together. Jellyfish call the ocean their home and the same can be now said for the new Jellyfish children and their parents of course that have joined us here at BIC this September. Welcome! We hope you all enjoy a year of new friendships and special memories.

The week began with lots of “Getting to know each other” activities and by the end of the first week we had already dived- tentacles first - into some learning.

The children began by writing and painting about their summer holidays and by looking more closely at the correct format of recount writing. From nights spent in tipis to elephant rides in Thailand it became obvious that these children had had a wonderful and very varied summer. Each child picked one memorable image from their own holiday to paint using watercolors which are now on display in the 4MG and 4T rooms respectively.

English lessons begin with a unit called Myths and Legends and we chose the book “Seal Children” by Jackie Morris to get us started.. The children began to identify the features of this genre and we studied some extracts to identify some memorable phrases and vocabulary. We watched as Jackie Morris herself talked us through the landscape on which she based this book. We are looking forward to next week 's lessons where we will learn more about these Welsh sea- faring people or Selkies as they were know- not to be confused with Selfie!

From Wales to Ancient Egypt we began to orientate ourselves in time and we took a giant leap back on our timeline to this most fascinating historical period. The children began by examining some photographic evidence of artefacts from this era. We predicted what these items might have been used for, what they were made from and of course where they were found. The children also learned to try to place items in order of their age from oldest to most recent. Which came first: the bicycle or the pencil? All these fun activities go towards helping them understand the massive concept of time- Now versus the past.

We started using our Maths eyes and ears with a highlight on mental maths strategies and place value. The children were looking at making bonds to 10 and 100 in order to add and subtract in their heads. They revisited the frog method and we played a very head scratching game of BINGO on Monday morning which had us doubling numbers as quickly as we could. It will be great to access all the corresponding games on Active Learn soon to further reinforce our acquired learning.

Are we ever too old to make new friends was our BIG QUESTION in PSHE this week. The resounding answer was NO! The children learned that no matter how old we are we must always remain open to new people becoming friends. We decided to look at our own interests, personalities and hobbies to see what type of people we are. The result was some very well thought out and creative name art. We compiled a class gallery and the children walked around looking at each other's work.

In Science the children started on the fascinating topic of human nutrition. They will begin to deepen their knowledge and understanding of human digestion while simultaneously learning to take greater responsibility for making healthy food choices. All this knowledge will then be put to practical use as they will have the opportunity to set up simple enquiries and fair tests, asking questions and using different types of scientific enquiries to answer them.

Each class takes on its own flow and rhythm during the month of September. A month full of new routines, new posts of responsibilities, and new daily roles for the children. Year 4 voted for its school council representative. Congratulations to Honey, Luka, Reefy and Greta, as they take their seats on the school council.

We will continue to start every morning with our joke of the day! Now more than ever, as the world continues to surprise us with challenges and obstacles we must never forget the importance of a smile and the impact it can have on others. Did you know it takes 62 muscles to frown but only 26 to smile!

Have a lovely weekend and keep smiling!

Year 5 Whales Class

Welcome back to BIC and I hope you have all had a great summer. The children are settling back into school life and we extend a warm welcome to all our new children and families.

In our English lessons we have been exploring stories set in imaginary worlds. We watched a short film and understood the structure of imaginary world stories before looking at the weird and wonderful settings. We thought about what makes an effective imaginary world setting and then chose our favourite images, giving reasons for why they were effective.

Next the children designed their own worlds using amazing imagination! We have also been revising word classes and the children have been learning about nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs as well as using expanded noun phrases to describe their amazing worlds!

Maths lessons have centred around place value as the children have been reading, writing and working with 5-digit numbers. Using digit cards, we made and read aloud numbers and then we used the greater than and less than symbol to compare numbers and then ordered them in different ways.

Our Humanities topic ‘Chocolate’ is going down a treat (!) and we started by finding out where the earliest known use of chocolate came from. Using digital maps we located Ecuador and Mexico, where cacao beans were first used. We then focused on Central America to locate the different countries and also labelled a map showing the countries in South America.

Year 6 Sharks Class

Year 6 made a great start to the new school year last week and were keen to start planning their first school assembly.

We also began to look at the Ancient Greeks in history and art, drawing the most famous classical building ever to be constructed, the Parthenon.

In maths we have been looking at 6 figure numbers and trying to think about where we might use them in real life: from buying a house, an expensive car or a yacht. We then looked at the fact that if we were to buy these expensive items, we would need to add them up to pay the bill!

In English we are learning to write proper paragraphs. Having designed some superbly hideous monsters, the pupils have started to label their creations in detail to help them write a short description of their terrifying friends!

In science, we are studying the human body. We had a quick revision of what we already know and this week we have started to look at how the skeleton functions and the major bones of the body.

In P.E. Year 6 we have been practising football skills: learning to trap the ball, pass and move, and dribble.

Spanish and Catalan with Miss Maria

¡Hola a todos/as y bienvenidos a otro curso en BIC!

Este año hemos empezado muy contentos y motivados afrontando el nuevo año escolar con mucha ilusión. La clase de Year 1 & 2 va a trabajar los contenidos a través de un maravilloso proyecto llamado: “Cuentos del mundo entero”. Esta semana hemos leído la primera historia llamada “EL BAOBAB”, un cuento de África. Los niños y niñas han disfrutado del cuento y aprendido la moraleja. Además, han realizado diferentes actividades relacionadas.

Spanish and Catalan with Miss Ainhoa

¡Comenzamos el nuevo curso con muchas ganas y con nuevos compañeros! Por ello, los alumnos de Year 1 & 2 se han presentado y han estado conociéndose unos a otros.

Han conocido el nombre de todos, la edad, un animal que les gusta mucho y, además, han expresado una emoción.

Esperamos pasarlo muy bien y aprender cosas nuevas cada día en este nuevo curso.

Spanish and Catalan with Miss Marina

¡Hola a todos! Empezamos el curso con muchas ganas de aprender y hacer amigos nuevos. En clase de español de Year 1 & 2 hemos empezado el proyecto de “Los cuentos del mundo entero”. El primer cuento nos habla sobre un árbol llamado BAOBAB y transcurre en África. A los alumnos les ha encantado la historia y han creado un cómic con todas las cosas que han aprendido.

Sports with Miss Izabela

It has been wonderful to welcome back and meet the new students in our PE lessons!

Our primary students were practising one of the fundamental skills needed for invasion games - moving with the hockey stick and dribbling a ball. Children were encouraged to support each other to improve their skills as they learn to dribble a ball and also have lots of fun by following basic rules of the game.

Great work everyone!

JUNIOR CHALLENGE MALLORCA RUN RACE

The Junior Challenge Mallorca run race is for children from 0 to 13 years old. The event is part of the Challenge Peguera Mallorca triathlon side events program.

Start: 14th of october 2022 (friday)

Hour: 17.30 h

Place: Torà Square, Finish line

Registration fee: 1 € (fAll money raised from registration fees for this race will be donated to a local organisation that carries out community development projects.)

Categories (Boys and girls)

The Junior Challenge Mallorca running courses lead around the boulevard of Peguera with start and finish near the CHMALLORCA finish line, on the Plaza de Torà. The circuit will be completely closed to traffic.

REGISTRATION (click here)

14TH OF OCTOBER (FRIDAY)

14TH OF OCTOBER (FRIDAY)