Your guide to all news at school
A message from Janice Short, Principal
Dear parents
The last couple of weeks have been all about teamwork!
All the children have participated in their Sports Days from Early Years up to Year 6. Judging by the amount of noise, cheers and laughter coming from the playgrounds I think it is safe to say that everyone had a super time. As well as participating for themselves, the focus is also on teamwork, as the children score points for their house teams. The Sports cup is fiercely contested with the children participating in different activities which challenge them appropriately while gaining as many house points as they can for their team. After various activities, the overall winners were announced in assembly - Leopards! Well done everyone.
During the term the house teams receive a small ball for every 100 house points they get each week. The total amount is rounded up or down and the children have to tell me how many balls each house gets! The balls are then put into a vertical tube and collected until they reach the top and then the children get a treat. In the past two weeks, all the houses managed to reach the top - not quite the plan, but never mind! As they had all reached the top at the same time, we decided that we would hold a Choice Friday - each child chose an activity they wished to do from a given list for Friday afternoon. They really enjoyed the afternoon but what made it even more special was that all the children were completely mixing together and with other staff for the first time in over two years. It was a really special afternoon with everyone in different groups, being together and enjoying themselves.
Have a lovely weekend, please check the noticeboard for future events - the end of the year is always busy!
Warm regards
Mrs Short
Principal
Baleares International College, Sant Agustí
Nursery Starfish Class
Last week Starfish class enjoyed a wonderful day along with Seahorses in the Early Years Sports Day. We had an absolute ball and showed off how good we are at balancing, catching, throwing and even kicking a ball. We are amazing at team work and all the teams did a great job.
We have also been learning all about the things that grow and live in Mallorca and used this opportunity to play a great game of bobbing oranges and lemons, trying to scoop them out of the water while blindfolded. Don´t worry, the oranges did not go to waste at the end of the activity, with most children asking for a piece of orange to finish the day.
We are now becoming real experts at using the BeeBots! This week we set ourselves the challenge of working out how far each move would take and measuring it with straws!
Reception Seahorses Class
What a lovely two weeks we’ve had in Seahorse class! We have been learning about Nature and exploring around. We are learning the life cycles of different species including plants and animals. Last week we looked at the parts of a flower and a plant; we used real ones to separate each part and explore them more in depth. We've been growing beans, which have just started to sprout and grow and will be ready to be planted into bigger pots and made our Spring display with lovely cherry trees. We also wanted to grow new things in our terrace planters so we’ve used different seeds- hopefully in a few days we can see some nice results. This week we are learning the life cycle of ‘animals that come from eggs’; so far we’ve looked at frogs and just started to learn about caterpillars and butterflies. What an exciting time we are having; the children are really interested in live things and in how to look after them.
Last week we also celebrated our own EY Sports Day, along with our lovely friends from Starfish class. The children were really enthusiastic about it, they participated in all the games we set up and we all had a great time! They also got lots of stickers for trying their best and doing teamwork. That’s the real spirit!
Last but not least, we would like to give a very warm welcome to our new friend, who has just joined our Seahorse family this week; we are really happy to have you and your family here with us.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend, our best wishes.
Year 1 Seals Class
Another fabulous couple of weeks have flown by and Seals class has done so much! We are still looking after and caring for our silkworms, which are now 3 weeks old. Everyday they are munching through the Mulberry leaves like little monsters and GROWING big and fat. The children enjoy changing the environment, adding fresh food and (if brave enough!!!) having a gentle hold of them. Fingers crossed they´ll all cocoon and turn into moths one day.
Gently holding the silkworms
English
Word games - We have been playing these games to help support our reading and recognition of letters etc.. Everyone enjoys the challenges and of course, can win some all important house points! During English sessions we have been learning about singular and plural words, so playing a variety of games like these help the children to gain further awareness of words and sentences.
Humanities, Maths and ICT - Last week we linked all of these subjects together and used the BeeBots. These are mini programmable toys that the children learnt to code and give directions too, so that the mini BeeBot would find different parts of a large street map.
We had great fun!
I can honestly say, everybody, grasped the concept well, followed coding instructions well, and were able to send the BeeBots on mini journeys of their own. Well done!
I think there's a future in computer coding for Seals class. Well done!
Science - As part of the new summer term topic of Seasons and Weather, Seals have been looking at weather in Mallorca as well as around the world. We are all beginning to get an understanding of the different weather conditions around the world depending on where the countries are. Yesterday we began to understand the different symbols used to show weather and how it's read aloud on TV or radio. To support this at home, you could get your child to watch or listen to the daily weather forecast. The children will be working each week in pairs or small groups to finally give a weather broadcast of their own. And of course science in year one can never go on without the odd crazy experiment….Watch this weather space!
These photos show some children practising their broadcasting of the weather on a local map.
END OF THE SCHOOL DAY - We are learning right up till the end of the school day in class and what a better way to finish the day than with either a game of BINGO, where prizes and house points can be always be won but also with a calming moment of enjoying the story ´George's Marvellous Medicine´´ by Roald Dahl. The children are deeply engrossed in the story and what is going to happen to Grandma, after each read the whole class are left on a cliffhanger, wondering what's going to happen next!
Year 2 Turtles Class
Another busy couple of weeks in Year 2, our learning never stops! We enjoyed sharing our assembly with our parents and the rest of the school and hope everyone learnt something new about Spain. Well done to Darcie for achieving the Principal’s award last week for all of her hard work.
We have been busy in our Science lessons this term and have enjoyed being scientists - we worked with partners to select a range of materials - from feathers to pom poms to plastic bubble wrap and cotton. We had to predict how absorbent they we thought they would be and then using pipettes we tested them out to see if our predictions were correct. We then discussed what made some materials more absorbent than others and what would be the best use of these materials around the home. An umbrella out of feathers wouldn´t keep you very dry but if it was made of bubble wrap it would!
We have been working on writing instructions in our literacy lessons from handwashing to drawing animals. Ms Eccleshall demonstrated how to make a cheese and tomato sandwich with the pupils directing her and giving the instructions. It was a funny lesson as pupils forgot how specific instructions had to be and the steps had to be broken down in order……..we nearly ended up with a whole block of cheese in our sandwich as we forgot to slice it!
We all enjoyed sports day this year and had a great time outside taking part in the challenges and then our air hockey tournament in the dining hall. Everyone gave their best efforts for their house teams!
We are enjoying our swimming lessons and will enjoy putting our learning into practice in the pools and the sea over the summer!
We wish everyone a great weekend - enjoy the sunshine!
Year 3 Dolphins Class
One of our highlights from the past fortnight has been The BIC SPORTS DAY. We would like to saya great big Dolphin Class thank you to Miss Isabella and Ms Charlotte for the effort they put into organising and running a really super day. Myself and my other members of staff were so pleased to hear yells of encouragement and many examples of good sportsmanship amongst the Year Three children.
Here's what the children have to say about the day:
I enjoyed the throwing . I used the tiger throw
RafI like jumping far, so the jumping event was my favourite
LukaI felt amazing when I was doing the volle ball event at sports day
I felt very proud of myself when I came first in the throwing event
I really enjoyed all the games because the important thing is to have fun and enjoy yourself
We have been continuing our Roman topic through our English lessons, retelling the myth of Romulus and Remus and now learning about life in a Roman town through the book; Escape from Pompeii.
The children have been applying their knowledge of finding double and half to solve problems. We have been looking closely at word problems to find the important information needed to solve the problem.
We are also learning a new method from multiplication, THE GRID METHOD. To use this method well the children need to be confident with rapid recall of their multiplication facts including X10. Watch this space to see how we get on.
Year 4 Jellyfish Class
Year 4 have been busy on their Rainforest Adventure Journey! The following books have given us inspiration and lots of food for thought. This week in English using the book “Where the Forest Meets the Sea” by Jeannie Baker , we are working on persuasive writing.
Although the term “persuasive” was a new one, once the children knew it meant “convince”, they admitted they were EXPERTS at it, especially with their PARENTS.
Linked to our Rainforest topic in History/Geography we have also made crafts and completed a class display board for all to see. Lots of different textures and techniques were used to create volume and variety.
Below the children made tropical rainforest butterflies, using coffee filters and felt tips, then spraying water to make a tie dye effect. Can you spot any in the Rainforest display?
This is very easy and effective to try at home.
YEAR 4 BUDDING MUSICIANS
Learning to play a new instrument is always great fun, and the children in Year 4 are really enjoying their music lessons, as they learn to play tunes on the glockenspiel.
They are concentrating on mastering God Save the Queen at the moment, in preparation for our celebration at school of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, which will involve the whole school.
The younger children will perform the Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace and the Year 6 School Band will join with the glockenspiels to perform God Save the Queen.
They are all looking forward to their first public performance.
In Science we are exploring a variety of ways to identify, sort, group and classify living things. The children know how animals are split into 'vertebrates' and 'invertebrates' and have been creating classification keys to group, identify and name living things.
We have been hands on in Humanities using maps, globes and atlases to identify areas of the world containing rainforests. We have also looked at key aspects of a rainforest climate and are preparing a live weather report from different tropical rainforest areas around the world.
Year 5 Whales Class
Last week, the Whales took to the playground armed with chalk in hand as we learnt about polygons. We drew shapes according to different criteria such as parallel or perpendicular lines, different number of sides and different types of angles. We also learnt about different types of quadrilaterals including rhombus, parallelograms and trapeziums!
In Science we have continued our super fun lessons learning about forces. First it was air resistance and to understand more about how it works, the Whales made their own parachutes! We learnt that the greater the surface area of an object, the stronger the air resistance will be. So we used playmobil people, string and plastic bags and constructed our own parachutes of different sizes to test the theory. As we predicted, the parachutes with the largest diameter took the longest to soar through the air to the ground.
Next it was water resistance and first we learnt about how objects can be streamlined to make them travel faster through water. We created different 3D shapes out of plasticine and then dropped them from the same height into a cylinder of water.
The cone dropped the quickest because the shape is the most streamlined shape so it had the least amount of water resistance. Finally we made paper aeroplanes to show the streamlined shape makes it travel through the air quickly.
We also enjoyed sports day last week and took part in lots of different activities and tournaments. Congratulations to the Leopards who won but also a special well done to the Year 5 and 6 Eagles team who worked so well as a team with only four members!
Year 6 Sharks Class
This week Year Six presented their assembly on the topic of Positive Thinking and how best to achieve this state of mind. They gave parents and fellow pupils practical pieces of advice that they had found using their own experiences and research. It was great to see how confident and articulate they were and how they were able to produce a coherent but succinct presentation.
Also, congratulations to Celia for all her hard work and helpful attitude in class, which culminated in her winning the Principal's Award. There were also awards for Hugo and Celeste for their efforts during Sports Day.
In English, Year Six are continuing their study of the novel Holes focusing on writing imaginative similes. Having analysed examples from the novel, the pupils produced a few of their own.
In science we have continued to look at the human body with an emphasis on how our knowledge of this subject can help us perform better in sport, from how best to gently increase our heart rate before exercise to the benefits of warming down afterwards.
In history we have been looking at how Moorish culture has influenced Spanish culture with an emphasis on Tessellation. The pupils have begun to produce their own geometric patterns:
In ICT we have been developing initial ideas for a radio play which we will record using state-of-the-art recording equipment. Each pupil will have a speaking part and we hope to broadcast it to the pupils some time soon!
Spanish and Catalan with Miss Maria
Esta semana la clase de Seahorses está aprendiendo sobre la Naturaleza y en especial sobre LOS INSECTOS. Como siempre, los niños y niñas disfrutan descubriendo vocabulario y características de estos pequeños animalitos. A través de vídeos y actividades divertidas, hemos ido descubriendo la importancia de cada uno de los bichitos que nos rodean. Además, hemos podido elegir nuestros insectos favoritos y pintarlos. ¡Han quedado unos dibujos maravillosos!
Esta semana year 3&4 hemos estado describiendo animales. Para aprender sus características hemos visto un vídeo muy interesante y después hemos puesto en práctica nuestras habilidades de redacción. Cada uno de nosotros ha elegido su animal favorito y ha escrito sobre sus características. De todos los niños y niñas ha habido un ganador, alguien que ha descrito a su animal utilizando un fantástico vocabulario y oraciones. Esa persona ha sido… ¡IGNACIO!
Spanish and Catalan with Miss Ainhoa
Los alumnos de español de Year 5 y 6 estamos muy emocionados por completar nuestro llavero de gramática. En él tenemos acumulado todo el aprendizaje de gramática que hemos estado trabajando durante todo el curso; en presente, futuro y ahora ¡pasado! Esta semana hemos comenzado nuestro aprendizaje sobre el pasado compuesto y hemos ampliado una página más.
¡Están quedando increíbles!
Por otro lado, también hemos aprendido un nuevo tiempo verbal en clase de year 3&4….. ¡El futuro! Y hemos abierto nuestra imaginación a pensar cómo seremos de aquí a algunos años…. Además, hemos creado muchísimas frases en futuro con un gran material y algunas han salido realmente graciosas.
Sports with Miss Izabela
Last Wednesday all the primary students took part in Sports Day!
The children were delighted to be competing against their classmates and they all showed fantastic sportsmanship by cheering each other on, supporting their friends and really trying their best in every event. Our pupils worked brilliantly in their Houses and had lots of fun.
Each event has scored points towards the BIC Champions trophy which was awarded at the Sports Day Assembly on Friday 13th May.
A huge congratulations to Leopards who ran out as overall winners of the Sports Day.
The overall scores are below.
Final results:
- 1st Leopards - 957 points
- 2nd Lions - 910 points
- 3rd Eagles - 907 points
- 4th Wolves - 824 points
Our primary students have all displayed wonderful teamwork and dedication. We are very impressed to see such great sportsmanship on Sports Day and we are really proud to hear our pupils cheering for each other. Thank you to every student who has worked hard, entered competitions and earned House points for their team.
