BIC Sant Agustí News (02/18/22)

A message from Janice Short, Principal

Dear parents

During the last couple of weeks our style of teaching and learning has been really evident in all classes as we continue to develop and embed the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding through activities which enhance our curriculum studies. All of these extra activities build on the children’s learning in the classroom and can help the children remember and make connections and links between their learning.

Our class assemblies have embraced the themes of “People who help us” (Early Years),” Love and Peace” (Year 5) and “Courage” (Year 1). These assemblies give the children a chance to present to an audience, looking at different topics and themes, while improving their presentation skills and use of English.

Although the Early Years children have been learning about “People who help us”, the whole school had a visit from our policeman to explain about safety and road safety. The children enjoyed the visit and asked many questions to further their understanding.

The children have also been entering competitions; the first one was the Mangahigh Maths competition during which the teachers could set tasks connected with the children’s learning in class and the children earned points which helped them climb up the leaderboard. After a fiercely fought contest, including some late nights and early mornings (I believe) the leaderboard was finalised and some of our winners can be seen below. Well done to everyone and special congratulations to the winners!

The second competition was a Poetry competition organised by COBIS, so the children have been working hard, putting their learning into practice and writing some amazing poems. We held an internal school competition to decide the winning entries to send to COBIS and again, some of the winning entries can be seen below. Congratulations to them and well done to everyone who entered.

The next competition is an Art competition so I am sure we will see some super entries!

We also held a Parent workshop on Online Safety which will be put on the school website. Please take the time to look at the presentation as it is a very important message - we constantly educate the children in school about online safety but we do need your support at home to ensure our children stay safe.

Have a lovely weekend. Baleares Day celebrations are coming up next Friday!

Warm regards

Mrs Short

Principal

Baleares International College, Sant Agustí

Dates to remember!

Nursery Starfish Class

In the Nursery classroom we are still talking about SUPERHEROES! Yet again, we dived a little bit deeper into the actual concept of what makes you a Superhero? We explored fantasy superheroes during the previous weeks and we have also looked at what makes us Superheroes but something kept nibbling away at us… are you only good or bad? This week our focus was on Super animals as well as other super things. Through stories such as ¨What the ladybird heard¨, ¨The lion and the mouse¨, ¨Superworm¨ and ¨SUPERTATO¨ we took a deeper look into the classically portrayed ´baddie´ in many stories. In SUPERTATO, for example, there is an evil pea but when SUPERTATO got in trouble in this story, it was the evil pea who came to help him! Our conclusion is that being good or bad does not exist, but making good or bad choices does.

The Starfish class children really understood this idea and started playing superheroes very differently on the playground. All of a sudden, there were ¨baddies¨ rescuing ¨goodies¨ and vice versa, lions helping mice in need and crocodiles choosing not to eat the little fish but become friends with it instead. Conclusion, the world of a child's imagination is so beautiful and the way they process information does not stop to amaze us.

Some of the fun activities we´ve enjoyed doing these weeks have been learning about big and small by sorting our shoes, using the magical towel to make phonics letters disappear, making stuffed sock Superworms and having an outdoor picnic.

Reception Seahorses Class

Two weeks ago, just after we were getting last week’s newsletter ready, Early Years had their first ever Assembly and we didn’t want to miss commenting on such an important event. The children worked really hard towards that special day and they all did a fantastic job! Our theme was the same as the one we have been working on in the classroom ‘People who help us’ but, in Seahorses class, we wanted to focus on the people that help us in the classroom. Learning a different language and communicating with others in English is such a challenge for many children in our school, therefore, we thought that it was important to understand how it feels so we can empathise and help them when facing difficulties to communicate. So we decided to learn the song ‘Twinkle, twinkle’ in three different languages (English, Spanish and Swedish) and to sing another song using sign language. The children were all very happy and proud of themselves and this has helped them to communicate better afterwards. When it’s ‘work in pairs’ time, now they have the confidence to choose a partner who does not necessarily speak the same language as they do.

In Maths for the past two weeks we have been looking into shapes and patterns; we can see them everywhere now! Children are getting really good at identifying, drawing and creating 2D shapes on different surfaces and using a variety of resources while having lots of fun. In Literacy the children are also making great progress as they continue to blend new sounds together and read new words.

Last Monday we celebrated ‘Love day’ as we like to call it in Seahorse class; it was a very good opportunity to show everybody (family and friends) how much we love them and how much we care about them. Across our different learning areas we decorated lots of hearts as it’s one of the activities that the children love to do. We also made our own heart-flower as we think it’s as important to look after a flower or a plant as it is to look after the people around you, which will make love grow.

Year 1 Seals Class

Another amazing two weeks in Seals Class and doesn't time fly when you're having fun! As you are most probably all aware, the children are allocated House Points for amazing effort, kind gestures and superb work. This week Seals have been collecting many points for their houses, as we practise for our assembly this week. The theme is ´COURAGE´ and during the practising of the assembly , they have all been showing Miss Charlotte and I that they never give up!

A fine example of this is, Mrs Short hands out her Principal’s Award for amazing effort in any area of a child's education every Friday and I am proud to say that recently both Francesco and Mika have received this award. Well done to you both! These photos now take pride of place on the Awards board in the dining hall.

In English we have been looking closely at fable stories, especially the popular story of Chicken Licken. The children have enjoyed the repetitiveness of the words and of course the rhyming character names. We have learnt that most fable stories, if not all of them, have animals as the main characters. We have made and used mini puppets of the characters and used them to re-enact the story but the most exciting for me, was when the children wrote an alternative ending to the story. They really expressed themselves and showed that they wanted a happier ending, rather than the real ending where Foxy Loxy eats all the characters for his dinner!

We also decided as a class to use the story of Chicken Licken for our assembly. Everyone really liked the moral of the story and chose to sing a song all about ´COURAGE´.

In maths we have been continuing to complete our mental maths warm ups everyday. All the children are becoming super quick at answering the given sums and are learning to apply the learnt strategies to their overall learning. Last week we finished learning all about the different 3D shapes that can be found in the environment. They took that knowledge one step further and using a net pattern, made a cube. After much discussion as to what it could be, they decided to turn it into a dice to use for a big game of snakes and ladders. Everyone then attempted to make 3D shapes of their own by using other given shapes, see photos below.

3D SHAPES MADE FROM 2D SHAPES. (below)

Last Monday was a special day in and out of the classroom, VALENTINE´S DAY! After discussing why the day is celebrated world wide, we put our heads together to create something extra nice for the special person or people in our lives. The children used our natural environment theme for Art, creating and decorating a template of a love heart. The poem which was included on the heart expressed how much the children thought about the special person(s) in their life.

Everybody really enjoyed collecting the natural resources from the Lemon Tree Terrace and arranging them carefully in their hearts.

Science and Humanities lessons have again linked together rather nicely. We have been busy making the last of the Three Little Pigs homes, as well as searching on Google Earth for our own homes. The whole class enjoyed this, helping to bring in the concept and understanding of maps. We made a local map, a journey to school and looked carefully at the distance and orientation between some of Palma´s famous landmarks, like Palma Cathedral, Bellver Castle, PortoPi Shopping Centre, Cala Nova Port. We also looked closely at where we all live in comparison to each other and school.

Our road map, including some of Palma´s popular landmarks.

We used Google Earth to closely see all these landmarks. We discovered that some children live very close to the cathedral, Bellver Castle and Cala Nova port. Viewing these landmarks on the computer really enticed us to venture further afield….some children then wanted to find their parents' home countries, so we ended up travelling all over the world that afternoon.

It was a very busy day!

We are all looking forward to next week and all the action packed fun learning and extra house points before the half term break. BRING IT ON!!!!

Year 2 Turtles Class

We are going to start off with a huge congratulations to Catherine for winning the KS1 poetry competition ¨Looking ahead´. She wrote a wonderful poem about what she thought it would be like growing up; especially looking forward to being a teenager or an adult and being able to do what she wants! Our runners up - Josh, Darcie, Yris and Alicia also wrote some insightful pieces. Well done everyone.

We were very fortunate this week to have a special visitor in class - the policeman came and talked to us about staying safe when we are out and about.

We all showed good listening and asked questions to help us understand.

As part of the maths curriculum we get to explore a range of maths activities. These include place names, sorting odd and even numbers, making shapes - 2D and 3D, practising our mental maths skills. This week we have been revising all of our learning this term ready for our maths assessments. When we complete the activities with our friends we can discuss our learning and question each other to strengthen our own understanding. The activities in our maths and literacy boxes are changed regularly so the children always have something new to try!

In Humanities we are continuing to explore Spain and what attracts so many tourists all year round. The class created some great posters advertising some of the attractions.

In Literacy we are coming to the end of our traditional tales unit. We have learnt so much from the tales of Baba Yaga and Hansel and Gretel and had some great discussions on what parts of the texts we like best and which witch was the scariest! We have also been learning about different types of sentences - statements, questions and commands….the children were all very good at giving out commands in class to each other! They used great expression in their voices and we looked at how we can use our voice to emphasise what we are saying. Perhaps they will try out their commands at home too!

Year 3 Dolphins Class

On Tuesday 8th February, we celebrated ‘Safer Internet Day 2022’ . We took part in online quizzes, used cards to discuss a variety of different scenarios, watched a variety of video clips and looked at different experiences of children worldwide. This really benefited the children's understanding of online relationships, respect and how to deal with potentially dangerous or stressful situations that may arise.

We also celebrated Valentine´s Day and thoroughly enjoyed following a set of instructions carefully to make our own cards to share with our loved ones.

In Science, we have been learning all about how the three different types of rocks are formed. We also loved making chocolate rocks which illustrated this process perfectly.

Year 4 Jellyfish Class

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks. We have finished our English unit learning about Aesop’s fables and had our ‘Best Write’ session where we show our best writing to the world. Mrs KB told us that we had written some of the best fables she had ever read, with wonderful creatures and full of dialogue to drive the story forward! Ask us and we can tell you all about our fables. We have started our next unit and shared the story ‘My Dog is as Smelly as a Dirty Sock’ as we explored figurative language and the use of similes to create a powerful description. Just like in the story we drew a member of our family and then used similes to describe them.

We have also continued using what we already know in maths and started to look at fractions and decimals. We have been folding and cutting, multiplying and dividing and finding fractions in shapes and numbers. Our favourite learning was when Mrs KB used cake and pizza to show us equal parts!

In science we have been consolidating our electrical circuit knowledge ready for the final week of the unit. We have also been looking at keeping safe around electricity. Mrs KB was really impressed with how much we all already knew about using electricity safely, using electrical appliances carefully and safely and reducing any risks and hazards at home and at school. During a discussion in class the children in Y4 were interested in how clean our hands actually were and asked questions about how clean what our hands touched were if we couldn’t see the ‘dirt’. We carried out an experiment with our ‘dirty’ and ‘clean’ hands to see just how clean our hands are… we will let you know the results!

Oh look, it is a sunny day today! We have not only been looking at the weather in European countries but also the climates and the difference between weather and climate in different countries. The changes in climates across Europe have surprised us and we are keeping a close eye on what is happening to our climate here in Mallorca.

We have been on a few art observation walks in the school grounds and around the local area in the past couple of weeks. We are learning about observational sketching. Did you know it is very hard to turn your brain off and draw what you see, when your brilliant brain has seen it once and wants to draw it all straight away?! We have explored shapes in buildings too and created our own colourful shape houses based on the Cube Houses in Rotterdam.

Enjoy the warm weather over the next couple of weeks…

Year 5 Whales Class

What a super assembly the Whales put on for parents and the whole school last week! The theme was love and peace and the children enjoyed sharing their thoughts about love and peace as well as singing two songs and reading out some of their incredible poems as well. They did a really fantastic job!

In art we have continued learning about landscape paintings and last week the children learnt how Monet experimented with different shades of colour to create the illusion of light reflecting on water. After studying some different paintings, the class mixed colours to try and recreate the same piece of art work but they could only use those four colours!

The children have been busy in their maths lessons, learning how to measure angles with a protractor and draw circles using a compass.

We also learnt the names for parts of a circle and then used a damp string to measure the circumference.

Big numbers were next on the agenda as the class have been learning how to read, write and understand the place value in 6-digit numbers. Check out the video of the children learning how to read numbers with 100,000s in them!

One of the greatest pleasures of teaching and learning music is to be able to play an instrument and Year 5 are now beginning to enjoy learning to play the ukulele, a wonderful instrument for use in the classroom and also as an introduction to many other instruments. The pupils can play a few chords after only a few lessons and will soon be strumming away and singing to many songs and filling the school with the sound of music. Check them out in action!

Year 6 Sharks Class

This week in English, we have been extending our vocabulary by writing paragraphs using a list of captivating words and this has helped the pupils produce some very entertaining passages:

In science we have been continuing to look at the Theory of Evolution and how many of the ideas Charles Darwin published in his Origin of Species had already been considered by other great thinkers throughout history. We also had a brief look at his epic voyage of discovery aboard HMS Beagle.

In sport, the BIC Globetrotters were keen to break into two teams and show their classmates who were the MVPs of San Agustin. As you can see, the competition has been fierce.

In geography, we have been practising using six-figure grid references to uncover hidden treasure. Some pupils were fortunate to uncover the buried loot, while others were unfortunate and only discovered that the local volcano wasn't quite as dormant as they had thought!

Spanish and Catalan with Miss Ainhoa

En clase de español con Year 1&2 hemos estado aprendiendo sobre animales marinos y los animales más extraños de la Fosas Marianas.

Con estos videos, hemos aprendido las características de los seres marinos y sus curiosidades. Además, nos han ayudado para crear nuestros propios marinos extraños. ¡Han salido creaciones muy originales!

Por otro lado, iniciamos el tema aprendiendo una de las canciones más cantadas en la infancia de muchos de nosotros. ¿La recordáis? “¿Dónde están las llaves?”

Aquí os la dejo por si queréis recordarla:

Y aquí tenéis las maravillosas creaciones:

Spanish and Catalan with Miss Ambar

Esta semana con el curso de Reception hemos trabajado los cuentos y en concreto un cuento africano sobre el Baobab y nos ha inspirado tanto que hemos empezado a hacer unos súper collares africanos para nuestros papis y mamis.

Los hemos hecho con macarrones y los hemos pintado con pinturas de colores muy brillantes y bonitos.

Y como no… ¡Lo hemos pasado súper bien y nos hemos ensuciado mucho!

En la clase de español de Y3&4 hemos estado trabajando los refranes pero esta vez lo hemos hecho con nuestros compañeros haciendo grupos y compitiendo por ser los primeros en completar los refranes.

Por suerte somos todos muy buenos y rápidos y…¡Todos hemos ganado housepoints! Increíble.

Hemos aprendido que muchos refranes riman entre ellos y seguramente iremos aprendiendo más este curso.

¡Ha sido muy divertido argumentar con los compañeros las posibles opciones!

A la classe de català de Y2 aquesta setmana hem començat a llegir llibres que podem dur-nos a casa nostra o llegir-los a classe durant 10 minuts per aprendre més vocabulari i ademés llegim les companyes totes juntes i ¡ens encanta!

Sports with Miss Izabela

Over the past few weeks our students were developing their basketball skills.

Basketball is a high-intensity sport that provides a full body workout involving running, jumping and hand-eye coordination. The students were all engaged and active and they were working out while having fun!