News from Primary school
Dear parents, friends of the school,
Another week is over and we bring you more reading material for Friday.
To start with, I found two interesting sentences and took them out of context:
He never would never practice scales.
He doesn’t take music seriously enough.
I’m sure music lovers who are already looking forward to the Prague Spring Festival immediately recognized that these sentences describe the 31-year old Taiwanese-Australian violinist Ray Chen who will be performing at next year’s Prague Spring along with the Prague Symphonic Orchestra. (Besides playing for horses to give thanks for all the horsehair used for violins he is famous for his stunts – please note, that when children misbehave, they’re naughty, but when an adult does, they’re called stunts!).
It’s November, the traditional month for quarterly evaluation and it seems like there’s a spark of hope for the world returning to normal, at least for schools. Families, too. Evaluation helps us make our learning effective – so that we know what we’re good at and “it’s worth working on” and what we struggle with and “it’s worth working on.” As modern teachers and parents we feel compelled to mostly highlight the positive feedback and only reluctantly mention the well-intended recommendations regarding improvement.
Using the example of Ray Chen, I’d like to say: Children, it’s right and good to listen to your parents, teachers, inspirational people, but it’s even better to humbly do what you feel is right and good. Listen to Ray Chen – he’s great and he misbehaves a lot! To test those flawless adults, he played the most expensive and the cheapest violin – can people tell the difference??? Well, listen for yourself and decide…
Of course you can’t misbehave at school, but otherwise: Do misbehave, ask WHY, think about things, don’t take yourself too seriously… You might become famous (and then, please don’t forget to mention your/our school)! Fingers crossed. ????
And how has the journey been going so far?
Class 1
The children have been enjoying the return the school and the autumn sun. On Wednesday, the weather allowed them to be creative outdoors and on Thursday, they did Maths outside, too. But the most important thing was seeing their friends again! Let’s hope it will stay this way for a long time.
Class 2
Hello, this time we’re reporting from Open Gate. We’re here and we’re happy, healthy and full of energy. We’re enjoying the company of friends, grown-ups and our beautiful school, where we’re almost alone. But we’d rather be here with all of you! It’s somewhat empty ☹ and quiet.
What have we been up to during these three days? There’s plenty. We said hello and talked about all things possible and impossible. On Wednesday, we had a special Morning Oasis where we talked and thought about freedom, totalism, democracy and the Velvet Revolution. We revised sentence types and Maths environments. We dived deep into our selves with Barunka at the ellipsis and we were relieved. Thank you, Bára. On Thursday, we finished a mini-project about out neighboring states and we listened to presentations. We also had another meeting with our friends from Class 3. We talked about books thanks to MS Teams and it was great. Together, but in different places! The books tree is a ready and it’s waiting for the fruit of our reading success. Come and see in the Primary School foyer. We wrapped up Thursday afternoon with a Kahoot quiz which was a lot of fun. On Friday, we packed our bags and set out on another journey. This time, into a country of wonderful smells, delicious food and drinks, where the capital is visited by lovers… do you know? Bon voyage!
Saša and the globetrotters
Class 3
On Wednesday, Class 3 found themselves surrounded by Velvet. We talked about the revolution know globally as the velvet one. If you’re not sure why, ask the third graders – they know now. They were also asked to find out from their parents and grandparents how they remember the year 1989 and so we learned some interesting information. Some researchers have also visited the place of action and brought us reports from Prague – Albertov and Národní třída. Although music lessons are canceled, we listened to the famous song Modlitba pro Martu which touched some of the adult researches who were on the verge of tears. And Badík? He just shakes his head, saying he definitely won’t join any queues and he doesn’t like bananas! ????
However, emerald is not just a color of games and chatting. Class 3 have successfully completed the “Klokan” Maths competition and now they’ll focus on word exceptions. So please, wish us luck!
Class 4 as reporters
All of Class 4 became reporters for a while when they were conducting interviews with their family members. They were asking them what they were doing in November 1989 and whether they remember the events of the Velvet Revolution. Unfortunately, I cannot show you the videos and all the interviews, but they did a wonderful job – they could get a job on TV straight away. They learned from each other and they learned a lot of interesting information. I’d like to thank all the parents, grandparents and loved ones for their involvement in this project. And of course, thank you, Class 4 for your great work.
Class 5
Last week, the fifth graders got a special assignment – make a presentation about the village or city where they live, using a given outline. They were asked to focus on history, life in the village nowadays, facilities and other information and to think about advantages and disadvantages of the location. The children were very creative and all the presentation were original and full of interesting tips for trips. You can see for yourself in the photos that the children sent.
English department:
Class 1: This was the first week for class one and Jerry together. We got to know each other During Oasis practicing various chants with a focus on What’s your name? and How are you?... We made different animal sounds and guessed what animal they belong to. We discovered the letter “G” and how it is phonetically sounded in English. We looked at English words that have the letter “G” and played some games to reinforce our memory of them. We read a Kipper book about “BIG FEET”. On Thursday we learned what a turkey is, and why it is eaten in the US in November. We made our own turkeys out of paper and colorful autumn leaves.
Class 2: Reunited together again back at it…. Class 2 started off Wednesday talking about online learning, being a good student, and a game where we had to name five things of a certain category. We talked about different types of homes and described our homes to the class. We then read a book about various types of homes around the world. We finished off our big review of all the Incredible English units we had done and on Thursday, we started unit 4. We also read a funny book in Oasis…. Dogs don’t do Ballet. We finished our first half week back in school with English speaking.
Class 3: In class 3 this week, we did our usual phonics and had our phonics quiz. Once again, Emily won, she is indeed a phonics master! We also had a very fun speaking class on Thursday, where we practiced being in a restaurant. Hopefully by next summer we will be able to travel abroad again and class 3 will be experts when it comes to ordering in restaurants!
Class 3 have also made some wonderful moustaches in their Art lesson today. Since we can’t all grow facial hair for Movember, at least we can make some fake ones!
Class 4 have done a wonderful job getting a lot of their Incredible English done. We also had time to chat about some interesting topics. One of the activities this week involved thinking of ideas for presents for people we know (something I’m sure will be useful for all of us with Christmas approaching) and the children had some really good original ideas. Writing homework for next week is making a poster with advice on a topic the students can choose. I have already received some of them, they look great and I’m looking forward to the rest!
Class 5: In class 5 this week, we did some grammar, practicing the present continuous, what we are doing now, before learning about the past continuous, what we were doing at some time in the past. We also did some PET practice, discussing how to write a letter and to write a short story. We finished the week off on Friday with some speaking, and learning more about the human body.
