notre dame marist academy – pyp lower division – october · pdf filenotre dame...

School’s Mission: “With God, we form good Christian people, upright citizens, & academic scholars.”

Notre Dame Marist Academy – PYP Lower Division – October 4, 2015

Welcome to the phase one edition of the 2015-16 Notre Dame Lower Division IB News. We are proud of the outstanding program that we have at our school.

What is the IB Mission? The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end, the organization works with schools, governments, and international organizations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment. These programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate, and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

Founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1968, the International Baccalaureate® (IB) is a non-profit educational foundation, motivated by its mission, focused on the student. The three programs, Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme and Diploma Programme, help develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world.

There currently are 4,102 schools in 145 countries developing and offering these challenging programs to more than 1,108,000 students aged 3 to 19 years. Notre Dame currently is the only Catholic school in the United States offering all three programs of the IB.

Grade Unit Reviews

Unless you have multiple students in the school, you probably only hear about what your child is working on in the classroom. Outside each classroom is a Unit Planner that highlights the current unit that each grade is working on. Feel free to check out what different grades


are doing as you stroll through the hallways. The following shows you a glimpse of what each grade worked on in Phase 1. JK - Who We Are: Junior Kindergarten was so excited to start school. For many, this is their first experience in a school setting. During our first unit of inquiry, we have learned what it means to be a good friend and how we treat others. For some of us, we are experiencing school for the first time. For others, we are learning how to make new friends. JK started this unit learning their own names and our new friends names. We explored how sharing is caring. JK discussehow to use words. We have been working on the use of empathy to understand when our friend’s feelings are hurt. Please check out our class Haiku page for pictures from our unit.

K- How We Organize Ourselves: This unit of inquiry establishes the classroom management for the year. Students created our Essential Agreements (rules). During this phase we

practice procedures required for success in our literacy block-Daily 5 and mathematics. All of this is an introduction to the concept of belonging to a community. The students learn what makes our community work: respect, responsibility, safety, and enthusiasm for learning.

1st - How We Organize Ourselves: The unit “Me on the Map” provided students with an opportunity to inquire into the communities around them and across the globe. The students studied, compared and contrasted different types of communities – particularly suburban, urban, and rural communities. The students viewed videos and photographs, used Google Earth on their iPads, and read books to understand different types of communities and learn about people living within those communities.

This unit of inquiry was cross-curricular and connections were made into all subject areas. In language arts, students were learning about nouns:


people, places, things and animals. We discussed nouns within communities. In math our focus was on addition and subtraction and the importance of “organizing” our numbers. The students learned about directions, mapping, community workers, and features of various communities, including natural and man-made features. In religion, we talked about how we are all members of our church community, but that we care for everyone. We also discussed Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba and the U.S., and found his homeland (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and his North American destinations on our world map. We made a science connection using “Google Earth” to find communities around the world. The students wrote about communities and read books about mapping and communities during reading groups.

2nd - Sharing the Planet: Second grade started this unit by discussing what they knew about scientist and their inventions. We then brainstormed how these inventions have changed the world and how the choices made in the past have affected the way he live our lives.

Many transdisciplinary connections were created throughout this unit. While learning about historical figures students we able to make connections using math in relation to dates and time periods in which they lived. We incorporated science by learning about different inventions that were created by famous scientists, and how our lives would be different without these things. Students also read and listened to books about colonialism,


George Washington, Christopher Columbus, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Blackwell, and Eleanor Roosevelt. We also learned about Moses and The Good Samaritan in religion. We have also been learning about addition and subtraction relationships, writing ideas, non-fiction text features, and making predictions while reading.

3rd- The Transdisciplinary theme was Who We Are. During this unit, the students completed research and worked on how Michigan Native Americans have impacted our lives. The students were able to do this by making connections with Language Arts, Reading Stories about Native Americans and thinking about different

connections to human relationships and their culture. We discussed non-fiction text features. In Social Studies (Michigan History) we worked on Cooperative group projects that helped students see a different perspective of how we live today and how Native Americans lived. In Science we connected the Earth’s natural resources (air, water and land) the needs of the Michigan Native Americans and people today and Life Cycles and traits. In Math, students were knowledgeable by thinking about the patterns between human relationships past and present, place value, rounding and estimating. In Religion, we were able to connect who we are as Catholics, the assumption, Archangels and Prayer to the Holy Spirit.

4th - How We Express Ourselves: Once Upon a Time. During this unit of study, students had the opportunity to make connections between Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, Religion and Math. They learned about “stories” from the history of the United States and the history of the Earth, using reading strategies to unlock content information. As they read tall tales, informational text, fairytales, and legends students learned how authors use different approaches to relay a story. In Mathematics, students applied their skills to solve story problems using logical reasoning. During Religion we looked at various Bible stories and discussed the lessons we learned from them. In science, we focused on weathering, erosion and


how Earth’s natural processes change and shape the land.

5th-Where We Are In Place And Time. Students focused on place value, exponents, estimation and multiplication of multi-digit numbers. This math allowed them to discover new approaches to learning previous skills. In science we focused on expanding knowledge about the general states of matter. The students looked beyond solids, liquids, and gases and inquired about physical and chemical properties and changes. In social studies the primary emphasis was on the early Americas. They explored, in depth, specific tribes that settled in North America. In religion students listened to Bible stories and explored the Marist

Way. We are also reading the novel Because of Mr. Terupt, which allows students to experience life through the eyes of seven fifth grade students. They discovered how actions and words can impact their lives now and into the future. In writing we focused on sentence structure and fluency. We also worked on the organization of four paragraph essays to strengthen weaknesses in their writing.

Inquiry Units Supported By Specialist Teachers!!!

Technology-All students learned about St. Isidore of Seville, our Patron Saint of Technology and have started reciting a prayer for his intercession in class. Students in the upper grades reflected on past, present and future of technology. Students in the lower grades were reminded how to treat and use an iPad. Once students received their iPads they signed into their Go Math textbook, IXL, Haiku and Google Apps.

Highlights From this phase include: Fifth grade looked forward 20 years and invented technology of the future. Fourth grade wrote technology parodies of popular children’s books using the Book Creator app. Third grade reflected on the history of Apple products. Second grade created graphic organizers as part of a computer system. First grade learned how to use Google Earth to find favorite places including school, home, Disneyworld, etc. Kindergarten learned how to create


graphic organizers and created one about their school community members. Junior Kindergarten learned how to use the Human Body app.

ART- Junior Kindergarten has been busy in the art room! We drew self-portraits, made shape buildings, mixed a “magic petal potion”, and created spiders to go with the Itsy Bitsy Spider. JK explored green by mixing blue and yellow play dough. Students felt different textures then created green texture leaves.

Kindergarten students discussed various community helpers such as bus drivers, firefighters, and police officers. They compared the differences between squares and rectangles and then used the shapes to create their own fire engines and school buses

First grade students discussed how we have systems in art how we do things. Students looked at the process of setting up and cleaning up to paint. Students began their exploration of Modern Art by looking at images of Modern art concentrating on Mondrian and Kandinsky. Students created line-art inspired by Mondrian and Kandinsky inspires circles drawings.

Second grade students explored mixing watercolor paints sprinkling salt on top to watch the effects. Second grade students discussed color families reviewing mixing colors. Students created color wheels and explored mixing watercolor paints.

Third grade students viewed images of Native American symbols and Sand Art. Students created designs inspired by

Native American sand art on brown paper and added colored sand with glue.

Fourth grade students created drawings of story lines. Students discussed how pictures tell stories with expression. Students then learned about illustration and visual stories.

Fifth grade students explored seeing from different perspective creating self-portraits using mirrors. Students explored drawing techniques as well as color application using oil pastels and regular pastels.

Library- A record number 52 Notre Dame Marist Academy students completed Mrs. Braverman's Dig into Reading Summer Reading Challenge. Notre Dame Lower Division bookworms dug into reading by finishing at least ten books each over the summer and returning their book record form to Mrs. Braverman in the Library when we came back to school. Each of our rabid readers was awarded a


Summer Reading Challenge prize - a Minion cup chock full of goodies!

PE- Phase one has been a busy one in Physical Education class! There are many new students to get to know, and that is always fun. The start of the year always means that we have to review procedures and renew our dedication to doing the activities that help us stay healthy and grow stronger. We introduced our daily routine of a dynamic warmup followed by cardio exercises. After those two starters, we learn skills and/or play games. Our warmup includes lunges, squats, superkicks, hip flexes, skipping, hopping, bounding, and many more exercises. At home, the kids should be able to show you how they do them.

This month grades 2-5 learned a new game called Three Pass. The kids picked it up pretty quickly, and they played it quite well. It's a great game for teaching teamwork, as each team must complete three passes before attempting a shot. Next, we spent two weeks on soccer skills and a game of soccer. There were some nice skills on display out on the field! The games were very close, and it was great to see everyone putting out effort. Grades PK, K, and 1 do the same warmup activities as the older kids, but they sometimes play different games. This month, these students focused on tag games of various types. They also learned how to do team relays and team building. As we move into October, we will be going into football with the older kids and circle games with the younger ages.

notre dame marist academy – pyp lower division – october · pdf filenotre dame...

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