Holiday Traditions

At GSP we are fortunate to be part of many cultural events throughout the year.

This coming weekend we will start the Holiday season with our own Holiday Market. The school building will be transformed with trees and lights.

While many booths are manned by our outside vendors there is one booth that will be run by our very own 5^th grade students.

You may remember their fundraising activities during our GSP adventure day where the class raised money for an orphanage in Uganda. During the Holiday season they continue this effort and will provide hot chocolate with all the extras as well as their own Holiday cards at the GSP Holiday Market. All benefits will go to the orphanage in Uganda.  

I hope you can be there and support their effort!

Oh the Holidays we celebrate!

Here we are end of October - and it's time to buckle up! This is the season of Holidays here at GSP!
Our school community is fortunate to celebrate Holidays from around the world and several classrooms chose their current PYP theme for the upcoming weeks around the way cultures celebrate around the world.
So be ready to learn more about the origins of Halloween, Thanksgiving celebrations and the many ways Christmas is celebrated around the world.
I always enjoy learning about the commonalities of world celebrations and the deeper, underlying purpose.
Here is a link with information about the recent popularity of Halloween if you are interested.
Halloween around the World

This is Who We Are - Grade 5

I hope you had a chance to see some of the work that our second grade classes did. Maybe some of your dinner conversations evolve around the "who we are" theme that all classes worked on in the last few weeks. If that is the case I would love to hear about it!
I find it incredibly fascinating to see how students make these connections. We have first grade students meeting with Kindergartners to share their process and third graders teaching fourth graders what they have learned about bones and muscles.
Our fifth grade class inquires about the concept of cultures. You may have answered their questionnaire a while back and their findings are now displayed in the hallway. Analyzing real data and graphing results offers our students a meaningful opportunity to develop corresponding math skills. Frau Bahr is working with the group on exploring the importance of music in culture and how music is part of each student's personal culture. They used a web-based tool "wordle" to create word clouds.What a fun way to make connections beyond subject areas.
The following are some impressions from their work in progress.
I feel very fortunate to be a part of our culture of learning and exploring!

culture survey results

What is culture?

music integration

This is who we are - more news from grade 2

Well, second grade completed their interviews and are proudly displaying their findings outside their classroom. If you would like to find out more about who we are, come by anytime! I love their imagination and eye for details. The portraits have interview answers on the back, too. Now that students found out so much about our communities and their work, they will explore their own interests and how they are part of communities. I hope you take a moment to see this exciting project come together.

"Who we are" Unit - continued

Do you remember how second grade students created questions about our community last week?
By working in small groups they were able to share what they already know and answer many questions.
But what will they do with the mysteries left? Frau Peterson and Frau Wester may know the answer to many mysteries but this week students took the initiative again to find out for themselves. 
Over the course of the week they interviewed GSP community members about the questions that matter to them. They scheduled time with community members to meet, prepared their interview questions and chose different ways to document answers - there was even a technology component of sorts involved. The students' questions highlighted the group's interests as much as the overall theme of community.
In order to be successful students exhibited a range of learner profiles. They had to be curious and
communicate within their group and their interview partners to name just a few.

Communicator - I can share my ideas with others in many ways, and listen to others.

Inquirer - I am curious and enjoy learning. I try to find out new things

 Stay tuned for more on what the groups will do with their new found knowledge.

Powerful questions - "Who we are" PYP unit in 2nd grade

Our second grade students are asking all kinds of powerful questions as part of their "Who we are" PYP unit.
Their main statement is: Viele Menschen bilden eine Gemeinschaft - Many people form a community.
After having brainstormed the different communities they are a part of, they are currently looking into the roles of our school community members.
Their classroom walls and boards outside show how much of this inquiry process is driven by students and the questions they ask. Based on their interests, students formed groups and inquired deeper about community helpers. As a result they created profile posters and are now working on writing a story that involves their chosen community helper. What a perfect example of how PYP lets us integrate different subject areas seamlessly.
At this point they are busy developing interview questions and I can't wait to spend time with them next week when they will conduct interviews with GSP community members!

Learning together

Our grade school students are a tight group in PE this week!
Herr Vanderstraeten has worked with students to negotiate a parcours full of obstacles.
After students were comfortable on their own, they partnered up and are now mastering the parcours tied together with a friend.
I'm sure the students can name at least 4 learner profile attributes that they apply to do this successfully:Which ones would you pick?