March, 2010 Issue 8

Current Events
Friday, April 2nd-5th Easter Break
Monday, April 12th-16th Chakri Day and Songkran Holidays
Monday, April 19th -23rd, Earth Week
Thursday, April 22nd, Earth Day!
Tuesday, April 27th, Progress Letters Issued
Saturday, April 24th Under 11 Teeball at Shrewsbury I.S.
Friday, April 30th No Uniform Day & ES Parent Coffee

Language Arts
Poetry is our focus for our final quarter, so students will be immersed in activities to foster
creativity, descriptiveness, rhythm and fun with words, Also, we will continue our guided reading
explorations, self selected independent reading and read aloud activities (Readers Theatre). This
helps to improve students’ oral language while practicing reading skills with drama.

Mathematics
Operations with Fractions have captivated students for the last few weeks. We will continue with
multiplying and dividing fractions before Geometry. Please encourage your child to show his/her
work through math activities especially word problems! Math should involve numbers, words and
drawings to increase understanding and meet grade 5 standards.

Social Studies
Grade 5s will be studying Early Humans for the remainder of the year. Students are learning
about the characteristics of different Hominid groups, tools used by certain Early Human groups,
and archaeology. Students are encouraged to explore outside of the classroom for information on
this topic to share with the class. And, keep your ear to current events and news reports. Just
today, we read that scientists found fossils of a new human ancestor in Siberia. It is amazing how
our understanding of this topic continues to be uncovered!

Elizabeth Library
Hi Everyone
The latest news in Elizabeth is that we have about 300 beautiful new books ready for release. If you can't come
to see our new books display during the week before Easter, then you may see what we have added to the
collection in Destiny by going to your home computer. Just Open Destiny Quest. In the centre is a box called
"Resource Lists". There you will see a list heading called "New Books March 2010". Just click on the list
heading and you may browse all of our new titles. Mums, there are lots of new leveled readers and many
beautiful new picture books. Make sure you get plenty of books for Easter and the Songkran holidays.
Happy reading! Mr Rick

Thai
Congratulations to all the winners and the participants in the Thai history quiz contest on March
30, 2010. Everyone did a very good job!. Let’s celebrate Songkran festival together! On April
8,2010, the Thai department will host the Songkran festival. We would like to invite parents and
students to participate by dressing in Thai costume. The morning activity will start at 7.10-7.30 at
the assembly. At 9.00-9.20 pouring water to adults will take place at elementary section. Please
encourage your kids to wear a Thai costume on that day. Thank you.

Science
Living Systems are our focus for the last quarter. The circulatory, respiratory and digestive
systems will be our starting point. Classes are immersed in inquiry-based, hands on learning.
Come by and see Mr. Rob to find out more about how living systems work! He will give you a
prize!

P.E.
The Grade 5’s have completed their 2nd semester swimming unit and are now using the new
climbing apparatus outside Godbout Hall. Games like European handball and Speedball will be
introduced in the coming weeks.

Music

We are gearing up to the fourth quarter of the school year and we are now on our sixth unit “The
Form and Style of Music”. The focus of this unit is for the students to: a) Identify and enumerate
sectional forms of music. b) Be aware of the different combinations of instrument and the singing
voice. c) Gain knowledge and ideas of movie themes, broadway musical and opera.
 ESL

Here are a few ideas to support your child’s language learning at home:
- Please be patient with your child’s learning.
- Research shows it takes an average of 7 years to become fully fluent in a
second language.
- Let your child choose books he or she is interested in. Your child will
acquire more language skills by reading books from his or her own interests.
- Re-reading books helps improve students’ fluency and accuracy.
It’s fine for your child to read a book more then one time.

Finally, here are some on-line activities that your child can do at home to
help his or her grammar skills.

This is a fun tutorial with exercises to work in using the apostrophe.

http://www.writing-kit.com/apostrophes/index.html

This month we have been working on present tense verbs and subject-verb
agreement. Here are some online interactive exercises that you can
encourage your child to work on.

These interactive sites give practice using the Simple Present Tense.
http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/StudyZone/330/grammar/pres1.htm
http://a4esl.org/q/h/lb/psv.html

This site below give a summary and examples of when to use the Present Progressive or Present
Continuous verb tense.
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentcontinuous.html

Art

We are working on the famous landmark of the countries:

 Artist: Float Artist: Sandy Arti

Artist: Ket Artist: Mint

Theater Arts

Getting every dance steps, and dance routines cool

and interesting is what these fifth graders are all excited about. They were very enthusiastic to
choreograph their own dance, put together what they have learned and experience and get
ready to join the grade level hip-hop dance competition later this quarter. This is one of the
many dance lessons that instantly motivated each individual to learn in a group, get engage
independently and work collaboratively. The effort, the creative part, the discipline, and the
rhythm are all over the classroom during class time and even break time. They work harder to
improve their dance pieces and aim for the better routines this time. Let’s find out soon……, in
“LIGHT, CAMERA, DANCE!”

Religion

March 31, 2010 Live Station of the Cross in PAC from 1:30-2:35 presented by K-12
Religion Students. Our lessons this month are focusing on the events of Jesus’ Passion
and Resurrection events. In class, the students are doing projects and do re-enactment of
the Last Supper and Easter. Please also check our department website for more activities
each week at esreligionris@posterous.com. Happy a holy and blessed week. –Sr. Rose

We are learning about good Citizenship. What does a good citizen do to show he/she cares? Here
are some ways:
• He /She is responsible for his/her actions and does his /her duties in the community.
• Obeys rules and laws,
• Shows awareness of global problems and protects environment.
• Stays informed of current events

To start with, the Values team have decided to launch a project for grade 1- 5 Values classes
encourage students to use water bottles more than the plastic cups. This would be one of the
several activities of the CITIZENSHIP unit that focuses on how to be a responsible member of
the community starting right here in RIS community. We hope to see our 5th graders giving good
examples to the younger members of the school.
Have a happy and safe holidays, remember be a good citizen!!!!

Computers

Last but certainly not least!

Technology classes have been rolling along nicely – and Grade 5 is zooming in and out of Prezi
lately. In the next few weeks, students will be working on their online portfolios – tagging
different posts, categorizing their information and making their webpages a nice sample of what
they have done in school for the last year. Make sure you ask your student to show you their
webpage as they have been working on them since the first day of school. Stay tuned for more big
news coming out of E202!