Glimpse 02/2005 - ibs terra nova

�������
02/05
�������������������������������
���������������������������
Musical
Wir singen, tanzen, spielen Theater, üben und
üben.
Während den vergangenen Wochen haben die Kinder der Terra Nova aussergewöhnlich viel geleistet
und tun es noch immer, jeden Tag aufs Neue.
Immer wieder eintauchen in Rollen, Liedpassagen
verbessern, Tanzschritte üben...
All dies verlangt Aufmerksamkeit, Merkfähigkeit,
Lust am Singen, soziales Engagement, Einfühlungsvermögen, Körperausdruck im Tanz und vieles mehr.
Es ist unglaublich, wie begeisterungsfähig, wie
natürlich die Kinder an diese verschiedenen, zum
Teil auch neuen Herausforderungen heran gehen.
Im Bereich Musik möchte ich sagen, dass die Kinder mit all dem Auswendiglernen von Melodien
und englischem Text eine grosse Leistung vollbringen. Ich bin erstaunt, was die Kinder alles aufnehmen können und dann durch viel Übung und
gute Unterstützung der KlassenlehrerInnen bei der
nächsten Chorprobe wiedergeben.
Bedenkt man doch, dass diese Songs einen hohen
Schwierigkeitsgrad für die Primarstufe aufweisen
und sie darum viel Aufmerksamkeit und Engagement der Kinder verlangen.
Mir ist es wichtig, liebe Eltern, dass Sie wissen,
wie fleissig die Kinder arbeiten und sie die ganze
Vorbereitung fürs Musical mit Musik, Tanz und
Theater viel Anstrengung kostet.
Damit eine gute Aufführung gelingen kann, muss
geübt werden. An dieser Stelle ein grosses Kompliment und Dankeschön an die Kinder.
Perfektion streben wir nicht an. Sie unterdrückt
während des Lernprozesses jegliche Spontaneität
und Phantasie.
Viel mehr freuen wir uns über die Zeit, die uns
zusammen wachsen lässt und darüber, dass die
Kinder in verschiedenen Bereichen, die im Schulalltag oft wenig Platz haben, gefördert werden.
Am Schluss ist es nicht allein die Aufführung die
zählt, sondern vor allem der Entstehungsprozess,
die grosse, wertvolle Erinnerung und Erfahrung,
welche die Kinder bestimmt lange Zeit im Herzen
tragen werden.
Freuen Sie sich auf viel Tanz, Theater und Musik!
Franziska Bless
School Activities
Foundation Years
At circle time we have been learning lots of
„fishy“ songs and rhymes, as well as practicing
our songs for the musical We have also been busy
putting the finishing touches to our costumes for
the musical.
The Foundation Years children have been learning
about some of the creatures which live in the sea.
The Moon group children looked at a big sea star
which Mrs Huber brought to school. We learned
that sea stars usually have five arms (though there
is one sea star with 40 arms!) and that sea stars
eat and move in very different ways to the ways
that we do! We looked carefully at the design
on the body of the sea star and then cut out and
painted our own sea stars and decorated them
with tiny pearls and shells from the sea.
Lea brought to school some underwater photos of
when she was snorkeling in the Red Sea. We were
able to see the beautiful coloured fish which she
saw. Some of the children have been making their
own underwater collages using coloured paper
and shells.
The star group children worked together with
Mr Bhangal to make a huge (2 metres long!),
impressive dolphin out of wire and papier mache.
They painted him and he looks very life-like!
Using the „Jolly Phonics“ language
programme,the children in the Foundation
Years are being introduced in a playful way to
the relation between initial sounds and letters
in words. We begin with those consonants
which make the same sound in English and in
German. For the children in the Monday English
Reading group this phonemic awareness work
(the sounds in words) is extended further, in an
age-appropriate way, and the children are also
involved in activities involving word recognition,
sequencing the words in sentences and in games
which develop their awareness of rhyme and
syllables in words.
During the session the children also enjoy reading
together from our collection of „Big Books“ and
each child has a small „reading book“ to take
home and share with his/her parents Through our
„Alphabet Song“ the children are also becoming
familiar with the letter names in English and are
beginning to pick out the letters which occur in
their names.
S. Huber
Grade 1
2. Klasse
The first grade students are eagerly learning
their songs and dances for the upcoming „Little
Mermaid Bilingual Musical“. It is an exciting
time for the children as they see their costumes
completed and as they begin to practise on the
stage. Never before have crabs and sea plants,
coral, seahorses and fish been played with such
enthusiasm!
Wohin kommt man, wenn man durch den
Regenbogen geht?
Die 2. Klasse hat sich in den letzten Wochen mit
dem Regenbogen beschäftigt:
So, wie ihn die Wissenschaft sieht, und so, wie ihn
die Dichter sehen.
Wie ihn die Wissenschaft sieht, das ist die
nüchterne, die rationale Seite.
Die andere Seite, die der Dichter und der Maler,
ist die geheimnisvolle.
Beide Seiten haben uns beschäftigt - ohne, dass
wir zu einem abschliessenden Urteil gekommen
sind. Viele Fragen blieben offen, so zum Beispiel
diese:
„Wieso geht der Regenbogen immer von einem
weg, wenn man durch ihn hindurch
gehen will?“
D. Vaia
Grade 2
Don‘t be frightened if you see little devils and
lost souls running around Terra Nova these next
few weeks - it is only the second grade class
in character and in costume. The students are
enjoying their rehearsals for the „Little Mermaid
Bilingual Musical“. Our class is looking forward to
the big opening night with excitement and a few
nervous butterflies.
D. Williams
Grade 3
Exploring the Ocean
Do you know why it is easier to float in salt water
than it is to float in fresh water? Grade 3 students
do! They have been exploring this and many other
questions relating to our theme, Oceans. We have
studied science experiment procedures and are
making our own hypothesises, or guesses, about
why oceans are the way they are. We then tested
these hyposthesises by completing various science experiments.
The students are also conducting their first research project on an animal that lives in the ocean.
They are learning not only about their animal,
but more importantly, how to gather information.
We have completed the pre-planning stage of the
project and will be continueing on with gathering
information from both books and the internet.
After the students have collected all the facts in
note-taking form, they will create a poster, booklet
or pamplet demonstration what they have learned
about their animal.
pleting science experiments. The children are also
studying coral reefs and cays. So, the Grade 5
class has been busy with a story and a theme that
greatly interests them. This theme will take us up
to the musical and will guide us through to the
end of the term when hopefully over the summer
holidays the students will look at the oceans they
visit with more understanding and appreciatation.
Although our theme is mainly science based, we
have also completed a humorous novel study
about a hermit crab that wants to be an explorer.
After reading a chapter as a class and discussing
what happened the children had to use a dictionary to find new vocabulary words from the text and
then complete comprehension activities based on
the story. The students really enjoyed this first experience with studying a book as a group and are
looking forward to completing more novel studies
in Grade 4.
E. Suter
E. Suter
Grades 4 & 6
Grade 5
Our Ocean Novel Study
Grade 5 has carried over their enthusiam for the
school musical „Marina, the Little Mermaid“, into
the classroom. The fifth graders are completing
a novel study, „The Cay“ by Theodore Taylor. This
story is based on a boy who gets shipwrecked
with a black man on a Carribean island. Not only
are the children reading the story as a class, we
are also analysising, predicting, interpretting and
summarizing the story. Although our main focus
of the novel study is language based, we have
been able to explore the other areas of the curriculum in connection with the story. In history we
have looked at World War II, as that is when the
story takes place. The students also researched
the island that the story starts on and looked
at different geographical aspects related to the
island such as; size, language, currency, history of
the island, religion and food. We have found answers to questions we had about oceans by com-
Grades 4 and 6 have been researching a wide
varitey of aspects of the sea. Each child chose a
topic, studied it and then wrote a report about
it. Here are three very different writings from the
classes.
C.Goetsch
Riders to the Sea - A play by J.M. Synge
Text appreciation by Maggie
The Plot
A family which lives on an island off the rough
coast of Ireland, has recently lost another son,
Michael, who drowned. The mother, Maurya, had
several sons, all of whom drowned. Her husband
is also dead. Maurya has one living son, Bartley,
who is determined on going to a horse fair on
the mainland. To get there, he needs to ride the
horses through the surf out to the ship which will
take him to the fair. Maurya and her daughters,
Nora and Cathleen, know that he cannot make it
out to the ship in the current weather, so they try
to convince him not to go. He does, however, and
drowns.
hiding something under her shawl would show
the audience that something out of the ordinary
was happening;
(Cathleen, spinning the wheel rapidly) and
(Cathleen, kneading dough) - This could show
that Cathleen is nervous and trying to relieve her
tension;
Antagonists and Protagonists
A protagonist is the main character of a play
or text and the champion of a cause. Maurya‘s
children, Nora, Cathleen and Bartley, are the
protagonists of Riders to the Sea. Maurya can
also be considered an antagonist, because,
firstly, of her conflict with her children, but more
importantly, of her struggle with the power of the
sea.
God
God is a protagonist because the people of the
island need to believe in Him and His power. They
think that He will help them in their struggle with
the forces of the sea and life. They feel that He is
omnipotent.
Number of references in text to God: 21
The Young Priest
The young priest is a protagonist because the
people think that he is their interlocutor with
God. We start out believing in the priest but when
Bartley dies, we realize the priest‘s impotency in
this matter.
Number of references to the young priest: 8
The Sea
The sea is a character that we do not see on
stage, except for when Bartley‘s body is brought
in and it drips seawater onto the stone floor. The
sea definitely has a central role in the play. It is
an uncontrollable and powerful creature that
the other characters have been fighting against
for all their lives. The sea is therefore the main
antagonist.
Number of references to the sea: 10
Body Movements
Synge uses a lot of subtle body movements and
visual language in the play.
Examples from the beginning of the play:
(Nora, in a low voice) - Nora speaking quietly while
(The door which Nora half closed is blown open
by a gust of wind) This could be the harsh world
invading and reminding the inhabitants of the
cottage that they would not be able to escape
what went on outside. It also introduces the
audience to the unusualness of what is happening
in the play.
Setting
The set of the play at the beginning immediately
tells us that something unusual is going on.
Objects, props and scenery present at beginning
of play:
„Cottage kitchen, with nets, oilskins, spinning
wheel, some new white boards standing by the
wall, etc.“
The audience receives the impression of an old,
rustic, dilapidated and bare cottage, with the
white boards are a stark visual contrast.
Color
Synge often uses the colors white, black, gray,
green and red in the play.
Most of these are earthy colors, which shows us
the simpleness of the lifestyle of the characters.
The most frequently used are white, red and
gray. The presence of red shows that life on
the island and in the cottage is not always like
that, with major happenings being ‘highlighted‘
with bright colors. For example, at the end of
the play, Maurya gains an acceptance and an
understanding of the cruel way of their world. This
is pronounced by the red waistbands covering
the heads of the women who file into the cottage
bringing Bartley‘s body back.
Color frequency: white - 6; green - 2; black - 4; red
- 5; gray - 6
Sharks
Stories
by Sylvie
Storys say that sharks are mean, man-eaters or
killers. But that is all rubbish. The reseachers have
found out that sharks misrecognize surfers or
swimmers because they look like seals if you look
up from under the water.
Species
There are over three hundred and fifty species
of sharks in the whole world. Not all of them are
ferocious, big and frightening. I have taken the
three most interesting sharks ever: the Great
White Shark, the Grey Reef Shark and the big
Hammer Shark. The Great White Shark can grow
up to six meters long. Its maximum swimming
depth is three hundred meters. The Grey Reef
Shark can be up to two meters long and has
the maximum swimming depth of one hundred
meters. The Big Hammer Shark can grow up to six
meters long. Its maximum depth of swimming is
eighty meters.
Enemies
The biggest enemy of the shark is people. They
hunt sharks sometimes for joy. In the tropical
waters sharks also die by the ship propellers. The
big octopus can even choke them. Alligators hunt
sharks. Even a school of dolphins can attack them.
Shark Attacks
A young shark that is only one meter long can bite
a man clearly in half, while a larger one is able
to swallow a man whole! But did you know that
about eighty percent of the sharks have never
attacked a human? Also, worldwide it is estimated
that per year ten humans are killed by sharks,
but around seventy million sharks are killed by
humans!!
Reproduction
Depending on the species, sharks have from
one to a hundred babies at a time. While some
sharks lay eggs, others give birth to live babies.
Many others do not care for their pups after they
are born. A shark is usually not fully grown until
it is ten to fifteen years old, and some live to a
hundred!
Body Function
A shark`s body design is excellent for hunting:
they can hear, smell and feel everything in the
water at a great distance. A shark`s skeleton is
made of cartilage which is not a bone but tough
and flexible, similar to a human`s ear or nose. It`s
has five to seven pairs of breathing slits. These
slits help the shark to absorb oxygen from the
water into the blood stream.
You can be injured by simply touching a shark
because their skin is covered by a kind of gel.
Sharks have a life-time supply of teeth - an adult
goes through seven to twelve teeth a year! Sharks
do not use their teeth to chew. They swallow
things whole or in big pieces.
Trading on the Sea
by Roderic Günter
The use of trading on sea
The sea was and is a very important part of
trading because it makes big distances shorter.
Through this way of trade over time, other trading
goods and countries were found.
What was traded?
Ancestors
The Meledon was a big, fast ‘shark‘ which lived
about twenty-five to ten million years ago. They
have found teeth that are fifteen centimeters long.
The length of the meledon was about thirteen
meters.
Gold, salt, spice, silk, jade and porcelain were
traded principally. These six things were likeable,
interesting, important and created big routes for
trading. For example, silk and jade were traded on
the same route as the Silkroad. Some spices (like
cinnamon) were also traded at the same price as
gold!
Trading routes
pirates robbed the trading ships that came by.
One big and mostly-travelled sea route was the
spiceroute. The spiceroute was also the reason
to build the „Suez“ canal, which made the great
way from (for example) Europe to India very much
shorter. Before people had to sail right around
Africa to get to India or the spice islands. The
spiceroute is also the a route that is still travelled.
Trading on sea today
Trading ships
Today trading on sea is a big network of sea
routes. It has become much easier over the time.
In the 17th century the ships sailed using the
wind. Then came the invention of the steamship
- this was great because the goods were delivered
more quickly than before. Today the ships are
even much quicker.
There were many kinds of trading ships but there
was one particularly famous one named „Kogge“:
it was a big ship with three masts and mostly
carried gold from Egypt. There was also a wellknown old Greek ship named „Kirenia“. It took
almonds, millstones and wine with it to Cyprus.
The abuse of sea trading
Smuggling and pirating were and are an abuse
of trading on sea. Smuggling , for example, is
an illegal way to get stolen or prohibited goods
around the borders of different countries. Pirating
was also an abuse of the sea trading because the
Parents’
Association/
Elternverein
Pflanzmorgen in
der Basistufe
Bei idealen Wetterbedingungen fand der
diesjährige Pflanzvomittag statt. Allen
Organisierenden undTeilnehmenden an dieser
Stelle ein grosses Dankeschön.
Öffnungszeiten
Kaffee-Bar
Donnerstag, 16. Juni, 23. Juni, 30. Juni,
7. Juli, 14 Juli jeweils 14.30 Uhr bis 15.15 Uhr.
Bildauswahl und Layout: D. Landös