The children in K4B have shown interest in pizzas lately, creating pizzas using various construction materials and play-dough. They made ‘pizza’ crafts and talked about the ‘toppings’ on their ‘pizzas’. They also placed the ‘pizzas’ in ‘pizza boxes’ because you can call for delivery.

Upon learning about our interest, some children from K3A came and shared with us the ‘pizza’ that they made. The children started talking about the real pizzas that they made at home and a couple had gone home to make them, sharing with us photos of the cooking session. The children continued to show their interest in it and so we had a discussion about ‘pizza’ which brought up several interesting comments and questions, such as, “In Rome times, there is no pizza.”, “How can we make pizza?”, “Some pizzas are square, some pizzas are round”, and more. A couple of parents had brought in pizzas to share and read a book about the history of pizza with the children. We are looking forward to our field trip to a pizza restaurant where we will be making real pizzas!

K4B Co-teachers – Evie HUANG & Kiwi CHEN

On Wednesday 2^nd May, Year 5 students arrived in their classrooms feeling an equal mixture of excitement and nervousness. We were about to embark on our annual adventure trip to Nanbei Hu which would involve three days of fun, but new activities and two nights sleeping away from home.

We all had a fantastic time! We completed eight activities over the course of the 3 days including:

• Raft building- build a raft that will carry your team on the water! Children were taught new knots to help them secure tires and poles together into a raft of their own design.
• Kayaking – children learned how to paddle and steer a kayak
• High ropes – firm favourites with our students, both the ‘Leap of Faith’ and the ‘Broken bridges’ challenge your sense of heights and build confidence and trust. After being fitted with a helmet and a harness, children climbed up tall poles to reach a platform. Here they either jumped off the pole reaching for the bar or jumped across a gap between two wooden planks. These tasks can be hard to achieve, so we all set a personal goal, no matter how high or far to achieve.
• Team building games- children took part in a range of games to build up with communication, team work and problem solving skills.
• Treasure Hunt- children were taught how to follow bearings on a compass and use a set of bearings and clues to discover treasure hidden across different areas. This was a tricky activity as if you didn’t get the right direction, you could get stuck searching for a clue in the wrong place! Many of us managed to find more than half the clues.
• Catapult building- children built a structure capable of throwing water balloons at the opposing team.
• Hiking- taking a well-hiked path up a local hill, the children got to see a temple hidden inside a cave and the view of the lake from the top.

To celebrate our last night, we had a BBQ! The students were in charge of collecting, heating and distributing food for their friends. They learned about BBQ safety and while a few pieces of bread ended up rather black, none of the kids received any burns.

We would like to thank the staff of our host company, Indier, for keeping us safe, happy and full of food and the Year 5 teachers who ensured we all went to sleep early and encouraged and looked after the students through every challenge and game!

*More photos are available for the Year 5 parents to view on the Year 5 Adventure trip Moodle page.

 

Y5 Leader & Y5E Co-teacher – Victoria HARRISON

The Four Great Inventions of China which are paper-making, compass, gunpowder and printing, played a significant role in the development of ancient Chinese politics, economy and culture. Spread to western countries by a variety of ways, they also brought huge influence to the history of global civilization development.

In Year 3 Chinese Studies Classes, students conducted the topic study in Four Great Inventions under the teacher’s instructions. In terms of paper-making, students not only learned the paper-making methods by the ancient Chinese people, but also experienced the fun of practical creation process.

People in Eastern Han Dynasty made paper with bark, hemp head, cloth rags, and old nets, etc. It was a complicated process and required the cooperation of multiple people. Year 3 students worked in groups and poured the water and pulp to the container. Stirring with chopsticks, they could see the pulp became thicker and thicker. Then students used cups to pour the half-set pulp into the frames with fine-meshed laces and carefully sprinkled the delicate patterns which was designed beforehand. After that, they re-poured the pulp and dried the frames in the windowsill.

In the process of creation, Year 3 students gained a deeper understanding of paper-making as well as developed a greater interest in the Chinese culture.

 

Y3D Co-teacher – Chelsea XIANG

  

The Year 3-4 and Year 5-6 Chinese storytelling competition finals were successfully held at B Hall of Hongqiao Campus on 11^th May.  After the preliminaries and quarter finals which were held in classes and year groups in the past one month, there were 14 candidates who stood out and attended the final competition.

All the Candidates were confident because they were well prepared for this competition. They showed their high level which even went beyond expectation. The candidates spoke vividly and the laughter and applause burst from audience from time to time. The atmosphere was extremely warm. The excellent performances brought great difficulty to the judges. In the end, the champion of CAL (Chinese as an Additional Language) and CFL (Chinese as a First Language) were decided through fierce discussion.

Champion of CAL (Chinese as an Additional Language) group

4C RUWITCH Kai Wallace

6B COCKRAM Sophie- Mia

Champion of CFL (Chinese as a First Language) group

4C XU Yunkai

5A SHU Lang Leroy

6B XU Zhi Xian (Jake)

In addition to thanking all the 14 candidates for their wonderful stories, we also would like to thank four hosts. They were 4C LAI Tai Cho (Thatcher), 4D DU Sophia, 6C HUANG Tzu-Yang (Jonathan) and TUOMELA Sara Aleksandra Jiayi (Sara). It was because of them that the competition ran so smoothly. It is particularly worth mentioning that 4C HIEN Lilou recited the poetry “Poems and Dreams” accompanied by music and her passionate dance, which was stunning.

Although the annual Chinese storytelling competition has successfully ended, the students’ enthusiasm for listening and telling story remains. I believe our children will make continual progress if they can be devoted to Chinese learning with such enthusiasm.

 

Primary Chinese Coordinator – Anna LI

 

Where are you from?

I am from Tokyo, Japan.

How long have you been at YCIS HQ?

5 years

What do you enjoy most about learning here?

My favourite subjects are Literacy and Music.

Tell us an interesting fact about you?

I play the violin.

Can you share a favourite book?

Chris Colfer’s The Land of Stories

 

Interviewed by:

School Captains –  Owen Tianmiao BANKS & Qing Levona SHU

Where are you from?

I am from Northhampton in the UK.

How long have you been teaching at YCIS?

This is my second year.

What do you enjoy most about teaching at YCIS?

The enthusiastic attitude of students towards their learning and the multiculturalism.

Tell us an interesting fact about you?

I used to work at Madame Tussaud’s in London.

Can you share a favourite movie?

My favourite movie is Inception because it is very surreal.

 

Interviewed by:

School Captains –  Owen Tianmiao BANKS & Qing Levona SHU

The teachers will soon start to consider the formation of classes for the next school year.

A number of different factors are considered with the formation of new classes, and these include: friendships; gender; nationality; new students; academic and social-emotional needs.

A balance of the above elements is required in each class. This is quite a complex task that takes considerable time and effort from our teachers. Our classes are of mixed ability and are not based just on academic skill.

There are a number of steps taken to forming new class groups, which include:

• Primary children completing a ‘Hands Activity’ where they are given the opportunity to indicate 5 other children, from their class or Year Level, that they would like to be with in their new class. The intention is for children to be placed with at least one student from their friendship list where possible.
• Co-teachers from the Year Level analyse the data on the hands and prepare new class lists, also taking into consideration the factors mentioned above regarding gender, nationality, academic needs etc.
• The Vice Principal and Coordinators then check, and if need be, modify the draft class lists and place new students.
• The final step, often completed once school has ended for the Semester, is for us to appoint co-teachers to classes.

Please note that parents cannot request specific teachers for their child and that all teachers here are qualified and competent.

The task of forming new classes is completed very thoroughly and carefully, as the intent is to generate classes where children are able to readily learn.

Class lists and co-teachers will be made available to you on Monday 20 August, the day before school commences.

 

Primary Vice Principal – Sherrilie BURTON

We have had the pleasure of watching our interest in mail grow from the first letter Arnav wrote when he missed his friend Owen, to a full-fledged interest that led us to visit the Shanghai Post Office Museum!  Along the way children expressed interest in writing and mailing numerous letters to their friends and families.  We supported this by making clear word walls of the common letter phrases and photographs with names of recipients that they were eager to write.  A post office was constructed in K4A and children began to bring in bags from home to deliver the mail.  They worked hard to clearly label their letters so they would be delivered properly by K4A mail carriers.  Later, we moved our post office to the K4 Learning Commons and invited all friends to create and send mail through our office.  We were fortunate to welcome Viviana’s Daddy to share his knowledge of the post office as a former Post Office Master in the USA.  Our field trip to the Shanghai Post Office Museum was cumulative of our learning as each child was able to post an official item and tour the museum with their parents to learn more about post offices in Shanghai and around the world.

K4A Co-teachers – Traci RAPP & Grace ZHOU

“The pollen fell on the Baihua Island and the fragrance lingered on Yanzi Mansion. The willow catkins entangled with each other in the wind.” It is a classic poetry line written by CAO Xueqin. On a bright spring day, Year 4 students had a field trip to explore Grand View Garden located in Qingpu District.

Grand View Garden was a splendid landscape in Dream of Red Mansions. Its beauty was closely linked with Feng Shui. In the recent Chinese Studies Classes, Year 4 students learned the knowledge of Feng Shui and Dwelling. Feng Shui played a vital role in the layout of Chinese ancient architecture. The ancient Chinese people held the opinion that Feng represented luck and Shui for fortune. Building a mansion in a carefully chosen area helped to bring prosperity to the whole family.

The theoretical knowledge needs to be put into practice to enhance it, so after learning about this, the students took a field trip to Grand View Garden.

It was a bright day for the field trip with white clouds and beautiful flowers. The smiles on children’s faces were as beautiful as the spring flowers. The tourist guide took us to visit over 10 scenic spots including Yihong Park, Xiaoxiang Pavilion, Grand View Garden, Hengwu Garden, etc. Students had a vivid view of the great mansions and pavilions which they had learned from pictures or literature works. Moreover, the tourist guide affectionately introduced the tragic love between JIA Baoyu and LIN Daiyu and the students were deeply touched by the story.

After returning to school, we organized ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ to extend and summarize their understanding on this topic. With the previous knowledge backup and the practical trip experience, students were quite actively involved in the programme.

The magnificent spring scenery and the tales of Grand View Garden are sure to linger on students’ minds.

Y4A Co-teacher – Sophie YOU

 

This year is the first year of Ronghua Campus. Our children had a special Violin Assembly in the new multi-function room. Their fingers danced on the fingerboards. The bows drew across the strings. Our children played with their hearts and conquered the audience. The audience burst into applause.

The Y2 Violin Assembly was held on April 24^th in the multi-function room of Ronghua Campus. The opening performance was ‘Violin Song’. ‘Welcome to the violin… Right hand with the bow,  plays the open strings like so, E and  A and D and G we know…There was a whole world of music, a  whole world of fun beneath our fingertips  321′ The sound of singing and the sound of violins added radiance and beauty to each other. Following were the class performances ‘Wonka’s Welcome Song’ (the theme song of Disney) and the enthusiastic song ‘Orange’. All the children perfectly presented what they learnt in the past year to the audience.

YCIS cultivates students’ musical accomplishment. The following performers are the models: Y2 outstanding soloist Oliver CHI played ‘Concerto in A minor’. Y6 student Zhixian XU, the champion of YCIS, YWIES Young Musicians Music Competition played his award-winning song ‘Concerto in C major’. The Ensemble group played professional string quartet ‘The Smurfs’ and ‘Poland Waltz’. The String Ensemble finally played ‘Romania Spring’ to show their violin skills. They used the language of music to tell us about the great vitality in the spring.

At last, all the Y2 students brought us back to the fifties of China. The catchy lyrics and the ethnic tune of ‘Mai Tang Yuan’ let everyone feel the profound Chinese traditional culture. At the same time, children’s clear pronunciation and wonderful playing showed our school motto: YCIS will align with culture and arts.

 

Violin Teacher – Juliet WANG