The children have settled well after coming back from the National Holiday. They looked forward to Book Week with great excitement and enjoyed their Pajama Day and the yummy hot chocolate. We had an exciting discussion about costumes and what each child was going to wear, for our Character Parade. A special big ‘Thank you’ to our lovely parents who took time out their day to come and read their favourite stories with the children.  We are currently enjoying listening to stories about cats and dogs, the children have a particular interest in role play and feeding the animals.

K3B Co-Teachers – Teresa LARA & Alina WANG

 

On Thursday 8^th November 2018, the Year Four Team had an Eco-Warrior Afternoon where parents were invited to come along and join in the celebration of the student’s learning. The classrooms and Learning Community areas were bustling with dozens of parents who had come to support their children.

The unit of work involved students learning about habitats from across the globe and how we can work together to save these habitats. The students were very passionate about the topic and learned lots of ways in which to slow down, or even reverse some of the damage that has been caused by humans over the years.

Students had worked on this project as a learning community, meaning on this occasion, that they chose their habitat of interest and worked collaboratively with other students from across the year group. A range of independent home learning and school based team work led towards some fabulous final products. The students created imovies, Powerpoint Presentations, letters to presidents, posters, question boxes and models of habitats with visual examples of the damage being caused. The majority of this learning was student led.

We all hope that raising this level of awareness at such a young age, will help to steer change and contribute towards building a better future and protecting our planet and the wonderful creatures in it.

Year 4 Leader & Y4D Co-Teacher – Julie GIRDHAM

In the recent Chinese Studies Classes, the children conducted their topic study of Autumn. They not only gained the knowledge of the features of the season, but also learned the children’s songs and stories regarding autumn. In order to enable the children to explore the autumn in nature, we were happy to take the field trip to Century Park in Pudong on November 13 with the guidance of the teachers and our parent volunteers.

Walking along the path in the park, we could feel the autumn breeze and the falling leaves. Singing the song of Little Leaves, the children couldn’t wait to pick up the leaves on the ground. Soon their little hands were full of leaves of various kinds such as yellow ginkgo leaves, brown phoenix tree leaves, and red maple leaves, etc. The children took great interest in observing the leaves. “Look, that leaf is like a butterfly and that one is just like a fan.”

After the snack time, it came to the group work part. Students in groups worked together to observe and to paint. With paper and pencils, hands and minds, the children wrote down their ideas on paper to share with others what they had seen, heard and smelt of autumn.

The children had their favorite playing time after the picnic lunch. They flew the kite, played the Chicken vs Eagle and Throwing the Handkerchief. They ran and laughed happily in the lawn and enjoyed the joyful time in the autumn sun.

The children went back to school at 2pm with their laughter all along the way, which brought a happy end to our field trip to explore the autumn.

Y1D Co-Teacher – Cindy DU

The aim of this year’s Puxi Primary Book Week is to encourage ‘bridging’ (making connections, collaboration and communication) throughout our school; shared reading and shared celebrations to highlight our love of reading.

We got off to a flying start with a 3-day visit from Ursula Holden-Gill, a British award-winning actress and story teller who came to share her tales and love of storytelling with the children and teachers.

Storytelling is an ancient and valuable art that extends around the globe, students learnt that stories began with the oral tradition, meaning they were passed on by being heard and retold. Ursula told us about stories have lasted hundreds and even thousands of years and are still being told.

During Ursula’s performances children and teachers were able to join in, be active and engaged in the story. This method allowed our students to develop vocabulary and their imaginations. YCIS students loved engaging with her animated stories told out loud and learnt that storytelling is more than just reading the words of a story. It takes many other skills as well. It is important to be able to use different tones in your voice when you are telling a story.

We recommend parents to continue sharing the love of reading at home. Storytelling and reading together provides parents with the opportunity to model and develop your child’s persistence, curiosity, perspective-taking and empathy.

These are important traits that support learning, and reading with your child is one way to allow you to support their development.

www.ursulaholdengill.com

Upper Primary Coordinator – Elizabeth COMPTON

2018‐2019 Puxi Primary CCAs Session One will finish on 14 December except the following activities:

 18^th December: 

Y1-Y2 Chess(Introductory)

Children’s Creative Art Y1-Y2

Children’s Creative Art Y3-Y6

Creative Writing Club

Happy Hands

Y1-Y2 Multisport Soccer

Pinata making and breaking

Stem Challenges

Table Top Gaming

XMA Kungfu

Y1-Y2 Key Board

Y3-6 Ballet

Y3-6 Cello Group

Y3-6 Skateboard

Senior Choir

Entrepreneurs Hub

Zumba

18^th January: 

Y1-2 Hip-Hop Dance

Y1-Y2 Drum Ket

Y3-6 Chinese Dance

Y3-6 Hip-Hop Dance

10^th May: 

Photoshop

14^th June: 

HQ Orchestra

19^th June: 

Junior Ensemble

On November 14^th, 2018, the IB Chinese Language B HL students had the rare opportunity to explore various prominent locations most sensitive to the influences of globalization. The locations included Pearl Tower, a structure notable to tourists,  International Financial Center， a building notable for western brands, and Tianzifang, a street blended with Shanghai ordinary life and international charm. While visiting the Pearl Tower, each student had the opportunity to discover and be more knowledgeable in China’s development ever since western culture entered the country.

The second location was a prestigious shopping mall, International Financial Center known for housing multiple western brands known on an international scale, the students were tasked to question store managers across multiple different western brands to discuss their views on globalization and their business strategies for different ethnicity’s.

The last but not least location was Tianzifang, also known as Taikang Road, a small street in Dapuqiao area. Tianzifang features Shanghai’s unique Shikumen buildings, a design influenced by Western and French culture. In addition, along the street are historical Shanghai tea houses and galleries, accompanied by cuisines such as Thai, American etc. During the students visit in Tianzifang, they were tasked to survey and interview store managers about their views on globalization and customer-related questions.

Y13A – Henry GAO

Year 7, 8 and 9 students are reading to challenge themselves! Lower School students have been challenged to read as many books as they personally think possible over a period of three months.

Students should choose enjoyable books that are age appropriate and appropriate for their own reading level. This challenge is about each student’s own journey.

All students have been given a Reading Challenge Form and will be receiving a Panda Awards Bookmark.

In conjunction with The Reading Challenge we are also voting in the Panda Book Awards and participating in Battle of the Books, as mentioned by, Ms. Castle, our Head Librarian, in a previous Newsletter. In the Panda Book Awards students vote on the novel they liked best from the Panda Book List during the three weeks following the Chinese New Year. And on March 8, teams from our school can participate in the Battle of the Books.

Ask your child if they have taken a risk in the number of books they have chosen or in the types of books they are reading. Encourage your child to read a variety of fiction and read along with them!

Panda Award Books
http://ycis-sh.libguides.com/read4fun/PandaAwards

Shanghai Battle of the Books
http://ycis-sh.libguides.com/read4fun/SBOB

Ms. Waheeda Khan and the Lower Secondary English Teachers

On 15 November, the Y9-11 CAL 5 classes went on a trip to one of Shanghai’s tourist attraction, The Yu Yuan Garden.

The trip was exciting itself, as there were tons of different attractions that students could enjoy. We visited many different temples, and while there was a worksheet to fill in, keeping each other company and looking around the place and enjoying sights together was a fun experience. In my opinion, the point of the trip that will most likely stick with everyone was that in midst of the trip, the meeting point changed, meaning we were all confused where to find the teachers, hence having to ask around for directions and navigate our own way through.

In the end, students were given free time to enjoy themselves and look around. Those who brought money found leisure in strolling around the outside garden grounds, visiting restaurants and traditional dumpling shops. There was a special soup dumpling that was triple the size of a regular one, and you required a straw to drink the soup, otherwise it would pop and spill everywhere! In short, the trip was an educational and fun experience, and left lots to look back and reminisce on!

Y10A – KUSNENWAR Siya Suchant

 

Last Wednesday Y3 Chinese B SL class had a trip to Fengjing Ancient Town. The purpose of the trip was to practice students’ Chinese in the real world. It was essential to understand the culture and traditional features of the town, such information could be gathered from local museums and people.

During the trip students were able to buy local snacks like stinky tofu and grilled squid. For lunch, students were given an opportunity to get anything they wanted, however all communication had to be in Chinese. Some choice to embrace the purpose of the trip and go to Chinese local restaurants, while others preferred to stick with the comfort food served in Starbucks. Final challenge was to survey a local about his or her life and find out what they do in their spare time and typically buy.

To end the trip all students were invited by their Chinese teacher Ms. Cao to go on a boat ride across the Ancient town. Everyone enjoyed the exploration and was very happy about a day spent outside classroom walls.

Y13C – KIRINA Yulia

On the 31^st of October, we, the Year 12 Art students, boarded a train to go to Beijing. The purpose of the trip was for us to find inspiration and get a deeper understanding of art with meaning, which we, in turn, can incorporate into our IB Art coursework. We visited a variety of galleries, to not only get a chance to investigate the use of different media, techniques, and colours, but to also learn to appreciate the differences between the authentic Ancient Chinese Art and the modern Contemporary Chinese Art.

798 was first on our itinerary. 798 is a collection of galleries consisting of a plethora of different artists’ work. The featured artwork was predominantly contemporary. It was interesting to evaluate how each artist played with colour combinations and textures and how they manipulated those into making their own style. Red Gate Gallery, a popular gallery in Beijing, moved to 798, so we went there and had the opportunity to talk to a well-established curator. He gave us a run-down of art history in China, and talked about the globalization of Chinese artists. Although slightly more commercialized now, 798 was a great place to cumulate a vast amount of art-related knowledge and ideas.

The National Art Gallery was another gallery that we had the chance to visit. Multiple exhibitions were held there so we got the chance to see Chinese calligraphy and folk paintings whilst also seeing British surrealism paintings. A lot of the exhibitions were focused on human figures, which was helpful as one of our assignments later on is going to be to paint portraits. The paintings displayed at this gallery were more based on politics and history. There was a painting of a UN conference, and another one depicting the erupting of Mount Vesuvius and the downfall of Pompeii. It was fascinating to see how artists decided to incorporate events from two millennia ago to events within this decade. Again, this is relevant to our class as another one of our assignments is to produce work based on recent news events.

Being able to soak in all the art within those couple days was definitely beneficial, as we are at the stage where we haven’t necessarily developed our own style yet, and after this exposure I believe we will slowly start to notice our strengths and preferences and use this to cultivate our own unique styles. This experience will definitely pose as an inspiration for us for when the time comes for us to set up our own exhibition at the end of our course. Taking everything into account, this trip was a truly enriching experience; and it was enjoyable to browse art alongside my friends.

Y12B – Ashlee Weeks