February2013

=February Newsletter=

Science News:
MYP5: Students created silly putty in order to study how plastics are examples of polymers.





MYP3: Students complete a lab about reflection using the three different types of mirrors: flat, convex and concave.





MYP2: Students had a debate on the pros and cons of drilling for oil in Africa.



MYP1: Students finished there unit on the classification of life and went on a field trip to the zoo.



Middle School Physical Education



Students in MYP 1 will be starting their gymnastics unit. In this unit they will learn and practice various jumps, balances and rolls. For their summative assessment task they will need to create a gymnastics routine that incorporates several of the above skills. A rubric will guide them and they will be assessed in Criterion B (Movement Composition). The MYP students have all started their dance unit. MYP 2 students this past week learned a few differnt kinds of dances including line and folk dancing. Starting next week they will be put into two groups and work together to create their own dances for their summative assessement task in which they will be assessed in Criterion B and Criterion D (Social Skills). If you would like to know more about this unit please go to the following link, which will take you to the MYP 1 and 2 PE wiki page:

https://wis-pe.wikispaces.com/6th+and+7th+Grade

Students in MYP 3 and 5 are also in the midst of their dance units. MYP 3 students will also be assessed in Criterion B and D as they work together to create a sword fighting dance. This unit is done in collaboration with the Language A teacher and the dance will be part of the Grade 7's 'Romeo and Juliet' play. The MYP 5 students will be assessed only in Crtierion B as they work in pairs to create a duet. This duet will be their interpretation of a serious world issue that is important to them. If you would like to know more about this unit please go to the following link, which will take you to the MYP 3 and 5 PE wiki page:

https://wis-pe.wikispaces.com/8th%2C+9th+and+10th+Grade

Language B Polish

Phase 1 (MYP 1) Students currently are learning about their place. They got know vocabulary connected with school and they start to create plural forms of nouns and adjectives. The next step during this unit will be to learn about their rooms and closest neighborhood. They will learn structures "I have + adjective + noun" and " I go to+ name of the place". Phase 2 (MYP 1/MYP 5) Students are practicing using past tense of imperfect and perfect verbs. Right now they are in the process of creating\g a story book for children as it is their formative assessment. Please look forward their books in next newsletter. At the end of this unit students will be expected to interview a Polish person about her or his life and then present their biography to the teacher. Phase 4 (MYP 2/MYP 3) Students met the Stanislaw Lem stories. They read 2 or 3 of them. We are learning what is typical for sf stories and right now students are writing their own sf stories for children. Please look forward their work in next newsletter.


 * Mathematics**


 * MYP1 **

In math, we finished our algebra unit and now started the angles unit. I enjoyed playing algebra games but I think there should have been more. I learned so much more in that unit I always thought algebra would be terribly hard, but I was proved wrong. I can’t say much about the Angles unit yet.
 * Dhaya: **

In our math class we are currently learning our new unit called “angles”. We finished our unit “algebra”, it was fun and hard. In algebra unit i liked doing some worksheets in the paper what Ms.Ewa gave us, i didn’t enjoyed what we had to solve some problems from the textbooks finding out some rules because it was very hard. In angles our new unit i already little bit found some hard ones it is estimating angles.
 * Hojung: **

In math that we did this month was that we finished off algebra by taking a test and after we did the test we had to make correction.  After break we started angles and we need to know exactly how to measure them by the right degree and it was hard for me because in the states when we measured angles we did it a lot different than here.  We also learned how to play some angle games and draw them on paper and some on the computer.
 * Vuyo: **

In math I learned algebra and now we are starting angles which are kind of easy to figure out. The hard part in our new unite is that we have to estimate angles. We are also measuring and drawing angles.
 * Simphiwe: **

We just started angles and finished algebra. I find hard it in are new unit to estimate a degree of an angle or to line my protractor up with the exact degree. What is easy is to measure angles with a protractor, but as I said before, I can’t measure it exactly.
 * Areez: **


 * MYP 2 **

We have been learning Algebra in this unit. We did additions, subtractions, multiplications, and divisions. It wasn’t so hard for me. However, I didn’t get how to do it. It was fun and interesting unit for me.
 * Chiharu **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This month, I learned about algebra and volume, mass, time. Today we made a 1 m3 and it was very cool.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hyoung Jun: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This unit was about Algebra. We finished it and I am happy because it was hard for me. I got confused on some parts. I found hard expanding brackets but I liked factorising. I honestly didn’t like this unit much but I liked GeoGebra. Now we started volume and mass unit and I think it’s going to be a nice unit!
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Victoria: **




 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MYP 3 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Last month in February we did a lot in Maths. We first finished learning our unit the Pythagoras Theorem where we learnt how to find the length of the hypotenuse of the triangle using the Pythagoras theorem. After we finished that unit we did a test on that and it was not so hard because I understood what to do. When the unit was finished we started learning a new unit called Geometry. There we learnt about many things like co-interior angles, lines of symmetry etc. We didn’t finish learning this unit yet. I really liked this month in math because I got to learn a lot and I didnt know these things before like the Pythagoras theorem. I would like to do it again.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hania: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In February, we learnt about Geometry and Pythagoras Theorem. In the beginning of February, we learnt about Pythagoras Theorem. Actually, I don’t like geometry and everything was connected with Geometry but I found out an interesting Theorem. Pythagoras Theorem was a2+b2=c2. It was interesting to learn the Pythagoras Theorem. There was a history of Pythagoras. It was quite hard to understand but it was okay. We practiced a lot for Pythagoras Theorem. Now we are learning about Geometry. We learned many angles and we solved some worksheet and I think I learn many vocabulary for mathematics and I liked this geometry unit.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jimin: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the month of February we did a lot of things in the Maths lessons. We finished our Pythagoras Theorem unit and started with a new unit on Geometry. We learnt about types of Angles we learnt about symmetry, Congruence of triangles. I found the Angles part very interesting because I didn’t know that there are more types of Angles. I found the symmetry part kind of boring because we have to kind of focus a little more.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shivangi: **




 * MYP 5**

Our most recent unit in maths was equations and inequalities. We learned a lot in this unit. I liked solving quadratic equations most, because there were many different ways of doing this (such as completing a perfect square and other methods of factorising algebraic expressions). The hardest thing was probably remembering all of the formulas for the areas and volume of different shapes for the test; i had problems with memorising them, and it was also difficult to apply them. Overall, I learned a lot, and I generally understood it.
 * Ola:**

During this unit the MYP 5 students have been working on equations. The final assessment for this unit was a test regarding all of the topics we have discovered so far during this year. I think that this unit was a bit confusing at first but I kind of find it quite easy since its connected with Algebra. In this unit I learned how to solve the value of a pronumeral, how to mark different things on a line of numbers and factorising and expanding expressions.
 * Unna:**

**Music:**
In March we start preparing for Spring Concert 2013. This event will take place at the Zielinskiego Campus gym on May 16th from 6 pm. The most important performance for students from Grades 5 to 10 will be “Bolero” by Maurice Ravel. Parents are also welcome to join in playing this piece of music. We will need especially those ones, who can play some strings or the wind instruments. If you are interested in taking part, please contact with Mr. Radek via email: [|tokarz@fem.org.pl].

=Visual Arts=

MYP 1
Grade 6 has successfuly completed the painting task - Landscape Antartica and ended Landscape-Antartica Unit.

MYP 2
Grade 7 almost finished the Pointillism task. They experienced some differnt, contemporary approach to this topic, using bottle cups in ths assignment.

MYP 3
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We start our new unit in Visual Arts. Our unit is Landscape which means, artwork on the land. We had to create our own landscape, now we started to make our artwork. We should make our artworks by natural materials. For examples, grains and groats. We are getting interested in this unit and we will keep this hard work! <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
 * Jimin reflection:**

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MYP 5
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Grade 10 complited Illustration unit. Below Emmi's interpretation of //The Lion King// and Ola's //Chronicles of Narnia// application <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">



=<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Design Technology =

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">MYP 1
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Grade 6 has started the Unit "The Structure of the book". They are currently doing presantation for whole school to show how the book is built.

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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">MYP 2
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Grade 7 is doing 3D letter design project. Below Chiharu's design. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">MYP 3
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">In February Grade 8 prepared folk assembly. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In this assembly, the 8th graders were present national folk design as well as their knowledge about ceramics. There was small exhibition of wooden utensils they had made in style of their own culture. Not only utensils was being presented, but also there was studen'ts ceramic displayed. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Content:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1. Masters of Ceremony introduction speech

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2. Folk presentations: Swedish, Korean and Folk (result of Grade 8 Design Technology Folk Unit)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3. Presentation of knowledge about Ceramics (result of Grade 8 Visual Arts Ceramics Unit)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4. Small exhibition of Grade 8 ceramics and folk works

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5. Tasting folk cupcakes prepared by Hania Smith

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Masters of Ceremony: SeungWoo Lee, SeungHwan Kim

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Presenters: Shivangi Kachole, JiMin Nam, Hania Smith <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">MYP 5
**Grade 10 reflection:**

In this unit, we designed our own sleds/sleigh. We especially focused on the designed process. We learned how to plan our project. We discovered the different products that we can create through our own interpretations and imagination. As a final product we had to create a tableau advertising our sled/sleigh for some company.

=<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Language A =

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">MYP 1
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The MYP 1 students presented their timelines last week. They shared lots of interesting information about themselves and their lives and proved that they all have plenty of stories to tell! They have written the introductions to their autobiographies already. They have completed the third draft of their 'First Day of School' memories and are now working on writing about some of the more unpleasant things such as mean teachers from their past! We are reading Roald Dahl's autobiography and analysing the ways in which he makes his writing interesting.

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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">MYP 2
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">In MYP 2, we have started a new unit on children's books. We have been looking at a variety of children's stories and analysing them in terms of theme and message and also the use of literary tools such as alliteration, repetition, rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, metaphor, simile and personification. At the moment each student has selected a children's story to analyse in depth and they will present their findings in the form of a power point presentation next Wednesday.Once this is complete, we will discuss possible themes for children's stories and the students will work on writing their own children's story. Then, in DT, they will work on illustrating their stories.

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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">MYP 3
<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">In MYP 3, we have started a new unit on Public Speaking. The unit question asks 'What makes a good speaker?' During this unit we will examine a variety of speeches and discuss what makes them effective. We will also focus on presentation skills and at the end of the unit the students will write and present their own speech on a subject they feel strongly about.



MYP 5
<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Let me first introduce myself before I talk about the activities that MYP5 has been involved in this last month. I am Heike Hemelsoet and I am a student teacher from the Netherlands. In September 2012, I started my teacher training at Utrecht University and did an internship at a bilingual school in the Netherlands. At the beginning of this year, I moved to Wroclaw to do an internship here at WIS and ATUT. Until the end of March, I will be teaching MYP5 about Shakespeare’s play __Macbeth__. In this unit the focus will be on how other modern media have interpreted the play and adapted it for the big screen. Apart from reading the play, the students will watch scenes from the following film adaptations: Polanski’s __The Tragedy of Macbeth__ and Casson’s __A Performance of Macbeth__. At the end of the unit the students will do a comparative commentary on one of the major scenes of the play and compare it to the two film versions. <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">To introduce this unit, the pupils watched the film __Shakespeare in Love__ to get an idea of what life was like during Shakespeare’s time. It also gave them an opportunity to see how the director and the script writers had incorporated actual events and people into a fictional film. <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">After this, the students were introduced to the general plot of __Macbeth__ and had to think about different scenarios and how these scenarios could end. For example, the students got the following scenario: //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">While walking home together, two close friends are told by a reliable source that each will get the thing he or she covets more than anything else: a date with that special someone, the one and only car of its kind, the last ticket to the best seat for the greatest performance of a favourite band or team. Big problem: there are two friends but only one date or car or ticket, and each of the friends wants it. // <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This scenario is a modern interpretation of one of the scenes of __Macbeth__ and the students had to think about the different outcomes this situation could have. Once they had done this they had to pick one outcome and write a short play. They enacted this play in class as you can see in the pictures below.

=<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">World Studies =

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">MYP 1
<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Welcome Simphiwe & Vuyo from America to World Studies!

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">We have been studying about key battles of the American Revolution.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Simphiwe has been learning about the battle of Saratoga. The reason he was studying Saratoga was because the Americans had built a fort there and they thought they would never lose it, but in the end they lost Saratoga and their hopes for winning the revolution, for a while. ..

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Vuyo’s battle was about the battle of Ticonderoga. It was important because the British won and it gave control of the North, for a while. ..

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Dhaya did the battle of Yorktown. It was important because the colonists won and it was the last battle in the revolution. After about a year, a treaty was signed by the British. It was known as the Treaty of Paris.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Our next unit is on Ancient Greece.

=<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">MYP 2 =

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<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Welcome Yun Su to World Studies!

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">During this unit, we have been learning about the Industrial Revolution.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Recently, we have learned about some of the worst jobs in Victorian times.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">We learned that Chiharu is an adrenaline junkie who would make a perfect navvy. Navvies had the responsibility of carrying dynamite so engineers could make tunnels for trains.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">We learned that Hyoung Jun really hates dogs and cats and would make a really good Dog/Cat Killer. Dog/Cat Killers had to go around dirty streets and kill disease-spreading dogs and cats at night.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">We learnted that Victoria would not make a very good chimney sweeper because she doesn’t like getting stabbed in the feet, which is what happened when you didn't sweep fast enough.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Our next unit will be on the Renaissance.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">MYP 3
<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The 8s have been studying the Russian Revolution.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">They are finishing this unit up by formulating their own research questions related to how the Bolsheviks consolidated power after the October Revolution.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Their next unit will be on government systems.

=<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">MYP 5 =

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">During this unit, in World Studies, we have been learning about the French Revolution and its causes.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">We have also learned the proper way of evaluating our sources, as it’s very important.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">We investigated the major figures of the French Revolution and their influences on it.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Our final assessment will be a critical analysis and presentation of a primary source from the French Revolution.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">We have found Marie Antoinette very fascinating as she still seems to generate lots of interest more than 2 centuries after her death, even though she didn’t exercise a lot of legal power as queen of France.

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Our next unit will be an introduction to economics.