March+Newsletter

Here is the __March__ MS __Newsletter__


 * Important __Dates__ **


 * __Wednesday__ 11th April __Back__ to school
 * Saturday 28th April - Sunday 6th May May __holiday__

**Middle School Physical Education**

MYP 1 students just __finished__ their Gymnastics Unit. During this unit students learned and practiced various jumps, balances and rolls. For each skill category they __started__ with simple skills and worked their way up to __more__ sophisticated ones. For their summative assessment task (MYP Criterion B: Movement Compositions) students had to create a gymnastics routines in which they linked 8 different skills together (the routine had to have at least 2 jumps, 2 balances and 2 rolls). When creating the routine each __student__ had to make sure that the skills flowed into one another as well as demonstrate control of the skills.

MYP 2 students also recently completed their Rhythms and Dance Unit. At the beginng of the unit they learned various dance types including Line (Papaya, Slap __Leather__), Folk (Viginia Reel) and __social__ dance (cha-cha). For their summative assessment task (MYP Criterion B: Movement Composition) students were split into groups of 4 and each group was responsible for composing, practicing and performing their own creative dance. Each dance consisted of the 4 __members__ dancing together in unision for 2-3 minutes. Within this time each student was also responsible for a solo part. Some of the MYP gymnastics routines as well as the MYP 2 creative dance performances will be __posted__ shortly on the following PE wiki link: MYP 1 and 2.

MYP 3-5 students have also been __working__ in their Rhythms and Dance unit. The MYP 3 and 4 students have been working __hard__ to create a "Sword Fight" dance from the play, "Romeo and Juliet." The grade 7 students are __reading__ this play in their Langauge A __class__ and will eventually perform a couple of scenes from the play and this dance will be part of this performance so this unit is done collaboratively with the Language A __teacher__. We are planning for the __final__ performance to take place sometime in May after the Spring Break.


 * Language B __Polish__ **

__MYP 1/2 advanced__ students finished their __Home__ Unit. During the unit, the students read __the book__ "Opium w rosole" by Magorzata Musierowicz. It was a __big__ challenge for students but they did well. They tried to __find__ answers to the questions //What is a real __home__? What makes __the home__?// Once we answered these __questions__ the students' __job__ was to create the "Perfect home for Aurelia". Aurelia was one of the characters of __the book__. All students put a __lot__ of effort into this task and their propositions were really interesting. You can see in on pictures __below__.

Our __current__ unit is "Shopping" but we concentrate on Home budget. The students have a __new__ __project__ to __complete__. They have to __imagine__ they are a 3 person family (father, mother and daughter) with a monthly __income__ 4100 zl. Their job is to create a perfect budget. During the unit, there is a lot of discussion and students are expected to use new discussion expressions that were introduced to the them at the beginning.

MYP 1/MYP 3 Beginners After the unit 'My Day' we are continuig to __talk__ about our everyday habits in the unit 'My Free Time. In this unit we __focus__ on the leisure time. We tell/read/listen about our hobbies and interests. We learn how to make an appointment and how to order __food__ in a restaurannt and/or a cafe. Students also prepared a __survey__ that will be introduced to Atut students to __find__ out how __Polish__ kids spend their free time. At the end we will discuss the __results__.

** Mathematics **

MYP 1: Students are in the midst of their ‘Angles’ unit. They have been __learning__ how to draw, __estimate__ and measure angles. They have recognized angles in real __life__ objects and situations. __Now__ they are classifying angles by determining their properties. After the break they will start working on the final assessment of this unit.

MYP 2: Students finished the Time, Volume and Mass unit. They tried to answer one question: Can you go one day without using Math? After the break they will start the Graphs, Tables, and Charts unit and they will be learning how to draw, read and interpret line, sector and bar graphs. Then the students will learn how to choose the best statistical graph depending on the type of data that needs to be represented and draw graphs using a spreadsheet.

MYP 3/4: Unna is finishing the Geometry unit. She can identify and name angles formed by the intersection of straight lines. Now she is learning about similar and congruent figures. MYP 4 students have just started the Consumer Arithemetic unit. This is a field of mathematics, which shows how to use basic math skills in real life situations such as buying a car, budgeting money, investing, paying taxes, etc.

MYP 5: Students finished the Trigonometry unit and they are learning about functions now. We started with drawing graphs of straight lines, parabolas, cubics and polynomials. The students can identify properties of graphs using translation, reflection and scale factor. They also can use function notation effectively and draw graphs of functions and their inverses. During this unit we use Geogebra software often.

=Language A =

**MYP 1**

The MYP 1 students are nearing the end of their unit on Greek Mythology. On Wednesday they presented the speeches that they had been working on and did a wonderful job of remembering their lines and really trying to get into character. The costumes were wonderful too! The students who were absent yesterday will present when we come back after the holiday. Next week, the students will also start working on creating their own original myths which will demonstrate their understanding of the structure of myths and the common features of Greek mythology while also allowing them to get creative!





**MYP 2** The MYP 2 students have now begun their unit on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and seem to be excited about the acting side of things! The unit questions are: //How can the same text be interpreted in different ways?// And //How can we best work together to create a play in order to entertain a WIS audience?// After studying the play and analysing different versions of the play – in film, ballet and on the stage, the students will work together to created their own interpretation of some of the scenes of the play.

**MYP 3 & 4** The MYP 3/4 students have begun a new unit on dramatising history. This unit will be taught in close conjunction with World Studies. While Mr Dooley examines the history of the period from the end of World War II to the Vietnam War, in language A, we will be looking at how novelists, playwrights and film directors dramatize history and how they create work that speaks to audiences today. The study of Arthur Miller’s play __The Crucible__, will be central to this unit. Although set in the late 1600s and dealing with the subject of witchcraft, the play mirrors in many ways the communist witch hunts in the US during the Cold War period. The students began the unit by brainstorming what they know already on the subject and setting up lines of inquiry to find out more information. They conducted research and presented their findings in the form of a PowerPoint. For this activity, the focus was on presentation skills – creating slides containing key information that guided the presentation, connecting with the audience and delivering information in an engaging way.

**MYP 5** The MYP 5 students have started a new unit on the power of persuasion. The students will read the novel __1984__ and lead weekly discussions on the issues in the book, paying particular attention to the ways in which the people of Oceana are controlled. Along side this novel study, we will also be looking at the power of the media and how advertising and propaganda are used to persuade and manipulate us today. In conjunction with this unit, Mr Dooley, in his unit on the American elections, will also be analysing propaganda used by the candidates during the run up to the elections, which complements what we are doing in Language A perfectly.

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The Sixes have been exploring the world's oldest religion, Hinduism. This week they concluded research projects into the different gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon, like Ganesh, the lord of obstacles. Hindus pray to him before embarking on a new job or challenging enterprise. ======

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The Sevens are wrapping up their unit on the Renaissance with their presentations on some of the inventions that arose from this rich period of human creativity. They also got the opportunity to sharpen their public speaking skills (video to come). Some of the transformative creations on hand were the canon and the printing press, a version of which was actually invented in Korea several centuries before Gutenberg! ======

MYP 3/4
The Eight/Nines continue with their unit on the Cold War. We've been discussing the Korean War this week and taking advantage of the native speaking abilities of our Korean students to help us interpret some propaganda from the period, like this North Korean poster from 1950.

MYP 5
The Tens have been studying more modern examples of propaganda as they continue their unit on American politics and the 2008 US election cycle. This week we unpacked Hillary Clinton's 30-second spot "3 AM," in which she asks voters about the future occupant of the Oval Office, "It's 3 AM and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"

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