INDEX

Message from the ISD leadership

Dear Parents,

We are already well into the new year 2022 and wonderful things are happening at ISD. Both at Primary and Secondary we had many new children starting at ISD after the holiday. We welcome them and their families to our community. We hope that they can settle in quickly and feel at home at ISD.

Tomorrow, the Lunar New Year starts and we wish all celebrating families a wonderful New Year of the Tiger. In primary the students will work on various activities to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

All of the primary groups are working on amazing units like animals and people, jobs, buildings and constructions, space, role-models, digital media and many more. We see them developing more and more every week. PYP 7 had an introduction and information morning about the transfer to the secondary school. And last week they had taster lessons. These had to be done online, but nevertheless they were very successful and engaging.

The Primary coffee morning for parents on 19 January was about the evaluation process and how parents can be part of that as well in the next few months. We will inform you more about that soon.

For the Secondary team the month January and February are the months to prepare admisssions for next year, with the online taster lessons and the Open Day for new students. The online taster lessons with PYP 7 were a success and will be followed by another set of taster lessons this coming week. We are pleased to announce that we can have our Open Day on the 23rd of February both virtual and in the building. We are looking forward to welcoming the PYP 7 students and prospective students from elsewhere on this afternoon. Make sure to sign up via the form on the website.

We have also been looking ahead with our current students: the MYP 4 students to the Personal Project. The MYP 4 students will be thinking of their personal project proposals. In the coming weeks MYP 3 will be introduced to the community project.

The online virtual evening about the Personal Project, the pathway to the Diploma Programme and the Careers Guidance programme was well attended by our MYP 4 students and parents. We hope that the online evening on MYP assessment will be just as well attended. All in all, many initiatives are happening, though partially still online. We do hope that we can start welcoming parents into the building in a few weeks’ time to continue building the ISD community.

We wish you a lovely read with this newsletter.

Sander Raaphorst and Minke Veeneklaas

ISD Pyjama Day

By Sara Moroney 
ISD primary students  and staff got warm and cosy before the winter break.

Aural skills development in the music lessons at ISD 

Contribution by Ilein Bermudez
 
Break time is about to finish. It is almost time to go back to the classroom. Once kids line up, they frequently clap back to the teacher on duty to calm down and stay quiet before going back to their respective classrooms. What if the music teacher is on duty? Then, the clapping session turns into an opportunity to invest in developing their aural skills by playing a fun clapping game… don’t clap this one back! Throughout the clapping session, all kids stay quiet and engaged, looking for that moment when the teacher claps… don’t clap this-one back… ta ta ta-di ta. 
 
Developing our students’ aural skills through various activities is a priority in the music lesson at ISD. Moreover, research suggests that ‘rich auditory experiences’ and acquiring ‘increasingly discriminatory sensitivity to sound’ are essential and relevant not only for music making but for reading and language in general (Hansen & Milligan, 2012). Therefore, this active listening which develops in children the ability to differentiate sounds and connect them to a wider meaning is an essential component of the music lesson at ISD.      
 
How do we create that awareness of sound and its nuances in the lesson? This can be done in several different ways. For example, in figure 1, a graphic score helps children follow the Russian dance by Tchaikovsky (Nutcracker Suite) offering them the possibility to recognize patterns in music and follow them through the different shapes on the score. As seen in figure 2 and 3, by engaging in a guided drawing session while listening to the Aquarium by Saint-Saëns or Mars by Gustav Holst, children translate sounds into their own creation on paper. Finally, after practicing different basic rhythms in the lesson, some groups can already write down the rhythm that is clapped to them as seen in figure 4 (rhythmic notation). Continuity has been key in achieving a successful result since some of our students worked on developing these skills with our previous music teachers, Ms. Michelle and Ms. Federica.  
 
All in all, by means of games, children are encouraged to engage in active listening and develop these essential aural skills for life. For most of them, playing games is still the most important part of the day, so no music lesson ends without playing pass the beat around the room, category 64 or… don’t clap this one back! 

Image 1: Drawing while listening to the Aquarium by Saint-Saëns (The Carnival of the Animals)  
Image 2: Drawing while listening to Mars by Gustav Holst (The Planets) 
Image 3: Graphic notation for Russian Dance-Trepak by Tchaikovsky (Nutcracker Suite) 
Image 4. Rhythm dictation

EcoTeam update

ISD Primary Student Council Takes Action!

Food Collection for Delft Food Bank 

PYP 4: Building Structures

PYP 6 - More and Less in 2022

New Year’s Resolutions from PYP6

PYP 6 inquired about New Year’s around the world. Then they made some resolutions. What will you do more and less of in 2022.

PYP 4-7: “How is it to be an artist?”

Contribution by Ms Zoi Avrimidou

'Which is the process to make an artwork? Where can we find art?'
Getting inspired by the Dutch artist Karel Appel, we have been working on the whole process of how to create an artwork. From the first ideas, drawing some sketches to the final result. Using different techniques, materials and helping each other, we discovered several ways to give life to our own artwork. Now, in the ISD Art Gallery, we can share the artworks with the whole school. 

Picture: PYP 4 artworks

PYP 3A: Learning about Fractions with Pizzas

Contribution by Ms Alanna Johnson

We have been inquiring into fractions and jobs and decided to make Pizzas. We talked about 'Chefs' and the job that they do, the children shared their thoughts. We then watched a video to find out more! When looking into fractions, the children loved the idea of creating fractions using Pizza.
On Wednesday 19th January, we decided to make pizzas. We looked at the ingredients and the children were able to create their own slice using their fraction knowledge when it came to cutting various items.

PYP6 Inquiry into Role Models

By Sara Moroney & Mark Shillitoe

PYP 6 has been inquiring into the central idea that the choice of role models reflects the characteristics that societies and individuals value.

Students explored the genre of biography in reading class and then chose a subject as a role model to learn about. First, they generated questions about the person. Then, they did a ‘close read’ of their book and learned how to take notes with key ideas and phrases. They created a time-line of important events in the person’s life. They then chose 6 words to represent the qualities of the role model.

PYP 7 meets ISD Secondary

By Ms Mirjam de Bruin

The Monty Hall problem is a counter-intuitive statistics puzzle:

• There are 3 doors, behind which are two goats and a car.
• You pick a door (call it door A). You’re hoping for the car of course.
• Monty Hall, the game show host, examines the other doors (B & C) and opens one with a goat. (If both doors have goats, he picks randomly.)

Here’s the game: Do you stick with door A (original guess) or switch to the unopened door? Does it matter? The PYP 7 students now know the answer to this question and can play the game to have a better chance at winning.

It was a great afternoon and all students were very engaged!

Open Day and Online Taster lessons ISD Secondary

Online Taster Lessons on 2 February - starting at 13:30
This week, we are organising another set of online Taster lessons. These are open for ISD primary students, but also for students from other schools. You can register via the form on our website.

Open Day on 23 February @ Colijnlaan
We are pleased to invite all PYP 6 and 7 students (with 1 accompanying parent) for our Open Day on 23 February. The Open Day will be in the form of a 'walking tour' where students can do a small activity in each class room where the different subjects present themselves. There are 2 time slots for which you can sign up: 14-15 and 15-16. You can register via the form on our website.

MYP 4 English:  Gingerbread house competition
 

Contribution by Ms Jennifer Laforge and Ms Nané Paraiso
We didn't let the lockdown ruin the fun-filled lesson the English teachers had planned for our MYP 4 students. On a candy-fume-filled Thursday afternoon, our students created wonderful gingerbread houses. Everyone had a lot of fun with icing, candies and marshmallows and they all collaborated very well. Some were quite creative; thinking outside the box - instead of a house they made an ‘inclusive’ boat. Others created a traditional house and some even included snowmen and a doghouse.
This team-building activity was as fun to watch as we hope it was to build. It was hard to judge but eventually we chose 2 champions and a runner-up. Of course, there had to be some work involved, and so the students were tasked with writing a creative story that linked to the masterpieces they created.

Road to DP

Contribution by Ms Liza Dippenaar

On Thursday 20 January 2021 a MYP 4 information evening took place. During this evening the road to DP was given to all MYP 4 students with information about the subject choices ISD will offer in DP as well as the requirements to enter the DP.

At ISD secondary school we will be offering DP from August 2023 with our authorization process in full swing at the moment.

If parents have any questions about the DP process or admissions they can contact the DP coordinator Ms Liza Dippenaar at l.dippenaar@internationalschooldelft.org

Personal Project

Contribution by Ms Liza Dippenaar

All our MYP 4 students have not officially started their personal project journey. The personal project is a mandatory academic piece all students need to complete in their MYP 5 year. Students have now brainstormed their personal project ideas and all outcomes and goals must be placed on Managebac by Friday 4 February 2022. Personal meetings with each student will be scheduled to discuss their project.

After that, all students will be assigned a supervisor and creating the product and writing the report will start.

I look forward to seeing all students' projects and final report.

Mathematics: Finding patterns in sequences

Contribution by Ms Joke Reijnhoudt

Our MYP 1s started the new year with a fun competition in Maths. The students competed in teams to find patterns in sequences and used algebra to describe linear patterns. Each team started with 10 points and by handing in the correct answer for the level, they earned another 10 points. If the group would make a mistake, they would loose 2 points, but they could still give it another try and get some points. Each level, the patterns in the sequences would get more and more difficult. The more levels the teams solved, the more points they would get. However, if the students work too fast, it is easier to make a mistake and loose points. The MYP 1s had a great time practicing finding patterns during the competition. The group who solved the last level even found the pattern in an exponential sequence! Great work! 

Extended Learning Programme

Contribution by Ms Becky van Paassen
We are very happy to announce that the extended learning programme is starting again from Monday 31st January. It is great to see that lots of students have signed up for clubs, there is a diverse programme on offer. If students still want to sign up for a club, they can email Ms van Passen on the following email address b.vanpaassen@internationalschooldelft.org.

You can see in the image below what's on offer this round. Don't forget that King productions also offer some great clubs at ISD, you can see their clubs on offer on their website: https://kingproductions.co/after-school-isd