The Dancing Decimal

  

Grade 6 students are learning how to multiply and divide decimal numbers by multiples of 10. I realized that most students struggle with this concept. Thus, it was time for a hands-on fun activity.

  I used colored chalk to draw the place value frame on the floor of the playground.

We used a playground ball to represent the decimal point.

Students were given a piece of paper with a digit on it to stand in the right place value place.

I then called an operation and a power of 10 and students shall shift accordingly.

This activity not only provides a great visual for the students, but it also adds an active element for my kinesthetic learners.

Global Teenager Project- Phase 2

During the second phase of GTP, KSPS grade 6 students communicated and collaborated with our friends in Ukraine and Bangladesh to learn about the educational systems in their countries. We had the chance to compare their educational systems to that of Lebanon. Simultaneously, we informed our friends in Bangladesh and Ukraine about the educational system here in Lebanon. To check our understanding, our friends asked us to draw a Venn diagram to compare and contrast between the educational systems in Ukraine and Bangladesh.

                            The wiki space where we exchanged our findings

Modeling the parts of the digestive system- Kinesthetic model

Kinesthetic grade 5 students acted out the process of digestion in an interesting activity.
 First, we placed several M &Ms in a small plastic bag. 

Then, we placed the bag of candies along with wadded papers in a plastic container.

 Finally, we brought spray bottles filled with water that demonstrated the juices in our digestive system; we labeled them as Saliva, gastric juice, pancreatic juice, and bile. 

Now it’s grade 5 students turn to model the digestive system. Students were divided into 2 groups and lined up facing each other. The path between them is the digestive tract. All the students worked together to push the food particles down the tract. I assigned a job for each pairs of students, based on their position along the digestive tract. The first 2 students were the molars that cut food into small pieces. Then the second 2 students were the saliva, stomach, small intestine, blood, large intestine, and finally the rectum.

 At the end of this activity we all enjoyed eating the delicious M & Ms.

Global Teenager Project

For the second year, KSPS 6th graders are taking part in an international collaborative project; Global Teenager Project. This year the project is entitled “Sustainable Development” and during this activity participating students will have the opportunity to adopt a set of global goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda.
Participating schools are: Makassed Khalil Shehab School and Hajj Bahaa Eddine Hariri School from Lebanon, Argrani School and College from Bangladesh and Kirovograd Collegium from Ukraine.
During the first stage students from all schools exchanged photos and welcome notes through a wiki space.
We were very happy to meet new friends that talk different languages and have different traditions and backgrounds.
                                         Photos we received

Letters we received

My Character Counts

Every month KSPS students are learning a new value; so far they learned about trustworthiness, respect, and responsibility. These character lessons are helping our students to develop a safe, caring classroom community. To maintain these values along with our students all the times, I asked my 6th graders to create a note book entitled “My Character Counts”. In this notebook, students will write down everything they learned from the character building lessons, draw corresponding diagrams, and share their experiences… At the end of the scholastic year, every student will have “My Character Counts” notebook which is a valuable recourse to learn about character building and share with our community.

Science Hands-on Activities

Since I believe that students learn best if they are actively engaged, several hands-on activities are always performed during science classes.

The Life Cycle Plate:

Grade 4 students were studying about the life cycle of living things. They translated their learning into an interesting hands-on activity. Every student took a life cycle of a different living thing and formulated “The Life Cycle Plate”.

Mitosis activities:

Teaching students about Mitosis is quite challenging since this lesson is completely new for my fifth graders.

I asked students to translate the stages of Mitosis into “The Mitosis Booklet” and “The Mitosis Plates”. These 2 activities ensured that students fully understood and memorized the stages of Mitosis.

The Mitosis  Plates 

The Mitosis Booklet

Angles in Our Names!

Did you know that your name is full of angles? 
Well, you can try this activity as my 6th graders. While we were studying about measuring and types of angles I asked my students to draw their own name, then measure the angles using their protractors and classify them. Finally, students sat in groups of 4 members each and compared angles found in their names (number, type).

Students learned that angles are found in almost everything around us. They also learned to measure and classify angles in a very funny and innovative way.  
I bet you are all trying to find angles in your own names. 

What is Respect?!

This month all KSPS students are learning about a new value “Respect”.

What is respect? And why it is important for us to be respectful? To answer these questions 6^th graders did some investigations; they browsed the net and asked their parents and teachers about the meaning of respect. Now it’s time to translate their understandings into actions, every student wrote a different experience they faced where they disrespected their parents, siblings, friends…

Every student shared his/her experience in front of the whole class, then we selected a 6^th grader story and acted it out.

Script by: Ahmad Imad

Mother: jana Al Ghaly
Dad: Jalal Hijazi
Son: Mohammad Al Masri

Finally, we used “Wordle” a web 2.0 tool to write synonyms of respect that we learned in this activity.

 

 

Am I a trustworthy person?

Taking a part in the character building program, KSPS six graders were exposed to different activities that revealed the true meaning of September value "Trustworthiness". They watched youtube videos that denfined trustworthiness, and did several cooperative activities that reflected the importance of being a trustworthy person in our community. Finally, they used the web 2.0 tool "Answer Garden" to define trustworthiness in their own words.

 
Check Rasha, KSPS 6 grader, proving for others that she is a trustworthy person.

You may post your answers in the above Answer Garden!

Science Fair Winners!

I’m elated to announce that KSPS students won 3 prizes at the Makassed Science Fair. This amazing result was achieved due to the hard work and the effort of our young scientists. Let’s all congratulate and salute our winners:

                    First Prize: Ali Ahmad- Tiny Dancers

      Second Prize: Saffiya Sherif- Rainbow Color Wheel

               Third Prize: Youssef Halabi- Coloring Robot

"Wonders of Water" Science fair

On Wednesday April 22, KSPS organized its first annual science fair entitled "Wonders of Water"; WOW.
 KSPS little scientists from grades 1 till 6 did amazing and unique experiments related to water in front of their parents, teachers, mates, and our guests from the US embassy; Mr. Banches and Ms. Edith Bitar.
 All of our guests were impressed by the work of our little scientists, they showed deep understanding of different science concepts related to water and high self confidence.
Stay tuned to tell you more details about our scientists' experiments. 

Our guests became scientists too!

Thank you Ms. Gassia for your help

We gave our guests the water cycle bracelet that represents the stages of the water cycle

                                          

Mr. Splash was there too!

        We put our plegdes to save and protect our water resources

                   Thank you Mrs. Iman for this creative piece of art

Thank you parents for your support

A field trip to Damour river

KSPS students are participating in an international collaborative activity with different schools around the world. The aim of this activity is to study the impact of human behaviour on river health in several countries. Students need to participate in river excursions with "hands-on" water analysis. For this reason, our students visited “Damour River” located in Mount-Lebanon and took a sample of water from it. They also did several tests on the river’s water; measured the water’s temperature and its PH. KSPS students will share their findings with our partner schools participating in this activity. Simultaneously, our partner schools will send us their findings too.

Our friends in Bengladesh shared their findings

It's Zero Discrimination Day at KSPS

Zero Discrimination Day is an annual worldwide event to celebrate diversity and reject discrimination.

 Since KSPS is a learning community that rejects discrimination, its young clovers decided to celebrate “zero discrimination day” in a funny and unique way.

They said no for discrimination and yes for equity. Yes we are all equal; we all have the same rights and responsibilities regardless our nationality.

Students of different nationalities at KSPS wore their mother country traditional costumes , presented power point presentations about their countries, and prepared delicious traditional food from their mother country.

                     Shaed, Karen, Isam and Moataz are Palestinians  

 

 

                          Nesray and Maya came from Philippines   

 

 

                                            Karen is from Egypt

                                                                     

 

                                             Lilas was born in China

                      The butterfly is the symbol of Zero Discrimination Day

We shared our school’s photos on zero discrimination day Facebook page

                           

             We had the chance to taste different international food

 

 

Our parents celebrated the zero discrimination day with us too