The Jardin Botanique

A major aspect of our work about Our Local Area was exploring the Jardin Botanique and then writing and illustrating a guide book about it. This project involved group work, which can be tricky, especially if you are sharing a camera with other members of your group. I am sure you will have enjoyed leafing through the guidebook produced by your child's group, and having the chance to admire some of the beautiful photos the children took! We are so lucky to have such a wonderful place just a few minutes walk away from school.

The three slide shows reveal your children enjoying

• different aspects of the Jardin Botanique and
• having fun in the playground

as well as letting you see the wonderful scenes in the Jardin Botanique as seen through the children's eyes and created in the style of Magritte.

I hope that you have njoyed this last "post" of the school year and that perhaps you will share it with grandparents and other family members.

At the Parcours Vita

One Friday afternoon Mrs Horsford took the class to the Parcours Vita in Chambesy. As you can see from the photos taken By Mrs Horsford, there were lots of activities to challenge the class 2o students and plenty to see as they followed the trail.

Click on the slide show to get a taste of all there is to see and do.



If the slide show does not run correctly a double click will take you to Picasa where you can see the photos in a larger format.

Having more fun with our Buddies.

On one of the few fine Tuesday afternoons this summer the children had a lot of fun playing with the parachute, helping their younger buddies to listen to and to follow the instructions.

Click on the slideshow to see what happened and how much fun it was!

Gardening in the Spring

Everyone in Class 2o was really excited to start gardening again. Our first task was to get the garden ready for planting. the children got to work with rakes, spades and trowels, turning the soil and tidying up the beds.

Cova showed us the new poly-tunnels she had ordered from the UK, which will act like mini-greenhouses and help our plants to grow quickly.

As you can see in this slide-show, all the boots we planted with bulbs have flowers starting to show. What a great idea that was!



Have a look at this second slide-show to see the Class 2o students planting peas and salad plants and taking the boots for a walk to the front of the school, so that visitors could enjoy them!



During the first gardening session in May everyone enjoyed looking at the glorious display of tulips as well as investigating what is in the heart of each flower head. Cova explained that inside each flower head are stamen which hold the pollen and a central "tower" where the pollen has to be deposited, either by the wind or by insect activity, so that seeds can be formed. The children were absolutely fascinated by this and were to be seen scrutinising the tulip heads carefully and chatting about their observations.

So many colours and shapes to observe and enjoy.

Taking time to appreciate the colourful display.

Listening to Cova's ideas.

How amazing the centres of tulips are if you take the time to look carefully!

Working in our school garden is FUN!
Thank you Cova!

More activities with our buddies.

As the children get to know their younger buddies better and better, they seem to enjoy the experience more and more and are disappointed if for any reason the activity cannot take place. They had immense fun playing musical chairs, helping the younger children to learn and to appreciate the game.



On another Tuesday, they read picture books with their buddies, enjoying being able to apply their reading skills in a practical way. It gives an enormous confidence boost to know that they can read a story to another child, especially for children who are not completely fluent readers.

Newsdays 1 and 2

Our Tuesday Newsdays started on April 27th, with a great variety of news shared in small groups.

Quentin had news about the Ice Hockey Championship finals in Switzerland, where a deciding match saw Bern beat Geneva Servette.
Adam had found news from a Norwegian website about a bear which got its head stuck in a milk churn.
Federica's news from news.discovery.com was about elephants in Dresden zoo which munch up old Christmas trees.

Philip gave his group plenty of information about the Football World Cup which will be held in South Africa in June and July this year.
Miguel shared news about the local weather forecast.
Sofia told us about a Picasso painting, which was damaged in a New York museum when a woman fell on it.



Sree told her group about an Emirates plane which hit an air-pocket and fell towards the ground. Fortunately the pilots managed to avoid a crash.
Rik told us that in Holland there would be big celebrations for the Queen's birthday.


Asedria wanted us to know about the dangers of the Internet for children.



Ali wanted to tell us about the football league tables for England, France, Spain and Italy and which teams were in the lead.
Peter had drawn a map showing the path taken by the Icelandic ash cloud.
Cillian had news of a basketball tournament played in Ennistymon in Ireland in memory of his uncle. He showed us a picture of him taken when the cup was presented.



Yona had looked on the CBBC Newsround website and showed her group some spectacular pictures of the erupting volcano in Iceland.



Octavia wanted to tell us about the huge Earthquake which happened in Chile earlier in the year.

Lizzie and Faizal were both interested in the amazing pictures of the sun taken recently by NASA.


Kate shared news from the Los Angeles Times about a teenage sailor Abby Sunderland whose attempt to sail alone around the world had been stopped by problems with her yacht.
Ko's news was about the cloud of ash from the icelandic volcano which had caused so much disruption to flights.


On our second Tuesday Newsday, we had fewer news items to share, so the children who had remembered to bring in some news shared it with the class this time.



Ali, Quentin, Octavia and Kate all brought news about the oil spill in the ocean near Mexico.
Cillian was excited to tell us about the discovery of a new species of moth.
Russell (no photo) had news about a new kind of plane the X-48B, Which has no tail. Engineers expect that it will use less fuel than normal planes.

Emilie had done lots of inquiring into the volcanic eruption and Yona had discovered some amazing volcano facts.
Philip shared plenty of information about the space shuttle programme.

Sofia had news of a meeting between UNICEF Goodwill ambassador, Shakira ad President Obama.
Shouq told us about the disastrous floods in Saudi Arabia caused by unusually heavy rains.
Miguel had sporting news about the tennis tournament in Rome, won by Rafael Nadal.
Asedria shared some historical facts about how toy teddy bears came into being, because over 100 years ago an American president spared the life of a bear while out hunting.
Ko had scientific news about the worldwide fight against the mosquito-spread disease, dengue fever.

I'm hoping to hear news from every child on Tuesday Newsday this week.

Journée de La Francophonie

On the last Thursday morning before the Spring holiday, the children went on a French-speaking journey through various countries where French is one of the languages spoken. There were six countries to visit, with a variety of activities to experience.

First we visited Ancient Gaul, where the children heard all about some of the amazing adventures of Asterix and his companions, as well as learning some of the history of what is now France, at the time of the Roman Empire. Philip's mum really kept the children intrigued as she explained about Asterix and Obelix and allowed the children to tell what they knew about the stories.

The second stop was Switzerland where the children watched a few scenes from a film about Heidi, a very famous Swiss character from the book by Joanna Spyri. They also heard about some of the animals which live in the Swiss Alps: the marmot, the chamois and the ibex. Maybe later in the year we will have the chance to visit the zoo at the Bois de la Bâtie to see them

Next we visited Roumania, where the children heard a little about the history of Roumania and Peter's mother taught them to play a simplified form of Boules. This caused much excitement.

Back to France, where Rik's mother, helped by Mrs Emblad introduced the children to the story of how the dessert Tarte Tatin came into being. They were able to help to make the apple tart and then to taste it. Delicious!

Off to Vietnam, where the children had the chance to see pictures of the waterways and then got busy creating dragon puppets.

Lastly the children heard about Lebanon, with its amazing history and its cedar forests.

All in all it was a really amazing and engaging journey. A big thank you to Rosalina and Jacqueline for organising such a wonderful experience.

Click on the slideshow to experience some of the activities with your children.

Working with our Pre-Reception Class Buddies

Just before the spring holiday the students in Class 2o had their first experiences of working with much younger children from Mme Morand's class.

The first shared activity was reading to and sharing books with their younger buddies. For some members of the class, this new experience was clearly the cause of some trepidation, but as I observed the interactions which took place I could see that the apprehension soon subsided, as the two classes got to know each other.

I was really impressed by the confident and caring way Class 2o engaged with their buddies, and I think that this opportunity to use reading skills in a purposeful way proved to be both successful and enjoyable.

The slide show will give you an idea of the happy and comfortable atmosphere in which this sharing and reading took place.




The second "buddy" experience was to work together to create Easter Bunnies. This activity was relatively easy for the class 2o students but they really enjoyed having a chance to be supportive as the younger children developed skills which were much more challenging for them. As each group completed the activity Class 2o were able to delve into the picture books in their buddies' classroom and read the ones they chose to their buddies.

When the bunnies were cooked, all golden-brown, they came home with the children for you to admire, although perhaps some of them were eaten before you had the chance to have a look!

Have a look at the second slide show to see how much fun all the children had.




Keep an eye on the blog to observe more buddy experiences.

Materials at Newstime

For the first news time of the new unit of inquiry, some of the children remembered that I had asked them to bring in items made from some of the materials we had talked about during our introductory brainstorming session. Others discovered that there were things they already had at school which could be part of a Materials News Time. I thought that was quite resourceful of them!

Whose blue crocs are made of plastic?

Who brought in a plaster statue of a princess in a decorated cardboard box?

Who showed us a plastic drinking cup and a glass jar decorated for Christmas?

Who had a pink fabric shawl?

Whose flower-pot was covered in metal?

Who wore a scarf made of wool that day?

Who had a metal spoon?

Who brought this strange-looking metal object? When we tapped it on our knees or on the table we could feel it vibrating and hear a humming sound. Pascale told us it was a tuning fork.

Who had a paper ticket in one hand and metal money in the other?


Who modeled a brightly coloured cotton beach outfit?

Who brought a wooden box decorated with metal studs?

Whose green plastic ball could bounce up to the ceiling?

Who had a pink cotton scarf decorated with lurex threads made of metal?

Whose red purse was decorated with plastic beads?

Who came to school wearing a wool pullover and a cotton shirt?

Ask your child who brought in the different objects.

Mask Making with Mrs Horsford

During one art activity linking strongly to the unit of inquiry "Materials", the children worked with Mrs Horsford and Catrin to create a mask using papier-mache.

The three slide shows show you children at work and the finished masks.

The first slide-show shows the children using balloons as a base to stick on the paper strips.



The second slide-show shows them drawing the design for their masks and painting them.



Finally the masks are modelled. Ask your child which one they made and have a look at the other amazing creations. Sometimes the masks are modelled by the owner, but in some cases the children were absent when the photos were taken.

A New Unit of Inquiry

We are just beginning to think about our new unit of inquiry on Materials, which is in the Organizing Theme: 'How the world works'.

The Central Idea is:

‘The world is made up of materials which have different uses and properties’

We will focus on questions such as:

Where do materials come from?
What are materials like?
What can different materials be used for?
How do materials change?

As we try to find answers for these questions, we will research the origins of a range of materials, thinking about whether they are natural or made by people. We will use a variety of adjectives to describe and sort materials according to their properties. We will think about how materials change and whether the change is reversible or permanent.

During the unit a range of skills will be developed; social skills where children will learn to share materials; research skills where children will describe and record observations; thinking skills where children will grasp meaning from material learned; communication skills where children will read for information; and self-management skills where children will plan and carry out activities effectively.

This unit will be heavily science-based, but there will also be opportunities for work across the curriculum, including using different tools and materials in art activities and sorting shapes according to specific properties and/or attributes in mathematics.

So far in the class the children have made their own paper, used papier-mache to create wonderful masks and started to make clay pots. They have hunted for materials around the classroom, delved with interest into a range of non-fiction books and watched short videos about paper and clay.

Today they went on an expedition to the Musée Ariana to look at the ceramics and glass on display there.

Writing poetry: ABC Animal Adjective Poems

Mrs Horsford asked me to post these ABC poems.

With Mrs. Horsford we also looked at another form of poetry, acrostic where a pattern of the first letter starts each line…not easy but Mrs. Horsford was sure they were up to the challenge. Like with Ms. Oakley the originals are in their patterns class books but here are the typed versions for you to enjoy and share at home. Similarly as with the Morning poems you can see, the amount written in the time available varies considerably but very impressive when you consider the concept of acrostic writing and using adjectives! I was impressed as I am sure you will be!

Ants small and black
Bear strong and big
Cat brown and black
Russell

Alligator swimming in the sea
Bear strong as a strong bear
Cat scary
Dog fast
Jan

An ostrich long claws and can kill a person.
Bear loves honey and is very loud.
Cheetah runs fast and hungry
Dog fast and fun
Elephant huge and loud.
Peter

Ant hungry and small.
Bee flying and buzzing.
Cat creepy and scared
Dolphin jumps and swims
Elephant big and fat.
Adam

Ants is looking and running
Bat fly at night scary and black.
Cheetah fastest
Faizal

Alligator fast and big
Baboon big and hairy
Cat hairy and huge
Kate

Alligator hungry and scary
Bear big and scary
Cat fast and eating
Ali

Alligator long and strong
Bear scary and strong
Cat eating and hunting
Deer hunting and eating
Octavia

Alligator hungry and scary
Bee sting and fly
Cat fluffy and stripy
Dinosaur big and huge
Elephant giant and huge
Federica

Alligator is swimming and long
Bees collecting nectar and buzzing
Cat miaou and sleep.
Dog barking and chasing cats
Elephant stomping and drinking
Fish swimming in the deep blue sea
Gorilla swinging to tree to tree
Horse galloping and trotting
Emilie

Alligator scary and creepy
Bear is very big and strong
Cheetah is very fast and scary.
Deer is spotty and strong
Elephant huge and fat
Fish diving and hides
Gorillas mean and bossy
Shouq

An ostrich is pink and strong
Bear scary and strong
Cat eating and hunting
Deer hunting and eating
Pascale

Alligator long and strong
Bear brown and scary
Cow eat grass and sleeping
Deer camouflage and running
Elephant big and grey
Fish swimming and brilliant
Gorilla black and angry
Hen dark and red
I ????
Jellyfish swim fast and golden
Koalas climbing and grey
Lion brown and eating
Mouse squeak and cute
Newt fast and orange
Ostrich blue and tall
Panda eating and black
Quail little and fat
Rabbit jumping and carrot eating
Snake green and long
Turtle swimming and green
Unicorn wings and colourful
Vixen yellow and beautiful
Whale huge and blue
Ox muscles and black
Yak brown and mountain
Zebra stripy and blacky
Yona

An ostrich is pink and strong
Bear fighting and sleeping
Cat sharp nails and scary face
Dog catching cats and sharp teeth
Elephant big and strong
Frog small and eats flies
Gorilla strong and black
Hen brown and funny
Iguana hungry and green
J (Giraffe) long and spotty
Koala grey and cute
Lion scary and hungry
Monkey funny and cool
Newt fast and cool
Octopus purple and yucky
Panda fat and white
Quail small and fat
Rooster funny and funky
Snake yucky and poison
Turtle green and small
Unicorn one horn and white
Vixen girl and it is a fox
Whale huge and blue
Fox brown and vixen husband
Yak black, white and it is a cow
Zebra fast and stripes
Ko

Alligator scary and terrible
Bear creeping in his cave
Cheetah strong and fast
Dog big and that strong
Elephant big and fat
Frog jump and little
Goat slow and
Horse fast and eating
Iguana spiky and scary
J (giraffe) spot and strong
Koala climbs and fat
Little and smart
Monkey funny and cool
Newt small and looks like a lizard
Octopus swallows food
Penguin cold in the North Pole
Quail small and fat
Rabbit jump around
Snake slider and long
Turtle small and
Umbrella people hold it
Vase is small
Miguel

Ant looks for food and doesn’t give up
Bear loves chicken and very strong
Cheetah runs very fast
Deer an animal with horns
Elephant an animal with a long nose
Fish lives in water
Goat white and hairy
Hedgehog is spiky and small
I (Eagle) eats dead animal and can fly
Jaguar runs and is big
Kangaroo jumps and crawls
Lion hairy and yellow
Mouse small and furry
Newt small and looks like a lizard
Octopus slimy and big
Pig has a big nose and it is fat
Quail is fat and is small
Rat small and fat
Snake long and thin
Turtle has a shell and lives a 100 years
Clara

Alligator hungry and fishing
Bear angry and brilliant
Cheetah leaping and creeping
Deer cross and big
Elephant fat and tired
Fish swimming and playing
Goat jumping and tired
Horse gallop and tired
Iguana green and creepy
Jaguar fighting and hungry
Kangaroo jump and fast
Lion creepy and cross
Mole big and scared
Newt green and fat
Quentin

Ant thin and short
Bear black and fat
Cat sleep and scream
Deer brown and thin
Elephant fat and huge
Fish short and yellow
Goat white and thin
Horse riding and thin
Iguana green and spiky
Sree

Alligator hungry and swimming
Bear hungry and strong
Cat eating and hunting
Dog swimming and diving
Elephant stamping and resting
Fish swimming and hiding
Goose fishing and diving
Horse galloping and diving
Iguana spiky and hurting
Jaguar hunting and strong
Kangaroo jumping and fighting
Lion working and strong
M ????
Newt small and lizardy
Philip

Alligator is strong and big
Bear scared and big
Cat is strong and long
Dog long and fat
Rik


Alligator sharp and dangerous
Bee buzzing and stinging
Cheetah fast and scared
Dog fun and great
Eagle fast and light
Fish small and yummy
Goose nosey and mean
Hedgehog spiky and quiet
Cillian

Alligator is swimming and long
Bear is scary and fat
Cheetah is creeping and funny
D ????
Elephant is enormous and stomping
Fish is jumping and orange
G ?????
Horse trot and gallops
Iguana this go and goes on the trees
Jellyfish has lots of legs and it swims
Kangaroo does jump and has a pouch
Lamb has white wool
Monkey jumps. The colour of the monkey is brown.
N ????
Octopus. This has lots of long legs.
Lizzie

Alligator long and scary
Bear big and scary
Cow medium and it moos
Deer it is big and it is scary
Elephant huge and stomps
Fish is small and swims fast
Goat is big and snorts
Horse gallops and trots
Iguana small and it is like a lizard
Jellyfish stings and it has lots of legs
Kangaroo it jumps and it has a pocket.
Lamb maas and it is white.
Mouse small and it squeaks
Newt small and it has a tail
Octopus, it has 8 legs and big
Pig pink and eats
Quail bird and medium
Rhinoceros it has a horn and big
Snake long and small
Tiger scary and big
Sofia

Lots on Top

In class we read a very simple early reading book about food, called: "Lots on Top." When I asked the children to write their own versions, I was astonished by the sophisticated food some of them like and by the adventurous language others of them were brave enough to use.

Lots on Top

I eat cheese with pizza on top.
I like syrup with pancake on top.
I hate ketchup with meat on top.
I love ice cream with sprinkles on top.
I eat hamburger with French fries on top.
Lots on Top
By Philip

Lots on Top
I hate fish with spaghetti on top.
I like pie with pie on top.
I love cake with cream on top.
I eat fish with honey on top.
I munch cake with sprinkles on top.
Lots on Top
By Faizal

Lots on Top
I eat pizza with ice cream on top.
I hate apple with strawberry on top.
I eat apple with apple on top.
I love strawberry with cream on top.
I eat potatoes with sauce on top.
Lots on Top
By Ali

Lots on Top
I eat pizza with olives on top.
I eat pasta with meatballs on top.
I love bread with jam on top.
I love cake with cream on top.
I like ice cream with strawberry on top.
I eat lasagna with sauce on top.
I love cake with apple on top.
I like salad with tomato on top.
Lots on Top
By Ko

Lots on Top
I love pie with apple on top
I love orange juice with lemon on top.
I love a cat with a kitten on top
I eat bread with jam on top
I like ice cream with biscuit on top.
I eat carrot with tomato sauce on top
Lots on Top
By Yona

Lots on Top
I like pizza with chocolate on top.
I eat cake with chocolate on top.
I love pancakes with sugar on top.
I like ice cream with strawberry on top.
I eat pizza with jam on top.
I love cake with strawberry on top.
Lots on Top
By Octavia

Lots on Top
I eat hamburger with ketchup on top.
I like pizza with cheese on top.
I munch couscous with sauce on top.
I eat meat with sauce on top.
I eat cake with strawberry on top.
Lots on Top
By Miguel

Lots on Top
I eat cake with raspberries on top.
I hate T-Rex with sauce on top.
I like pizza with sausage on top.
I like bread with honey on top.
I like spaghetti with butter on top.
Lots on Top
By Federica

Lots on Top
I eat bread with jam on top.
I eat bread with peanut butter on top.
I love bread with ketchup on top.
I hate worms with mice on top.
I like pizza with jam on top.
Lots on Top
By Quentin

Lots on Top
I love pizza with fish on the top.
I love pasta with tomato sauce on top.
I hate spinach with cheese on top.
I love bread with butter on top.
I love pumpkin soup with apple at the top.
Lots on Top
By Rik

Lots on Top
I hate pizza with honey on top.
I love ice cream with popcorn on top.
I like fish with icing on top.
I love spaghetti with peanuts on top.
I like tomato sauce with pumpkin on top.
Lots on Top
By Emilie

Lots on Top
I like toast with cinnamon on top.
I like ice cream with chocolate on top.
I hate pasta with sauce on top.
I like cakes with chocolate on top.
I like hot chocolate with sugar on top.
I like cake with strawberry on top.
Lots on Top
By Pascale

Lots on Top
I love pasta with cheese on top.
I hate pizza with mushroom on top.
I like cake with chocolate on top.
I like lasagna with cheese on top.
I like chips with mayonnaise on top.
Lots on Top
By Shouq

Lots on Top
I hate cake with books on top.
I love spaghetti with sauce on top.
I have pizza with cheese on top.
I love sausage with ketchup on top.
I have noodles with soy sauce on top.
Lots on Top
By Peter

Lots on Top
I like ice cream with cookies on top.
I like cream with raspberries on top.
I like meat with chips on top.
I like bread with cheese on top.
Lots on Top
By Russell

Lots on Top
I like ice cream with cherries on top.
I like cake with chocolate on top.
I eat hamburger with cheese on top.
I hate honey with chocolate on top.
I like honey with bread on top.
Lots on Top
By Sofia

Lots on Top
I love soup with bread on top.
I eat hamburger with apple mousse on top.
I eat pizza with pizza on top.
I hate sausage with roasted fish on top.
I eat potato with orange juice on top.
Lots on Top
By Jan

Lots on Top
I like bread with honey on top.
I like cake with strawberries on top.
I like yoghurt with strawberries on top.
I eat spaghetti with meatballs on top.
I eat meat with potatoes on top.
Lots on Top
By Adam

Lots on Top
I have pizza with mushrooms on top.
I eat pancakes with Nutella on top.
I like toast with butter on top.
I hate bread with mushroom on top.
I love cake with chocolate on top.
Lots on Top
By Cillian

Lots on Top
I have ice cream with honey on top.
I love pasta with meatballs on top.
I like milk with honey on top.
I have strawberries with ice cream on top.
I make pizza with pepperoni on top.
Lots on Top
By Kate

Lots On Top

I eat ice cream with biscuits on top.

I hate biscuits with ketchup on top.

I like pizza with fish on top.

I love cake with chocolate on top.

I like biscuits with strawberry on top.

Lots On Top

By Asedria

Lots On Top

I love pizza with a chip on top.

I like cake with pizza on top.

I like a banana with orange on top.

I love a burger with bread on top.

I hate banana with jam on top.

Lots On Top

By Lizzie

After reading all the children's work I couldn't resist writing my own version:

Lots on Top
Miss Oakley loves curry with coriander on top.
Miss Oakley likes baked potatoes with pepper and butter on top.
Miss Oakley enjoys pancakes with maple syrup on top.
Miss Oakley loves pizza with chorizo on top.
Miss Oakley eats fish with lemon on top
Lots on Top

Why not have fun sharing with your children what you like to eat and what you like to put on top!

Festive Patterns

Although I am sure you will have enjoyed receiving your child's festive gift, I thought you might like to admire all of the wonderful festive decorations the children drew just before the winter break, and the wonderful patterns they used to decorate the frames. Catrin really supported them all in this activity which demanded a great deal of care and precision. I am sure they were really happy to be able to hand over such lovely gifts.