the british international school

EYFS & Primary Newsletter

April 2024

Dear Families,

It has been a very busy and exciting month in Primary School. Our Key Stage 2 students did a wonderful job participating in our annual Cross Country event. Thank you to our PE department for coordinating such a successful event.

Our Spring Hat parade was equally as successful. Held in our Botanical Gardens, students wore an impressive display of homemade hats to celebrate the arrival of Spring. This year the children also raised awareness about World Stray Animal Day, holding a dog and cat food collection in Houses. Well done to our House Captains and Student Council for their participation.

Miss Lynne and Miss Ashley hosted informative workshops for parents around Wellbeing and IDEA, thank you to those who attended. We look forward to seeing you at school for the many upcoming events we have planned as we near the end of the academic year.

I appreciate your continued support and look forward to another happy and successful month ahead.

Kind Regards,

Alison Jones

director's note

Spring Hat Parade

We celebrated the arrival of Spring with our annual Hat Parade in our beautiful Botanical Gardens! This year’s event was linked to World Stray Animal Day on 4th April. The Forest Campus Primary School Student Council collected and sold cat and dog food to be donated to local animal charities in Istanbul. Prizes were given to students for the most creative hat designs. Thank you to our parents who attended, and well done to all children for their enthusiastic participation!

KS2 Cross Country Event

A warm congratulations to all of our Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, and Year 6 students for their hard work and sportsmanship during our annual KS2 cross country event!

Pastoral Care & Wellbeing

I enjoyed hosting a Parent Workshop about Wellbeing and Mindfulness during the month of April. The photos show some of the wonderful learning the students have been engaged with! Please click here to view the presentation and learn more about Wellbeing in Primary School!

IDEA in Primary

Lots of exicting learning has taken place in our IDEA lessons during the month of April! Year 2 and Year 3 students have been learning about what it means to be an Upstander. Upstanders stand up for others when they see something unkind or unfair happening. Students are learning that Upstanders ACT: Always are friends, Call out and say "Stop!", and Tell a teacher or trusted adult. Students did a wonderful job participating in role plays together, modelling what Upstanders say and do to help others!

Our Year 5 and Year 6 students are learning about change-makers. The children are inspired learning about young people who are working to make our world a more inclusive and equitable place. Most importantly, our students are beginning to understand their own potential to create positive change in their communities!

Thank you to the parents who attended our IDEA Workshop. To learn more about IDEA in Primary School, click here to view the presentation!

EYFS

Miss Elise & Miss Tugba : Preschool 1

This term we are travelling back to Prehistoric Age to explore dangerous Dinosaurs. Each day is an adventure as the photos highlight!

Miss Ogomoditse & Miss Hatice: Preschool 2

We started with our Dangerous Dinosaur theme this month. We have learned different names of dinosaurs: T-Rex, Stegosaurus, Pterodactyl, and many more. We discussed the features of the T-Rex based on the book ‘Dear Dinosaur’: it’s terrifying, scary, longer than a bus and it eats meat. We imagined what if dinosaurs still existed and discussed what they will eat and that they won’t make nice pets since they are very big. We also painted the dinosaur prints and discussed how they made prints: jumping, walking, running, stomp.

In mathematics we covered positional languages: on, under, in-front of, behind. We also covered more/ greater than.

In phonics we are learing s, t, and a sounds.

Miss Lauren & Miss Melike: Reception

We had a great time in Science week! We used magnets to explore different magnetic materials and made some art using magnets and paperclips and paint. We explored how plants absorb water and watched the food dye travelling up the capillaries in the celery. We looked at the best materials for a roof on a house and what materials were waterproof. In Maths we have looked at 3D shapes and we looked at what features of 3D the 3D shapes are best for rolling and best for building towers. We are learning to count and recognise numbers to 20.

Dinosaurs have come to Dragonflies! We brought our dinosaur costumes, books and toys from home to share and we have found footprints, dinosaur nests and dinosaur slime! We freed the dinosaurs from the ice! We have made dinosaur nests, we made our own dinosaur footprints and we used dinosaur masks to act out dinosaurs!

We made cakes and decorated them for children’s day!

Year One

Miss Katrine & Miss Sena: 1D

We started this term by creating seasonal art related to spring. This time, the children had the opportunity to explore mixed media art, combining two or more art media to create their artwork. The children had felt tip markers, colouring pencils, watercolours and collage materials to combine. They explored the different media and combined them to create a spring-themed image.

In Maths, the children started learning about money. We talked about where money comes from, how we can get it and what we might use it for. The children explored our Turkish Lira money sets and found similarities and differences between the different notes and coins. We also talked about how different countries use different currencies and had a look at some examples of money used in other countries. The children noticed that most of the coins and notes from the different countries had influential people, who are important to the country, on them.

Miss Belen & Miss Sena: 1G

This past month we have been focussing on Mix Media Art, using different resources and techniques to create a composition. In Maths, we have explored the concept of money, what it is used for and how it works when we want to buy things. We explored Turkish Lira as it is the currency that children are currently exposed to but we also discussed currencies from around the world and how they serve the same purpose.

Year Two

Ms. Verralls & Miss Neslihan: 2V

Year 2 students talked about the importance of looking after the earth, for this year's Earth day. The theme was planet vs plastics for 2024. The class talked about ways to reduce plastic use in school and at home. Together, they made puppets and came up with a puppet show in groups. In their shows, they talked about why the planet is important and how to use different materials instead of plastic, due to them being more environmentally friendly. They also were given a project, to recreate old plastic into something new and creative. The ideas were fantastic from plant pots, toys and hats.

Ms. Aycan & Miss Neslihan: 2A

In Science, we conducted an investigation to test how our teeth can be affected by what we eat or drink. We used eggs shells to represent our teeth and vinegar to show what happens when mild acid, which is made by bacteria in our mouths, comes into contact with our teeth. We also tested cola and coffee. We were amazed after leaving the eggs in the liquids for a week.

Year Three

Mrs. Robbins & Miss Neslihan: 3R

Learning to read is a journey. In KS1 Students learn to read. Starting in Year 3, students read to learn.It is still important for them to continue practicing their reading skills. One of the fun ways we approach reading is with an activity where we read with our bodies. Students walk around an area while they read. When they come to a full stop they stomp their one foot. When there is a question mark, they make a double stomp, an exclamation gets a jump, and a comma gets a hand "slice" in the air. This activity does a few things. First, it gets them moving and out of their chair. Next, it helps children develop a sense of their body and awareness of things around them. This is because they need to split their concentration between the book they are reading and the things they are moving around in the environment. It helps with their writing skills as well as they pay closer attention to punctuation and when the author places certain punctuation marks. The students have had a lot of fun with this activity throughout the year.

Year Four

Ms. Lincoln & Miss Ödül: 4L

4L are working super hard as always. Focus and concentration is at its highest. Thank you to them!

Ms. Newman & Miss Ödül: 4N

4N have completed their final science unit of electricity by completing their own electrical ciurcuits. They now know that an electrical device will not work if there is a break in the circuit, they can describe how a simple switch is used to open and close the circuit as well as describing how changing the number of type of components can make a light brighter or dimmer. They particularly enjoyed the experiment in which they put different objects into their circuit to find out which materials are good electrical conductors, especially metals, and which materials are good electrical insulators, like plastic.

Year Five

Ms. Halabi & Miss Mos: 5H

This term, we are taking full advantage of our natural surroundings to enrich our practical learning experience, develop a deeper connection with nature and enhance observational skills. Students in Year 5 have been learning about the different stages of a flowering plant life cycle. As we toured the botanical garden, students were able to identify the main parts of a flower, observe real examples of pollinators in action and discuss the processes of pollination, germination and seed dispersal with their classmates.

Mrs. Deufel & Miss Mos: 5D

April has been a busy month for 5D. As the weather improved, we took our learning outside. After a successful science fair, the children had fun exploring magnets. The highlight of April for 5D was our wonderful class assembly on Kensuke’s Kingdom. The students put in a lot of effort to learn their individual lines and they worked together as a whole class, supporting and helping each other on stage. April came to an end with the cross country run in Belgrade Forest. We are looking forward to another busy month in May.

Year Six

Mr. McCann & Mr. Furkan: 6M

Recently the children have been learning about the properties of materials. They have been learning about conductivity of materials as well as the differences in boiling points and freezing points between materials. In this lesson, the children were investigating the properties of gases. They were able to show that air not only takes up space, but also has a mass.

Ms. Ward & Mr. Furkan: 6W

Recently students in 6W have been working on their poetic writing skills. We’ve been outside to switch our senses on and soak up our immediate environment. We noticed the way it affects our skin, our mood, and all of our senses. Those ideas became the focus of their poetry writing last week. We’re looking forward to sharing the finished product during our upcoming Primary Art Exhibition.

Transition to Secondary School

At this time of year we begin to look ahead to the next transition in student life. For our Year 6 students this is the move from finishing their Primary School education and beginning their life as a Secondary School student. These are some ‘what’s on top’ thoughts at the moment.

Cross Country

We had a very enjoyable visit to Belgrade Forest last week, to take part in our annual Cross Country event. It was great to be off campus and experience such a lovely outdoor venue. The competition was fierce and students really put their heart and soul into trying their best. Well done everyone!

Languages

Miss Talya: KS1 ESL

This month we have been talking about spring and welcoming Spring with its warmth. Children have been enjoying reading poetry and short stories around the world and we have been discussing their plots along with characters. We have also done revisions and we talked about robots and their importance in our lives and how we use them in different areas of our lives.

After coming back from our April holiday, our ESL students both from year 1’s and year 2’s have been busy preparing for their ESL show. They have been memorizing their speech and acting out their roles.

We are very excited for our performance and we hope to see you all there very soon!

Mrs. Gwilliam: KS2 ESL

With class assessments looming the ESL children are working very hard. Year 6 did timed writing following a plan. Our new student joined in too. They were happy to finish “Phew!" Year 3 wanted to show off their book recommendations and made a word square with new story words. Year 5 are writing a story using past and past continuous. Well done to all!

Miss Hatice: Turkish

This month in Turkish lessons students across all grade levels have focused on engaging and practical topics to enhance their language skills and cultural understanding:

Reception and Year 1 : Our youngest learners embarked on a culinary adventure to explore various foods and drinks. Through interactive lessons, they began building a foundational vocabulary that includes a wide array of tasty items.

Year 2: Students learned to express their likes and dislikes regarding different foods and drinks. This skill helps them articulate personal preferences and participate more actively in daily conversations.

Year 3: The focus was on learning the names of body parts in Turkish, enhancing their ability to describe themselves and others, a crucial aspect of everyday communication.

Year 4: Expanding their food vocabulary, 4th graders discussed their preferences in detail and started learning adjectives to describe foods and drinks more vividly.

Year 5: This month, students delved into practical language skills related to shopping, learning about shopping places and expressions, including asking "How much is it?"—essential for navigating shopping scenarios in any language.

Year 6: Students expanded their geographical and cultural knowledge by studying countries, languages, and capitals, along with practicing describing where they live

Miss Ana: Spanish

¡Hola amigos!

Year 3 has been working on animals and their habitats. They have learnt where pets, farm animals and wild animals live. Students learnt the animal song to strengthen their pronunciation in Spanish as well as combining speaking activities to boost their confidence when using Spanish language.

Year 4 has been learning the fruits and vegetables. Students learnt the song in order to remember the concepts related to the topic. They have also learnt to express likes and dislikes about food as well as practicing their Spanish with group and pair activities.

Year 5 has been working on school subjects. They have learnt the song in order to focus on the spelling and pronunciation of the concepts. Students have also designed their own school timetable and carried out different pair work activities in Spanish!

Year 6 has been learning the weather forecast in Spanish. Students learnt the weather song in order to identify everyday forecasts. They worked on a map of Spain to recognize the different types of weather as well as describing it.

¡Gracias amigos!

Learning Support

Miss Bartola and Miss Jess

Family Games

Simple outdoor games and activities you can play as a family are a great way to have fun together and get active!
Ask your children, they may well introduce you to a game they learned at school or introduce them to one of your favourites from childhood.
Here are a few classics - jump rope, dodge ball or kick ball, hopscotch, capture the flag, four-square.

Istanbul Adventures

And of course there are lots of parks, forests, beaches and playgrounds in Istanbul to explore.
Emirgan Park (which has an excellent adventure playground) Kilyos Beach, Belgrad Forest…..to name just a few.

Now that Spring has arrived, it’s a perfect time to encourage your child to...

PLAY OUTDOORS!

What are the benefits of Outdoor Play?

Most studies agree that children who play outside regularly are curious, happy, more attentive, and less anxious.

Outdoor play builds confidence, creativity and imagination!

The way that children play outdoors, particularly in nature, has a lot less structure than most types of indoor play. Children have more power over play and infinite ways to interact with nature.
Children can think more freely outdoors, design their own activities, and approach the world in inventive ways.
Outdoor play activates the senses and gets children moving!

Ideas for outdoor play

Here are some Ideas you can try out at home, if you have a garden or an open space close by;

Explore Nature

Planting flowers, creating a vegetable patch, flower baskets or mini rock garden, build a bird feeder.

Imagination and Story Time

Take story time outside, read and perform poems by a tree, dress up and act out a silly scene or go on a secret spy mission to follow the clues and explore the neighbourhood!

OWL (Outdoor Woodland Learning)

Ms. Lloyd

In April with warmer weather, students have enjoyed being outside and are experiencing the changes in the forest’s appearance. We see the trees blossom and develop fruits. Plants start to bud and grow flowers. There is an increase in the number of insects in the forest at this time and the birds are singing sweetly. Here is an outline of the fantastic learning that has been taking place.

EYFS/Reception: Skeletons (Bones), The Natural World

Year1 : Humans and Animals, Amazing Senses

Year 2 : Light Sources/Glow in the dark, Nocturnal

Year 3 : Pushes and Pulls, Gravity

Year 4 : Reflected Nature Patterns, Light reflection.

Year 5 : Gravity, Forces

Year 6 : Forces

Music

Miss Rebecca: EYFS Music & Drama

Firstly, congratulations to all the students for their wonderful performance of Mamma Mia! What's Musical Theatre? as they all deserve a hearty applause! However, the show must go on and we would like to invite you all to our final end of year performance African Tales, which all of the classes in KS1 have been busy preparing for the past two weeks. As well as EYFS who will be presenting the instrumental accompaniment to two classic works; In the Jungle and Hakuna Matata. We hope to see you all there!

Mr. Dennison: Y1-Y6 Music

Every year group practices call and response. It can be a simple idea of musical questions and answers. We are sometimes the leader, the soloist, the listener, or improviser. Ms. Verrall's (2V) developed an amazing passing game with a song about an apple falling. After the "apple" is passed around the circle to the beat, a student gets chosen to move to the next unpitched instrument station where they play along with the singing group. After the next round, that student moves over to the xylophone station and improvises on do-mi-so while everyone is singing and playing, playing the game and playing instruments. Eventually, there were student leaders that ran the whole class and I could take pictures and enjoy the music! Great job!

ICT

Mr. Hassan