Dear parents,
On Friday we began our presentations for the Elements home project and I was really impressed by the quality of the work and the time and effort that had been put in to many of the posters and dioramas. Thank you for all your help with these endeavors.
Unfortunately, there will always be more! The next home project is the students’ country and continent report. This is one of the biggest home projects of the year. The students were given a country and a continent on Friday, along with a mini research packet, instructions/rubric and a letter for parents as an explanation. As not all of you will receive this letter, I have copied it into this post:
This letter will hopefully answer any questions you have about what is required for the presentation for the continent and country report. I have sent copies of the requirements and rubric home with the students along with this letter, but to briefly go over the proceedings:
Beginning Tuesday December 12th, and continuing through Tuesday December 19th, each student will give an approximately 10-15 minute presentation. The presentation will be of a CONTINENT AND A COUNTRY within that continent. The presentation is usually in the form of a poster or PowerPoint. However, innovative presentations, such as, representing tour or travel guides are also welcome. The presentation should include as a bare minimum (see the handouts for more details):
- Maps featuring political and geographical features
- Pictures, collages or photos and information of the continent and country
- If possible some kind of food, music or artifacts
- Other information based on tourism, the people, fauna and flora
Along with the presentation, students should turn in their research packet (the photocopied packet that serves as a guide to where their research should be directed). This research packet should be the starting point for their report and include a research page that states:
- what they find interesting about this continent & country and
- a bibliography
Then, on the morning of Wednesday December 20th, the students will take place in the International Festival. This is where they will give a poster presentation of the country in their continent to the rest of the school. The International Fair is a school-wide event, where all the Upper Elementary classes will be participating at the same time. You are welcome to attend. Therefore, it would be a time saver for your student to produce the poster for the country and use this with the continent and country report presentation beginning Tuesday December 12th. Of course, they can do a PowerPoint presentation of the continent as well a poster for the country.
If you have any more questions, then please email me.
Many thanks – John
Next week is the last week prior to Thanksgiving break. The school will be closed November 20th through 24th. Next week will be a “normal” week, with the usual math, language, science and cultural classes. We have our botany class on Tuesday and on Friday morning we will be doing Thanksgiving craft activities and in the afternoon playing an English game called “conkers” with Ms. Amity’s class. This game uses horse chestnuts where you try to find the strongest ones while competing against each other.
I hope you all had a great weekend!
John
