Matball

So, remember everyone; Sunday is Matball Day! Hurray! We will be playing Matball from about 12 o'clock until 2.30 so there are no clubs on Sunday. It also means that, for us, there is no Arabic on Sunday but I can try to get the Arabic teacher to give you an extra lesson if you really want me to ;-)

Remember what Mr Jones told us in Assembly:

• Wear your house colour t-shirt, shorts and trainers to school. No changing.
• Bring a hat. You will be outside for a long time. Bring water as well.
• Look on the House Boards or ask me to find out what team you are in.

And the most important thing of all, PLAY FAIR AND HAVE FUN!!

Of coursE, it doesn't mAtter who winS, the most imporTant thing is taking part.

Today's Homework

1. Daily Maths 4
2. Abacus Maths workbook p.18-19 Both pages!
3. Look at the questions (and answers!) that you did for homework yesterday. If there are any yes/no answers, change the questions so that your parents cannot answer yes or no. It's what we call an 'open' question, rather than a closed one.
4. Finish off the picture of a teacher. It needs to be drawn and coloured, including the background. DO NOT GIVE IT IN BEFORE SATURDAY!! IT NEEDS CAREFUL EFFORT!!
   

Today's Homework

1. Daily Maths 3
2. Ask your parents 8 or more questions about school.

I know we didn't get a chance to write the questions down so here are a few suggestions. BUT! remember that you can use your own ideas, you don't have to copy mine.

• How did the teachers treat the students?
• Were they allowed to beat the students?
• What were the most important rules?
• What lessons did you have?
• Where did your teachers come from?
• How many kids were in the class?
• Where did the kids come from?
• Were you ever naughty and what punishments did you get?
• What did you eat? Was there a cafeteria?
• Was it a school for boys and girls?
• What language did you learn in?
• Was it a private school?
• What age could you leave school?
• Did your parents' parents go to the same school?
  

Today's Homework

1. Daily Maths 1
2. Write a 'diary' of a day in your life. Include information about what you do and how you feel. It should be in three paragraphs: one for the morning, one for the afternoon and one for the evening.
   

International Day: The Results

We all had a great time on International Day. Thanks very much to all the parents who sent in food, who came along to take photos and say 'hello' and those who helped their kids with their costumes. It was a really colourful, happy day for everyone and it was especially nice to have the whole school sitting outside in a big tent.

Here are a few pictures of the event (I hope you can see them) and I'm sure that more will come out in a future Jeddah Journal or Conti Chronicle.

International Day!

Yes, tomorrow is International Day. The day you have been waiting for all week. The fact that it is also Wednesday is nothing to do with it. First of all, let's get the bad news out of the way: INTERNATIONAL DAY IS A NORMAL SCHOOL DAY WITH LESSONS AND EVERYTHING!! At the same time though, we'll be thinking about the international nature of our school and maybe finding out about other cultures and other countries.

So, we'll be having a parade of students and staff in their national clothes (see below for more details), we'll be having an international feast of food, brought in by you and prepared by your hard-working family (or bought) and we'll be having a special, international assembly featuring a special dance by the poor English teachers in the Middle School. They will be wearing something like this



I wonder if I could stop being English for the day?

So, come along early Mums and Dads, to catch a glimpse of your children in their best costumes. You might be lucky enough to see some teachers looking a bit silly.

International Day rules
No flags
No football shirts
No military uniforms

It is a day of peace and goodwill between nations. Flags, uniforms and sports shirts can end up a source of arguments, rather than happiness.

Today's Homework

1. Daily Maths 4
2. Learn your spellings - as usual, you need to look through your topic book to find 3 words that you have spelled wrongly.
3. Abacus workbook p.17
   

Today's Homework

1. Daily Maths 3
2. Bring 1 empty food packet to school - we're looking for information about nutrition, ingredients and we'll be talking about how food helps us to stay healthy.
3. Write one paragraph about your toy - concentrate on capital letters and spelling but also think about adding adjectives. I would like it to be descriptive. Think about the questions we talked about in class.
   

Today's Homework

1. Daily Maths 4
2. Diet Trials - beginning tomorrow

Everyone has a chart in their topic book. Starting tomorrow, I would like everyone to keep a record of all the things that they have been eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner, not forgetting all of the snacks that you have. On Sunday we'll be able to see what sort of food people have and we can start talking about what we need to be healthy, what the food is doing to our body and so on.

Click here for more information about food.

Today's Homework

1. Daily Maths 3
2. Bring 2 pictures

i) an old person
ii) a hard activity eg skiing, wrestling, hockey, snowboarding, running, skateboarding

We have been talking about old people this week. What they can do, what they can't do and what people think of them. We noticed that we don't expect old people to do very much; just sit in their chair, sleep, rest, wobble slowly around, fall over and that sort of thing. We didn't even think they looked nice; wrinkly skin, white hair, no teeth. One person even said that they were hideous!

So, I thought it would be a good idea if we could mix up some pictures and put an old person in a place we wouldn't expect to find them; on a football field, skiing down a mountain, wrestling John Cena and that sort of thing. We can get a picture of an old person, cut out their head or body and stick them into the other picture. What fun!

Today's Homework

1. Daily Maths 1
2. Abacus workbook p.14+15
3. Learn your spellings
   

Finishing Off, for the parents as well

First of all, let me say 'Well done!' to Mohammed and Anastasia. They were the only ones who found the answers to the bonus question from yesterday's homework. I know it was up to you whether to do it but it does show a high level of effort and enthusiasm from those two. Congratulations both and it's four class points for Anastasia and 9 (!) for Mohammed. The answers are below. Click on their names to find out more.

On a second point, one mum was telling me that she wishes that we still had Daily Maths every day. I'm not sure if the kids would agree but it did get me thinking. If you want to do all 5 of the Daily Maths tasks, you are quite free to do so. Just remember to do the assigned homework first and try not to give the kids too much to do. I will give Daily Maths 1 on Saturday, 3 on Monday and 4 on Tuesday so you can do 2 and 5 on Sunday and Wednesday if you want to.

Lastly, only 2 parents in all of the Middle School got the Maths Quiz right this week! Mr Hugo worked out that you could get 360 housepoints for your kid's team if everyone sent in the right answer. So come on kids, come on parents! Have a go at the Maths Quiz from Jeddah Journal this weekend and we'll see how many more points we get next week.

Famous People & Their Jobs

1. Orlando Bloom - actor
2. George W. Bush - President of the U.S.A.
3. Tina Turner - singer
4. 50 Cent - rapper
5. Hilary Clinton - American Senator
6. Judi Dench - actor
7. Sean Connery - actor
8. Nelson Mandela - ex-President of South Africa
9. Mick Jagger - singer
10. Madonna - singer
11. Oprah Winfrey - talk show host
    
12. Saddam Hussein - ex-President of Iraq
13. David Beckham - footballer
14. Lindsay Lohan - actor/singer
15. Daniel Radcliffe - actor
16. Miley Cyrus - actor

I have to admit, I didn't know who some of them were. The kids did quite well at putting them in order of age. Can you do it?

Today's Homework

As we had two extra ICT lessons today there is only

1. Daily Maths 1

Just for a bonus question

• Do you know what jobs any of the famous people do? There were 16 of them, I think.

Write the answers on a piece of paper and bring it in.

Today's Homework

All to be handed in tomorrow:

1. Daily Maths 4
2. Times table 100 square (don't spend more than 15 minutes on this)
3. Finish the chart on body changes that we were doing in Topic
   

Drawing Faces

Thanks for the drawings of people that everyone has done for homework. It's hard, isn't it?! But, if you take your time and remember the general proportions (how everything looks compared to other parts of the body) it will get easier.



Anyway, I've found an interesting website which has a video about how to draw faces. I'll try to show it to the class but it's easier for you to watch it at home, rather than trying to squeeze 20 people around one small screen. If you'd like to have a look, just click here.

Student Council

Well, our student councillor, Faisal, has had his first meeting and has given some feedback to the rest of the class on what was discussed. He will be having another meeting next Sunday when the Council will be talking about the cafeteria and the students' opinions of it. So, if you have anything you'd like us to pass on to the Student Council about the cafe, leave a comment or send in some ideas and we'll make sure that the Council gets to hear about it.

Some things to think about:

• If you don't use the cafe, why not?
• What changes have you noticed to the cafe this year?
• What sort of food does the cafe sell?
• What would you like it to sell?
• How much do you think a child's meal should cost?

We'll let you know when the Council get back to us with their conclusions.

Today's Homework

All homework to be handed in tomorrow.

1. Learn spellings
2. Daily Maths 2
3. Topic - use the sketching we did today and last week to draw a sketch of a moving figure. Remember to begin with the 6 ovals at the side to give you an idea of how large the body should be altogether.