February 2014 Newsletter DESK

Dear members of our school community,

January was a busy month. The end of our first term means report cards and feedback through our traditional 3-Way-Conference (parent, student, teacher). The end of the term also means an opportunity to look back on what inquiries, what competencies and what knowledge our students have gained in the first half of the school year. It will also provide some outlook on what to strive for until the end of the school year.

We are looking forward to have many exciting and challenging events ahead of us. Grade 3-6 will soon have their winter trip to Wasabiya, north of Hyogo Prefecture. We will celebrate Carnival on February 12th. The Grade 3-6 will also soon be taking the ISA (International Schools Assessment), in which our school is always academically strong.

As a certified PYP school we regularly have an IB Evaluation, which provides us good feedbacks on our strengths and areas where we can improve. This evaluation will take place in May.

Grade 5 and 6 will have their exhibition between March and May. Like last year, it will give us a convincing idea about the ‘output’ of an inquiry based curriculum. Last year I felt happy and proud to see what our students were capable of achieving.

We also look forward to Project Week at the end of February with a focus on transdisciplinary skills and on the learner profiles.

The big news on our playground is that we now have a climbing wall. Students will work on getting a climbing pass and then climbing all be an additional activity for recess and PE. We say thanks to the PTA and the Oktoberfest team for their support.

We are beginning to prepare for the next school year 2015/16. As always, we are sending you the ‘Student Enrollment Form’ to ask your plans for returning to our school next year. Please help by informing us of your intentions. Thank you!!!

Our Middle School needs thorough planning and implementations. We have subcommittees for ‘building’, legal issues, curriculum and marketing. If you want to contribute and share your experience, your knowledge or just your motivation, please feel free to join one of the committees. We would love to have your input.

Best wishes

Gerhard Lebherz, Principal

From the Principal

Deutsche Schule Kobe – European School 3-2-8 Koyochonaka Higashinada-ku, Kobe 658-0032 Japan

Tel.: 078-857-9777・Fax: 078 857- 9775・http://www.dskobe.org/・[email protected]

The Newsletter - February Edition 2014 - 2015

http://www.dskobe.org

mailto:[email protected]



EUISMOD ELEMENTUM



New Swimming Pool

With

the

beginning

of the new

year we started

using the swimming

pool facilities at the

entente fitness club. The

students enjoyed their first

swimming classes a lot,

especially because of the bigger

space, the longer swimming time

and the bigger variety of activities

(diving deep, swimming across or the

jacuzzi).





EUISMOD ELEMENTUM



Climbing Wall

The main work for the

climbing wall was done during

January. All students worked hard to get

the project successfully

finished. After designing 7 different climbing paths and putting those on the

climbing wall, the students were painting the

climbing wall.





EUISMOD ELEMENTUM

Early Years



Our Early Years children always seem to be moving--rolling, running, jumping, dancing--and

while that is a major part of their physical development, it is also important to help them practice

their fine motor skills. In our class, we flex our fine motor skills in so many ways!





EUISMOD ELEMENTUM

Pre School



Did you know there are many celebrations that happen during different times of the year? That

means we celebrate it during different seasons. Preschool made a seasons wheel to show the

months that represent each of the four seasons and what we celebrate during each season. Some

examples we had were Christmas and New Years in Winter, Easter in Spring, Summer festivals

with fireworks in Summer and Oktoberfest as well as Halloween in Fall.





Grade 1



Rainy Days in the classroom call for extra BRAIN BREAKS!

Without our usual runaround time outside on the playground, we take the time to refresh our smart minds. With a few breaks

by dancing and through movement we stay better

focused and motivated to learn.





EUISMOD ELEMENTUM



Grade 2

In math, we started the week working in pairs to make connections between different objects we took out from a

mystery bag.

We used the clues in the bag to figure out what we were going to be learning about.

And we figured it out! It was...





EUISMOD ELEMENTUM

Grade 3 & 4



In our current unit of Shape &

Space, the students are learning about the

characteristics of a 3D shape. For this activity they used the computer to assist them in a

web search to find out about different 3D

shapes.





EUISMOD ELEMENTUM



Grade 5 & 6

The Grade 5/6 class were experimenting with matter to learn its properties and use changes in

matter to do helpful things. We used our knowledge of matter properties and the Scientific

Process to answer a question: Can we use data to improve paper boats that hold weight?







Additional Information

SIGN UP: Extracurricular Activities

for 2. term of the school year

Drama Gymnastics

Science Basketball Art Books and more Drums Baton Twirling Eco W

arriors

The school will continue the

running extracurricular

activities and also provide

some new ones. Every

activity has a limit of at least

4 students. The fee for half of

the school year (starting on

16th of February) would be

20,000 Yen.

Sign up till 4th of

February! You will get

confirmation on the 4th.

Payment should be done

till the 13th of February

at school office!

http://dskobe.org/sign-in-1/





Documents

February 2014 Newsletter DESK