Creativity at Al Yasmina

Today in assembly we learnt about what it means to be creative.

Some amazing student artists painted some creative pieces to share with us, live on stage and we talked a lot about what creativity can look like.

We thought...

"Creativity means writing a story" - Mahad, Year 4 Warblers

"It means making something" - Alya, Year 6 Ospreys

"I feel happy when I am being creative" - Mira, Year 2 Spoonbills

What do you like to do that is creative?

Skye's Quest Story

"I woke up in my classroom the lights were flickering, there was a gigantic hole in the wall leaving a doorway from the owls into the kestrels.I was agitated . I a few very simple and vague. have some memories of what happened to me and my friends. The first thing I remember is the sixth form came into the classroom and told us to get under the tables because they were trying to trick us into thinking that there was an earthquake , this was to demonstrate for our natural disasters topic.Even though I knew it was fake I was still alarmed so I got under the table as fast as I could. After the “the earthquake” we had a year 6 assembly to talk about how we felt. While Mr. Whitehouse was telling us that it was just a joke everything started to shake.Everyone was laughing because we thought it was just special effects. The teachers started to shout that we needed to get under the tables and all of year 6 started laughing even harder, even louder. That's when Mr .Crowter started to drag children under the table Mrs.Chant did the same.That's all I remember I must have been knocked out."

Would you like to read on?  Skye would love your feedback to help move her story forward.  Check out the rest of it here and let her know what you think her strengths and next steps are...

Welcome to our Blog!

The Year 6 students are back again after a brief blogging break and we're excited to get back into it!

We've been learning lots of new and interesting things and we can't wait to share this learning with you on here.  In maths, we've been focused on addition and subtraction with a shift through to multiplication and division in the coming weeks.  In English we've been learning to write 'quest' stories and this week have moved onto newspaper reports (which is also known as journalistic writing).

We won't spoilt all of the surprised for you though, so be sure to keep an eye on the blog to see what else we've been up to!

Zayed House Captains

Across Year 6, our fantastic students have been preparing to run for the house captain positions.  Today fourteen learners in the Owls class put themselves forward for this responsibility.

We were all incredibly impressed by the confidence, courage and manner in which they spoke.  It was clear that they all had the best interests of the house at heart and they showed tremendous sportsmanship, encouraging and supporting each other throughout the process.

Please join us in congratulating Talie on being awarded as the Zayed House Captain for 2016/2016 and Sara as Vice-Captain.

The race was incredibly tight with many students being very close to winning!  Congratulations to all of our leaders for speaking - stay tuned for additional leadership opportunities as the term unfolds.

Earthquake Hits Year 6!

Yesterday the students (and staff!) in Year 6 experienced an extremely rare phenomenon in the UAE: a ground-shaking earthquake!

As part of our 'natural disasters' topic, senior staff and students from the sixth form came running into the Year 6 classrooms, shouting for everybody to get under the tables for protection. Books and pencil cases fell to the floor as the wardens ran around checking everybody was OK. After we were given the all-clear by Dr Hughes, we held an assembly where the children shared their feelings with each other. Beating hearts very quickly turned into smiling faces as we talked about our crazy experience!

Over the next few days, Year 6 will use this real-life context as the setting for their very own 'quest' story in English. Keep posted for our final results..

Writing Using iPads as Learning Tools

 

 

 

Today in the Owls class we were writing our quest stories with the choice of typing on the iPad or writing on paper. Most of us chose to type on the iPad  however everybody used them. The reason being because most of us work more efficiently than writing on paper and is more enjoyable. It also encourages us to love writing stories and be creative. Although few of us chose to write on paper we used the iPad to correct our spelling, find synonyms for words and to learn the meaning of new words. It is sometimes difficult to use a dictionary and thesaurus and wastes our learning time. Sometimes after we have been searching for so long the teacher will say that there is only 10 minutes left - oh no!  We had great session this morning and hope we can do it again!

 

By Jayden and Sara

Abstract Self-Portraits: The Owls

The year six students have been busy creating all sorts of beautiful art - here are the Owls sharing theirs!

Our First Stars of the Week!

We've had an amazing start to the year here in year six and could not be more proud of the maturity and enthisiasm that all of our learners have come back with.

Though it was incredibly hard to choose just one Star of the Week each, we'd like to congratulate the following students (from left to right): Khalfan, Adham, Lojian, Eleanor and Nawdha.

Each student has (or will) be presented with a mascot to take home.  We can't wait to find out what kind of mischief they get up to over the next week!  To follow their adventures, click on the appropriate class page to the right.

Good luck to everyone for next week!