Did you know that some of our best learning experiences didn’t even happen in the classroom? Beijing is a wonderful city for museums, parks and experts.

If you have been following our blog, you have seen some of these photos and comments before.

As we reach the final month of Grade 4, here’s a quick recap of some of our happiest learning moments!

What was your favorite field trip? Why?

How do field experiences help you learn?

The first event was 100m dash. Everyone was getting nervous and finally the wistle blew. I sped around the corner and crossed the finish line. I was in two races and got 3rd place on the first run and 1st place on the second run! I was very very proud of myself.

The next event was long jump. Every competitor got a warm-up jump. When I warmed up, I thought about the positioning of the yellow line. Every school could have 2 kids in this event. BISS chose Joshua and me from Grade 4. After all the warm-ups, it was my turn to jump. I ran as fast as I could and jumped as far as I could. I got 1st place! I was very happy and I sprinted over to get my ribbon.

At long last, it was the race I had been waiting for. It was the relay. In my relay team were Kazuki, Geon Woo, Jack and me. However, Kazuki was badly injured so Syakir replaced him. First Syakir ran and gave the baton to Jack. Then Jack ran and passed it to Geon Woo. Geon Woo ran towards me and as I got the baton I was suddenly very nervous. I took off and ran as fast as I could. But we were losing. I tried my best and started to take over. In the end, I beat them! My team won the relay! We were celebrating with joy! I couldn’t believe it!

Overall, I was very proud of all my events. I feel like this was the best day of the year. I think I really improved in running and jumping because in one day, I ran 2 x 100m, 3 x 50m, plus a relay. I got a lot of exercise and had a lot of fun. The highlight was the exact moment that I crossed the finish line in the relay. It was the best day.

By Kota
Grade 4

What was your highlight from Sports Day?
How did you show sportsmanship?
Did you make any new friends?

Book Week’s theme this year was “All the Bookshelf’s a Stage”. The focus was on performing arts. Our class had the special job of representing music, so we dressed up as rockstars. We sang a song called “All the World is a Stage” by a rockband from the 1970s called Slade. For our costumes we wore black t-shirts with BISS written on them in cool fonts. We also spiked our hair using gel. Then we sprayed our hair any color we wanted! We even drew cool symbols on our face like lighting bolts. It was really fun and we looked so cool.

During Book Week we also had the Living Library, in which people came to tell us about their lives and jobs. Grade 4 really listened to what each person said and we asked good questions. At the Living Library there was a computer game engineer, a bronze medalist in synchronized swimming, a UN aid worker and many other interesting people.

A published illustrator also came to vist us during the week. Her name was Anne Spudvillas and she told us all about the books she has illustrated. Her most famous book is the children’s version of “Mao’s Last Dancer”. She taught us how to draw using charcoal and we drew giant cats.

During Book Week we exhibited our recycled book art. In art class, Grade 4 made disaster memorial books as part of our inquiry into natural forces. For this cool project we had to research a famous natural disaster and when, where and how many people died in this disaster. Then we found some symbols representing the disaster and created the number of symbols to match the number of deaths in the disaster. We also painted the book a color to represent the type of disaster (e.g. blue for floods, red for fires) and varnished our books. During SLCs, we showed our artwork to our parents. They were fascinated.

It was such a busy and exciting week!

Natural Disaster Memorial (made from a recycled book).

Living Library

What was your favorite part of Book Week?
Explain what you learned from one of the Living Library guests.

From hundreds of entries, all over China, their stories were selected as the major prize winners.

1st Place – Sajid – for his story “Blaze Saves the World”.

2nd Place – Benedict – for his story “Aliens Adventure”.

Congratulations also to Chae Yeon in Grade 3 who received an Honorable Mention for her story “A Lucky Year”.

BISS writers dominated the 9 years of age category! We are very proud of our talented friends!

Read the winning stories below:

 

What is your favorite part of each story?
Which writing strategies do you recognise from our workshops?

We were very proud to share our learning with you! We enjoyed sharing writing samples, videos, assessments and reflections.

Thank you for listening, making positive comments and asking questions about our work.

We’ve grown so much in Grade 4 and we are having a wonderful year!

What were you most proud to show your parents?
What advice or feedback did your parents give you?