Joan Miró - Year 6

Year 6 pupils were really interested in the Surrealist artistic movement and we were inspired by Joan Miró. 

We have all been working hard these weeks using recycled cardboards and boxes to mimic the work of Joan Miró, focusing our attention on the huge importance eyes had for the Catalan artist. 

Our works look really beautiful and we are pleased to show you them!

These works are the final products from a project called "Can we speak without saying a word?", carried out within the framework of GEP II (Grup d'Experimentació per al Plurilingüisme). 

Sally Russel - Year 5

Year 5 pupils have done a really enjoyable project based on Sally Russel's totems. 

Sally Russel is a sculptor from California. She developed her style by mixing shapes, textures, colours and patterns, and became fascinated with the interplay of these elements and the unlimited possibilities they create. Then, her ceramic totems appeared.

Even though Sally created her totems using ceramic, we have used toilet paper rolls (#greenschool) and some paitings. Year 5 pupils worked in groups and cooperatively. As you can see, this is how they organised themselves. 

Here there are some photos of this amazing project. We are glad to show you our final products. Have fun!

Fashion through the ages - Year 6

Year 6 pupils have done a catwalk in order to show you how fashion has changed through years. 

They have worked in small groups and cooperatively to prepare their final performance... and our young learners have done it together with Catherine, our language assisstant. This project has been a great way to improve their speaking skills while they were having fun, as well as putting into practise new vocabulary related to the topic we were working.

We are glad to show you a video in which you can watch their fantastic and impressive results. We hope you enjoy it!

Run, Run, Run!

Running Dictation

Last week, pupils of Year 5 played a Running Dictation. A running dictation is a fun reading, speaking, listening and writing task. How do we play?

We split the class into small groups. Each group has one runner and a designated writer. The runner goes around the room, reads the sentences written in a paper and tries to memorise them! But... be careful: runners are not allowed to take the paper back to the group or shout the sentence across the room. Once the runners think they can remember the sentence, they return to the group and repeat to the rest of the group what it said.

The writer of the group writes down the sentence as it is dictated, If the runner forgets part of the sentence they are allowed to go back to the paper and re-read it. The group can then elect another runner and a writer and they have to find another sentence. 

Finally, we correct all the sentences because they must be written without any spelling mistake. 

Here you have some photos! 

Happy Halloween!

As one of the world's oldest holidays, Halloween is still celebrated today in several countries around the globe, but it is in North America and Canada that it maintains its highest level of popularity. Every year, 65% of Americans decorate their homes and offices for Halloween...a percentage exceeded only by Christmas. Halloween is the holiday when the most candy is sold and is second only to Christmas in terms of total sales.

If you would like to know how different countries celebrate Halloween, have a look at the following webstie. It's really interesting!

http://www.novareinna.com/festive/world.html

Yes, we are!

Vedruna Balaguer School has been certified by the FECC (Foundation of Christian Schools of Catalonia) as a multilingual school because of the huge importance given to the teaching and learning process of foreign languages.

According to this line, we would like to highlight the significant increase of hours of English in kindergarten, five hours a week, and the implementation of non-curricular subjects in English language (CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning) taught throughout Primary Education (Science, PE, Arts) and Secondary Education (Science). The school also offers some optional subjects in a foreign language at Secondary Education.

It is also important to mention that the school has been organizing summer stays abroad and participating in several occasions in European projects for 20 years.

We should also take into account the fact that Vedruna Balaguer School is an official examination center for Cambridge. Since 2008, many of our students have taken official tests and have obtained excellent results.

The school promotes the communicative competence and specific initiatives in English such as the English Day, the participation in English contests like Fish & Chips and Fonix, as well as the speaking support of a conversation auxiliary (from P2 to Secondary Education).

Finally, we should mention that this year the school has joined the GEP project (Experimental Group for Multilingualism). Moreover, a group of 25 students from ESO 2 have been awarded a grant from the Ministry of Education in the program "Linguistic Immersion Autumn 2015" and they had the chance to enjoye a week of total English immersion in Villanúa (Pyrenees of Huesca).

School Vedruna intends to continue and improve this multilingual project, a cornerstone of our educational proposal.

English Day: William Shakespeare

Wednesday, 20th April, we celebrated in our school the second English Day. During the English Day the students from Pre-School Education to Batxillerat had fun while they were involved in a wide range of English activities. This school year, all the activities that were carried out were all related to William Shakespeare. 

ARTS' PROJECT - 6th

All pupils of 6th grade have been working on the Impressionism, a style of painting that began in Paris in the mid-1800s, and one of his leaders: Claude Monet. 

Claude Monet often painted in series, making many pictures of the same subject at different times throughout the day and in different seasons to see how the lighting affected his paintings. The impressionists painted most of their paintings outdoors and liked to portray natural subjects like trees, fields, and oceans. 

Pupils have been working cooperatively to discover as much as possible about this artistic movement and Claude Monet by doing some activities. Finally, they did an oral presentation with Google Slides. 

Before the impressionists, painters usually placed the main subject of their painting in the center. It was the first thing the viewer looked at and the background was not as important. In order to see such contrast, we have algo worked on Zurbaran’s “Still life” collection. 

Here you have a video in which you can watch how they worked and their fantastic results. 

Dictionary of Art - 6th

Year-six pupils have created our own Dictionary of Art. 

As we realized that some words which appear in our book were so difficult to understand, we found very useful to translate them into Catalan. Then, we drew a picture that represented each word in order to remember new vocabulary in an easier way. 

Here you can see Year 6 pupils working on their project and some examples of it. 

 

We hope that you enjoy our good job :)!  

And the winner is...

And the winner is... Escola Vedruna Balaguer! We are glad to tell you that our pupils were the winners of the game show "Fish&Chips".

As you already know, 3 of our 6 level Primary pupils took part in a TV contest: "Fish and Chips". Albert, Mariona and Marta played against a school from Móra la Nova (Tarragona). Even though they were a little bit nervous, their role in the contest was excellent! Congratulations!

All the rest of the year-five and year-six pupils pupils were also there as audience, cheering our team up and also getting their moment to shine dancing on the stage!

They all had fun with this amusing and entertaining experience!

We are all really looking forward to watching the show and our pupils on TV. As soon as we know the date, we will let you know. 

Thank you for turning an ordinary Thursday into an extraordinary and big day! 

Fish & Chips

Some weeks ago, ten year-six pupils did a casting for a television show, “Fish & Chips” (TV3). This is a show where you can learn English through music and games.

Few days ago we received good news: we have been selected and three students, Albert Vilajoliu, Mariona Vidal and Marta Porcar are going to take part in it and represent our school.

All the rest of the year-five and year-six pupils are also going to be there to cheer them up, singing and dancing.

We’re going to play on February 4th.

Good luck and have a good time, guys!

If you want, click on the Super3 website and take a look: http://www.super3.cat/fishandchips/

Happy Holidays!

CHRISTMAS TIME

Pine treed that are high,

give light at night.

They shine so bright,

it's Christmas Time!

Stop the fight,

make everything right.

Give love tonight,

it's Christmas Time!

A greeting you will like,

in a card that you will find.

Just always smile,

for its Christmas Time!

Our school wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

DIGGING DEEPER - 6th EP

6th grade pupils would like to improve their writing skill. So that, we decided to start our improving by doing the following activity: Digging deeper.

They had to fulfill three holes: in the first hole the pupils wrote simple sentences; in the second hole, good sentences; and in the third hole they wrote their best sentences.

They spent a great time doing the activity and the results were fantastic! Here you have some of them. 

2016 Calendar - 5th EP

This month, 5th grade pupils created a 2016 calendar in Enjoy English subject. This work was a project together with Arts. 

In order to create an original work, they were able to use different kinds of papers and art materials.

Once they had finished their own calendar, they decorated and coloured each month's calendar. They added special dates (classmates' birthday, English festivities... for example) or just leave it blank. Finally, they punched holes and connectes the pages with ribbons or rings.

It has been an economical, fun, and creative project for the students and a nice gift for their families!

Symmetry - 6th EP

The Major Feast of Balaguer (Festes del Sant Crist) are held between the November 6 and the November 9. As the school participated in the celebration offering flowers to the church, we decided to connect the class content, which was simmetry, with this outstanding celebration.  

Take a look at the following video and watch their great creations. Good job!

Find someone who... - 6th EP

6th grade pupils are studying the future tense with going to. In order to do it in a funnier way than our books, we decided to play a game.

Here you have some photos which were taken while they were doing the activity. As you can see, they had a great time and they practiced what we learnt in the previous lessons.

Here you have another video with some examples of what we did. The pupils were a little bit nervous... however, they passed with a good mark! What do you think?

Food Pyramid - 2nd EP

Last week, 2nd Primary pupils talked about healthy food. 

Children drew a large Food Pyramid on a cardboard, cut out heathy foods from magazines and they glued the heathy foods on their cardboard. Then, they wrote the name of each food section in the pyramid (grains-breads, meats, vegetables, fruits, milk...). Finally, they showed their completed collage and named the foods on it.


Here you have a video in which you can watch their great works. Enjoy it!

Around the world! - 4th EP

During October, 4th primary students have been working an interesting project about countries and cities around the world. They have investigated about the weather, the typical food, the most famous monuments and other aspects about the city that they have chosen.

 

Exploring our senses! - 1st EP

In Science, 1st Primary pupils studied the five senses in English. Last Wednesday, we carried out an investigation to explore our taste sense. So that, we had to taste different flavours: salty, sweet, sour and spicy.

Many pupils tasted some flavours for the first time: salt, pepper, sugar, icing sugar, curry, lemon, blueberry, among others. While some students did strange faces when they tasted these flavours, others liked them. 

It was a very nice experience and we really enjoyed it.

 

Halloween masks - 2n EP

2nd Primary pupils made Halloween masks too. You can watch the following video if you want to have a look at their frightening creations.