EARLY YEARS (EYP)
Ms Pham Thi Thanh Phuc
Early Years Teacher
Every day at school is a new experience
With the hope of always bringing students many new things when coming to school, Tesla teachers always create exciting events so that they can freely explore and understand the meaning of each event. The “Pajama Day” party with the message “My school, My home” helps students feel familiar and always feel that school is their second home. It is also where they confidently express themselves and connect with friends.
Mr Nguyen Kieu Quoc Bao
IB Teacher – PE
Dear Parents,
During the past time, the students had exciting and fun physical lessons with athletics. They have learned many skills such as the long jump, high jump, disc throwing, etc. These skills enhance their agility, flexibility, and ingenuity through the activities and also help them have attractive movement lessons at school.
PRIMARY YEARS (PYP)
Ms To Kim Yen
IB PYP Coordinator
Greetings of the season to one and all!
The students spent the first semester with lots of useful teaching and learning activities. We are happy to share with you the learning process of our students from exploring the Inquiry Cycle with exciting field trips, or the successful Winter Concert to learning projects where they always play an important and active role in their learning. The school reports will be sent home on February 10.
On March 13-14, Tesla is very honored to have IB visit and authorize for the PYP Programme. We hope that parents continue to accompany and support the school community with positive feedback and encouragement for your children to become active learners and global citizens.
The School Community has always focused on teaching and learning based on the IB learner Profiles. At Tesla, we want our students and community to understand and demonstrate the attributes of a global citizen by CARING for the environment through participation and commitment to collecting and recycling materials, properly reusing, and delivering them to the Plastic People factory. Let’s look forward to this year’s Tet Fair with this meaningful theme!
Once again, I would like to thank you for your support and companionship.
Wishing you a new year full of Health, Prosperity, and Success in 2023!
Ms Vo Thi Ngoc Linh
IB Teacher – KG Homeroom Teacher
So, the KG students have ended the unit “Where we are in place and time”. Through exploration and discovery activities, the students gain lots of helpful knowledge about travel, countries, means of transport, costumes, and traditional dishes. In addition, students had a fun trip and experienced “Go camping by water bus”. They had a chance to witness the giant cargo ship, the speeding canoes, and the big bridges. Their smiles have shown beautiful memories of their childhood with folk games. This trip definitely is an unforgettable memory for the KG students.
Ms Dang Thien Ngoc Truc
IB Teacher – Grade 1 Homeroom Teacher
Grade 1 students learned about the school community in the theme “How the world works”. In addition to the teachers and their peers, students discovered more about other departments that worked and contributed to the school community. Since then, they have expressed their appreciation for the different values everyone brings to the same school community. Besides, they also learned how to build relationships in teamwork and cooperate to create a final product. It was evident in the field trip to Tinker Play where all the children worked together to make a beautiful pine tree out of wood. Some students measured the wood, some painted it dark green, some painted it a lighter green, and then joined the logs to create a beautiful product. They gained lots of knowledge from this theme.
Ms Vy Thi Kieu Oanh
IB Teacher – Grade 2 Homeroom Teacher
In this theme 3 with the central idea of “Patterns helping us understand the natural world”, students discovered and expressed their understanding of the life cycle of animals. In addition, they learned about the mangrove areas with the diversity of the ecosystem here. Learning about plants and animals helps children better understand the role of mangroves, thereby taking practical actions to contribute to the conservation of diversity here. Here are their group activities. Let’s take a look at these lovely moments.
Ms Nguyen Hoang An Khanh
IB Teacher – EAL
Grade 2 students focus on learning about life cycles in the transdisciplinary theme “How the world works”. Through play-acting activities, students acquired knowledge of the butterfly’s life cycle. During the grade 2 assembly, they had a chance to express their understanding to the Tesla community through the play “The very hungry caterpillar”. Students brought a lot of knowledge and joy to everyone.
Ms Sheryl Ferrer Cruz
IB Teacher – ATL
Grade KG
Over the past weeks, our KG learners have been investigating the central idea: “Travelling brings inspiration into discoveries”. To explore the scope of the unit, they inquired into the rich cultural studies that introduced them to different cultures which lead them to introduce what places, countries, and cultures they would like to explore. In addition, they were engaged in imaginative play by role-playing a camping trip on the school premises, which allows KG students to gain more confidence in their self-management skills.
Grade 1
Throughout Unit 3, Transdisciplinary Theme “How we organise ourselves”, Grade 1 were exposed to activities that help them strengthen their collaboration, teamwork, and leadership skills. They took a Math and Language Challenge and played team-building games. These activities demonstrate the importance of teamwork and collaboration. After their efforts, the children reflected on the experience with a self-assessment of how well their group collaborated and worked together.
Grade 1 students explored and discovered Tesla community staff and teachers learning about each teacher/staff’s work at school. They are familiar with the teachers in the buildings around them but are not so aware of the other departments that work continuously and collaboratively to make sure their school day is effective, safe, and successful. So, the Grade 1 students decided to find out more about the roles and responsibilities of the different departments around Tesla, how they work together and how they are connected to the Grade 1 team.
Grade 2
Central Idea – Patterns help us understand the natural world.
Grade 2 students have been inquiring about different animal life cycles and how they are connected to their environments. We were extremely lucky to have an excursion to Saigon Zoo and Saigon Botanical Garden where we saw different animals and learned about their diet, habitat, appearance, and most especially their pattern of life. We have experienced observing closely and making inferences about the butterfly and frogs’ life cycles. It was a fantastic day and grade 2 were excellent inquirers when looking at inquiries about the animals and how they live. Here are some photos from our field trip!
Ms Nguyen Thi Thanh Sang
IB Teacher – Grade 3 Homeroom Teacher
Grade 3 is studying the unit “How we organize ourselves”. They will focus on learning about careers in their own school in particular and society in general. From there, they will realize that everyone plays an important role in society and is responsible for where they live. In addition, students learn about buying and selling activities, the goods sold, and types of services that are determined by human needs.
They had a field trip to Hoang Hoa Tham market to observe the buying and selling activities taking place here, what will attract people’s interest, and what elements of the product buyers often pay attention to. As a result, they understand consumers’ needs and desires. The teachers also facilitate students to participate in buying and selling some items that are suitable for their needs at the market.
Ms Huynh Thi Kim Ngoc
IB Teacher – Grade 4 Homeroom Teacher
Grade 4 students study the key concept of “Change” in the theme “Where we are in place and time”.
At the warm-up stage, students went to the stations to listen to the teacher sharing about the 1976 family picture and the copper South Africa coins to get an overview of the landscape, clothes, houses, and photographic technology between the past and now, the changes in the copper South Africa coins over time.
Then, they participated in active learning activities to research and learn about Vietnamese society in the early national period and today by using technology and learning platforms such as Edpuzzle, Britanica, and books in libraries, textbooks, pictures, actual objects at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum.
Next, they used the information they have researched and worked in groups to compare the past and present society and find out why.
Throughout the learning process, grade 4 students have demonstrated their continuous learning and are not restricted by the time and space of the classroom. Students read books at home and reflect on their reading through the Padlet notebook. A student read the book “7 Wonders of the World”, and reflected “There are seven wonders of the world, but over time only the Egyptian pyramids remain. All other wonders were destroyed due to the impacts of war and natural disasters. And I find this book to have a connection with the central idea of this theme by telling me the cause and effect of changes”.
Ms Doan Thị Huynh Hanh
IB Teacher – Grade 5 Homeroom Teacher
Grade 5 students learned how to express their thoughts and feelings about their experiences and knowledge in understanding the world in the theme “How We Express Ourselves”. The preparation stage is to practice expression skills through creating the habit of creative and free journaling, email writing skills, handwritten activities and sending letters by post, journaling through the Google site, and recording videos as Vlogs. After all the diverse activities, they learned the advantages and limitations of each modern and traditional form; and different choices to share and send their message to their future self and to the 4th graders.
In addition, students participated in learning about ecosystems, choosing the habitats of animals to learn and make personal judgments, building habitats by themselves using 3D models, and applying mathematical formulas to calculate the area of used paper as well as the volume of air inside the model’s cube.
The fun and meaningful activity that the children participated in was the Christmas Bazaar. They participated in buying and selling at their booths and donated the money they earned to charity.
Closing the second term is a series of days for the first-semester exam review. The students showed a positive spirit and attitude to study, helping each other to learn to achieve good results. In addition to the learning content, the students also actively participated in competitions outside the school: 100% of the students participated in the IOE, International Math, and Science competition (HKISO), Etc. Grade 5 students are proud when Ngo The Anh has achieved many achievements such as the golden prize in the Raz-kids reading competition, IMC International Math Golden Medal, and AMO International Math Silver Medal.
The Lunar New Year is coming, I wish you and your family good health, luck, and success.
Mr Alexander Gordillo
IB Teacher – EAL
In Grade 3, we learned about different jobs and what people do as responsible members of a community. Activities included vocabulary building, group brainstorms, simple-sentence writing, and speaking practice. Grade 4 focused on developing language structures to aid their inquiry into how things change in place and time. These included cause and effect sentences with signal words, and grammar structures. Students built a glossary of verbs with various tenses (over 150 verbs).
Grade 5 had an introspective journey in this unit by writing in their journals regularly and learning tools for editing theirs and their peer’s writing. They created Heartmaps and wrote about many different topics such as their favorite super hero and what is important to them. Grade 6 was focused reading/writing informational versus persuasive texts with the aim of writing a 5-paragraph essay. As part of this, students learned how to find and organize ideas, write drafts, and edit theirs and their peer’s writing.
Mr Brandon Williams
IB Teacher – ATL
Our grade 5 students have been working collaboratively to create their own Google Sites. Students have included a variety of products and forms of expression in order to share their knowledge and understanding gained during the unit of inquiry – “How We Express Ourselves” (Central Idea: We communicate in a variety of ways to share our experiences and knowledge of the world).
Using Google Sites has allowed students to develop research and referencing techniques, self-management skills supported by setting up and revising a task management system for collaborative work as well as ensuring a sense of ownership and accountability, and a variety of communication skills.
I’m happy with the progress we’re making in class, with the students learning some important skills that will be applied, and hopefully used to make things easier, during the PYP Exhibition.
Here are some links to the Google Sites for Unit 3:
– Group 2: https://sites.google.com/tesla-stu.edu.vn/howweexpressourselfg2/home
– Group 3: https://sites.google.com/tesla-stu.edu.vn/group-3-ecosystem/ict
Ms Le Minh Anh
IB Teacher – Science
With the key concept of life cycles and patterns, grade 2 students have learned that all living things have different life cycles that include being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying. We had many hands-on activities in order to investigate the theme: “How the world works”. For example, we used plastic bottles to measure our height and made a block graph to show our results and found patterns in results to learn about human change as they grow.
In this unit, grade 5 students explore how organisms depend on one another and form an interconnected ecosystem. Students investigate food chains, food webs, and the importance of producers, consumers, and decomposers.
In the theme “Where we are in place and time”, grade 4 students explored the rapid process of volcanic eruptions! In addition, students also explored the gradual Earth processes of weathering and erosion. Students gathered evidence to describe how environments on Earth have changed over time.
Mr Do Trung Hoc
IB Teacher – ICT
In the ICT classes, students are taught the principles of computer science and information systems. Students not only learn about the theory behind these concepts but also practice how to apply them to their own projects and work. In the third unit, ICT classes spend a lot of time practicing individual work skills to help them become more proficient at managing their own projects and developing their skills. The focus is on honing their ability to complete complex tasks and working with teammates to create effective solutions.
Grade 2 students control the robot on a community model they designed themselves
Ms Nguyen Thi Quynh Dien
IB Teacher – Art
G5 students have just completed their art project based on the thematic topics they have written about in EAL lessons for the unit “How we express ourselves”. Most of them chose to produce two paintings. One is delivering a message expressing their hopes for their future jobs. The other is a summative assessment, as descriptive work reflects the superheroes they admire. Students can work with watercolor paint and learn new techniques when using this type of paint. They had fun and felt relaxed while producing their work. They had peer assessments as their evaluation at the end of the project.
Ms Pham Ngoc Hai Dang
IB Teacher – Music
The students had a busy December with many themed learning activities, as well as preparing for the performances at the Winter Concert.
KG students learned the song “Chiec thuyen nan” for the theme Where We Are In Place And Time. In addition, they practiced very hard for the dance performance “Ong gia Noel” to celebrate Christmas.
In addition to usual Music activities on the theme of “How the world works”, Grade 1 students learned “The Earth Turns” and performed with the song “This Time Of Year” at the Tesla Winter Concert.
The 2nd graders also practiced very hard for the song “Santa Claus is comin’ to town” which has many challenging pronounced parts, and the tempo is quite fast, but they tried really hard to perform the song successfully on stage.
Besides, grade 3 students also showed their progress when having a full performance than expected with the dance performance “The little light of mine”.
As usual, grade 4 students showed their hard-working in their academic performance when excellently performing the song “Oh, Christmas tree”. In addition, they are learning and creating a timeline of typical musical periods with the theme Where we are in place and time.
In 5th and 6th grade, they collaborated with the song “Joy To The World”, experiencing for the first time singing in a large group under the instructions of the conductor.
In addition, with the theme “How we express ourselves”, grade 5 students had the experience of composing new lyrics for the song “Language is the key” to express their own creative ideas.
Mr Do Su
IB Teacher – PE
At Tesla, students participate in a variety of sports, especially with a fun swimming lesson. Students get acquainted with the water environment, learn water safety skills, practice swimming techniques and improve their physical health. In addition, they also participated in soccer skills practice which many students are interested.
MIDDLE YEARS (MYP)
Ms Angela Baker
IB MYP Coordinator
Human and Environmental Interactions
Wow! It has been a busy six weeks since our last Tesla Talk publication.
On Friday, December 9th, Grade 6 students enjoyed a field trip to the Natural History Museum. They participated in a scavenger hunt to investigate the Ancient Civilizations of Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Students were placed in teams and had to find the specific items on their lists. We reflected on the trip by comparing the Ancient River Civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China with the discoveries from the museum.
On Saturday, December 10th, students supported our Service As Action Charity, Heartbeat Vietnam, by selling Grace’s Cookies at the Tesla Christmas Bazaar. This worthy cause supports children needing heart surgeries without the means to pay for them. The students worked hard, and we raised seven million VND for this incredible organization. The students will also be selling rice paper at the Eco-Friendly Tet Fair, with all proceeds going to Heartbeat Vietnam. Lastly, the grade 6 students provided a workforce for the set up of the Winter Concert on the afternoon of December 16th. Their assistance helped lessen the load for the Tesla staff and was greatly appreciated!
We wrapped up our unit on Geography and human/environmental interaction by creating Tinkercad maps of a fictional place. The students designed their maps and included key elements required for map-making before completing the activity with a written description of their imaginary place. Once we completed the summative assessment, it was time to turn our eyes to the end-of-semester MOET exams before closing the year on January 6th with our Tet Fair. I wish all grade 6 students and their families a happy and healthy Tet, and I look forward to seeing you all on January 30th.
Mr Nguyen Kieu Quoc Bao
IB Teacher – PE
Ms Thach Thi Le Thu
IB Teacher – Librarian
“Parents Reading” or “Mystery Readers”
We are keen to have stories from and in different languages (English, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, and so on). Parents/Caregivers were invited to join their child’s class to read a story during library time 3:00-3:45 pm. Four caregivers voluntarily joined us. Foundation 1A and 1B students got so excited. They had good fun with special guests who are their beloveds coming to school and reading for their class. This event was organized by the teacher-librarian, homeroom teacher, and parents to help students form their reading habits and foster a passion for learning through books.
Parents not only enjoy reading with their children in Tesla Learning Resource Center but also borrow books to bring home.
“Thank you for giving Emmy’s auntie and me a chance to feel the children’s enjoyment at school and in the library”, said Emmy’s mom.
“The reading session went well. Aunt Khanh complimented the library for being clean, beautiful, and modern”, Will’s mom shared.
What better way to promote reading than by having guest readers read aloud to students? After Tet, in Book Week 2023 (February 20-24), Parents/Caregivers Reading is going to come back under the name called “Mystery Readers”, welcoming parents/caregivers to visit our learning Resource Center to read aloud and discuss with students.
SMALL ACTIONS, A BIG DIFFERENCE FROM TESLA COMMUNITY
Recently, Tesla Education donated 8,826,000 VND (more than 30% of the total revenue from the Christmas Bazaar) to Saigon Children’s Charity (https://www.saigonchildren.com/). Although it is not a large number, it is the spirit of sharing and social concern of all members of the Tesla community. Thank you very much for the enthusiasm of Tesla Parents, Teachers, Staff, and Students!
