MEF International School, Istanbul

Weekly Newsletter

3 April 2020

MEF IS Spirit Stars Challenge

Let your MEF IS Spirit Shine by decorating your windows or doors with stars. We hope this will brighten the day of those who see them and show our unity as a MEF IS family. Take a photo of your stars and add it to our padlet (https://padlet.com/ablundon/mefisstars) or it to email blundona@mefis.k12.tr

The World Wildlife Fund has sent a special present to the MEF Animal Care Club to say thank you for raising money to help the fennec foxes of the Sahara Desert. They have sent us a sweet little stuffed fennec fox. Right now he is safe with Ms.Donna and her cat Dora. When the school reopens, he will come to live at MEF.

Kindergarten B children have a live session with Ms Vicky and Ms Seyda every morning. They talk about the schedule, the expectations of the day, do a quick review and chat with their friends.

In Grade 5 Art this week, students were asked to go on a scavenger hunt around the house to find solid colour objects. They then arranged the objects into a circle following the correct colour order to match the colour wheel they made in an earlier lesson. Here are some examples of the students' work. Ms Blundon has inspired our Grade 5 students.

Our students have been encouraged to balance their time. We all need brain breaks, especially if we are working so hard. Ms Pelin has offered engaging optional mindfulness activities for all Grade levels.

Here are some of our Preschoolers trying out these fun learning games and hands-on activities at home with guidance from their teachers. It shows that learning doesn't have to take place just at school. Learning is everywhere and anytime.

For Grades 1 - 4, our Art Teacher Ms Donna has been attaching a link to the 'lunchtime doodles' with the artist in residence at the John F. Kennedy Centre. Here are some examples from this week. What a great challenge.

Grade 3 have been Experimenting by Painting with Coffee and Tea this week. What a great result!

Library storytime: Humay from Pre-K shares her creative drawing based on her favourite book, The Hungry Unicorn.

Library storytime: Lara from 1A is a wonderful artist, sharing her drawing of her favourite fairytale, Cinderella

Ms Kate has prepared a number of videos reading different stories for children. Here she is reading ‘Winnie the Witch.’ How delighted she was to receive a reading response to this story.

MEF International Schools (Istanbul and Izmir) and MEF National School leaders have been working together to share online teaching, learning and planning tips.

Our teachers have been taking courses, taking late night and early morning webinars to gather tools and ideas for teaching online. Their dedication to research and providing quality teaching and learning is inspiring. Here is Jesi taking a 4am live webinar with Jennifer Wathall who is providing helpful research strategies for online learning from Asia.

A total of 40 students from Grades 10 and 11 from both MEF National and International Schools arrived bright and early Saturday morning, March 14th, to take the IELTS. The students arrived in good spirits and were ready to tackle the test after several weeks of preparation. Overall, students successfully completed the exam. We’re proud of their dedication to their studies and this important investment to their promising futures.

MEF Seniors from both sides of the school (MEF IS & NS) have received a total of 175 University offers thus far.  We at the MEF Schools College Counseling Department anticipate that number to continue to increase over the next several weeks and are indeed impressed with the fruits of their labor.  To more closely follow the constant stream of information we provide our students, in order to be added to Google Classroom, please complete this form. Congratulations Class of 2020! Keep up the GREAT Work!

SCENES FROM MATH WEEK

Π = 3.14159... Pi Day is generally celebrated on the 14th of March; however, due to Exam Week, the Secondary Mathematics Department celebrated Pi Week on the 9th, 10th and 11th of March. The students had fun with Puzzles, Games, a Photo Booth, Dancing to Mathematics, Memorizing the Digits of Pi and Guessing the diameter and circumference of a cake. The event culminated with the cutting and partaking of the Pi Cake. It was memorable and enjoyable.

The Bake Sale was a great success with all the goodies decorated with Π.

Students participated in memorizing the digits of Pi.

They also danced to maths, creating a math dance.

Students posed enthusiastically for the photo booth.

The highlight of the event was the Pi Cake.

Students tried guessing the diameter and circumference of the cake, after which it was cut and everyone partook of a small piece of cake.

6th grade artists were inspired by Andy Goldsworthy and created their own impermanent earth sculptures. Shown are some of their creations.

eLearning is the best solution. Secondary teachers and students have been participating in numerous online

Grade 6 is studying microorganisms and capturing their own wild yeast and bacteria to make a sourdough starter. Grade 10 is learning about ecosystems. They are capturing their own wild yeast and bacteria from their environment in three different locations to create an ecosystem, which is also a sourdough starter. Stay tuned for the usefulness of microorganisms and the extreme sourdough bake off lab.

Calendar

• eLearning (online learning) through April 30th / School closed through April 30th