Newsletter 31.03.17

The year is flying by at an alarming rate, it's hard to believe that we have just completed Term 2.  You might enjoy taking a minute to look back at the blog, and see how the children have grown, what an exciting learning journey it has been so far!  

This week the children have been exploring concepts of size and building vocabulary to enable them to describe the size of objects and make comparisons about size with increasing accuracy.  You may want to reinforce this vocabulary at home; large / larger / largest / big / bigger / biggest / tall / taller / tallest / medium sized / small / smaller / smallest / short / shorter / shortest. 

Following on from our ARC visits in previous weeks the children have sustained their interest in look after Bobby our adopted dog and checking each other’s health. The children are learning to describe the symptoms of their illnesses; fevers, coughs, runny noses and being sick (vomiting).  It has been great to see so many children ‘catching their coughs’ in their elbows to curb the spread of germs.

Science Day on Tuesday was a hit, we hope you enjoyed spending some time with your children in the classroom, experimenting and playing together.  Children love mixing and tipping, perhaps try a bit of ‘kitchen’ chemistry at home over the holiday.  If you are stuck for ideas check out -  

http://www.science-sparks.com/2013/04/27/kitchen-science-round-up/

 Many children are developing their interest in mark-making.  In class we provide a wide range of opportunities for children to explore this both inside and out in the playground; using a variety of mark-making tools (including our fingers) to make marks with paint, play dough and water, and in sand, gloop and flour.  Children in F2 are beginning to develop their pencil grip, this evolves in stages; starting with a whole hand grasp and developing into one where the writing tool is gripped between the fingers and thumb.  Due to their stage of physical development most of our young learners are using large movements from the shoulder, creating larger shapes and lines, as they build strength in their hands and develop their dexterity they will draw and write from the elbow and wrist producing smaller scale work.  The children have been accessing ‘pencil control’ activities, these pre-letter patterns help the children to develop muscle memory which they recall later when learning correct letter formations.  Some of our young learners are keen to start ‘writing’ and with support are learning to form lower case letters. For more information about this please speak to one of the teachers.

Today the children enjoyed bringing their bears to school, having their faces painted and making their own jam sandwiches to have a picnic style snack. Afterwards, the children enjoyed getting their groove on as they played musical statues.  What a lovely end to this busy and very productive term!  

We hope you all have a relaxing and restful holiday, we look forward to hearing about the children's adventures when Term 3 starts on Monday 17th April. Thank you for your continued support this term!

Notices:

Term 3 - We look forward to welcoming children back to school on Monday 17th April.

Swimming  - We will be swimming the first Monday back after the holidays but there will be no swimming on Thursday 20^th April.

Library – Please return books each Tuesday.  

Newsletter 24.03.2017

F2 children have been very busy investigating about a broken chair in our role play area.

On Monday, we've introduced our talk4writing focus story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have been learning about sizes such as small, medium and large. We have also been asking lots of who, what, where and why questions as well as how and why questions. The children have been responding particularly well to simple questions during story time. When prompted, some of the children are able to say what happens next in the story. In the role play area, the children have been enjoying doing some role play using Goldilocks and the Three bears props.

This week, we were very lucky to be visited again by the Animal Rescue and Care (ARC). In the previous ARC session, the children had learnt about how to approach an owner and his dog safely if they wanted to stroke the dog.  This week the children practised doing this.  Ms Koto brought in a very lovely dog. Most children had a go at giving the dog a gentle stroke. We were impressed with how calm the children remained and how gently they stroked the  pet.  Mr Nghia also came in and showed us how to take care of cats. The children were very attentive and also had a turn at stroking a toy cat

Next week, we are looking forward to get messy as Science Day approaches! We will be exploring and experimenting various activities in the classroom. We hope you could all join us in F2 on Tuesday 28th March at 2pm. Please see the notices below. 

Notices:

Science Day: Tuesday 28th March
This year, Science Day will be on Tuesday 28th March. Some thing may explode, some things may get wet, many many children will get messy but above all, we will be having fun experimenting! All parents are invited at the end of the day to see what we have been doing. Please come in and visit your child's class from 2pm on Tuesday 28th March. 

Teddy Bears Picnic: Friday 31st March
On Friday, we will be having our Teddy Bears Picnic in F2. On this day, please bring in your child's favourite teddy bear or any soft toy.

Easter holiday: Term 2 ends on Friday 31st of March
On this day, school finishes at 11.30am. Please collect your child on time.

Have a lovely weekend! :)

Regards,
Ms Precious

Newsletter 17.03.2017

This morning the F2 children were invited to watch the TX performance of 'Shrek'.  We were spell bound, what talented students we have!  The costumes were amazing and the F2 children were in awe as they watched the performance and listened to the actors.

The children have enjoyed being story innovators this week.  Everyone has had the opportunity to make changes to The Very Hungry Caterpillar and retell their own new and improved version of the story.  There were some brilliant ideas!  I particularly enjoyed The Very Hungry Tiger can you believe in the end he turned into a beautiful dinosaur? It's so exciting to support these young learners and see their confidence, to become story tellers, develop.  Next week we are starting a new Talk 4 Writing book - Goldilocks.

In our creative area this week, children have been experimenting with making their own stickers.  At the start of the week the children enjoyed cutting paper to decorate the sticky wings of their butterflies.  As the week progressed, a variety of interesting window and door sticker decorations were produced. The children enjoyed also enjoyed doing a spot of threading, making their own caterpillars.  We wondered what sort of butterflies they might turn into...

We have continued to focus on number this week; counting (forwards and backwards) and matching numerals to quantities.  The children also enjoyed a size game, throwing the bean bags starting with small throws, then medium ones, big ones and finally humongous ones! We will continue to make size comparisons next week (reading about the Goldilocks and the 3 Bears).

We have introduced some more challenging puzzles to the class this week.  Puzzles encourage collaboration between children, help develop reasoning skills, problem solving and fine motor control.  Puzzles are a great way to help support your child at home too.  Try doing a puzzle together. Start by reminding your child of the strategies they will use; finding the straight edges pieces and building the frame first.  Looking at the picture and asking does this make sense? Encourage your child to turn the pieces to see where and how they fit together.  Remember to stay calm, let your child work at their own pace and give lots of praise and encouragement.  This will help your son or daughter to develop perseverance, an essential learning disposition.

The children love our weekly Wednesday Library sessions. These include sitting on the big carpet in the Library and sharing a story, this week we read The Meanies Party.  After the story the children choose and issue a book to take home.  Please return Library books to school on Tuesday and leave them in the basket outside.  Children who have not returned their book can not choose a new one, which they find very disappointing.

Koto and Oliver from ARC (Animal Rescue Center) came to talk to the children.  We learned how to take care of a dog, what to feed it, how to pick it up safely, how to brush it and play with it.  The class  did so well that Koto and Oliver thought we might to adopted a dog of our own!  Welcome to F2 Bobby!  It's great to see the children learning how to treat Bobby respectfully and with kindness.  The ARC will visit again next week, bringing the Vet to check up on Bobby.

Notices:

Clubs - After school clubs are now finished for Term 2. You will receive an email from Ms Emma about Term 3 clubs soon.

School photos - The last day to order photos is Tuesday 28th March.

Swimming - Please remember that all children are deemed fit for swimming if they are at school.  We require a doctors note if a child is to be exempt from swimming.

Bơi lội – Xin vui lòng nhớ rằng tất cả các bé đều phải bơi nếu quý phụ huynh đưa bé đến trường. Nếu bé không thể bơi, xin vui lòng trình giấy của bác sĩ.

Illness - There are some nasty flu bugs about, as per our school policy please note that ‘For the wellbeing of our school community, if your child is unwell or sick overnight or when they wake in the morning they should be kept at home until they are rested and symptom free for at least 24 hours (48 hours for Diarrhoea).’ (Page 14, Early Years and Primary Parent Handbook)

Vì môi trường lành mạnh cho học sinh của trường, nếu con của quý phụ huynh không khỏe, hoặc bị bệnh (sốt) vào đêm hôm trước hoặc khi thức dậy vào buổi sáng, các bé nên ở nhà nghỉ ngơi và theo dõi ít nhất trong vòng 24 giờ ( đối với bệnh tiêu chảy là 48 giờ). (Trích dẫn trang 14, sổ tay hướng dẫn về mầm non và tiểu học của phụ huynh)

Shoes - To support the children in developing their own 'self-care skills', we ask that shoes are either slip on or velcro.  If your child loves their lace up shoes, please swap the laces for something like elastic 'no tie' laces. 

Fire Drill - We had a fire drill practice this week.  The children were very sensible as we evacuated, not just the building but the school premises, meeting at our assembly point over the road.  The children's safety is paramount and we take these drills seriously. We encourage you to talk at home about what your family will do to stay safe in the event of a fire.

EAL Coffee Morning

Dear Parents, the EAL department will be hosting a coffee morning on Wednesday 15th March, at 8.05.

We will be talking about EAL, what the department does, and offer some general advice and tips over what you can do at home to help your children.

We hope to see as many parents there as possible. 

We will have Vietnamese translation available.