Newsletter 18.11.2016

Kia Ora! Xin Chao! Ni Hao! Kamusta! Sawasdee Ka! Hi and welcome to this weeks highlights from F2T!  Our International Days Celebrations got off to an exciting start with the children coming to school dressed in their national costumes. Heading up to the Hall to join in the whole school Parade was both exciting and a little overwhelming for some, but afterwards the children spoke excitedly about the experience. 

Over the course of the week the children enjoyed a variety of arts and crafts activities; inspiration for these was drawn from the nationalities represented within the classroom. You may have noticed the children's lovely elephant and sheep crafts hanging outside in the corridor and the beautifully decorated Ao dai's in the window.

The children also enjoyed a spot of cooking. On Tuesday, some children chose to make their own fairy bread for snack, learning how to hold their knife to spread the butter before adding sprinkles and cutting their bread in half to eat. On Wednesday, the children helped make chocolate porridge; taking turns to measure, mix and pour. And on Friday the children enjoyed making spring rolls, learning to fold and roll!

A huge thank you to the parents who contributed to the children's amazing International Lunch on Wednesday.  It was an impressive spread!  The children also enjoyed exploring the Foyer area with so many exciting activities and games to play. At BIS we are very fortunate to have such a supportive and involved parent community, organising these events for the children.  

During our carpet sessions this week the children learned a little bit about the countries that are represented in our classroom.  We visited New Zealand, Philippines, Vietnam, China, Thailand, UK and USA (Thank you to Andy's Dad for sharing with the children about North California!).  The children also visited the Vietnamese culture room.  Our fabulous TAs did a wonderful job transforming the multi-purpose room into a Vietnamese cultural extravaganza for the children to explore, learning about traditional ways of life, costumes and musical instruments.  As part of the weeks celebrations we also attended a Water Puppet show, this was a first for many, and the children were mesmerised!

Finally, we'd just like to say a huge thank you for the very thoughtful and generous Teachers Day gifts. It really is our pleasure and a delight to be working with your amazing children.  They bring a smile to our faces every day with their quirky anecdotes and enthusiasm for learning! 

Notices:

EYFS Family Morning on the 26^th November from 8:30-11:00am, we looking for seeing you there!

Library – Return books by Wednesday please.  The children do find it difficult and often upsetting when they cannot choose a new book to bring home. 

Swimming - Don't forget swimming things, the children will be swimming on Monday and Thursday.

Newsletter 10.11.2016

What we have been doing this week in F2T:


This week has been very busy as the F2 children explore, engage and learn more about the book called "We're going on a bear hunt" and as they prepare for the upcoming International Days Celebration next week.


The F2 outdoor area was set up to match the scenes in the book. There's grass, a river, a forest, mud, snowstorm and a cave which the children used to re-enact the events in the story. It's very lovely to hear the children talk about the events that happened in the book and to hear them repeat some of the phrases from the book using the English language.

We're going on a bear hunt activities are all over our classroom this week! Some children really liked exploring our bear hunt tuff spot wherein they can explore with different textures and use this activity to help them remember or retell the story. We also have sequencing cards in our Maths area where the children arranged the events in the story such as which event happened first, second and so on. We also played the "We're going on a bear hunt" song in the Soft Playroom. The children also made a display and we made a story map for the children to look at to help them recall the events in the story.

Beep! Beep! Beebots coming through! The children had a go at playing with the Beebots this week. The children were taught on how to operate the Beebots. The children liked pressing the buttons and watching the Beebot go. We also played an IWB game called Three Bears wherein the children sorted the clothes into three sizes which are big, medium and small.

The F2 children met a very special friend this week as well! This week, they met Katy the Caring dolphin! Katy is one of the animals that represents one of our school aide memoire which is Care. Katy is helping the children become a caring member of the F2 class by playing nicely with their friends, being kind, showing care to our school resources by taking care of our resources and tidying up and showing good manners to teachers and friends. It would be lovely and helpful if you talk to your child at home about Katy. At home, you can encourage or talk to your child about being kind and caring by encouraging them to tidy up and look after their toys, saying please and thank you and encouraging them to play and talk nicely with other children and adults too.

This week in Music, the children and Mr Jon celebrated World Nursery Rhyme Week by singing different Nursery Rhymes song. Nursery Rhymes play an important role in every child's development as nursery rhymes help them develop skills language and communication, physical and personal-social skills. The children sang different nursery rhymes song such as I'm a little teapot, Five Little Monkeys, 1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive and Incy Wincy Spider.

Xin chao! Hello! Hi! Kamusta! Ni Hao! Sawadee Ka/Krab! Kia Ora! This week, the children have been busy preparing as well for International Days celebration happening next week! The children are quite busy painting the flags that will be displayed in the classroom and the flags that they are going to hold during the International Parade which will happen on Monday. The children learned a new song as well from Miss Precious called "The world is round" where they learned about the different continents in the world. We also started singing the song "Say Hello" during our Hello Time where the children say hello in different languages. The children also did an activity where they stuck their picture in the country that they are from. You can support your child at home by talking to them about where they are from and which country they represent. 

This morning, F2 had a very special visitor from the United Kingdom. His name is Mr Andy Gleadhill and he conducted a percussion instruments workshop with the children. He played different percussion instruments and the children had a chance to play with the instruments. It was lots of fun!

Have a look at the other photos from this week:

Have a lovely weekend!

How to support your child at home:

• Below is the link for the story "We're going on a bear hunt". You can click the link and listen/watch the story at home with your child

We're going on a bear hunt

• Below are links for different nursery rhymes that we sang in our Music session for our World Nursery Rhymes Week celebration

I'm a Little Teapot

Five Little Monkeys

Once I caught a fish alive

Slippery Fish

Incy Wincy Spider

• Talk to your children about Katy! The F2 children are now quite familiar with Katy. To support your child with their personal, social and emotional development, you can talk to them about being a caring and kind friend to others, showing kind manners and encouraging them to make good choices. Reinforcing these language and strategies at home will be very helpful for your child. 

• In F2, hygiene and being healthy is important to keep everyone in our classroom healthy. We encourage the children to wash their hands before eating snack or lunch to keep germs away. We also encourage the children to drink lots of water. Encouraging the children to do this at home will help them develop the good habit of hand washing and keeping their body hydrated.

• Tapestry is you child's online learning journal. To know more about what your child have been doing this week, please refer to your child's Tapestry account. Please feel free to upload photos from your holidays, weekend trips/activities or even photos of what your child has been doing at home into your child's Tapestry account.

Notices

• International Days Celebration will be next week from 14th to 16th of November. On Monday (14th of November), the children will have their International Parade in the hall. Please be reminded of the following:

                      Please arrive on time. The children should be in school at exactly 7:55 am. The parade                         will start at 8:15 am and will be held at the TX Sports Hall. 

                      Please be reminded that the children will wear their national costume/outfit that                           represents their nationality. 

• International Fair will be on Wednesday 16th of November. There will be different activities and displays in the foyer that the children can visit and enjoy. The children need to have a token for them to access an activity. Tokens are available in the office. If you would like to purchase tokens, please see Miss Duong.

• International Buffet will be on Wednesday 16th of November as well. 

• The F2 teachers are inviting all the parents for the International Days Celebration Parent Presentations. If you would like to share something with the F2 children about the country or culture your child/family is from, please feel free to sign up. There is a sign up sheet in the display board outside our classroom. It can be as simple as reading a story book in your home language, teaching the F2 children a song in your home language or even showing pictures of your child and talking about their nationality/where they are from. For more details, you can talk to any of your child's teacher/s. You can also refer to the email sent by Ms Precious. 

• There will be NO SWIMMING sessions on Monday and Thursday due to the International Days Celebration. 

• There will be a library session on Wednesday. Please return borrowed library books on or before Wednesday.

• EYFS Family Morning will be on 26th of November 2016. Please stay tuned for more details! 

Enjoy your weekend! 

-Ms Claudine 

Newsletter 4.11.16

What we have been doing this week in F2T:

What a busy week we've had in F2T as the children engage in various activities in the different learning areas.

To get the children talking and be confident in using English language, we've started our news groups this week. We've asked the children the following questions:
-Did you go to a shopping centre?
-Did you ride a bike?
-Did you go to the park with your family?
-Did you stay at home?
-Did you eat in a restaurant?
-Did you play with your friends/siblings?
-Did you swim?
-Did you go to a play place? (TiniWorld, KizCity)

All the teachers are pleased to see that most children are able to express themselves using simple sentences in English and some are beginning to repeat one to two English words.

In F2T, we always enjoy doing a variety of physical activities. We have now started using the big playground and the children had fun doing a running race, climbing on the dome and using the roundabout. They have been particularly good at following simple instructions.

For story time, we focused on the story We're Going On A  Bear Hunt. The children have been learning lots of new vocabulary such as grass, river, mud, forest, snowstorm, cave and a lot more! They also enjoyed doing the actions. They were brilliant at following simple actions. 

In the role-play area this week, the children continue to explore our 'Use Me' box. They are pretending to be doctors, dentists, community helpers or even just people at home like mum, dad, brothers and sisters. There are lots of wonderful conversations happening in role-play area as the children are getting more familiar with what they can do and what resources they can use. 

In F2T, we always want the children to be playing nicely with their friends, be caring and respectful of each other. This week, we continue to encourage them to play nicely/cooperatively with each other. They have been learning to take turns too especially that we have some new toys in the classroom. Most children have now realised the importance of going for good choices rather than poor choices. They have been learning these phrases and are also able to think for themselves in terms of doing the right things. Here are a few examples of good choices and poor choices:

How to support your child at home:

Learning new words

You might want to read the story We're Going On A Bear Hunt with your child over the weekend. It is always fun and exciting to learn new words. Here is a link to the video if you do not have the book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoSck00awAQ 

Health and Self-care

-At all times, we make sure that we wash our hands before every meal time. 

-We have been encouraging them to drink lots of water especially after playing in the Fundino playground and soft play room.

-When sneezing, children should remember to put their hands over their mouth. 

-We always use tissue to clean our nose. 

Please talk to your child/children about the importance of these.

Notices:

A gentle reminder

“When to keep your child home

For the well being 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).

Please keep your child at home if they exhibit any of the following symptoms;

·         A persistent cough, heavy cold symptoms, or another common but contagious illness.

·         Your child has had any episode/s of vomiting/ diarrhoea in the previous 12-24 hours.

• They should remain at home for at least 24 hours from the last episode of vomiting and at least 48 hours from the last episode of diarrhoea.

·         If they have a temperature greater than 37.7°C (99.8°F) when they first wake up in the morning. They can return to school when they have been fever free (without fever relieving medications) for at least 24 hours.”

Save the date!

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms Precious