This week we had a great time at Champion Black Belt! Students were able to run free and use their whole bodies to push, pull, limp, jump, and have fun doing the exciting physical activities. Afterwards we piled back onto the bus to Ochi-Gil park were we ate and played even more on the amazing play structures, hipline, and hammocks. It was a great day to let out some energy, spend time with friends, and work with each other outside of school. I was so very very happy and impressed with every ones excellent behavior, it made for such an enjoyable day!

Back in class we spend English going over poetry and introducing the idea od figurative language while sharing our thoughts on poems. We also looked at the use of subject and object pronouns and noun phrases. With Ms. Mary students have been having a go at writing some simple poetry. I love reading what student’s have wrote and hope to see them continue to practicing expressing themselves creatively. Word study has also been going well, but not everyone is making the marks I know they are capable of! Let’s be sure to also write out our words at home in addition to morning in-class activities!

For math we have been been working with the commutative and associate properties of multiplication. Next week we will finally break into algorithmic multiplication but our class is ready to work with double and even triple digits with all the different techniques we have mastered; equal groups, arrays, number lines, skip counting, and understanding that the order of our factors may affect our model, but the product stays the same! The idea is that everyone has a tool in their arsenal to help them breakdown problems and work them out in the method that works best for each individual. It is still a great idea to keep practicing and drilling the multiplication table at least up to 10 (it will help us so much with math later on!) and we will have plenty of that in class too.

In IPC we look a look at the circulatory system focusing on the heart and blood vessels. We connected our prior knowledge of the muscular system and respiratory system to understand that the heart is a muscle and that it pumps the blood which carries the oxygen inhaled by the lungs. I am always impressed by how much everyone retains and can explain in class, I think we will have some fun next week with the digestive system.

We continue to do touch typing and working on our computing skills with programs such as our online reading library epic! and the new platform Education City which offers some great supplementary math and English activities and practice. I would like to remind everyone that laptops and tablets are amazing tools – but they are fragile and expensive. Please try to handle such devices with care; there has been a lot of rough handling and dropping of the computers. We are lucky no screens have cracked so far, but let’s show respect to our learning tools as if they were our own.

Finally, in the homework folders there is a lot of checked in-class work going home. Please remove these papers from the folder before turning it back in. Feel free to check out some of the word study and math practice we’ve done through the week, then please recycle 🙂

Mrs. Leah

After a much need break, the first week back is already over!

Please be sure to check the permission slip for the field trip Tuesday November 22 (next week!) We will be going to the Champion Black Belt followed by a picnic lunch at Ochi-gil park. Parents must submit the permission slip form and give ₩8,000 by Tuesday morning. If any parents are interested in going, please let me know!

A shout-out to students who were so well behaved on Friday during the Kindness Market. I was very impressed with everyone who waited patiently for the event to start; many had their reading books and poems to finish! The Market was a great success and everyone was patient, helpful, and had a lot of fun for a great cause. Special thank you to Kindness Club and Mrs. Sim for hosting such a wonderful event.

Back to our class, this week in English we started our unit on poetry. We are looking at the structure of poems and figurative language, and writing some of our own poetry to exercise our creative minds. Everyone is doing marvelously with word study; on Monday students used a children’s dictionary to look up and define their words, and throughout the week they wrote out each word, broke down each word into its syllables, and even decoded the words from symbols to letters. Spelling tests are looking really good, so keep up the good work!

In IPC we learned about the respiratory system and the amazing lungs. Students should understand the purpose of the lungs, the major parts of the respiratory system, and how respiration works. We also discussed the importance of taking care of our lungs by keeping our air clean and not smoking. Students made their own anti smoking posters in small groups and discussed the dangers and effects smoking causes on their bodies.

This week we focused a lot on taking notes from reading passages in IPC and putting the information into our own words rater than directly copy. Then, we used our notes to write a perfect paragraph with an introduction and conclusion. I am really pleased with the results and hope to continue building upon our reading and writing skills across our content areas.

Math was all about multiplication again, but this time we used number lines and skip counting to solve our problems. It is is bit tricky at first because we must approach each problem in a particular way based on our method, however everyone was breezing through number lines and factor chains by the week’s end, so we are ready to start solving some bigger problems next week. Remember all the ways we have learned to approach multiplication and the bigger equations we encounter will seem like a breeze!

We have 4 more weeks until Christmas break come Monday, so let us continue to work hard and do amazing work! We will be practicing our class routine for the Christmas show a few times each week so that should keep us entertained and spirited at we head into the winter. Have a lovely weekend, don’t forget to submit the field trip form, and see you next week.

-Mrs. Leah

Please use the link to the form to give permission for your child to attend Tuesday November 2022.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc2Jz0dibqGRuLpeFe6Akt69Ovnwokt9SFZrAJ-NhpnDOU5lQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Whew! What a busy week we’ve all had. A week after Halloween festivities, the CIS team visit, and the week before a break… everyone was very excited.

In English we finished our unit on giving instructions and directions. Everyone should be well versed in imperative verbs, sequence words, and putting information in order. Spelling is also looking good! Everyone in class is taking part and with daily review throughout the week, so these words should be no issue come Fridays. I would suggest that in addition to in class study, students still review and practice at home, it will make the difference for the 1-2 words a majority of students are still missing. Those who need a challenge are also writing each word in a well-formed sentence, this would be great practice for all students at home as many of us still forget to capitalize and add punctuation!

Math continues with multiplication using repeated addition, equal groups, and arrays. While many students are well versed in their times tables, looking at models and being able to write equations is a good skill to develop early. We are taking the models and making equations that are true to the model, a bit confusing for those who understand the commutative property (even if not by name), as we must order the values to reflect the model. By week’s end, everyone was flying through and demonstrating a good understanding! After the break we will look at multiplication on number lines and algorithmic form (long-hand), and word problems.

In math class students are also working on some fact fluency sheets independently for practice, using Zearn, and also working with Mrs. Mary to review and practice new concepts. We will continue to practice with skip counting and building more fluency with the multiplication table, but please review the multiplication table as home! There are many great songs to help memorization (for example Scratch Garden 9’s).

IPC we jumped into the muscular system. Students connected their knowledge of the skeletal system to the muscles as the systems are so intertwined. We looked at major muscles of the body, what they are made of, the three different kinds of muscle tissues, and voluntary vs involuntary muscles. We also talked about the importance of protein and how we can keep our muscular system healthy with diet and exercising. Everyone seems to be enjoying the unit and impressing me with how much information they are retaining!

For digital literacy we have been practicing touch typing to build up speed and accuracy on the keyboard, and in PSHE we did a lesson on situational awareness. We also too a moment to reflect on our week and wrote what we did well and no so well with, in addition to something we were grateful for. We will focus more on gratitude for this month of November, so we will be doing more reflections in the future.

Lastly, we are having an issue with the supplies being destroyed in the classroom. Erasers being crumbled and cut up, crayons being turned all the way up and snapped of, glue sticks being smashed or put back without caps, new pencils disappearing as soon as they are put out. It is incredibly disrespectful to handle learning supplies in this manner, and especially rude when it has been provided by the school. I have talked to everyone about taking better care of our things, and linking it back to our classroom rules that we all agreed upon and signed at the beginning of the school year. As we focus on gratitude this season, let us all be reminded of how fortunate we are for what we have and our responsibility to care for our things (and all things!) so we can enjoy them longer. Which leads to…

The Kindness Club’s Kindness Market! They will be collecting (gently) used goods Monday November 14th to be sold to students and families at the school on Friday November 18th. All proceeds will be donated to the Busan Orphanage. Please see the flyer in the most recent school newsletter for details.

Rest up everyone, have some family time and fun, and see you on the 14th!

-Mrs. Leah

What a fun end to the week with our Halloween party! Everyone had a lot of fun dressing up and eating lots of sugar… I mean partaking in traditional festive treats!

We had a laid back day, but everyone still did the first spelling test with our new word study unit. For the most part, we did very well. The words will get trickier as the weeks progress. Be sure to practice writing out words at home, and if you need a challenge, find other words that use the same phonics skill (this coming week is digraphs, two letters that make one sound)!

In English with continued to practice using imperative verbs, sequence words, and writing out instructions. Students added word study to their morning routine taking ten or so minutes to play with the word list in various activities. This daily practice and repetition helps solidify spelling rules and makes Friday’s test a breeze. Everyone also continued on with their reading logs which is another great opportunity to practice retelling stories, using our own words to explain events in stories, and building stamina with writing.

Math is all about multiplication until the end of the term. This week students looked at multiplication from the perspective of repeated addition and adding equal groups. We will be exploring many ways in which multiplication can be performed, including writing different equations and solving with different methods. As we build up our understanding of the different ways to approach and solve problems, we will get into more long form traditional equations with multiple digits. We are also doing fact fluency drills to build up our skills and using Zearn to reinforce our understanding.

Our next IPC Unit os on How the Human Body Works. Perfect timing too, as we started with the skeletal system and were able to make some skeleton models/Halloween decorations for the hallway!

Students are becoming familiar with key vocabulary, identifying and labeling important arts, explaining the basic purpose and function of the system, and how to best take care of it. Skeletons may seem spooky at first, but they really are fascinating and essential to all of us! Now students can tell you about how many bones are in our bodies, identify some major bones, tell what they are made of, and talk about the importance of calcium and exercise. We are looking good to step into the muscular system next week.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and see you Monday!

-Mrs. Leah

This past week we have been very productive!

In English we continue to look at no-fiction texts in the form of instructions. We looked at books with contents pages and indexes and what kinds of information these helpful features contain, as well as how to use them. Student’s continue to impress me with their focus and diligence with their independent reading and reading logs. Everyone is getting a lot of practice not only paying attention to the story lines and details in their books, but writing out descriptions and recalls. Our reading and writing stamina is impressive, and I am also glad to see everyone’s interest in our online library Epic.

This coming week we are doing spelling a bit differently. Not everyone has been studying their words, and this combined with common spelling mistakes on in-class writing assignments has called for a new approach. We will now be engaged in word study every morning; students will do small activities with the word list which is posted in the room. Everyday practice sounding, reading, writing, and playing with these words will help us all get comfortable for these words for the Friday spelling test AND improve our phonics skills for better reading and spelling skills! Please continue to study the words on the spelling word list at home and everyone will surely do great on spelling test 🙂

In math we finished our unit of addition, subtraction, and money. Students worked with place value once again building confidence with the tenths and hundredths places. That decimal can be tricky, but everyone was adding and subtracting with decimals by the weeks end! Coming us we will take an in depth look at multiplication. We will explore various ways to approach multiplication and how to represent our equations visually. We will also build on our fact fluency to nail down the multiplication table. Everyone seems really excited for this unit so I hope they enjoy it!

Finally, in IPC our unit of Significant people came to a close. Students started some research at home to become familiar with their person of choice. Monday we did more in class research to fill in any missing information on our presentation scripts. After some peer review and rewrites we were ready to present. Mrs. Sim’s class joined us as we read out scripts allowed. I was so impressed with everyone! There were a lot of brave students who shared, even our English language learners, so bravo to all of you! On Monday we start our next science based unit on How Humans Work. We will be looking at human anatomy, physiology, and how to best take care of our bodies.

I hope every one had a fantastic weekend and I will see you all soon,

-Mrs. Leah

October is in effect and the temperatures are dropping. Please be sure to bring a jacket to school as it can be chilly in the mornings and windy! The window in the classroom is usually cracked for ventilation, so wearing layers as it gets colder will help keep everyone comfortable as we head into winter.

This week we came to the end of our studies on significant people in history. Monday we looked at few few individuals who’s inventions help keep us safe, as well as James Naismith who invented basketball! He came up with the game to keep the unruly kids at the YMCA occupied during the winter months. In the spirit of this, we did some basketball drills to take a break from our desks.

We also learned about George Washington Carver and how he isn’t just ‘the guy who invented peanut butter’. We matched inventors to their inventions and wrote how their contributions changed the world. Next week is our exit point and on Wednesday students will present themselves as a person of significance. In the homework are the ten questions students should research to get started on their final projects Monday. There will be time on Monday to do research, but it is always advantageous to be ahead!

English we have been looking at imperative verbs and sequencing words when giving and writing commands, directions, and instructions. Friday we followed along the instructions to make a pop-up card for some crafty fun, students really enjoyed the activity so I will see how we can incorporate more crafts into our days, especially as the holidays approach.

As for math, this week we worked with money and decimals. Students are familiar with place value from our first unit, but introducing tenths and hundredths has expanded our knowledge. We will spend another week adding, subtracting, and working in general with decimals and expanded place value to help solidity concepts.

That’s all for this week, take care and see you all soon!

-Mrs. Leah

This week the class started doing English and Math in small groups. With everyone paired with other peers of similar ability, we can focus on the skills that need practice, challenging ourselves with support, and learning all the more as we progress through the term.

The students really enjoyed playing Interland for Digital Literacy this week. We have been talking about how to be careful when we share information online, and the game not only reinforces this message, but proved to be of great fun! I PSHE we explored anger and what types of issues upset us the most, and how to cope with those situations and feelings.

In English we started a new unit on instructions, directions, and commands. We will look at imperative verbs, sequencing words, and writing out steps. Students also buckled down with their in class reading logs which allows them to think about the books they read and really seek out new vocabulary, meaning, and retell the story in their own words. Everyone has already shown great enthusiasm and determination in making their logs quality rich. And the spelling test results are looking great! The class average has gone up substantially; keep up the studying and don’t forget to write them out every night!

We continued to explore interesting significant figures focusing on those who contributed to something very tangible: the clothes we wear. We saw the progression of readily loomed fabrics to the mechanical sewing machine to the creation of blue jeans and their transition from a piece of work wear to high fashion. Students had a great deal of fun designing and creating their own child fashion of the future, who knows, maybe one of our own will be the next great fashion designer students of the future study! We continue to practice note taking copying key dates, terms, and information for easy reference, and reading text to find terms from reading comprehension questions to better understand the story details of these inventors.

Math has been be really successful. Many students needed ample practice with writing out long form arithmetic, and so that is what we did. Everyone can now write out two and three digit subtraction equations vertically and show their work. Be sure to practice borrowing that one! We will continue with addition and subtraction all this with with the introduction to counting money.

In PE our class took on the special task of helping the littlest members of HFS manage an obstacle course.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and see you on Monday! (Yes, there is school this coming Monday, don’t forget!)

-Mrs. Leah

Finally, a nice full 5 day week! This week the class really showed that while they are many, they can all work together to be a productive and cooperative body.

In IPC we had a lot of fun and learning exploring significant inventors and their creations. We took a snap shot of some pretty important characters including Thomas Edison, Alexander Bell, the Wright Brothers, Galileo Galilei, Benjamin Franklin, and Leonardo Da Vinci. We looked at the first flight then crafted our own airplanes to fly down the hall. Later we connected the dream of soaring up high with Da Vinci’s sketch of the first parachute while designing our own chutes. We discovered that many of us need practice tying knots so we took a mini lesson in knot tying at the end of the day Wednesday. We also practiced taking meaningful notes so we can reference them in our studies, and important skill for History and beyond. This week will will continue to explore some more great inventors and their significant inventions.

English saw the close of our unit on story writing. All week students worked on creating their own creative stories from brainstorming characters and settings, using adjectives to describe them, and sequencing the events of their tales on a story arc. Ensuring that the actioned moved forward with dialogue and varied speaking verbs, everyone came out with great and entertaining stories! Shout out to the brave few who shared their work on Friday; it can be scary sharing our writing, or just presenting in front of our peers, but those that did make us smile and laugh – good work!

For Math we are going back into addition and subtraction but looking at bigger numbers now that place value is fresh in our minds from the previous unit. As the digits increase, so does the carrying, but with practice makes perfect! I am really enjoying seeing how well everyone does both in class on paper and online on ZEARN. The combination of old-school and tech seems to be solidifying some concepts well, so let’s keep it up! This coming week I hope to split the class into some small groups so we can work closely on our skill building and challenge those who need it.

A word on homework; some students have a lot of extracurricular activities all week, if the homework is overwhelming or too much, please scale down as needed. I recommend studying the spelling words each night for 15 minutes, and a math sheet to practice and review the skills we are covering for the minimum. If for any reason it’s an extra busy week, just email me to let me know homework will be incomplete (it’s better a parent tell me that a student). No stress, it’s just to supplement learning.

Enjoy your weekend!

-Mrs. Leah

Another great week of learning, and another typhoon! We are still having some sun and hot weather, so enjoy it while it lasts! Please remember to bring your water bottle to school; we have used a lot of disposable cups these past weeks, but it’s more convenient and spill free to use a bottle.

In IPC we looked at timelines and how we can see when our significant figures of the past lived. Students placed worked hard to identify people and place them on a timeline based on their birth and death years. We also talked about fame and it’s connection to people of historical significance. It was great to see just how far back human history goes and the explosion of famous people and their inventions at the turn of the 20th century! Next week we will be looking into the lives of famous inventors and some of the amazing things they contributed to the world.

We finished out our unit in math with estimating and rounding to the nearest ten or hundred place value. We will revisit rounding a bit this week as it can be a bit tricky, as we go into adding and subtracting larger numbers, there will be opportunity to revisit and practice these skills. We will also start to work with decimals as we will look at counting money.

In English students have continued to identify and use adjectives when describing settings and characters. This week we looked at the ever changing form of verbs and how we use a verb to indicate a character is speaking, along with speech marks. We also analyzed the classic story arc for sequencing events. This next week students will be writing their own creative stories so they can utilize the skills we have learned in a unit-end piece of work. I look forward to seeing what everyone writes about!

Also, great job everyone studying their spelling words last week. The scores were significantly improved! Just a bit every night makes all the difference on the test, and helps us write better as well! I am a very happy to see how hard everyone has been working on their homework in general, so keep up your amazing work.

Enjoy your weekend and see everyone on Monday 🙂

Mrs. Leah