I hope the students have all had a good week of learning online. Mr Green told me that you all had lots of fun.
I will be returning to school on Monday. I can’t wait to see you all again. I have missed you a lot. Please enjoy some pictures from Week 7 where we were working hard researching houses around the world and creating our very own town. The homemade town allowed us to look and think about what we needed to move from one place to another. We created roads and bridges and discussed how difficult it must have been in the past for people to move around without them. The children were very proud of it. I have lots more fun activities planned for next week. See you all then! 🙂 Take care.
I am sat here at my desk with a smile on my face as I write this week’s newsletter. We had a lovely Friday with lots of fun learning. In the morning, we took a walk to the post office to post our second letters to our penpals in Spain. This time we sent them using an express service so they would arrive quicker than last time. We weighed the parcel and predicted the price it would cost (Can’t miss a learning opportunity!). On our way back to school we took a walk around to look at some buildings nearby and spoke about the materials they were made of and when we thought they were built. It was a lovely sunny day for it too!
In English, the students have continued working on our unit “Simple Rhyming Poems”. We looked at various poems and identified the rhyming words in them. The students also tried to make lists of different words that rhymed with those in the poems. The homework for some of the students is to try and write new sentences for lines in a poem. Rhyming words are given at the bottom of the page to help them do this. Please guide your child if they find this a little challenging. The content of the poem is not important, but more so their ability to choose sentences that rhyme.
In rotations, the students have been working on various spelling, grammar and reading focuses. I am pleased with the students overall progress they have made in their groups and I plan to test the children again at the end of Term 2. This allows me to make sure that each childs’ needs are being met and that they are accessing work appropriate to their level and needs.
In IPC, we have been busy finishing off the art section and starting the history part of our unit “Buildings”. On Monday we looked at bridges and the work of Monet. We researched, as a class, the most famous bridges around the world. The students were given pictures of Monet’s work and we discussed his style of painting. We then made our own bridges using masking tape. This was a very engaging activity and the students were very creative in the way they shaped their bridges. Around the masking tape they drew the background first with pencil and then we began using paint to create our own Monet Bridges. The students absolutely love creating them and produced some lovely work that I plan to display in the school corridor.
In PE, this week we worked on our team work skills by playing a series of games which also focused on our aiming skills. We played games which required us to demonstrate collaboration and helped the students to understand what fair play is in a team. They particularly enjoyed the skittles game which involved using team members to pass the ball to the opposite side and then aiming for the skittle.
In games this afternoon we played an amended version of netball and we were all tired out afterwards. I think everyone will sleep well tonight!
We have had another busy week full of learning in Mrs Sim’s class! I hope you all had a great week too. The weather has been rather chilly!
We started off the week with a lot of love on Valentines Day! The classroom was filled with personalized balloons for each student with something I loved about them written on it. The sentence of the day was written in balloons too!
This week in English, we started our unit “Simple Rhyming Poems” and have had fun reading various poems and identifying rhyming words. We played a game using post-its where different sets of rhyming words were placed on the children’s backs and they had to find their matching word by asking the question “Please tell me a word that rhymes with the word on my back”. They really enjoyed it and did so well that we then wrote our own words and played it again. We also did a lot of rhyming games where we moved around the circle and each child had to think about a word that rhymed with the previous word. Next week, we will try making sentences that will be used to make our own short Rhyming Poem.
We worked hard in our rotations, focusing on reading fluency, spelling and phonics.
In IPC, we continued our unit on “Buildings”. This is a long unit that will take us up to the end of Term 2. It has proved to be very popular and the students have been very engaged and are enjoying the learning journey so far!
We began this week with the Art section of the unit. We drew the school building using the sketches we created last week. The students decided that pastels would be best to create the wood effect on the building. They turned out beautifully. We then studied two artists. Van Gogh’s starry night and Yoni Alter’s New York buildings. We spoke about the very different styles of the artists’ work and then incorporated both styles into a masterpiece of famous buildings in Korea. We used Alter’s bright buildings cut out of paper and Gogh’s painting technique for the sky. We then moved on to making our very own houses from clay. We decided to make a street by joining all our houses together. They are just fantastic. We even named our street “Rainbow Road” as we felt it matched the happiness it brought to our faces when we lined them all up in a row.
In PSHE, we continued looking at what jobs people do, with a focus on the people who help us. We looked at firemen, policemen, teachers, dentists and doctors.
In P.E. we began our new unit “Play Based Games” and had fun focusing on aiming skills. We used large cut out snowmen as our target and first used paper balls to try and aim at areas of the body. We soon realised that it was a tricky task and decided to try using tennis balls instead. These worked much better! We also practised our underarm throwing techniques to help us improve our aiming skills further. We finished off our day today in Games playing “Cats and Mice”, “Ball in the hoop” and “Hungry Hippos. They had fun with these 🙂
Phonics Books
I am missing a few phonics books so please do return them if you still have some at home. Thank you.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. See you all on Monday!
Firstly, I would like to say how nice it was to meet many of you this week. Thank you for coming in/meeting online. Please do feel free to contact me anytime if you ever have any questions, concerns or are curious about anything at all. No matter how big or small I am always happy to hear from you.
We have had a good first week back after the Seollnal Holiday and lots of learning took place.
In IPC, we started our new unit ‘Buildings’. We began the week with our ‘Entry Point’ where I tried to get the children to think about how things are built and what materials are used to make them. We started off by trying to make our own houses out of playing cards. It was very tricky to do but the children persevered, and with the help of some tape managed to create their own buildings! We realised that the cards were not strong enough and fell over very easily so we used our brains to think of another way. I brought in 1000 chopsticks and we tried to make a masterpiece out of chopsticks, elastic bands and tape. These were much more impressive 🙂 We also researched buildings and homes from around the world. We cut out pictures and created our very own ‘buildings and homes’ posters. This was to check the students prior knowledge of buildings and the materials they are made from. We then finished off the week by going outside and looking at our school building. The students drew sketches of the building and had to write down all the different materials it is made of. Next week we will use these sketches to complete a pastel drawing of the school.
In English this week we have been learning about the suffixes ‘ed’ and ‘-ing’. The students were already familiar with using the past tense, however, the rules to using ‘ing’ were new and so we spent some time practising using each one.
We will be starting a new unit on rhymes next week and I am excited to get started with this one. It is always lots of fun!
In PSHE, we reviewed different types of jobs and discussed what we would like to be when we grow up. The students practised using the connective ‘because’ to let everyone know why they wanted to do a particular job. It was great to hear about their dreams. 🙂
We ended the day with some great team building activities in games!
Concentration!
Building with cards!
Will it fall?!
When the whistle blows, grab a card!? What food will it be?
We have had quite a sad end to our week as we had to say goodbye to two of our friends today. We wish Ezra and Aarushi all the best on their next adventure. I am confident you will both go on to do great things!
In English this week we have been very busy working on comparing the two stories we read in class last week. “The Rabbityness” and “The Suitcase”. The children worked on using connectives to explain why they liked one book more than the other. We made sure to use capital letters and full stops. However, this is an area I would like to practice consistently, so the homework this week is related to using full stops and capital letters. The children all worked well during rotations, focusing on reading sight words, new story words and spelling.
In IPC, we came to the end of our unit “It’s Shocking”. We looked at electrical dangers around the classroom and school and used a great website to go into a house and find the dangers. The students then made posters, working in groups to make a fantastic display. We then moved onto the most exciting task…making our very own flashlights/torches. Thank you so much for sending in the bottles and torches. We loved exploring them all and it helped us to make our very own. The children confidently made their own circuits and inserted them in to their bottles(flashlights). It was a little tricky but we used our growth mindsets and completed the task successfully. We finished off today looking at the past and how electricity has made our lives so much more convenient. We watched a short clip on what we used to use to wash clothes, travel, clean and communicate. We had a lovely discussion about how lucky we are nowadays!
Spare Clothes
Sometimes the students have little accidents or spill water on their clothes. If you would like to send a spare set of pants and trousers for your child I can keep it in their lockers. The school does have spare clothes but as you all know, they like to wear their own 🙂
Parent Teacher Meetings
Report cards have been sent home with your child today and Parent Teacher Meetings will be held in Week 4 after the Seollal break. I am available on Wednesday, February 9th and Thursday, February 10th. Please use this form to choose your preferred time. I look forward to meeting you all in person.
I hope you all have a lovely break. See you on Monday 7th February!
Happy Saturday to you all. I hope you all have a nice weekend ahead and are staying warm in this chilly weather.
We had a lovely start to the week with Louis and Isabella returning. Everyone was very happy to have them back in class.
In IPC, Mrs M made a surprise visit on Monday and let us see what we could do with her long, very curly hair! The students were given plastic combs and were all surprised by the static electricity that was built up!
Max having a great time!
Wow, it is sticking to my hands Mrs Sim!
We also did a little experiment to see which objects, after rubbing then, could pick up small pieces of tissue paper. We concluded that the balloon and plastic comb definitely could and the wooden pencil and spoon do not build static electricity. We recorded our results on a table to see if our predictions were correct. Most predicted that the plastic balloon wouldn’t pick up the paper and they were surprised to see when it did. Our predictions will not always be correct 😉
We also had our “Show and Tell” in IPC, where we got to introduce our battery operated toys! We not only loved sharing them and telling the class what our toys could do, but also learned all about batteries and how they supply energy to make our toys work. We looked at how to fit batteries properly too, using the two terminals labeled + and -.
The children had so much fun and afterwards we made a poster about what our toy can do.
Panos with his Robot Dinosaur; It was impressive!Olivia’s bubble machine was a huge hit!
Carol’s Race Car!
At the end of the week the students explored making electric circuits with Mr Green and I heard they had so much fun doing so.
In English, we read a new story called “Rabbityness” and worked on making predications, writing invitations and confidently discussing and sharing ideas about the story. The students had to guess what would happen next in the story, using their imaginations and creativity. This week’s core value was ‘Creativity’.
In PE. we continued with our unit on “Healthy Bodies” and this week looked at the importance of cooling down after exercise. The students made their own routines and pretended to be the teacher and led the class. They all did very well.
Mrs Sim was having difficulty with this one 🙂
Louis and Isabella finally received their letters from their penpals and we made a start on writing our replies to them. The students also received a video from Marbella, Spain with all the students saying hello and thank you for their letters. It was great to see their little faces <3
Daniela working on her letter to her penpal.Banana Group Rotation
That’s all for this week. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday! Stay warm. Be happy. Enjoy!
It has been such a great first week! We were a little bit tired at the beginning of the week but everyone was happy and excited to be reunited after the holidays.
We were so happy to receive our letters from our penpals in Spain. Actually, I think I was most excited! The students opened them with big smiles on their faces and were excited to hear from their new friends. We received pictures of Marbella, Spain, maps and flags too!
In IPC, we started our exciting unit “It’s Shocking”. We began the week with a knowledge harvest to see how much the children already knew about electricity. They enjoyed experimenting with different materials to see which created static electricity. We had fun with our can and balloon race and they all worked super hard to try and win!
In English, we began our unit “Stories with familiar themes” and read a story named “The Suitcase”. We worked on describing characters and discussing what they are like. We made character profiles and even made our very own suitcases. Inside them, the students had to choose just five things that they wanted to take with them if they moved to another country. It was interesting to see what they all chose. We also had a nice discussion about things that are precious to us.
In PE, we started our unit on “Heathy Bodies”. We looked at the importance of warming up and each group developed their very own warm up routine. Today in games, I chose one group to be the teachers and they did the warm up part of the class using what we had learned on Tuesday. We talked about how we should always warm up to prevent injuries. I was very impressed with their teaching skills.
In PSHE, we spoke about making SMART goals for 2022. The children all discussed what they would like to improve on in 2022 and we made a lovely display outside our classroom with our work.
Homework was sent out today along with library books. Some students have still got phonics books and library books at home. If you could make sure they are returned next week that would be great. Thank you.
I hope you all enjoyed the Winter Show last Friday. It was lovely to see you all and I was so proud of the students. It has been an absolute pleasure to teach each and everyone of your children this term and I cannot wait to see them all again in the new year.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I hope that 2022 is a year filled with love, laughter and happiness.
Ezra working hard in Korean Class.
Making daily schedules in Korean class.
Waitress Mrs Sim.
Max opening his book.
Isabella giving out her birthday goodie bags 🙂
Ezra opening his Christmas Book.
Practising decoding words.
Phonics rotation time!
Alex’s turn to open his book!
Noah – Busy giving out his birthday bags.
Panos working hard during rotations.
Telling the students how proud I am of them!<3
Year 1/2 <3
See you all back at school on the 10th January 2022!
We are now a week away from our Christmas Show and we have been working hard in preparation for it. Each student has a letter to represent in our song “The Christmas Alphabet”. We are excited to show you all!
The students asked if they should wear certain colours on the day. I don’t want to ask parents to buy something especially for the show but if you have the following it would be great if you could arrange for them to wear it on the day (Friday 17th December).
Carol – Candy – Anything Christmas themed/red or white colours like candy.
Ezra/Alex – Reindeer – Brown or black clothes/Christmas tops
Noah -Icing on the cake Red/Black/Green/ Christmas themed top
Panos – Stocking – Red/Black/Green/Christmas themed top
Louis/Nayra – Trees – Green/Red/Christmas top
Isabella/Aarushi – Mistletoe –
White or red dress would be nice or red/green/Christmas top
Olivia/Aarna – Angels
White clothes – skirt/dress/top and trousers
Max – Santa – We have the costume in school for him
Again please don’t feel like you have to go and buy something new. Any questions regarding this please feel free to get in touch.
This week in IPC we have been finishing off our unit on the circus. It has been quite a long unit but definitely lots of fun. We worked on the ICT activities and attempted to make our own circus adverts. It was a little tricky but we used our growth mindsets and persevered!
In English, we looked at skipping rhymes. Our favourite was “Teddy Bear Teddy Bear” and we enjoyed clapping to the beat to help us remember it. We also worked in groups reading various skipping rhymes. We then chose our favourite and memorized them. The students did a fantastic job and enjoyed presenting them to the class.
In PE this week, we continued with our Gymnastics. We practised doing egg rolls and log rolls. We discussed the importance of tightening our muscles and keeping in the correct position whilst rolling. We did some peer assessment after practising the rolls where the students had to check and give their partner advice on how to improve further.
In PSHE, we discussed how to deal with unwanted behaviour from friends. We looked at various scenarios and practised what we should say when we dislike something a friend does.
Parent Teacher Meetings
Just a little reminder that parent teacher meetings will take place in Term 2, Week 3. Student report cards will also be sent out then. However, please do feel free to get in touch if there is anything you would like to discuss before then.
Next week is going to be a busy one so rest up this weekend! I look forward to seeing you all in person next week.
We have had another busy week of learning here in Mrs Sim’s class. Time is flying with only two weeks to go until Christmas break. We are really getting into the Christmas spirit now!
Book Advent Calendar
Thank you so much for bringing in your child’s favourite book and wrapping them up so beautifully.The students have really enjoyed sharing their favourite book each day and those who are waiting are excited for theirs to be read.
In English this week we continued with our Traditional Rhymes unit and looked at poems with rhyming words in them. We wrote our own verse of the rhyme ‘Pussy Cat Pussy Cat’ and tried to think of rhyming words we could use for other poems. We also tried to think of words that rhyme with our names. We will work more on these next week.
As you may have seen the advent calendar the students made had some rhyming words on it. This was a lovely activity and I hope they enjoy adding the fluff to Santa’s beard throughout the month.
In IPC, we are coming to the end of our Circus unit and this week looked at rules. We discussed rules that we have in school, at home and also at a circus. We spoke about the importance of following them and came up with a new set of rules for our own circus. The student’s designed posters which showed their chosen rule through art with no words. They did a wonderful job.
In PE this week we worked on balance and movement, more specifically at forming sequences. Using various balances, the students worked on their own sequences and performed them to the class.
In PSHE, Mr Green joined us and did a lesson about our bodies and appropriate touch. The students were very mature and sensible during this lesson and I was very impressed with their contributions to the discussion. Well done to them all<3
Mrs Sim – The Elf
We have a new friend in class right now. Her name is Mrs Sim “The Elf” and she watches over us as we study hard and make good choices in class. When the school closes and everyone goes home, the elf sometimes moves around the classroom. HeHe! The children love seeing where she has moved to in the morning.
That’s all for this week. I hope you all have a lovely weekend and look forward to another exciting week ahead next week.
