Dear Parents,

Tomorrow will be a busy, emotional day so I am writing to you all now 🙂

Teaching Year 1/2 this year has been a very rewarding journey. 

Our year has been filled with memories that I hope the students will remember forever. We went on some pretty fun field trips and fantastic learning took place. Our Christmas play was one to remember and I was so proud of you all on stage. We wrote to our penpals in Spain, learned how to be kind and there was lots of joy and excitement along the way. We ended the year with our trip to Gyeongju World and everyone had a blast!

It has been so wonderful to watch the students grow, both academically and emotionally. Each day they made me smile, made me proud and sometimes made me cry! 

I will never forget how excited you all got starting a new unit in IPC and the passion you show for learning (most of the time – hehe!).

It has been an absolute pleasure being your teacher, your mummy, your nurse, your counselor and sometimes your class clown!

I hope that throughout your primary school journey you carry on demonstrating the values you have learned in class. Remember to use your growth mindset and always put love and care into all that you do. I know that you can all achieve greatness when you try your best. Keep challenging yourself and believe in yourself. I know one thing for sure, you will all never forget how important it is to be kind. 

“It’s Cool to be KIND”

With Love,

 Mrs. Sim and Ms. Temple xoxox

Some parents have asked what they can do over the summer. I have prepared little booklets if you would like to keep your child entertained on flights 🙂 Of course no obligation to complete any of it and no need to bring it back to school 😉

I will send them home tomorrow along with their work 🙂

Please bring lunch as normal tomorrow. Pizza, drinks and treats from the PTA will be given in the afternoon at 2pm.

I wish you all a super, duper wonderful summer. Have great fun and make lots of good memories. Year 2, I am crying. Year 1, I will see you in August and can’t wait to see you all again.

Much love, Mrs. Sim.

Dear Parents,

It was so lovely to see you all at Parent Teacher Conferences this week. Thank you so much for coming in. 

It sure  is getting hot out there! The sun is shining, the kids are sweating and we are all getting excited for the summer holidays!

We have had another busy week here in Year 1/2!

In Maths, Year 2 students spent the week reviewing numbers to 100. We reviewed addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Year 1 students finished off their time unit and I am confident that they will be able to tell you the time now…but only when it is on the hour or half past – haha! (For now!).

In English, we finished up our last unit ‘Finding Out’ and looked at writing reports. Next week we will be reviewing and wrapping up unfinished pieces of work. Rotations are going well as always and I am very proud of how far the students have come along this term. It is so rewarding to see them read and write more and more.

IPC has been so much fun this week! We looked at air resistance and water force and completed some fun experiments! I never managed to take any pictures of our experiment today but we tested to see if a bucket of water would move (i) a netball (ii) a volleyball and then also tried it out using a water gun! It was lots of fun but very hot!

This week in P.E. and games we took out our parachute and had lots of fun playing different games with it. We also played a game called “Hungry Hippos” (like the boardgame) in Games and it was a huge hit!

I look forward to seeing some of you next Wednesday, 21st June for our field trip to Gyeongju World. Please remember to wear the school uniform. The thin summer one might be best in this hot weather!

We will also need

• A snack that is easy to eat
• A lunchbox that doesn’t need to be heated
• Some sun cream 
• An optional afternoon snack as they often get hungry before leaving the amusement park

Some students ask if they can bring money on the field trip. There are some snack shops for drinks, ice-cream and candyfloss and if the children don’t like getting wet, you can purchase a rain jacket for 2,000 won. Perhaps 10,000 won would be a good amount to give your child in case they want to purchase a snack. 

I hope you all have a great weekend!

See you next week for our last week of the year. 

Mrs. Sim

Week 9 complete! Time is flying and summer is coming. I think we are all getting a little excited about our summer plans now!

In IPC this week, we started a very exciting new unit called ‘Push Me, Pull You’, which focuses on the science behind forces. For our Entry Point the students had a game of ‘Tug-of-war’ where they had to pull as hard as they could to beat the other team. It was so much fun!  Mr de Klerk’s class came to help us as the rope was very heavy! We also played a game where the students had to guess which force is being used when we: play on a swing set, ride a bicycle, open or close a door and today we took various pieces of gym equipment and observed how we would move on it. Would we push or would we pull?

In English this week, we explored dictionaries and fact files.The students looked at a dictionary and learnt how to use one to find relevent information. They also looked at fact files to find information. We worked in groups using different information books about animals to make our own fact file. Homework this week is to make their own one at home. Year 1 students may need a little support with it.

In Maths, both year groups are learning about time. Today the Year 1 students practised writing their age in years and months. I didn’t enjoy writing about how old I am! 😉 The Year 2 students have reviewed time to the hour, quarter past, half past and quarter to. They worked on telling the time in written form today and did very well. 

ABC countdown has been a hit so far and the students loved the popcorn on Monday! It was gone in about 10 minutes haha! It was lovely to see lots of opposite creations and I loved the cute pyjamas that some of the children chose to wear today! These socks were THE BEST! 

The children had a ball playing in Games today!

Gyeongju World

We are going to be taking a trip to Gyeongju world to celebrate a great year. We will be going on Wednesday 21st June 2023. I would like to invite parents to come and join us! We would love some helping hands and it is always fun to go on rides with the kids:) The cost of the tickets are: Children, 19,000원  and Adult, 23,000원. However, the school will cover 5,000 won per child, so may I ask for you to send 14,000 won to the office for the students’ admission, and if you would like to come and join it will be 23,000 won for an adult ticket. Please fill in this form and let me know if you can make it by Monday 12th June. Thank you so much.

I look forward to meeting you all next week for Parent Teaching Meetings. Appointments are back to back so please may I ask for you all to be on time and I will try my best to not talk for longer than 15 minutes 🙂 Thanking you in advance.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the sunshine!

Mrs. Sim

Dear Parents,

I hope you are well and enjoying a nice day off work today with the family. I am writing to let you know that Parent Teacher Conferences will be held next week. Here is the form for you to choose a time. As always if there are no times suitable for you on the form please email me directly, leighemmasim@hyundaiforeignschool.com.  I am more than happy to make time for anyone that cannot make these times. 

I look forward to seeing you all soon! 

Warm regards,

Mrs. Sim

It’s been a sad day saying goodbye to our lovely Min. He is returning back to The United States and we will all miss him so much. We made him some lovely cards and letters this afternoon for Min and enjoyed some jelly that his mum kindly brought in. Thank you so much for coming back for Term 3, we loved having you back and I hope you had a great time learning with us.

In IPC this week, we concluded our unit, ‘Creators and Communicators’ by looking at ways deaf and blind people communicate with other people. The students learnt how Braille and Sign Language are used and why they are so important to the people of the deaf and blind communities. The students had great fun finding examples of Braille around the school and loved learning the British Sign Language (BSL) alphabet. 

In English this week, the students continued looking at important topic words in an information book. They looked closely at glossaries and why we need them to help us with difficult words. They also started looking at dictionaries and how to use them to find important information. Year 2 students have been looking at word endings -s,-ing and -ed, writing questions and using connectives in their rotations and worked very hard. Year 1 students have continued reviewing sounds from set 2 and 3 and practising their reading fluency. There was some confusion about spelling test words as we never had time nor the energy after Sports day to complete the spelling test last week. Please check the Homework cover letter for the correct words to study this week 🙂

In Maths,Year 2 has been working on their multiplication. We are spending the last few weeks reviewing areas that were a little tricky and also practising important skills like solving multiplication problems. Year 1 has been working on telling the time to the hour and half past. We reviewed days of the week and months of the year too! These are important for working out time problems later on. 

Parent Teacher Conferences

I will be sending out a google form for you all to choose a time to meet up in week 10 and week 11. Please watch out for it in your inbox 🙂 

I took soooo many pictures this week as we had a really good field trip and so much fun was had. The bird migratory centre was so much fun and Min’s dad was just amazing! The kids loved using his fancy binocular and we saw lots of different kinds of birds down by the Taehwa River. The rain stayed off for us too which was just brilliant. I was so worried about having to change plans but MR SUN came out to play!

 Here are all the pictures for you to see 🙂 Wishing you all a fantastic weekend.

Mrs. Sim

Well done to all the students today at Sports Day. I hope they all had lots of fun! I was super happy with their efforts and teamwork!  I think we will have lots of early sleepers tonight. I hope you had a nice morning and thank you for joining us!

Min and the Dancing Cactus

We were honoured to have Min’s mum and dad come visit us on Wednesday for Favourite Book day.  Min’s parents are the authors of Min and the Dancing Cactus – a wonderful story about a little boy and his adventure at Sandy Cactus Campground. I have attached the link to the book as the children all REALLY wanted to buy it. It really is a lovely book and we all felt so lucky to have had this opportunity. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Ditty Books-Year 1

If you have any Red Ditty books at home please could you kindly return them on Tuesday 🙂 I am missing 3 of N0.7. Thank you so much.

In Maths this week Year 2 have been reviewing revision and working on different ways to solve division problems. We reviewed arrays, sharing and mental division. Year 1 finished off their statistics unit and the work was sent home yesterday for you to have a look at. As always lots of fun was had!

In IPC, we looked at different ways we can safely communicate with people we don’t know. The students got the chance to make an information booklet about themselves, which included all of the information they felt was important to share such as, their nationalities, their hobbies, their favourite subjects and so much more. 

In English this week, the students have continued looking at information books. They inspected different features of an information book including the front cover, where to find the author, pictures and their captions and the contents page. 

As part of our ABC Countdown the students got the chance to write book reports about the books they brought in for Favourite Book Day. They really enjoyed writing about why they love their books so much. Please do check the ABC countdown calendar to check what is happening each day 🙂

Field Trip -Tuesday 30th May 2023

After the long weekend, we will start our week with our field trip to the bird migratory center in Jung-gu followed by a picnic in Grand Park. Yay~!!! We will be going to the dome trampolines and I am sure we will all have a blast!

Please make sure to bring the following:

• Water Bottle
• Snack in a small pouch 
• Lunch that doesn’t need to be heated
• Suncream
• Comfortable, cool clothing and footwear

We will leave school at 9:15am and return to get the 3:30pm bus home. Please note, Mindfulness Club has been cancelled next Tuesday. If your child usually gets the bus home at 4:30pm, they will get the 3:30pm bus home instead and if you usually pick up your child please may I ask that you arrive for 3:30pm to collect them. Thank you!

Homework

I have only sent home spelling words (and Ditties for the Year 1 students) this week. I would like the children to have a little bit of a break after a busy week and day today! Enjoy this beautiful weather!

I hope you all have a wonderful, long weekend ahead. See you all on Tuesday!

Mrs Sim xoxo

Happy Friday!

What a fun week we have had starting our ABC Countdown to Summer. On Wednesday we signed our autograph books, Thursday we had our breakfast together (sorry to the few that didn’t like yoghurts or cereal – I tried my best 🙂). Today was C for Compliment and Craft day and hopefully you will love your little gift from your child. If your child has a sibling in Ms M’s class please still act surprised when yours arrives in the post 🙂

In IPC this week we said goodbye to our Musical Instrument Families unit and continued solely with Creators and Communicators. The students went back in time and looked at all the technology that was around before they were born. They found it very funny learning about how people used to communicate with others. We made timelines about different types of technology and the students had to guess when they were invented. We also looked at the technology of today and the different ways we can communicate using it including: using google translate to speak to anyone in the world, communicating with robots, and using emojis to communicate. They absolutely loved the emoji codes and the classroom was quiet for the first time ever!

In English this week we started a new unit called “Finding Out” which will have the students looking at non-fiction texts. We started the unit by looking at different ways of finding out information including: using the internet, asking an expert, watching documentaries but most importantly by using information books. The students looked at different types of non-fiction books and their front covers. They then had to decide what information they could get from these books by analysing the different covers. 

The students have continued working in their rotation groups for phonics and additional Cambridge lessons for the Year 2 students. Year 2 students learned how to use adverbs and expanded noun phrases in their writing. The homework is related to this.

In Maths, Year 2 finished up their Position and Symmetry unit and had fun creating their own maps. Year 1 made their own venn diagrams, pictograms and learned about block graphs and lists. Tuff trays were fun as always!

Ditty Books

A little reminder to please return the Ditty Books each week. I am missing a few from last week. Thanking you kindly.

Sports Day

Please be sure to check which team your child is in and prepare the correct colour of t-shirt for Sports Day on the 26th May. Hats, sunscreen and non microwavable lunches should be packed as we will be eating lunch outside. I hope to see you all there for a fun-filled day!

We have been learning about sportsmanship and the importance of it. I hope to see the children working together in their teams and having fun on the day! 🙂

Field Trip

Our class will be going on a field trip on Tuesday 30th May to Ulsan’s Bird Migratory Centre in Jung Gu, near Taehwa river. Min’s dad is an Ornithologist and has kindly agreed to accompany us and share his knowledge! How lucky we are!  After the centre, we will head over to Ulsan Grand Park to have a bounce on the trampolines and enjoy a nice picnic outside! It should be a great day out! The trip will be covered by the school so no fee is required. 

I hope you all have a great weekend! 

Mrs.Sim 

Dear Parents,

I hope you are all well and have had a lovely week. We have been very  busy learning lots of exciting new things here in Year 1/2. 

Mindfulness Club

Next week we’ll be making glitter jars in Mindfulness Club. Thank you to those who have brought in jars already.  If anyone has finished up some jam or pasta sauce, could you please send the glass jar to school on Monday for the activity. Many thanks.

ABC Countdown

Here is the schedule. The children are very excited about it!

Maths

Year 1 students have been learning all about pictograms and venn diagrams in Maths this week. We have had fun looking at what ice-cream flavours we like, counting animals and sorting objects into groups. The tuff trays were received with smiles this week and they all enjoyed creating their own pictograms today. Year 2 students have been drawing lines of symmetry and learning how to rotate shapes and objects both clockwise and anticlockwise this week. We completed pictures to make them symmetrical, practised quarter turns, half turns and three quarter turns. We had a blast practising a dance following directions today too! Have a look here!  

IPC

This week we continued our unit on Musical Instrument Families by exploring different musical instruments from around the world. The students got the chance to look at a really exciting website where they could explore different instruments from all 7 continents and research which families they belong to. In our Creators and Communicators unit, the students became composers and made some really interesting music using a new app called Walk Band. We tried to think about how different instruments are used to evoke different emotions. The students also learned that some instruments are played differently, even if they belong to the same family. This unit has been a lot of fun so far and the students have enjoyed being musicians and composers. 

English

This week we concluded our unit, “You’ll Never Believe It” by planning our own “scary” stories. The students had great fun coming up with their own characters. We then made our very own story boards with imaginative settings for our characters to go to. They all came up with some great ideas for their stories! They are a very creative imaginative group of children!! 🙂

In PE today we practised catching small balls with our feet and moving them from hoop to hoop. We also raced in our teams to collect small balls from the centre of the hall.  I have been reminding the students that games and P.E. are for us to learn new skills, work as a team and stay healthy. Some students got a little upset when their team didn’t get as many balls. Not taking the games seriously is a work in progress but something that I will keep discussing with the students.. I really want them to know that it is important to win. 

Positive Pathways (Behaviour Support Programme)

We unfortunately didn’t make it to the end of our Pathway this week and we have come across some big obstacles. We have been working on listening to instructions, lining up and being respectful in the lunchroom. I had to have several class chats about being respectful to each other and members of staff. I hope that next week we can make some progress! 🙂

Happy Children’s Day (tomorrow)!!

The children have all had a great day and were lucky to get some snacks from some very generous parents today. Thank you so much. The kids were very excited. 

My present to my precious students this week is….. no homework! I have only sent home spelling words and reading books for the Year 1 phonics classes. Year 2 should study week 4 spelling words for next Friday. Enjoy some family time and the beautiful weather. We all need a little break every now and then 🙂

ABC Countdown!

Sadly we will soon be coming to the end of the year and I would like to end it with lots of fun! On the 17th May I will start our class ABC Countdown to summer! Last year the students loved it and it added something special to our day. Each day we will do something different and of course it will be filled with lots of FUN!

Please take a look at the schedule and I will also send one home with your child today 🙂 There are some days where the students will need to bring something in so please do refer to it. 

Have a wonderful long weekend!

Mrs. Sim 🙂

Dear Parents,

I hope you have all had a great week. This week we have been working on getting to our destination ‘remembering to be respectful’ and we have come across lots of obstacles. A few have been shouting out on the carpet, not listening to instructions and talking to friends when we are supposed to be lining up. We have had lots of discussions about why these things are disrespectful and also looked at how we can overcome them. I am hopeful that next week we will make it to the end of our Pathway.

Year 1 Ditty Books

Just a friendly reminder to please return the Ditty books each week after reading them at home. Some students forgot today, including myself, hehe 🙂 Other teachers use them too so it would be much appreciated if you could return them in the homework folder. Thank you.

Year 1 Phonics words

For those students who are working on Ditty 5 you will notice that the words are very difficult this week. At this stage, the programme is focusing on being able to phonetically decode the words and unfortunately there aren’t so many easier words that use tious, cious and tion. So please don’t worry too much about them knowing all their meanings at this stage. It would be great if you could have your child read the words at the top of the worksheets before practising their writing too.

Year 2 English

We have been a bit sloppy with our writing in our rotations this week and so I have included some sentence homework for Year 2. This is basic writing however, many of the students have not been answering questions in full sentences and so I would like them to show me some really good ones this week for homework. There are words provided to support them.

In Maths this week Year 1 has continued with addition and subtraction to 20 and today started looking at doubling numbers to 20. We had our ladybirds out and worked on adding dots to each of their wings.

Year 2 has had great fun creating regular and irregular patterns. We made them out of blocks, bears, frogs and shapes. At the end of the week we began looking at probability and will continue with this next week.

In IPC this week we have continued to look at musical instrument families, specifically string and percussion instruments. The students got a chance to look at how professional musicians used these instruments and they were so surprised to see that not all musicians use real ones; some use everyday objects instead. The students were so excited to make their own string and percussion instruments out of pans, food containers and elastic bands. They created some really interesting sounds. In our other unit, “Creators and Communicators” the students learned all about internet safety. The students learned how important it is to reduce their screen time to promote a healthy mind. We also created our very own class avatars and they had so much fun with this. We will display them next week on our door.

In English we continued with our unit, “You’ll Never Believe It” by looking at the classic story, “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”. Using this story the children were able to look at verbs more closely and come up with some action words of their own to fit into the story. They really enjoyed reading this and it was delightful to see them use their imagination to come up with new action words. They also started a new story called “Bedtime for Monsters”. In this story the students were introduced to a new imaginary character and they were asked to make predictions about how they thought the story would end. We’ll have to wait and see how it ends next week!

Homework

I try my best to provide homework that the students can do independently as I believe this is what homework should be; a revision of what we have done in class. If you feel that the homework is too much for your child (Year 1 students mainly) feel free to focus on the spelling words and reading as I do feel that this plays an important part in becoming a fluent reader. 

Library books

I am trying to encourage the students to choose books that they can read by themselves and some of them are a little disappointed they cannot choose novel books with princess covers 🙂I think a mix of a more difficult book that mum or dad can read along with two that they can read themselves would be appropriate and I have suggested this to the students.

Thank you to Nayra’s mum for the donuts on Monday and Happy Birthday to Nayra! Wishing you a great year ahead!

Have a lovely weekend and I will see you all on Monday.

Mrs. Sim 🙂