Author Archives: Leigh Emma Sim

Weekly Update – T2W3

Dear Parents,

I hope you are all well and staying warm in this cold weather. We have had lots of sniffles this week! 

Parent Teacher Conferences 

Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on February 9th and 10th. If you haven’t done so already please use this form to choose a time. It would be great to meet you all! If these times do not work for you please email me directly to arrange an alternative time.

Let’s take a look at what we have been learning this week!🙂

In English this week, we focused on story endings. We finished reading the story, “The Big Pancake” and we discovered that the ending was quite different to the other stories we have looked at. This gave us the opportunity to compare the stories. We looked at similarities and differences in all three stories and sorted the information into tables. Year 2 worked very well as a group this week and were very good at working independently on their writing. Year 1 students are becoming more confident with writing and were able to write their answers in beautiful handwriting.

In Maths, Year 1 has been working on numbers from 1-20. They practised saying the numbers, writing them and also filled in missing numbers on our tuff tray! They did very well and they should now be able to confidently count out loud from 1-20! Year 2 have been working on fractions and have worked very hard on some of the challenges set out for them this week. On Friday they completed a small progress test to see how well they have understood the content from the week. I will be going over the answers next week with the children so we can work on areas that are still a little tricky.

In IPC we are still learning all about ‘Who we are’! The children looked at significant events in their lives and how they had made them feel. Ms Temple took all her old photos out to show the children and we had great fun trying to find her in her school photos! We also made emblems to represent our families. We are going to be displaying them outside for everyone to see! The students are enjoying filling up their journals with all their beautiful work they have completed so far.

We finished off our short week with some fun birthday themed games to celebrate Ethan’s birthday. Happy 7th Birthday!  The children were very lucky and got to enjoy some delicious ice-cream cake from Ethan’s mum. There was also a lovely party bag sent home in their bags from Ethan. Thank you so much!

I took lots of lovely pictures and will upload them on Monday for you all to see!

Enjoy the weekend,

Take care,

Mrs. Sim

Weekly Update – T2W2

Hello and Happy Lunar New Year,

We have had a lovely week and it was great to see so many children dressed up yesterday for Seollal. 

In English this week, we read two new stories, “The Runaway Chapatti” and “The Big Pancake”. Both stories followed a very familiar story the children all know called, “The Gingerbread man”. The Year one students learned about vowels and consonants while the Year 2 students practised independent writing by answering questions about the stories. We have all been working hard during our literacy rotations too where we work on word time, writing, reading and writing.

In IPC we continued with our unit ‘Who am I?’ and have had lots of fun exploring our cultures and countries. We made a map to show where our mummies and daddies are from and drew information posters to let everyone know what we eat and wear in our home countries. We also thought about the groups we belong to, such as friends, family, gymnastics, taekwondo and swimming club. We made bubbles and wrote sentences about what we do in these groups. For example ‘At home, I eat dinner with my family’. We also learned what to do in emergencies. Mrs Sim had to pretend to collapse (hehe) and the children practised calling 119 and 112 stating what had happened and telling them where they were and what their names were. They had lots of fun doing this. 

In Maths this week Year 1 continued learning all about Time and mastering how to tell the time to the hour and half past. We also practised saying the days of the week, writing them and figuring out what day it was yesterday and what day it would be tomorrow. We made spinners to help us! Year 2 has been working on Numbers to 100, looking at number bonds, fractions and regrouping numbers. We also practised writing numbers in different forms and worked on rounding to the nearest 10. The homework this week should help consolidate their knowledge and understanding. 

In P.E the students learned different ball passes and took part in some team races. We are always working on our team work skills and trying to help the children see that winning is not important (Especially in P.E.). They were all very good at bounce passes and their control of the ball is improving.

Field Trip

This term we will be going to Kidzania in Busan for our field trip. It is a fantastic learning experience and the children are going to have so much fun. The field trip will take place on Tuesday 28th February. The cost of the trip is 30,000 won. It is still a little while away yet but I like to get things booked in advance 🙂 If you could bring the money in an envelope with your child’s name on it by  Friday, February 10th that would be lovely. Thank you.

Parent Teacher Conference

Parent teacher conferences will be held in week 4. Please choose a time on the form. If the times are not convenient for you please do get in touch; leighemmasim@hyundaiforeignschool.com

I hope you all have something nice planned for the long weekend. School is closed Monday and Tuesday for the Seollal holiday. Enjoy time with your family and I will see you all on Wednesday 25th.

Take care,

Mrs. Sim

Weekly Update – T2W1

Hello and Happy New Year to you all! I hope 2023 is a great year!

First of all, I would like to give a warm welcome to our two new students, Ethan and Mikail.

It has been lovely getting to know them this week and they are settling in so well. I am sure we will have lots of fun together this year.

It has been so great being reunited with the students after the Christmas break. We have been revisiting our routines and getting settled back into school life!

In IPC, we started a new unit “Who am I?” and made beautiful Portfolio books to keep all our work in. The children drew self-portraits inside frames as an introduction to the unit and spoke about their nationalities. We discussed things that make us happy and made flowers to display them. Today we learned ways to calm ourselves when we feel angry. We also looked at how to stay safe both at school and outside. We went outside and practised how to cross the road safely. We also roleplayed how to put on our helmets and ride a bike safely! They also learned what to do if a stranger approaches them outside. 

In English, we read the story Chicken Licken and explored the different characters. Year 1s learned to use Capital letters and full stops/periods. Year 2 students worked on comprehension questions and correcting errors in sentences. We also retold the story using pictures and presented it to the class. The children were very confident and did fantastically.

In Maths this week we studied our unit on Time. Year 1’s learned about the long hand and the short hand on a clock and how to tell time to the hour and half past. We will practise more next week as telling time can be very confusing 😆 Year 2 worked on finding information in calendars and writing dates in written form and number form. They also practised ordering and comparing units of time. We had lots of fun on the tuff trays this week consolidating our knowledge! 

Overall it was a great first week back! We ended it with a fun PE class.

Library books and homework went out today and should be returned next Friday as usual.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Take care,

Mrs Sim 

Last Day of Term!

Dear Parents,

I am sitting reflecting back on the term and thinking about how much the children have grown. It has been an amazing first term with so many great times. Sending you all best wishes for 2023! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here are some pictures from our last week in Term 1!

Weekly update – T1W15

Ho ho ho it’s nearly time for Christmas!! 

We have been very busy this week practising for the Winter Show! The children are getting very excited and have been working very hard on their lines. We are really looking forward to seeing you all next Wednesday. 

In English this week, we finished our unit on poetry. We read “Red is a Dragon” and answered questions about it. We have also dedicated some time during English to practise our poem for the Christmas play. I still can’t believe how much the students have memorised in such a short space of time.  

For IPC we have come to the end of our unit “Treasure Islands”. The students have learned a lot about water safety and made posters to warn others about how dangerous the water can be if we aren’t careful. 

Homework

This week the homework is a little different. There is an optional task if the children would like to complete a Christmas activity,  however it would be great if they could spend  time practising their lines. They are doing fantastically, however some are rushing their lines a little so I have been encouraging them to slow down and speak clearly and confidently.

Here are some pictures from Week 15! 🙂

See you all next week! Yay!

Weekly Update – T1W14

Hello and Happy Friday!

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! Our elves made an appearance yesterday and what joy they have brought to the class already!  They will be giving the children kindness challenges each morning to complete. Some of them involve helping mum or dad so don’t be surprised if your child voluntarily starts to tidy up their room 😊 Each night when the children go home the elves report back to Santa how good they have been. Sometimes the elves are naughty and play in the classroom doing silly things 😜  The children know that the elves will lose their special powers if they are touched so they have been very good at not touching them so far! 🙂 The elves (Sim and Temple) were naughty this morning and wrote all over the board!

We started our Christmas book countdown and have enjoyed two stories so far. Thank you all for wrapping them up so nicely! It’s amazing how much more exciting something becomes if it is wrapped up.

Our rehearsals are going well and the children are becoming more and more confident with their lines. We are all so excited to show you our little play. Not long to go now!

In Maths this week we studied ‘Money’ in Year 2 and ‘Position’ in Year 1. The students enjoyed some fantastic tuff tray learning from Ms Temple and the Year 2 students have thoroughly enjoyed using coins to help them learn. 

In English this week we finished looking at the poem “I got the rhythm” and have started a new poem called “Red is a dragon” This poem explores colours and what each one reminds us of.  The students had great fun investigating colours and exploring rhythm and rhyme.

In IPC, the students successfully made their own treasure chests. They learned that pirates rarely buried their treasure but they did use chests to store things that were important to them. The students were asked to write down and draw three objects that are important to them and put them in their treasure chests. It’s interesting to see what things are important to different people. We also looked at our science tasks and couldn’t believe how some people used to think the Earth was flat! Luckily science is able to show us that the Earth is a huge sphere. 

We were super impressed with the students’ knowledge and contributions to the lesson! 

 This week we have been working on our “Kind Words” destination! Slowly but surely we are getting better and better at thinking about what we say to each other. 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! 

See you all next week!

Take care,

Mrs Sim

Weekly Update – T1W13

Shiver me timbers! What fun we all had on our pirate adventure to Ochi gol Park this week. I was so pleased and proud at how well behaved the students were throughout the whole day. We had an absolute blast searching for treasure using our maps. Although I might have forgotten where I hid all the gold and we spent a long time trying to dig it up. Here are some pictures of the day! Aaargh!! 

In English this week we continued our unit on Rhymes and looked at the song Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which we will be singing in our Christmas play. We spent lots of time practising our lines for the play. Thank you for helping the children practise at home too. 

In literacy rotations, the children have been making fantastic progress and it is great to see them so engaged and working hard in their small groups. The Year 1 students have impressed me with how well they are blending and writing their new words. 

In IPC this week, we looked at the history of pirates and why a lot of them got the dreaded disease, “scurvy”, which was caused by a severe lack of Vitamin C. The students learnt how lucky they are that they have such easy access to different fruits and vegetables, let’s hope this will encourage them to continue eating them 😉 We also looked at coins and why they were so important to pirates. The students even got the chance to practise coin rubbing as an Art task. We also designed our very own pirate hats to wear on our trip and I was surprised by how many of them kept them on at the park. 

In Maths, the students have been working on our Number unit with Year 1 students focusing on number bonds to 10 and subtracting. Year 2 looked at addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

We had a great time in Games today! 

Christmas Countdown book Calendar

It is that magical time of year! Christmas is just around the corner and the children are getting excited. Last year we had a great time with our class book Advent calendar and I would love to do it again this year.

It would be much appreciated if you could wrap up one of your child’s favourite books and send it in by next Wednesday 30th November (Of course the books will be returned once we have read them). It doesn’t necessarily need to be a Christmas book but even better if it is 😊 I will then number the books and from the 1st of December take a little time each day to unwrap and read your child’s book to the class. Their faces lit up last year when their story was read and it brought lots of happiness to the classroom.

Elves

Mrs Sim and Ms Temple – The Elves

Also from the 1st December there will be two little elves moving into the classroom! Instead of the usual Elf on the shelf, these little elves will leave the children with kindness challenges to complete each day! Sometimes they may move around the classroom to get a better look at how well the children are working. 🤭🤫 Last year they even stole my chocolate and made such a mess of the classroom!

Winter Show

Information on what to wear for the Christmas play was sent in an email this week along with a little video to help the children learn their lines.  They found it very amusing in class! Thank you again for helping.

I hope you all have a great weekend. Stay warm! It’s getting chilly out there.

Take care,

Mrs Sim

Weekly Update – T1W12

Dear Parents,

It has been a great first week back after the mid-term break. It was lovely to see the students again and hear all about their adventures.

We have lots of exciting things happening in the lead up to Christmas!

Field Trip

Next Tuesday 22nd November, We will be going to Ochi-gol Park in Buk-gu for a fun-filled day of treasure hunts, climbing and playing pirates! 😀

We will be leaving school at 9:30am and returning at 3:15pm in time for clubs/bus home.

Ms Temple and I will be taking the children and we would love for some parents to come and join in the fun. If you are able  to join us please could you email me and let me know. Thank you!

What do we need to bring with us?

  • Snack (Two snacks might be a good idea as they may get hungry before we leave after all the playing we will be doing😊).
  • Lunch that does not need to be heated (Sandwiches, kimbap, rice balls are good options).
  • Warm jacket. 
  • Water Bottle
  • Comfortable shoes and clothing

Thank you to those who have filled in the consent form. If you haven’t yet filled it in please do so by Monday 21st November Here is the link to the form

Christmas Play

For this year’s Christmas Show Ms Temple has kindly and enthusiastically written a short poem/play for the children to perform. It fits in nicely with our current English unit and the children are super excited! They have all been given their parts and we will be working on it in class from now up until the Winter Show. As the Year 1 students cannot YET (:)) read their lines, it would be great if you could practise with them at home by reading their lines to them and having them repeat them. They have been sent home along with their homework in their files.  We are hoping to have all the lines memorised so that the children can confidently perform the play. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Here are some pictures from our fun week of learning!

This was a fantastic activity about how the paper felt went people said unkind things to it!
Smiling faces.
Designing our bedroom maps!
Working hard.
Year 2 tuff tray.
Year 1 Tuff Tray
Min’s beautiful bedroom map.
How many cars do we have?
Learning addition through play
Never Eat Soggy Waffles! North East South West 😉
Consolidation lesson with the x and o game!

Homework folders

Just a friendly reminder to bring the homework bag in the folders with the handles. It just makes it easier to send it home and stops it from getting crumpled in bags :). 

Have a lovely weekend and see you all on Monday! 🙂

Weekly Update T1W11

Happy Mid Term Break! 

The time has come for our little holiday after a great start to our first term! I have had so much fun over the past 11 weeks with the students and I really feel like we are a little family getting closer each day, working as a team and facing challenges together! What fun we have had.

I hope you all have a fantastic break and do something fun with your family.

Here are some pictures of the week in action! 

In Maths, we have been working on our unit “Measures”. We did lots of different hands-on activities this week and the students had fun comparing objects, measuring each other and making towers.

This week in IPC we have been exploring maps. The students have been learning about the equator and how tropical fruit grows near it. They have also learned about different items that pirates used to “sail the seven seas” to find….even though the world actually has 7 oceans, which the students labelled beautifully. They were introduced to bird’s eye view maps and worked in groups to create their own.

In English,  the students have had a great time learning all about rhyming words and reading poems such as, “Fingers All”, “One, Two Buckle My Shoe” and “Oliver Twist”. The Year 1s practised writing the numbers 1-10 in word form as the Year 2s wrote their own poems using different words that rhyme with numbers. The class then came up with their own unique actions in groups to help them remember the words. This was a little tricky as some of our more enthusiastic students forgot that it’s difficult for some people to remember actions. Let’s always remember that “Teamwork makes the dream work!” 

Have a great week and I will see you all bright and early on the 14th November! 

Take care, be safe and enjoy! 🙂