Author Archives: Ms. McClellan

Term 3 Week 10 Update – THE END!

Wow we made it! What a fun year we’ve had here in Ms. M’s class. It was the first year at HFS for everyone and I’m amazed at how much everyone has grown up together.

This week we finished off our Brilliant Bug Ball unit by releasing the worms we were observing onto the Hanmaeum Centre grounds.

We had a great picnic and trip together! For those who enjoyed the Cinnamon Swirl Mug Cakes, here is the recipe: https://www.budgetbytes.com/cinnamon-nut-swirl-mug-cake/ As you saw in our class, they are simple and fun to make with just a few ingredients!

Our time at the Kids Cafe was wonderful! Thank you so much to all the parents who were able to come and spend some quality time with your children and other parents in the class. The little bit of drinks we bought were able to be covered by the school budget which is why I have not contacted anyone for payment. Thanks HFS!

All art, projects, books, spare clothes, etc have gone home over the last few days. If there is something that should have come home that didn’t, please contact the Admin Office and we’ll try to get it to you.

One note: please work with your children over the summer to achieve bathroom independence – especially those of you entering Year 1. Children need to be able to toilet themselves even after they do a poo. Everyone’s growing up and this is an important part of becoming a big boy or girl.

Thank you so much for trusting your children to me and HFS this year. I’m so proud to have taught them and I look forward to seeing everyone next year.

Have a great summer! We’ll see you in August!

Indoor Picnic, Cooking Together, And Schedule

Hello parents,

Thank you for your patience. I have decided we will cook a sweet treat together tomorrow. We will make Cinnamon Swirl Mug Cakes. Please send a coffee mug with your child tomorrow. If you want a mug cake also, please bring a mug for yourself. We have more than enough ingredients to accommodate anyone who wants to join us.

Here is the schedule for tomorrow:

9:00-10:00 – Good Morning. Calendar. Play Time

10:00-10:20 – Make name place tags. Set up the Hall for our picnic.

10:20-10:45 – Make the Mug Cakes

10:45 – 11:20 – Picnic Lunch in the Hall

11:20-11:30 – Get ready for the bus (pee)

11:30-12:00 – Bus to Kids Cafe

12:00-2:00 – Kids Cafe

2:00-2:30 – Bus Home

2:30-3:30 – Snack and Play at School. Circle Time. Home Time.

As you can see, we will not be having a morning snack as lunch will be quite early. Do please send a snack as I expect the kids will be hungry when we return to school which I will give them an opportunity to eat.

When can parents arrive? You can join us from 10am onward. It would be fun if you made a name place tag for yourself at our picnic area. I would definitely encourage you to be here by 10:20 to join in making the mug cakes.

Don’t forget to wear your HFS polo tomorrow!

Week 8 & 9 Update

Wow! I can’t believe how the time has flown past! It’s been so wonderful watching the children learn and grow and overcome some fear of minibeasts to get some great learning done. We’ve looked at butterflies and ladybirds (not too scary) and worms (a little more scary, or at least slimy!). We’ve done some categorizing of different types of minibeasts looking at whether they crawled around or flew. We learned that spiders always have 8 legs and were astounded to see just how many legs a centipede has.

We had our first foray into research looking at our library full of minibeast books, drawing a variety of minibeasts of our choosing based on what we saw in the book, and classifying our drawings into flying or crawling minibeasts.

In phonics we continued to look at letter sounds and practice letter formation. The students are becoming very independent writers!

We practiced doing some sums with spots on ladybirds!

Next week is our last week of school. I can’t believe it! You have received my update regarding Tuesday’s trip. Something to add: as the Kids Cafe is a public area, please wear your school polo on Tuesday so we can easily identify the children.

On Friday the children’s lockers will be emptied as well as their baskets of workbooks and any work they have done that has not gone home this term will be sent home. Kindly send a shopping bag that we can put everything into for ease of transportation.

If you have any library books at home that have not made it back to school, please do send them next week as Ms. Yuli and Ms. Mila would like to get everything checked back in for the summer.

That’s all for this week! Have a great weekend. Enjoy the sun. We’ll see you Monday!

Trip Update

Hello Parents,

If you’ve seen the weather, you’ll notice that the forecast for Tuesday is a lot of rain. As such we will not be going to the park on Tuesday morning. We will have a picnic in the school Hall on Tuesday morning and then head to the Kids Cafe at 11:30 (for 12:00 arrival) as planned. Parents are welcome to join us for our in-school picnic time and join us on the bus to go to the Kids Cafe.

We may cook something together in the morning to share at our picnic. I will look into this possibility over the weekend and update you ASAP. Parents are welcome to participate if we go this route. Please keep an eye on your in-boxes for an update regarding this.

Year-End Trip and Parent Teacher Conferences

Hello parents!

Here are the links for the Year-End Trip and Parent Teacher Conferences.

Parent Teacher Conferences will be on Thursday 16 June. Please use this link to sign up:

https://forms.gle/na9uwPRE9zYwJe4d7

If you need a time for a PTC other than those in the form, please contact me directly to arrange a time.

Our Year-End Trip will be Tuesday 21 June to Ochingol Park and Little BP Kids Cafe. Please sign up using the below link. There is a fee of 10,000won for the trip. Please sign the form and send the money in an envelope with your child’s name on it no later than Friday 17 June.

https://forms.gle/G4hJ51WQ28bnwq53A

Thank you so much!

PJ Day Tomorrow – Friday June 10

As some of you may know, Mrs’s Sim’s class is having a PJ Day tomorrow. Never one to miss an opportunity to dress up, our class has decided to join in.

Your child may wear their PJs to school tomorrow June 10th if they want. There is no obligation if your child is uncomfortable with the idea.

Let’s enjoy the countdown to the end of the year!

Term 3 Week 7 Update

It was a short week but there was lots of learning happening in our classroom this past week. We’re continuing on our unit of The Brilliant Bug Ball learning about minibeasts. We read The Hungry Caterpillar and envisioned our own caterpillar’s diet for a hungry week while it got ready to become a butterfly. That led us to learning about the butterfly lifecycle from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly and around again. We even got to observe a caterpillar! (Sadly our little friend did not survive to complete its life cycle).

Coming soon will be information about our year-end trip and parent teacher conferences. Keep your eyes on your mailbox for that information.

Three weeks to go! How Exciting!

Term 3 Week 6 Update

As we round into the home stretch we’ve started on a new IEYC unit “The Brilliant Bug Ball”.

We began with an exciting entry point of taking a trip across the road to the reservoir (with plenty of adult supervision) to see if we could catch any bugs to observe. We got some small ants, a big ant that climbed all over Ms. M, and some rolley polleys. The children were a bit apprehensive to be searching for bugs but soon got over their fear and really enjoyed the search. We brought them back into the classroom and observed them closely with our magnifying glasses before letting them go back into the grass on the Hanmaeum Center grounds.

Then we focussed on just how tiny mini beasts are. We read a story about a snail’s journey in the garden. He thought he climbed a huge bridge when really he just walked over a twig. We made “Mini Me’s” (5cm cutouts of ourselves) and went down to the Hanmaeum Center grounds to see how it would feel if we were as small as a mini beast. Our Mini Me’s climbed up rocks and trees and went on incredible journeys that would be so tiring if we were really that small.

Realising how small they were we thought about ways we can take care of mini beasts. We made a fingerprint bug craft with ways to take care of mini beasts we may encounter such as bringing them back outside and always being gentle with them

Mr. de Klerk’s class joined us as we made mini beast habitats from clay. As everyone finished their habitats at different speeds, many friends read books together with their big friends about mini beasts. It was great spending time together with the big kids.

Of course we’re still doing phonics and practicing our letter formation.

And a special thanks to all the kiddos who made my birthday special. Thanks so much!

That’s all for this week! Have a great weekend and we’ll see you on Monday!

Term 3 Week 5 Update

Wow! What an exciting week! We brought our Toy Shop IEYC unit to a close.

We began the week making pop-up Jack-in-the-Box style dolls.

Then the Toymaker bringing us one last toy. A huge dollhouse! It came to us a little dirty so we had to wash it. When it came to the classroom, the students have shown amazing caring and sharing when playing with it. They’ve taken turns and negotiated boundaries very well. I’m super impressed with their self-regulation.

After that, we began working on our Exit Point. We made invitations to invite Mr. de Klerk’s class to join us on a learning celebration. The big kids were honored to be invited.

Then we began to get the hall ready. We put up examples of our learning to share and made signs to explain what everything was.

On the big day, we got our big friends and divided into teams. We went around from station to station and showed them the games we played and the art we made.

There was also some exciting learning going on during our free time. Some friends are practicing their emergent writing. And other times we were dancing to 100!

On a fun note, Ms. M’s birthday is coming up and we’ll be having a small celebration on the 27th (Friday). The students have asked if they can wear princess dresses or costumes. The answer is: OF COURSE! There is no obligation to dress up on Friday but if your child wants, they’re more than welcome.

That’s it for this week! We’re half way through the term! How exciting. Lets keep up the great energy for the last 5 weeks!