Hello and welcome back! I trust everyone had a restful holiday.

We jumped right back into action this week with exciting new learning!

In Phonics we are finishing up our Unit 2: Initial Sounds. This week we looked at the letters J and X. We also learned there’s not a lot of letters which begin with X so we found words that end with X. There’s a lot more of those.

In Writer’s Workshop we’re revisiting our Storyteller’s unit. We reviewed topics we can write about such as things we love and things that happened in the past and we began looking at when to use capital letters vs. lowercase letters in our writing.

We began a new unit in Maths. We will spend the next few weeks looking at teen numbers. We began by reviewing groups of 10 and moved on to 11, and 12 emphasizing that teen numbers are “ten plus some more”. We even had our friends from Mr. Dunn’s class come help us visualize 12 by standing on a life-sized tens frame and counting them as a big group of 10 and adding on the 2 students who didn’t fit on the 10s frame.

In IEYC we began our new unit called Animal Rescuers. We will be learning about animals and habitats. We began by role playing an animal hospital. Then, we transformed our play area into a jungle. We found animal tracks by the river in the jungle and made animal tracks of our own with plastic animals and paint. We danced the Animal Boogie to learn how jungle animals move.

Of course, we reconnected with our friends and had a great time playing.

But boy were we tuckered out by the end of the week today.

That’s it for this week! Please keep an eye on this page for the Term 2 Curriculum Overview so you will know what’s planned for this exciting term.

Have a great weekend and we’ll see you on Monday refreshed and ready to go!

Hello Parents,

Just a quick note to let you know that your child’s change of clothes in their locker will be going home with them on Friday 17th December.

A lot of the clothes in the lockers are better suited for the warm weather so we’ll take this opportunity of Winter Break to change out the clothes.

Please send a full change of weather appropriate clothes for Term 2 when we return in January.

Thanks!

Just a quick, late (sorry) update. But before we start I would like you to send your children on Friday for the Winter Show wearing red or green or other festive colors in keeping with the Christmas season. There are no big costumes to wear.

Now onto the update:

In Maths we continued measurement. We looked at taller and shorter as well as heavier and lighter.

In Phonics we studied the letters E, Y, and D.

In Writer’s Workshop we had some free exploration of the stories we were writing. I am so glad to see the students really starting to use letters and trying to write words in their stories.

In IEYC we continued with our Loose Parts unit. We looked at sound by making shakers. We looked at light with flashlights and colored cellophane to make the flashlight shine different colours. We also made shadow puppets. We also tested our fine motor skills by trying to open some locks with keys and put some nuts onto bolts.

In our Morning Meeting we started learning some techniques to help calm our amygdalas. We learned about mindful breathing and we even ate a raisin mindfully – fully experiencing the sensations around taste.

And of course, we went on our trip. The students had an amazing time painting all over the walls at the art cafe.

That’s it for this week. I hope to see you all Friday for our Winter Show!

Because we returned to school just as the bus home was scheduled to leave, the spare change of clothes you sent this morning was not sent home today. Those clothes will go home tomorrow. In case of any mix-up of clothes please accept my apologies, return them to school, and we’ll get it sorted out.

The kids had an amazing time. I’m sure they’re all excited to tell you about it. Photos will be uploaded with Friday’s update.

Before I begin the update, let me please remind you of a few things for the trip on Wednesday December 8.

1. Please send lunch, snack, and water bottle as usual. This trip is in the afternoon and will not affect our eating or break times.
2. Please be sure to wear your school uniform.
3. Please remember to pack an extra change of clothes and a towel in case of a mess at the cafe.
   

And now, the update!

In Maths we began looking at measurement. We looked at comparing sizes using bigger/smaller and longer/shorter. We also worked on ordering length. The students had a great time comparing different objects in the class. We compared objects to each other, objects to our shoes, and objects to different lengths of string. We also did some hands-on sorting in our worksheets to demonstrate our learning by gluing paper in the right order

We did a deep dive in Phonics this week and really looked in depth at the letters Z, C, and E. As a result we spent less time than usual on our Writer’s Workshop although we did do some. We learned that we can write stories about Things We Know.

In IEYC we continued looking at elements of play in our unit, Loose Parts. We built houses with bins, cushions, and blankets. We also went to the gym with the help of Mr. Green and explored different kinds of kicking and throwing activities. We used or “rhythmic gymnastics” ribbons to make shapes in the air. We threw “comet balls” into a hoop. We played a little bowling. We tossed a beach ball back and forth in pairs. Finally, we saw how far we could kick a soccer ball. Additionally, we explored some water play. Mr. Choi filled our water tank and we used a variety of scooping and pouring toys to explore the water. Then, Ms. M added some ice and we learned that since the water (and our hands) was warmer than the ice, it melted and turned back into water!

We’re well on our way into our new Morning Meeting unit on Mindfulness. We’ve been exploring and learning about the brain. Last week we learned that information is stored in our hippocampus. This week we learned that our prefrontal cortex helps us make good choices, but, sometimes our amygdala takes over. When our amygdala takes over, it’s almost impossible for us to control our emotions. We’ll be working in the coming weeks on ways we can calm our amygdala and get our prefrontal cortex back in charge.

Hello Parents,

In keeping with our theme of Loose Parts in IEYC we will be visiting an Art Kids Cafe in Buk-gu called Palette.

The trip will be on Wednesday December 8. We will depart school after lunch at 1:15pm and return by 3:25pm.

There is a fee of 7,000 won associated with this trip. Please send the money in an envelope no later than Monday December 6.

On the day of the trip please send a spare change of clothes and a towel for your child in case they have a paint mess at the cafe (they will be wearing gowns over their clothes at the cafe).

Please follow the below link to the permission form and reply no later than Friday Dec 3.

https://forms.gle/CWRJXfUjMTQp1W5o9

Wow, we’re really into the home stretch now. Just 3 weeks to go till the break! The learning in Ms. M’s class doesn’t let up though!

We started Monday, as you know, with a lesson about keeping our private parts private. Children were encouraged to ask their moms or dads about the names of their private parts but decided at school that we’ll just call them our privates. We know their our private parts because they’re the parts of our bodies covered by our underwear or swimsuits. The children are really working hard to respect each others’ space and bodies.

In Maths we finished off our unit on comparing numbers to 10. We learned not just about more and less but about how much more and how many less. The easiest way for the children to visualize this was to line up two sets of objects and look at which ones had “friends”. If one stack had more, with no friend to line up with it, we could count those with “no friends” and that would tell us how many more! Starting next week and going till the end of term we will be working on measurement (longer/shorter, bigger/smaller, etc).

In Phonics we finished off the letter K on Monday and looked at the letters B and U for the rest of the week.
In Writer’s Workshop we are now Storytellers! We learned that we can tell stories about things that we love or things that we can do. I’m so happy to see more and more children try to write letters or words in their stories.

In IEYC we continued on our Loose Parts unit looking at elements of play. We played outdoors with scarves and ribbons to see how they interacted in the wind. We looked at some Jackson Pollock paintings to see how he made very messy but very beautiful paintings and used fabric scraps to make our own messy paintings. We had more outdoor time with sidewalk chalk and explored large-scale mark-making by drawing on the ground.

On this note, we will be taking a trip to a drawing kid’s cafe in Week 15. I am going to check the space for suitability and safety this weekend and more details will come to your email, along with a permission form, on Monday. Keep an eye out!

Finally we played with some homemade playdough for a great sensory exploration. Because it’s homemade it gets kept in the fridge. When we take it out to play with, it’s cold. What an exciting added element for our senses!

In PE the children have really been enjoying our warm-up exercises with Miss Linky, a great, educational YouTuber. This week we learned about sea creatures and battled sharks to keep the reef safe! Then we practiced moving a ball around with a hockey stick, some basket ball, and ended the class with a team-building exercise where we all hold hands and pass a hoop around the circle without letting go of our hands. The children get better and better at that every week!

That’s all for this week! Have a restful weekend and we’ll see you back on Monday for another fun-filled week of learning! And as always, be friendly and work together.

Hello! It was so great to be back this week full of new ideas and ready to learn. We had a very active week and will continue to be active as we enter this home stretch to Winter Break.

This coming Monday, our PSHE lesson will be centered around what parts of our bodies are private and how to respect each others bodies. If you have questions about this lesson, please feel free to contact me. My inbox will be open over the weekend.

In Phonics this week we looked at the letters F, R, and K. We briefly introduced our new Writer’s Workshop Unit “Storytellers” and that will start in full swing next week.

In Maths we continued looking at comparing numbers within 10. We focused on the concepts of “less” and “same”.

In IEYC we started our new unit “Loose Parts” where we explored individual components that make up play. We used boxes to stimulate imaginative play using the book Not A Box by Antoinette Portis to give us ideas. We explored our 5 Senses by making popcorn. We also looked at wood, metal, and objects from nature such as leaves and pinecones to see what kind of play we could have without pre-made toys.

I’m sure everyone is a little tired out at the end of this week coming back after the break so have a restful weekend and we’ll see you all refreshed and ready to go on Monday!

Wow it’s been a wild last two and a half weeks with so much going on I completely let updates fall by the wayside. My apologies for that!

Let’s start by saying a big hello, or “hola” to our newest classmate, Hugo. He is from Brazil. We’re so glad to have you here!

In Phonics we looked at the letters N (Niko was happy to be put on our letter poster), M, I, and S. We’re really getting into a good routine with phonics and the children look forward to “alphabet time”. They often start asking me in the morning, “what letter is it today, Ms. M?” Needless to say, while they enjoyed this Global Citizenship Week we had this week (more on that later) they missed their alphabet time.

In Writer’s Workshop we finished off our unit “Writing With Sentences” by making a storybook of our own. Before that penultimate project we also looked at some mechanics of writing such as when to use a capital letter and how to space our writing (no spaces within a word and a finger space between them).

In Maths we slowed down our unit on Comparing Numbers so that the students could get a strong grasp on the concepts of more and less. We took a break from it altogether this week because we were focusing on Global Citizenship but we’ll be back at it next week!

And who can forget about the dinosaurs? We got a special package from Dr. Rattlebone who heard we were good at identifying dinosaurs. We opened the boxes and found dinosaur bones that we had to put together. We did that and then worked on our museum display that everyone was able to come and see. They got to see the dinosaur skeleton that Dr. Rattlebone sent us, our bones we dug up, our fossils we made, and dinosaur art that we made. The students were very proud to show off their work.

On our final week of our dinosaur unit we read Harry and the Bucket Full of Dinosaurs. Wouldn’t you know it? Our dinosaurs went missing, just like Harry’s. We created missing posters and got a letter from Harry the next day telling us we had to travel to DinoLand to find our missing dinosaurs. So, we hopped into our magic buckets and off to DinoLand we went. First we had to cross a river and find out about things that could float or sink. Then we had to help Terry the Tyranosaurus fix her toothache. Finally we had to visit (make) a desert island and that’s where we found our dinosaurs!

Additionally, we looked at what dinosaurs ate. We used our kitchen food toys to feed the dinosaurs. We learned that some ate meat and had really pointy teeth, while others ate plants and vegetables and had flat teeth to help them chew. Lastly we made dinosaur costumes and had a little dinosaur dance party to finish off the unit.

During Calendar Time we hit an important milestone – the 50th day of school. We count what day of school it is every day and we’ll have a 100-day party when the time comes. We’re over half-way there!

And last, but definitely not least: this week was Global Citizenship Week! We learned lots about how to protect the Earth and how plants can help our environment. We made some art with leaves and twigs that Mrs. Sim was so kind as to gather for us. On Tuesday when the weather was better we went outside and planted some native Korean wildflowers. Today we looked at the different countries we are all from. We also baked some cookies using seeds and fruits. Those were met with mixed reviews.

Well it’s official: we’re half way through the term and comfortably into cold and flu season. We had some friends absent this week and that’s OK. If your little one is feeling under the weather, please don’t hesitate to keep them home to rest and recover.

We started the week with an earthquake drill. The whole school practiced sheltering under their desks and our evacuation routes.

In Phonics we looked at the letters T, P, and began the letter A. We got to add two friends to our alphabet posters Ayla and Alex!
In Writer’s Workshop we started using our Sight Words Chart and Colour Words Chart for those friends who want to write some words when they’re illustrating their stories.

In Maths we finished off our Numbers 6-10 unit. We worked with a tens frame and counted out 10 beads to put on a necklace. We used action cards to do a variety actions between 6-10 times. We used a spinner to pick a number and write that number and the numbers that came immediately before and after it. And we finished off the week singing “There Were 10 In The Bed” but there aren’t 10 of us in the class so we were helped by Ms. M and some plushies to act out the song.

In IEYC we’re still discovering dinosaurs! We made a background for all our dino crafts from last week. Then we started learning about museums and treasures and that we often have to dig to find dinosaur bones and fossils. So dig we did! One day we found clay pots and coins and eggs (marbles). The next day we found some dinosaur bones! We examined them closely, cleaned them off, and put them in our treasure box and museum tray. Finally, we used some salt dough to make fossils (imprints of toy dinosaurs) that we will paint next week!

That it for this week. Stay healthy and warm and we’ll see you Monday!