Thank you to all my students who worked so hard and grew so much this past year. I am so proud of all of you!
We had a great last day; we signed each others year books, saw friends in other classes, played a little extra on break, had a wonderful assembly to say goodbyes to those leaving us for new adventures, and then we finished the day full of treats and drinks from the PTA. Hopefully all students felt loved and appreciated.
To my students returning home, I wish you safe travels and many friends in your new schools. To those returning in August, don’t by shy come come down the hall to say hi! Everyone stay safe, don’t forget sunscreen, enjoy your families, and if you want to make me happy – READ!
Week 10 was our last full week of work. We worked hard throughout the week to finish up our maths, English, and IPC units. Everyone has been so excited and full of energy!
In maths we continued to work with adding and subtracting fractions with different denominations. Year 4 students took an introductory look at percentages as well. We continued reading through our class novel Abel’s Island as well as partake in our reading groups. We got cozy on the floor with our pillows and blankets for R for Read-In.
In IPC student pairs worked on creating a brochure for an island. Students conducted research on their assigned location then transferred the information to a brochure template and illustrated images of the island. They turned out really nice and are now inside each students IPC book.
Writing Thank You Notes – T for Thank You Day
Week 11 we had our school-wide trip to Gyeongju World! We made a last minute switch to beat the rain, and glad we did as it did pour all Wednesday. Everyone had a lot of fun and enjoyed the rides, and got wet on the flume and flume bridge. Thank you to the parents who joined us; it was helpful to be able to break up the group into smaller groups to cover maximum park ground.
We finished up maths and adding some fractions for fun, we finished the final chapters and wrote a final review for our novel Abel’s Island and outlined the plot on a flow chart, and we wrapped up out Island brochures for IPC. Otherwise, it’s been a lot of cleaning and tidying up, and packing up all our workbooks to take home. It’s a lot of paper, so please enjoy looking through them and if you don’t wish to keep anything, please recycle!
Tomorrow is the LAST DAY of school! The PTA is hosting pizza and drinks; please bring a lunch as usual but anticipate pizza and snacks in the afternoon. (No cost – free!)
Feel free to bring anything to share, just note clearly if it if for the class or for the whole school.
To celebrate the end of the school year we will be going to Gyeongju World on Wednesday 21st June (the last week of term).
Please complete the permission form and send the money to the school to cover the entrance fee. The school is subsidising this trip and providing transportation.
Trip fee
Mrs Leah’s, Mr Dunn’s class: 14,000 won
Mr de Klerk’s class: 18,000 won
Students in Mrs Leah’s, Mr Dunn’s and Mr de Klerk’s classes will be returning to school at 4.30 and will therefore take the second bus.
Students will need:
to wear a school shirt (we suggest the cool P.E shirt)
to wear a hat
to either bring a packed lunch or money to buy food (packed lunch is quicker and gives more time for rides)
The end is nigh and the energy is high! We’ve been keeping busy this week, despite taking the day off Tuesday, catching up on our math unit, reading a new novel, and exploring maps and islands.
Students took home their report cards this Friday so be on a look out for them. If you would like to schedule a conference, please use this link: https://calendar.app.google/XmQW3Bu7UbJ8VXnC8
Also, Wednesday June 21st the upper school will all be going to Gyeongju World! (the ABC Countdown Calander has it for Thursdy, but it will be Wednesday!) Be on the look out for the sign up email. We will leave 9am and be back by 4:30 that day.
We are continuing to work with fractions this week and using multiplication and division to find fractions of numbers. Students are enjoying word problems and working through multi step problems.
In English the class started a new novel called Abel’s Island. Students are following long in their books, taking turns reading out loud, and receiving real time vocabulary and plot clarification. We are working on sounding out new and challenging words, catching details important to story comprehension, and making inferences based on what we know so far. It’s gone swell so far!
In IPC we started a final unit focusing on islands. We started out with a survivor island challenge were students worked together to determine what they needed to survive on a desert island. They used their critical thinking skills to explain how each item would aid them, then applied their tools to a scenario taking place on their islands. We also reviewed the seven continents and seas of the earth, the equator, latitude and longitude, and the hemispheres. We will be using these features of maps to locate and study islands around the world.
With our ABC countdown we jammed out to music, chose new names for ourselves, wrote backwards and mismatched our clothes for opposite day, and Friday we took a nice walk out to the reservoir far a picnic lunch with Mr. Dunn’s class.
Next week will still be full of learning so rest up and see you Monday,
Student report cards will go out on Friday June 9th.
If you would like to meet to discuss your student’s report or their performance in class this term, please schedule an appointment with this link: https://calendar.app.google/5ryqFQFEYH13JrmK7
We are now 3 weeks away from summer! This week we had an ice cream fueled back to class after the three day weekend, a field trip, flipped-Wednesday as our Korean and Music classes were in the morning, and Friday year 3/4 were the big kids on campus as the upper school is away.
The highlight of the week of course was our trip to go rock climbing. A special thanks to the moms who joined us! Everyone was very well behaved and tried their best at the challenging wall climbs. Then, we loaded up and went to Jadrock Park to eat and climb some more! The weather was absolutely gorgeous making the day extra awesome.
In Math we started our unit on more fractions. Students will be ordering, comparing, and adding and subtracting fractions. Year 4s will also be looking at percentages. We are also still using Khan Academy to supplement our learning – I highly recommend it for at home learning this summer for math. They also just added English Language Arts for reading comprehension!
In English we finished our unit on nonfiction texts by looking at an informational text and the elements that define them. Students practiced finding the subject of the text, the main ideas of each paragraph, and the supporting details. I am sending the unit packet home this Friday in homework folders. Students continue to work in their reading groups to improve reading fluency, as well as working on spelling words. The week was short so we were crunched on time in class to study words – please encourage students to review their words at home; the spelling list is sent home each Friday.
We did not have IPC this week as there was no class on Monday and the field trip Wednesday. However, we did a Kahoot review quiz on Thursday and students finished up their final Entrepreneur projects this Friday, submitted, and presented! Great job to all; it was a tricky project with many steps but I hope students learned not only fundamental elements of economics, but just how expensive and challenging it can be to get new ideas on to the market!
Everyone enjoy the weekend and take care – a lot of students have been sick so take it easy and rest!
We just wrapped up Sports Day and it was a big hit! All us teacher were very pleased with the excellent demonstration of sportsmanship, athleticism, and fun. Well done everyone!
This week in our ABC countdown we had Drawing, Extra Laptop Fun, Favorite Books, and Games! Students did well bringing in and sharing their books and games, it made making time for these fun activities rewarding and productive. Keep it up!
This week we finished up our unit on multiplication and division. On Wednesday we took the unit test and I was happy to see such great results. The Cambridge Maths can be a bit tricky with the wording, but we read over each question together which seemed to help many. I was able to send the math unit packet and the test home this weekend, but there is no homework other than spelling words! The teachers gift to students this three day weekend.
In English we tied in our IPC unit and planned a talk about our companies and products. Students are practicing for when they have their pitches; this coming week is a bit odd as we have Monday off, the field trip Wednesday, and flipped schedule Thursday due to the upper classes taking a trip, so our Shark Tank presentations will happen NEXT Friday. Unideal, but we make due! Students continue to work diligently in their word study (the spelling scores this week were good!) and were able to do their reading group rotations, some online reading comprehension with ReadWorks, and a little bit of grammar on EducationCity.
Busted on Minecraft Ella!
As mentioned, we finished up the work for our pitches in IPC. Student did a lot of math to figure out the final costs of their products, calculated profit, and came to a selling price. Almost everyone came out with a rather expensive product, but I am sure they can wow the investors irregardless!
The ABC Countdown has began! After today, Friday the 19th, there are only 23 school-days left until the end of term! We started on Wednesday with A for Animal day; students brought in their favorite stuffed animals to keep them company all day. Thursday was B for Breakfast day. We topped up on child-favorite Oreo and Coco cereals with milk, yogurts, and granola. Friday we chilled out after assembly with some C for Cinema time. Everyone has been so focused on their IPC projects this week, as well as math and English, they deserved a relaxing afternoon break.
I sent a color copy of the ABC countdown out with the homework.
Be sure to sign up for our field trip Wednesday May 31st! I have about half the class checked off, could you please click this link if you haven’t signed up yet?
Sports Day is next Friday, May 26th! Mr. Dunn was kind enough to organize the events and sent an email to every parent about team colors. If each student could wear a team-colored tee shirt that day, that would be great! We also ask that students bring:
Sun caps
Sunscreen
Water bottle
Non-microwavable lunch (we will picnic outside)
Team color t-shirt
Sports appropriate clothing and shoes
In class students continued to work with division and were introduced to long form division. Math has been really enjoyable as it seems everyone is interested and invested in learning division and having fun solving problems. We did our learning groups, some student group fact fluency flash cards, independent practice sheets, and Khan academy during our rotations.
In English we continued to look as the feathers of non fictions texts paying specific attention to facts vs opinions. Students enjoyed their own selected reading books and guided reading through out the week. With the ABC count down our schedules may get a bit shuffled to accommodate some extra fun, but we will still be holding our subject classes to ensure learning continues with the countdown activities. That being said, I expect everyone to be working hard in class and trying their best on their class work. This weeks spelling test was a big below expectation; everyone owes me a good score next Friday – we talk about using our in-class word study time wisely and doing activities with intent, not just to get it done.
IPC has been really juicy as students have been working together to create a print ad for their product with a business logo and slogan, and then they buckled down to do some research on costs. We looked at real estate prices to rent space for our businesses, searched internet retailers to find affordable equipment and tools to make our products, and sourced the materials needed to produce them. We also made a job list and searched the market value of each position and calculated how much the cost of labor would be to produce 500 items in three months. Everyone was just a bit shocked how expensive everything came out to be. That’s why our pitches to investors will be so important!
I hope everyone has a good weekend and see you Monday,
Students will be fitted with safety gear and be able to climb up the rock walls. Please provide your child’s shoe size in millimeters so the staff at the climbing facility can fit the proper shoes.
Please bring a packed snack, lunch, and water bottle. There will be no refrigeration or microwave, so pack accordingly.
Please have your student wear their HFS shirt. We anticipate fair weather so a hat and sunscreen may make the park more enjoyable.
We will depart the school at 9am and be back by 3:30pm.
This week we have been busy starting new units and buckling down for projects. We have sports day on the 26th, no school the 29th, and a class trip coming up on the 31st. This and next week we will focus on completing our units of study so we can enjoy our schedule of fun and partake in the ABC Countdown for the last 26 days of school!
Students have started a new math unit focusing on multiplication review and basic division strategies. During this unit, students will deepen their understanding of multiplication and division concepts, as well as learn new strategies to solve problems efficiently and accurately. They will be revisiting and applying a variety of problem-solving techniques, such as using arrays, equal groups, repeated addition, and skip counting. We are also using Khan Academy math as a digital supplement allow students to stay engaged in math while other groups are with the teacher.
We have begun a new learning unit in English focusing on fiction and nonfiction texts. During this unit, students will have the opportunity to explore a range of texts and learn about the features of each genre. They will develop their comprehension skills as they learn to identify main ideas, make inferences, and draw conclusions from both fiction and nonfiction texts.
Reading Hour is running smoothly with student groups each focusing on different texts based on their reading levels. Students are taking turns with a teacher for guided reading, and using their laptops for digital grammar practice or tablet to enjoy books on the digital library.
In IPC students started their project inspired by the popular TV show Shark Tank. In this project, students are challenged to develop an innovative product or service that solves a real-world problem, and pitch their idea to a panel of judges, just like the entrepreneurs on the show. This project provides an excellent opportunity for our students to develop their creativity, critical thinking, and presentation skills. They are also learning about entrepreneurship and the process of developing a business idea from conception to launch.
Don’t forget to fill out the field trip form and I will see everyone next week!
