Ms McClellan's Class - 2022/23

Hello parents! We have a craft project to do on Tuesday of next week that needs some newspaper. If you have any at home can you please send it with your child tomorrow or on Monday so we can make a great project on Tuesday! Thanks in advance!

We made it to summer! We had lots of great fun this week including an amazing trip to Rainbow Park and the Kids Cafe! Have an excellent summer. I’ll miss everyone who’s leaving or moving onto a new class and I look forward to seeing those who stay next fall.

Have fun!

Hello parents!

As tomorrow is the last day of school I am kindly asking that you send a large shopping bag with your child to school tomorrow. We will be emptying our baskets and lockers so a lot of pieces, including their change of clothes will go home.

Additionally, I would like to remind you to send your child’s library book bag with any books you may have to return to school. This includes last week’s library books, Read Write Inc. books, and any old library books that may have made their way under beds or behind sofas during the school year.

I can’t wait to spend our last day together! Let’s make it a great one!

Week 10! We’re almost there! I know so many of the children are getting tired and are ready for the break but we’ve had a great week and have one more exciting week to go.

For homework this week, some students brought home Read Write Inc. reading books. Please do those with them. As always, read your library books together. And in keeping with our theme in IEYC this week, have a look at your recycling! We learned where paper comes from and even made our own paper this week. Take a look at your recycling bins in the house and also any bins you may have in your apartment complex. Talk about the different materials the garbage is sorted into and what new products could be made from those recyclables. There’s lots of great information on YouTube about recycling plants. Perhaps watch one together and talk about what you learned. If you want to send photos of your recycling setup – either the one in your home or the one in your apartment complex, or both – feel free to send them to mariemcclellan@hyundaiforeignschool.com and we’ll look at them on our last sharing time next week.

Just a reminder that our Year-End Trip is on Tuesday. Permission forms and money needs to be submitted by Monday. You can find the permission form here: https://forms.gle/rPz52BJ9CngVooWd7 Although parents are coming along, it is still important for all students to wear their HFS shirts. I went to visit the park on Saturday and have determined their splash pad is open. If you think your child would have fun splashing in the water, please bring appropriate footwear and a change of clothes. There is a bathroom you can use to change in. It would also be helpful to bring a picnic mat if you have one.

It was so lovely meeting most of you this week for PTC. It was wonderful to get to chat with you about the excellent progress your children are making. Thank you for taking the time.

This week in IEYC we learned about recycling – paper specifically – and made our own paper. We learned where paper comes from originally (trees) but that we can’t keep cutting down trees every time we need new paper. We investigated theories on how we could help save the trees and had a hands-on lesson on papermaking. We also had a great outdoor visit with Happy Boat on Monday. We had a fun walk to the ice cream shop to get popsicles on Thursday for Treat Day. And we played extra games on Friday for Uber-Fun Day. We continued with phonics as well as Literacy and Maths Centres. We also had a great time in our tents for Read-In Day and everyone loved having their stuffed animals on S day.

For this fun-filled Year-End Trip we will go to Mu Ji Gae Nol I Teo park and Waggle: I Kids Cafe on Tuesday June 20, 2023. Parents are invited and encouraged to come spend this time together with your children and the class. There is space for you to ride on the bus if you would like. If you wish to drive yourself, I will send a Kakao or Naver Pin to the locations. Please reach out and let me know if you want the pin.

We will depart school at 9:10am and go to the park. We will have our snack, play, and have a picnic lunch together. 

At 12:00 we will depart the park and the bus will take us to the kids cafe where we will stay till 2:30 before returning to school for approximately 3:20. 

There is a fee associated with this trip. The cost of the kids cafe is 17,000won per child and 5,000won per parent. Please send this money in an envelope to myself or Ms. Yujin by Monday June 19. The permission also needs to be filled out by Monday the 19th.

I look forward to having a great Year-End Trip! 

Here is the link to the permission form: https://forms.gle/gpMkYcoDP7EmcWtf9

Wow! What another exciting week! A little houskeeping before we begin our update.

Reports went home today in your child’s bookbag. Do read them as I am excited to share your child’s progress with you. I am greatly looking forward to meeting with you to discuss your child’s performance since the last reporting period. Please choose a 20-minute time slot below. If none of these times work for  you, please email me and we can try to work out another time.

The time slots are scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of next week, Week 10. 

In order for everyone to meet, please do your best to arrive on time and end the meeting on schedule. I appreciate your kind understanding and consideration for others in this matter.

Please use this link to sign up for a PTC: https://forms.gle/VCkzDnANsvfuz2dbA

In IEYC this week, we continued to spend time in nature and today we brought a plant into the classroom. Your general homework for this week is to learn about any house plants you may have. You may even want to buy a small plant and work on growing it together. Perhaps your plants from Happy Boat are still going strong. As always, if you have any photos, send them to me at mariemcclellan@hyundaiforeignschool.com

Some students received a phonics book in their bookbags from the Read Write Inc. series we use for phonics. Some students have blending words books and other have short stories called Ditties. Please review these during the week and return them next Friday in their bookbags.

And now, the update!

As mentioned earlier, we continued to learn about and explore the natural world. The students went on a Nature Walk with Mr. Green and collected different natural items which we used to make a beautiful piece of art. And as also mentioned earlier, we brought a plant into the classroom. We are growing some rosemary. Perhaps in the last week of school we will harvest some and make a small well-seasoned food item. We got back into small-group phonics and continued with our daily routines of Kindness Morning Meeting (we learned about empathy this week), calendar, Maths Centres, a Literacy Centres.

Our Alphabet Coundown wasn’t as active this week but the students enjoyed it. They had fun popping popcorn for Movie Day. They had a great time with New Names (and their Nature Walk which tied in wonderfully to IEYC). I loved seeing all the opposite socks on Opposite Day. And I am glad some students had fun wearing their Pajammas today. I know I’m nice and comfortable having taught all day in mine.

We have just 2 weeks of school left. Students are excited and tired and we still have lots of great learning in store. On Monday we will visit with Happy Boat again which will be our last visit for this academic year. It’s been great getting to know those students and make friends in spite of language differences.

During the last week of school, we will have a year-end trip. It it currently planned to be a picnic in a park and some time at a kids cafe. Details will be coming out early next week. All parents are invited and encouraged to join us on this trip.

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

We had a fun, short week with plenty of learning and lots of excitement.

Before I begin, let me just give you this week’s homework. We’re learning about animals, habitats, and nature in IEYC. This week for homework, take a walk somewhere in nature. It could be a park, the beach, a river or lake, or even farther around the reservoir than our class’s short walks. Look and listen for any animals you may see. I know you will see some birds but do you see anything else? Feel free to take some photos and send them to mariemcclellan@hyundaiforeignschool.com for our sharing time next Friday. There is no phonics homework to send home this week as we did phonics assessments ahead of the report cards which will be going home soon.

In IEYC we continued learning about animals and nature. We learned a bit more about bears and did a hidden bear activity sheet. We also went for another walk around the reservoir and collected some rocks. We brought those back to school, washed them, painted them, and made pet rocks. With all the rocks that didn’t get turned into pets, we inspected the rocks. We were able to find “shiny rocks” which was quartz. We sorted the rocks into different piles according to attributes like size or texture.

I: Ice Cream Day – we enjoyed a cone of vanilla ice cream and sang happy birthday to Ms. M.

J: Joke Day – we tried our best to tell jokes although we’re still a little young. We made a joke colouring book!

K: King Day – The boys wore crowns and got to choose things like our hello song and numbers song.

L: Lollipop Day – We enjoyed a lollipop while reading a story.

As the Upper School was in Geoje, we had a special assembly where we learned about kindness. We talked about what it meant to be kind as a whole school and in teams we did a Kindness Bingo!

That’s it for this week. The weather this weekend looks dryer than last so be sure to enjoy it! We’ll see you Monday!

Well it was an exciting week! We began each morning with our Kindness Morning Meetings. We talked about how everyone is special and how being different is a real reason we need to be kind to each other. We practiced our kindness chant:

1, 2, 3, 4 – Kindness Counts! Let’s Count Some More!
2, 6, 8, 10 – Kindness Counts! So Count Me In!

We gave compliments to each other and we sent compliments home to our family that we drew ourselves.

We kicked off our new IEYC unit with a walk to the reservoir to start learning about animal habitats. We also learned quite a bit about different bears! (Our walk to the reservoir was most definitely a Bear Hunt!)

And of course, we had lots of exciting days in our ABC Countdown!

D is for Drawing – We got our own Drawing Journals!

E is for Extra Tablet Time!

F is for Favourite Book – We read so much that day!

G is Games Day! – We shared and got along so well together playing our favourite games together.

And H was for Health and Fitness! Our Sports Day! Thank you so much to all the children who showed great sporting behaviour and worked in their class and teams so well. And thank you to all the parents who came out to support their children and the whole school on this great day. A HUGE thank-you to Mr. Dunn for organizing such a special event!

Just 4 weeks of school left! We’re in the homeward stretch! Let’s keep our energy levels high and have a great last few weeks of term!

Before we begin, let’s have a reminder about Sports Day next Friday. Please ensure your child is wearing PE appropriate clothes and shoes. They should have a hat and sun cream to protect them from the sun. They should bring a water bottle and a lunch that does not need to be microwaved as we are having a picnic on the field for lunch. This is also a reminder to check your email from Mr. Dunn to see what colour team your child is on and to please dress them in the correct colour shirt to help keep the team games organised. This year we will not be giving out Gold, Silver, and Bronze prizes for any games, but instead we will be giving a Good Sportsmanship award to someone in the class.

Good Sportsmanship leads us to the first exciting thing that happened this week. We are doing Kindness Morning Meetings. We spend a little time each morning learning more and more about kindness and how to be a good friend. This translates well into Good Sportsmanship so we’ll encorporate that next week. Kindness will be the focus of our Morning Meeting for the rest of the term.

We had so much going on this week I nearly forgot to take pictures of it all. We finished up our To the Rescue! unit culminating with freeing some toys that The Mighty Freeze had frozen in the ice. The students were quick to realise we needed warm water to melt the ice!

We had an excellent time in Phonics and Ms. Yuli was able to snap a few photos!

Of course we began our Alphabet Countdown with A: Adventure Day and our trip to The Lightning Man Experience! It was such a delightful time. We practiced teamwork. We went on a rocket. We helped Lightning Man get his powers back. And we became Lightning People ourselves – those were the ID cards that went home in your child’s backpack on the day of the trip.

B is for Breakfast and the students tentatively enjoyed Ms. M’s homemade pancakes.

C is for Craft and Compliment. What we made is a bit of a surprise. We made a special craft just for you parents and caregivers! We also took a walk down to the post office and posted our craft to you. The postal worker said it will arrive on Tuesday so keep an eye on the mailbox! Parents with children in Mrs. Sim’s class: both classes made the same craft but Mrs. Sim’s went home today in their backpack. Do remind your child not to be sad, their present to you will be coming in the mail and you know it’s very special!

We will be beginning a new IEYC unit Monday which will take us to the end of the year. Also some of next’s week’s Alphabet Countdown involve bringing in things from home. F: Favourite Book and G: Game Day. I especially want a book brought in. If you do not have a game to send in, that’s OK. We’ll have lots of fun things to play here at school. I would prefer the game is a board or card game and not a video type game.

It looks like we’re set to have a wonderful, sunny weekend so please enjoy the weather and come back to school Monday rested and refreshed for a new week of learning!

Wow! We had such a great week! We continued learning about real-life heroes by looking at different forms of transportation that are used in real life. We did a categorization activity looking at air, roads, rail, and water. Then we made our own Superhero transportation. We looked at Google Earth and all the places all around the world that we’re from before making some maps of our own to play with our transportation toys. We also did some activities in the hall learning how to move forward, backward, left, and right the way we would on a map.

In exciting Phonics news, everyone has made amazing strides in learning to read and write. The students who were not doing phonics for most of the year have begun learning simple sounds. Their sounds were: M, A, and S this week. The students who have been working on phonics all year have moved onto CVC words. We have been using various methods to segment and blend words as the initial stages of reading. Some students are already reading CVC words and that will continue to be built upon.

Next week on Wednesday our Alphabet Countdown begins with Adventure Day: Field Trip to the Lightning Man Experience. Please remember to dress your child in their school uniform to go on the trip. Please pack water, a snack, and a lunch that does not need to be microwaved as it will be a full-day trip.

Our Alphabet Countdown continues Thursday with B: Breakfast. We will have a special snack of fluffy pancakes at break time on Thursday. You can send a snack in case your child does not like pancakes but there is no need to provide a snack that day. The pancakes are made with: flour, milk, egg, butter, sugar, and baking powder. We will eat syrup on the pancakes. If there are dietary reasons your child cannot have this treat please let me know ASAP so I can make an alternate breakfast that everyone can enjoy.

That’s it for this week! Have a great weekend. Let’s cross our fingers that the rain passes us by and we finally see the sun. But if not, have a great time regardless and come back to school rested on Monday!