Newsletter, Friday, 16th of October 2015

It has been such a hectic end to the first half of the term! This week, we continued and extended learning about the outer space. In one of our focus group activities, we talked about how specially skilled people called astronauts journey into space. We learnt that they work in space stations alongside other skilled people like scientists, engineers, and computer scientists so they can go to space smoothly. It was also interesting to know that there are other places called planets in the outer space and that astronauts go on space missions to visit these places so we can learn more about them. We also learnt that the sun is the biggest and hottest star in the universe, that is why planets that are close to it are hot whilst the ones that are far from it can be cold. We also had the chance to create our own planets in the workshop area by painting and threading.

On Monday, we had bags of uncooked rice in our tuff spot. Our teacher put powder paints and a little bit of water in the bags and we made the rice coloured by shaking the bags really hard! We also learnt that when we mix two colours together, a new colour could be made! In this activity, we mixed yellow and blue to create green, red and yellow to create orange, and red and blue to create purple. We waited for the rice to dry up and poured them all in our tuff spot which has been filled with lovely rainbow rice. The coloured rice has been very popular and we have been doing lots of mixing, pouring, and pretend-cooking. Lots of hand control practise and imaginative play!

We enjoyed lots of physical activities this week! In the splash pool, we impressed our teachers by showing good listening and following during our warm-up exercise. We practised our kicking legs in the water and also tried to blow into the water to create bubbles. Our teachers have been very pleased that most of us are enjoying the splash pool sessions and are showing great water confidence!

We also did lots of exercise in our playgrounds! In the Fundino playground, some of us balanced on the wooden planks and blocks. We also played a relay game in the main playground where we did our best in jumping with two feet, balancing, and running safely. All of us showed confidence in doing a physical activity which delighted our teachers!

Our classroom was also busy with lots of number and writing work. This week, we focused on reciting and recognising numbers 1-10. In one activity, we had the opportunity to choose a number of space creatures to stick onto our planets. We then counted how many creatures there were and selected the correct numeral. On the carpet, we also practised number recognition and some of us had a go at trying to form some numerals on the IWB. We then played an IWB game on counting and selecting the correct numeral. It was fun to have a start at number work and we will be continuing our counting and number recognition practise when we go back from our break!

This week, we also had a special time to enjoy our mark-making books. We impressed our teacher by getting our mark-making books by looking for our names. We then had a go at using the pens to create marks on our books. Most of us already know how our names look like and some of us are already showing proper handling of the pen. We have been drawing happy faces, our families, and other things that we see around us.

We have been so lucky to enjoy sweet treats this week! On Thursday, we celebrated Tin Tin's birthday and enjoyed a delicious cake! On Friday, some of us went down to the kitchen and baked alien cookies with our teacher!

Friday was also Isaac's last day with us before his family goes to New Zealand, and Isaac's dad was very kind to bring a cake for us to share. Thank you Isaac for being a part of our class. We will miss you and we wish you all the best in New Zealand!

It has been such a hectic week of fun and learning! We all deserve a restful half-term break!

Thank you!

Ms Clarissa, Ms Precious, Ms Christine and the F2 Team

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NOTICES:
- School is closed for the half-term holiday, 19th October to 23rd October
- All children come back to school on the 26th of October
- Please pick up your children on time (14:30). For children who have clubs, home time is at 15:40.
- Please secure your child's swimming things in a proper swimming bag. We are discouraging the use of disposable plastic bags. Please also provide a proper bath towel for your child's comfort.
- For those who are interested to join the parent EAL group with Ms Michelle, please reach out to Ms Emma for more details (emmawestman@bisvietnam.com)