Newsletter Friday, 30th October 2015

Welcome back everyone!

We hope you had a lovely and restful half-term break. The children told their teachers and friends lots of stories about how they spent their holiday. Some rode an aeroplane to a different city or country, some went to the beach, and a number of them spent quality time with their families and friends. Ms Precious and Ms Christine have already shared photos from their holiday trips and the children were very eager to talk about theirs. Next Monday, we will be looking at the blogs and the children can have a go at telling their friends what kept them busy during that week-long, fun-filled holiday! We can’t wait to hear about them!

We kicked off the second half of term 1 with an array of activities that the children truly enjoyed. In the mark-making area, the children continue to practise how to write their names and proper handling of the marker. They wrote with excellent control and developing tripod grips. The children also had a go at recognising whose name is written on every card and eventually found theirs.

In the IWB, they played with the BusyThings tracing activity. The game shows the children how to write letters by demonstrating the proper strokes and letting the child trace through the dots. The children took turns well and waited patiently for their turn. They also practised their tripod grips as they traced with the IWB pen. Some children were already able to recognise the letters and incorporate them with their friends’ names.

In the Maths area, the children played with our new provision--  number lacing. They identified the numbers and threaded the number beads into the laces. The teachers were delighted to see that some of our children have already mastered number recognition from 1-5. Most of them are already familiar with numbers 6-10. They showed great concentration whilst threading the numbers and exhibited impressive fine motor skills. Well done children!

Last Wednesday, the children had a wonderful time playing in the big playground.  They hopped on the bikes, trikes and scooters and gave them a spin. The children showed excellent taking turns with the different vehicles. We were very happy to see that our children are becoming more confident with gross motor activities and are more willing to try new things.

The children learnt some positional words such as 'inside', 'outside', 'in front', 'behind', 'on', and 'under'. They identified where certain objects are using these new words. The children also had a go at putting the objects according to the positional word that was said.They were also encouraged to respond to the question 'where' using simple sentences and they were amazing! We will carry on with the other positional words next week. 

Just before the holidays, we started having our music classes in the music room. Mr John was very pleased to observe that the children have already mastered most of the songs that we learn during music time. They have been singing along very well and joining in with actions enthusiastically.

Here are some songs that we learnt with Mr John:

Bananas, Bananas

Banana bananas clap clap clap
Banana bananas flap flap flap
Banana bananas click click click
Banana bananas flick flick flick
Banana bananas bump bump bump
Banana bananas jump jump jump

Shake My Sillies Out

We've gotta shake, shake, shake my sillies out,
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out,
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out,
And wiggle my waggles away!

We've gotta clap, clap, clap my crazies out,
Clap, clap, clap my crazies out,
Clap, clap, clap my crazies out,
And wiggle my waggles away!

We've gotta jump, jump, jump my jiggles out,
Jump, jump, jump my jiggles out,
Jump, jump, jump my jiggles out,
And wiggle my waggles away!

Make A Face

Make a face, make a face, make a happy face

make a face, make a happy face (2x)

Make a face, make a face, make a sad face

make a face, make a sad face (2x)

Make a face, make a face, make an angry face

make a face, make an angry face (2x)

Head, Shoulders Baby

Head, shoulders baby 1, 2, 3

Head, shoulders baby 1, 2, 3

Head shoulders, head shoulders

Head, shoulders baby 1, 2, 3

Knees, feet baby 1, 2, 3

Knees, feet baby 1, 2, 3

Knees feet, knees knees feet

Knees, feet baby 1, 2, 3

Hands Can Hold 

Hands can hold and hands can squeeze
Hands can rest up on your knees
Hands can clap and hands can shake
What kind of sound can your tongue make?

Hands can hold and hands can squeeze
Hands can rest up on your knees
Hands can clap and hands can shake
What kind of sound can your legs make?

Hands can hold and hands can squeeze
Hands can rest up on your knees
Hands can clap and hands can shake
What kind of sound can your hands make?

Mr John also taught the children two special Halloween songs today: Go Away Spooky Goblin and Five Creepy Spiders.  They had a go at joining in with the actions and singing along. 

This week, we have added new musical instruments in our Music area for the children to play with such as cymbals, castanets, guiros, hand bells and a xylophone. They had a lovely time playing the different instruments together!

A week won’t be complete without some splash pool fun! Mr Sun was out and it was a perfect time to go swimming. Before taking a dip, the children did some bending and stretching to warm their muscles up. They also did some leg and arm exercises to encourage them to use their legs and arms for swimming. Last Thursday, we played the Swim and Squeeze relay game with Ms Christine. The children swam towards the end of the pool and squeezed some water in the bucket. They then swam back to give it to the next player. The teachers were happy to see that some children are already confident to dip their faces in the water whilst swimming.

This week, we also celebrated the birthdays of Vivi, Ms Tu and Ms Clarissa!

Wow, this has been surely a fun-filled first week back from the holiday. We’ll definitely have more exciting activities next week but for now, have a SPOOKtacular Halloween weekend! Enjoy the treats!

NOTICES:
Library
From next week, the children can borrow books again from the library

Swimming Kit
Please label all your child's belongings with a permanent marker.
Also, if you think your child will be unable to swim, please provide us with a medical certificate.
As per school policy, if your child is in school, then he/she should be well enough to join our swimming sessions. 

Holiday Photos
If you have any holiday photos that you would like your child to share with his/her friends, please post them in your child's blog.


Thank you and have a restful weekend,
Ms Christine, Ms Precious, Ms Clarissa and the F2 team