Newsletter, 20th of November 2015

This has been such a spectacular week! We would first like to thank everyone for supporting this year's International Week. All the activities and the participation of parents made the whole week an amazing one. Thank you for all the activities you prepared about your home countries which the children truly enjoyed. We would also like to thank you for sending your children to school today wearing their lovely traditional costumes, They were all brilliant and they were so proud to wear their national costumes today. 

We started this week by having the children create their own flags. For the past couple of weeks, we have been teaching the children about their nationalities and their flags. It was such a delight to see children identifying different countries' flags and naming their peers who are from that country. The children were then given their own flags this week which they coloured in. 

Our children also showed that their are getting better in counting! One of the activities that they enjoyed this week was stamping different countries' flags and counting them afterwards. It was impressive how our children are getting better at their one-to-one correspondence in counting. 

The children had a visit in the Vietnamese room for International Week! The theme for this year was 'Tet' and we had the opportunity to learn about different traditional things that are usually seen and celebrated during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. The children's favourite activity was the dragon dance! Back in the classroom, the children also made their own banh mi! They absolutely loved it! 

Our most favourite part of this week was the international buffet! We had an international feast in the classroom where children enjoyed food from different countries. The spring rolls, pork roll, and the noodles were the popular dishes amongst the children! 

We have been so lucky to have so many special visitors this week! We first had Hamad's Mum from Kuwait who showed us a beautiful Arabic costume and shared to us how Kuwait progressed from being a simple country to the very modern country which it is now. 

A group of lovely Vietnamese Mums also came to visit us. Kaiko's Mum showed us pictures from Hanoi and it was interesting to see how different it is from Saigon. Later on, more Mums took the children to the main playground to play a traditional Vietnamese street game with the children (can knockdown). 

Laisha's Mum came and shared so many things to us about Australia. We learnt about the aborigines who were the first people of Australia and we also learnt about unique animals and places in Australia like the koala, kangaroo, and the Sydney Opera House. Laisha's Mum was also very kind to share with us some Lamingtons which is a delicious treat from Australia! 

Ms Hayley from F3 came down to our classroom with her friend Timothy and they shared to us things about England. She talked about the usual things that English people do on a weekend and we also learnt that England has 4 seasons and that we need to wear some special clothes for each season. Ms Hayley and Timothy had a big suitcase full of things from England and our favourite was the yummy biscuits she shared to us! 

The Japanese Mums (Kazuki's and Mako's) shared interesting things about Japan to us as well! We learnt about how far Japan is from Vietnam and Japan's 4 seasons. The most fun part was when we practised saying greetings in Japanese and when we counted 1-10 in Japanese! We also played a ninja game where we tried to hit a target using a 'shiruken'. It was so much fun! 

Our last visitor this week was Gianna's Mum who read us a traditional tale from the Philippines. It was very interesting to hear a story about a little girl who did not use her looking eyes very well turn into a pineapple which is a fruit which has a lot of 'eyes'. 

We also celebrated Mako and Gianna's birthday this week! Happy birthday! 

We cannot believe how packed this week was! Well done to all our children for trying their best to show sensible behaviour this week and for being brave in trying out different things! We all deserve a restful weekend. 

Please click on this link to see all our photos this week: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9FSIol_oWg_N05MMWItM3E2RlE&usp=sharing

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NOTICES: 

1. We will be back to our normal routine next week. There will be a splash pool session on Monday and Thursday. Library sessions will resume on Wednesday. Please make sure that your children have their swimming things on these days, and that their library book is returned before Wednesday, 

2. Ms Gurvinder, who will be officially back on the 30th of November will be coming on Tuesday morning to come and get to know our F2 children. She will be back from her maternity leave on the 30th of November and will be one of F2's class teachers. Ms Clarissa will still be working with F2 children during our focus activities and on Friday mornings. 

3. The EYFS Family morning will be on the 28th of November (Saturday, 8:30-10:30). This will be a fun morning of fun activities for EYFS children and their families. We hope to see you all there!