Week 7 in K2

Class Details

In the past, teachers have sent out class lists giving contact details of parents. This information is now accessible to all on the Parent Portal on the UWCSEA website. Class Parents are using this information to contact you with details of parties and activities pertinent to your child's class. In addition, other parents in the class will use the information on the Parent Portal to contact you if the need arises.

To avoid missing out on important information, invitations and dates of events that are being shared within your child's class, please make sure you have submitted your data protection form. If you have not yet done this, the data protection form can be found on the portal forms page on the portal (the grey 'forms' button in the middle of the parent portal will also take you there). Alternatively, you can also login to the portal, click on update details, and then update your profile on the parent address book tab to 'opt in', without having to download and return the form.

The new data protection laws meant that unless the data protection form was signed and returned we needed to opt you out as the default from the start of the year. When you opt in, parents in the class can then find your contact details. We recommend at least one parent being opted in so as to not miss out on important social opportunities for your child.

UWC Day - Wednesday 1 October

UWC Day is an opportunity for the whole Campus to focus on our values, in particular Service to others. The usual timetable will be suspended for all students as they take part in activities and projects with outside groups and students from the High School.

The K2 children will be going off campus for the morning to the Botanic Gardens with their teachers and some Grade 11 and 12 students. As part of the Service element, the older students will be helping our children with their current Unit of Study on materials by exploring the gardens, finding out and discussing what things are made of, searching for different materials and recording their findings with their iPads. 

In the afternoon, the older students will continue working with the K2 children; using Doodlecast Pro they will help guide them through the process of selecting a few photographs and recording their voices as they talk about the materials they found. 

We will have Brain Food at school before leaving UWCSEA at 8:30am. We plan to return by 12:00pm.  

IMPORTANT! In preparation for the trip, could all parents:

• have your child wear his/her PE kit and trainers
• put sunscreen and insect repellant on before school, if desired
• make sure a hat is at school
• pack two snacks and two drinks (water bottles with a strap are ideal) in a small backpack 
• pack a raincoat or disposable poncho

We will have lunch in the classrooms as normal. End of day bus and car pick ups will remain the same. Please note that after school activities will run as normal. 

Swimming for K2HWe and K2SMH 

This starts next week!

K2SMH will swim every Tuesday from 30 September and conclude on Tuesday 11 November.
K2HWe will swim every Thursday from 2 October and conclude on Thursday 13 November.

On swimming days, your child will need the following items: swimwear, a UVA swim top (compulsory), goggles (if they wear them), shoes to wear to the pool and a towel.
Swimming is part of the P.E. programme and all children are expected to swim each week. If for any reason your child is unable to swim, he/she will sit by the side of the pool and watch or read a book.

Theatre Trip

On Thursday 9 October, we will be taking the children to see a production based on the popular Julia Donaldson picture book 'Stick Man'.  If you have not yet returned the letter requesting permission and payment, please could you do so by Monday 29 September?

Week 6 in K2

Swimming

K2HWe and K2SMH will be starting their swimming programme very soon.

K2SMH will swim every Tuesday from 30 September and conclude on Tuesday 11 November.
K2HWe will swim every Thursday from 2 October and conclude on Thursday 13 November.

On swimming days, your child will need the following items: swimwear, a UVA swim top (compulsory), goggles (if they wear them), shoes to wear to the pool and a towel.
Swimming is part of the P.E. programme and all children are expected to swim each week. If for any reason your child is unable to swim, he/she will sit by the side of the pool and watch or read a book.

If for any unforeseen circumstances your child is unable to participate in the majority of swimming lessons, he/she will revisit the unit with the next K2 class on Swimming.

If a child has a long-term, chronic condition and is unable to swim at all, then a doctor’s letter is required and he/she will join another class for a P.E. lesson.

Writing Workshop

On the path to becoming ‘literate’ children have to listen, speak, read and finally write. Writing is the most challenging of them all.

Firstly, children will only get better at a skill with practice, whether it is a sport, or drawing or origami. Writing is no different and children need to practise, practise, practise in order to improve. Quantity is far more important than quality. They need to draw pictures to tell a story, make marks on the paper, write letters, words and sentences again and again and again.

Secondly, as teachers and parents we must avoid looking at children’s writing from a ‘point of deficit’. This means that we should look, see and delight in all the things the children are doing, not what they are not doing yet. Correct letter formation, writing from left to right, accurate spelling and punctuation will all develop when they are ready. You can help your child have a positive attitude towards writing by praising all his/her efforts. Get him/her to talk about the pictures, tell the story, read his/her writing (even if it does not make any sense to you) and say what a great job he/she is doing and how proud you are!

Thirdly, and very poignantly, our children often see us reading at home but we rarely model writing. Composing an email, sending a text message or writing on Facebook do not count as modelling writing! Children need to see us with a pen in hand, writing a list, a note, a postcard, a letter or a story.

Celebrating Achievements Board

The K1/K2 board, which celebrates the achievements of our children out of school, is looking rather empty!

Please do send in items that we can put up on the board for our whole school community to see. K2JiS and K2ZBr have a board outside their classrooms for the same purpose. It is always so lovely to celebrate these achievements within the class; we are looking forward to seeing what the children have been doing outside school. 

UWC Day

UWC Day is on Wednesday 1 October. The K2 children will be going off campus for the morning to the Botanic Gardens with Grade 11 and 12 students. As part of the 'Service' element, the older students will be helping our children with their current Unit of Study, exploring the gardens, finding out what things are made of, searching for different materials and recording their findings with their iPads. A letter requesting your permission to take your child off campus was sent home today in your child's blue folder. please return it by the requested date.

Theatre Trip

On Thursday 9 October, we will be taking the children to see a production based on the popular Julia Donaldson picture book 'Stick Man'.  The School of the Arts Singapore (SOTA) are showing 'Stick Man 2014!' at the Drama Theatre at 1 Zubir Said Drive. Please check your child's blue folder for a letter requesting permission and payment, which was also sent home today.

Next Week

Maths 

Shape will be a new focus for us over the next three weeks. In particular we will be investigating:

• words to describe shapes
• sorting shapes
• combining shapes to make new shapes
• recognising and creating patterns with shapes
• identifying 2D and 3D shapes in the environment
• building shapes

Continuing on from the last few weeks, will be counting. This leads naturally into addition, which can be seen as counting the total of two sets.

We aim to develop the children’s mathematical language, in order that they have an understanding of words such as: plus, add, and, total, sum of, and are confident in using the terms. ‘Equals’ can also be substituted for is, makes.

4+2=6 could be read as four plus two equals six, but it is also correct to say four and two makes six. It does not matter which way your child reads a number sentence so long as he/she has an understanding of what it means i.e. finding the total of two sets.

The children will become more proficient in finding totals. This could be with counting two sets of concrete materials (fingers, blocks, counters, etc) and working out how many there are altogether. Some will have moved on from this ‘concrete’ stage and will be learning how to ‘count on’ from the larger number, either in their head or on a number line. Others will be breaking numbers down into tens and units and finding the totals in this way.

For all children, whatever their mathematical ability, it is important that they are able to use appropriate language to express how they worked something out and to give reasons. When asked how they arrived at an answer, a child might say “I just know it!”  Alternatively he/she may begin to explain the methods he/she used.  This provides vital information for us, as teachers and you as parents, to learn about the strategies being adopted.

There are many different ways to solve a problem of ‘How many altogether?” The children will be introduced to and develop a range of strategies to solve problems. Eventually they will adopt the strategies that work best for them. There is not a right way to do addition; providing the answer is correct, that is all that matters.

Literacy

Our main areas of focus will be:

• Handwriting (numbers, name and ‘long ladder letters: l, i, t, u, j, y)
• Writing Workshop
• Reading Workshop
• Phonics
• Decoding of CVC words

The K2 Team

Week 5 in K2

Learning Journals

Yesterday, you should have received an email with a private link to your son/daughter's Learning Journal. This is a Google+ album. Through this journal we hope that you will get a glimpse of some of the learning your child is involved in at school. Some of the selections may be annotated to describe a specific aspect of your child’s learning, while the majority will be of your child ‘in action’.

We will continue to add photos into your child's Learning Journal throughout the year. You will be advised of updates to this journal through the K2 Blog and an email from your child’s teacher. This journal will stay online until the end of this academic year, at which point it will be removed. Please make sure you download any or all of the Learning Journal by then.

Please note that we have encouraged the children to capture as much of their work as possible.

Here are a few suggestions that will allow you to use this link more effectively:

1. You do not need a Google account to view or download this album or individual photos or videos.
2. Bookmark the link to your child’s Learning Journal, for easy access for the rest of the year.

We hope you enjoy looking through your child’s album with him/her.

Reading at home

From Monday your child will be bringing home his/her first levelled reading books. The excitement and enthusiasm for reading these 'just right' books in class has been terrific!  Every day, three books will come home in the blue folder, all chosen by your child during Book Shopping. Enjoy these books for that day and then return them to school the following day for your child to make a new selection. If the books have not been read, please return them to school anyway, as your child will need them for Reading Workshops.

If your child is at the very beginning of their reading journey and reading Red Elephants, Orange Elephants or Orange Monkeys, he/she will need your support with each book.

Here’s how to make first-time reading fun and easy:

Read the title of the book and look at the front cover together. Ask your child what they think the story is going to be about.

Look through the pictures together so that your child can see what happens in the story before reading the words. Introduce and discuss any new vocabulary.

Read one or two pages to your child, placing your finger under each word as you read. “Touch and Say”

Let your child touch the words and read the rest of the story. Give him/her time to figure out each new word.

If your child gets stuck on a word, you might say, “Let’s look at the picture. Is there a clue? What would make sense?”

If your child is still stuck, supply them with the right word. This allows him/her to continue to read and enjoy the story. You might say, “Could this word be ‘ball’?”

Always praise your child. Praise what he/she reads correctly, and praise good tries too. Talk around the book and if possible, make a connection with something from real-life, e.g.“Can you remember the time when…. ?“

Give your child lots of chances to read the story again. The more your child reads, the more confident he or she will become. Have fun!

Writing Workshop

Children are encouraged to see themselves as writers through drawing, labelling and writing sentences and have been making books, showing the stories and information they want to share. They are developing routines for self-managing their writing tools and equipment and have learned that ‘When I am done, I have just begun!’ which means that they can always go back and add more details to their pictures and writing of unfinished books.

After School Activities

Due to the large number of Infant children involved in after school activities and the inevitable confusion and congestion arising, we ask that these routines be followed:

If you are accompanying your child to his/her activity, please meet him/her at the designated assembly area, not at your child's classroom.

Each day indicate in the Message Book if your child will be attending an activity that will affect his/her regular pick up arrangements.  For example, if your child would normally take the bus home from school each day but is now involved in swimming one day and gymnastics on another day, we need notes for each of those days. A blanket note, such as “My child is doing swimming every Tuesday so please do not put him/her on the bus” is not sufficient.

We recognise this is an extra for you on these days, but after much trial and error we have found it is the best way of keeping track of the transportation logistics for 22 children.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Next Week:

Maths 

Our main focus will be:

• Where do we see numbers?
• Why do we need numbers?
• Counting objects in a set
• Counting groups of objects
• Recognising numbers and matching to number names

Literacy

Our main areas of focus will be:

• Handwriting - numbers, name and ‘long ladder letters: l, i, t, u, j, y
• Writing Workshop
• Reading Workshop
• Phonics and decoding CVC (consonant/vowel/consonant) words

The K2 Team

Week 4 in K2

Parent-Teacher Conferences

On Wednesday many of you had a chance to meet with your child’s class teacher and discuss how he/she has settled into K2 in these first few weeks. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us.  We really value the time spent together, as it helped us get to know your child better. These discussions only enhance the important relationship between home and school that is so vital to your child’s welfare and learning.

Please contact us via the message book or email if you wish to meet at any time during the year.

May we please ask you to avoid the mornings (7:30am – 8:00am) as this is time we spend welcoming the children into class, talking to them and encouraging them to do their morning jobs. We thank you for your understanding.

Four K2 Classes ... similar but different, too!

There are four classes of K2 children, with 22 children in each class.  Those who have had children in K2 before are already aware of some of the curriculum changes over the years and the differences within the classrooms.  The K2 teachers do not strive to be carbon copies of each other.  Each teacher is unique, has her own teaching style, and will have things she wants to do with her class that may differ from another K2 class. This is okay!  The K2 Learning Programme outlined on the school website is the same for all the classrooms.  How a teacher chooses to deliver the learning intentions to her class is very much her own.

Helping Booklet

IMPORTANT!

Please remember to send the little booklet called ‘I help at home’ back to school on Monday. Your child will need it in school as we will be doing follow up activities and partner work. We look forward to seeing how busy and helpful the children have been! Helping others at school, both in the classroom and the playground, is something we are all working on to develop positive, happy relationships.

Unit of Study

We have started our first Unit of Study, which is called ‘What's Rubbish?’ It will run for the whole of Term 1.

Unit Summary:

In this unit children will classify the materials they encounter on a daily basis and identify materials suited for specific tasks. They will investigate materials: what they look and feel like, how they change when heated, cooled and mixed and observe what happens to materials when they are discarded. Developing an understanding that action can be taken to reduce our environmental footprint will be a focus throughout the unit.

We will be focusing on enabling the children:

• to explain how materials can change.
• to sort materials that degrade naturally and those that don’t.
• to demonstrate ways in which they can help our earth by reducing, reusing, refusing and recycling.

Recycle your junk

If you have any items that could be reused or recycled such as wrapping paper, cardboard, magazines, boxes, cartons, toilet rolls, plastic, cans, Pringles tubes, scraps of fabric etc, could you please send them into school?  We are always looking for materials that can be used for junk modelling! This activity links perfectly with our new unit so please send in as much as you like!

Celebrating Achievements Board

The K1/K2 board, which celebrates the achievements of our children out of school, is positioned on the ramp going up to the K1 pod. At the moment we have a few shining stars up there!

If you wish to have something on the board, please include a photograph and caption about your child’s recent achievement.  It does not have to be of a sporting nature or organised activity; it could be tying shoelaces for the first time, learning to ride a two wheeled bike, helping others at home with jobs such as washing up, cleaning the car, making his/her bed, helping in the wider community, making something and so on.

Do send in medals and trophies too, if applicable.  Although these will not obviously be displayed, your child will have the opportunity to show them to the class. Even better, include them in the photograph!

Next Week:

Maths 

Our main focus will be to answer the question: Why do we have numbers?

We will be:

• Finding numbers in the environment
• Counting
• Comparing numbers

Your child will be engaged in a range of practical and/or written activities, which will challenge him/her appropriately.

Literacy

Our main focus will be:

• Reading Workshop
• Writing Workshop - book-making
• Phonics
• Handwriting  - formations of some of the long ladder letters – l, i, u, t, j, y

Reading Workshop

The children have made a great start to Reading Workshop and have loved looking at the selection of books in their new classrooms and taking books home to share with you. Our first unit will guide students in learning the routines and procedures that will enable them to become successful in Reading Workshops. Selecting their 'just right' books will be a highlight each week. A big part of this unit will be building up an understanding of the purpose of reading and rereading; readers constantly think about and make meaning from what they are reading. Establishing reading partnerships will give the children the opportunity to discuss their reading on a regular basis, sharing their thoughts about the various books they read. The class will work to build their reading time and stamina, with the aim extending independent reading time.

Beginning next week, we will be introducing Book Shopping. This is the time when each child chooses their  'just right' books from our levelled readers and he/she keeps them in his/her book baggie or book box for a week. These will be read throughout the week in our Reading Workshops and at home.

During Reading Workshops next week, the children will be reading these books independently but we are not sending levelled readers home until sometime in the week beginning Monday 15 September. This will give us time to check that the books are 'just right' and are an easy, comfortable read for your child.  They should in in no way be a struggle. Please note that the first day of books coming home may vary from class to class.

As teachers, we will use ‘instructional’ level books, which tend to be more challenging ones, and work with small groups of children to address specific reading needs.

Whatever skill we are learning, we all get better at it by practising over and over and over again. The same applies to reading. We want all the children to continue to develop their love of books and to feel good about reading. This will happen through time spent independently reading and understanding books.

Handwriting

It has been noticeable in these first few weeks just how many children enjoy writing and love getting their ideas down on paper. Many of them, as expected, are using a mixture of capital and lower case letters. In lessons where handwriting is taught explicitly, we will be focusing on the correct formation of letters, in particular lower case letters. We teach the 'sassoon' font, as this paves the way for the cursive handwriting programme which begins in Grade 1.

The K2 Team