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