K2 News 9 January 2015

Unit of Study

Our new Unit of Study is titled 'Me and My School' and is focusing on 'What school means to me'. We will be exploring the immediate environment: the natural and man-made features, people's roles, relationships and responsibilities.

This week the children have all been on exploratory walks around the campus, visiting areas that they have not been to before, using their ears and eyes to notice different things and creating many 'I wonder...?' questions. They have identified things that are of interest to them and these will be investigated further, beginning with some simple map making and discussions.

David Watson Library

Throughout K1 and the first term of K2, the children chose their library books from a selection brought to them from the DWL. This term will see each class visit the library, once a week, to share a story and select two books to take home.

The classes will go to the DWL on the following days:

K2SMH - Wednesday
K2JiS - Thursday
K2ZBr and K2HWe - Friday

Visiting a bigger library and choosing books from a much larger selection will be such an enjoyable experience for the children. We are very excited about this transition in our programme, as are the children, judging from our first visits this week! Enjoy sharing these books together. Please remember to return them before your child's next DWL visit to ensure he/she can check out some new books.

Swimming K2JiS and K2ZBr

The above two classes will begin the swimming programme on Thursday 15 January. They will swim on both Tuesday and Thursday, up to and including Thursday 12 February.

Your child will need to wear his/her school uniform to school and bring a separate bag with swimming things packed inside.  He/she needs swimmers, a UVA swim top (compulsory), goggles, pool shoes to wear down to the pool and a towel, or preferably, a hooded towel cape or a towelling bath robe. Please pack a plastic bag for wet swimmers. If your child does not have a UVA swim top, one can be purchased from the UWCSEA College Shop. Please ensure that all items (clothing, footwear, etc) are clearly named.

If for any reason your child is not able to swim one week, he/she will sit poolside and watch the lesson.

K2 Service - Operation Shoe Box 

Our main Service in K2 is our shoe box initiative.  Some of you will be familiar with this, if you have already had children in the Infants, but for some of you it will be your first time. In K2 we have a wonderful Afternoon Tea, where the shoe boxes are given to elderly guests. Please click on the link here "K2 Shoe Box Afternoon Tea 2014" to the video from last year to see just what a lovely event it is for everyone involved.

Today a letter was sent home today requesting items for the shoe boxes, together with a small booklet. Please could you send the items to school in a named bag by Monday 19 January.

All children will be packing a shoe box at school so every child will need the items, irrespective of whether he/she will be attending the Shoe Box Afternoon Tea. Any extra shoe boxes will be delivered by the Grade 1 students to elderly residents in neighbouring HDBs. The list below will serve as a reminder of the items that are needed:

• A face flannel
• A tin of tuna
• A tube of toothpaste
• A toothbrush
• A brush/comb
• A small pot of Tiger Balm
• A homemade card
• $20 (for items bought in bulk by UWCSEA and a Hong Bao)

Thank you so much in advance for supporting this initiative.

Shoe Box Afternoon Tea

Wednesday 4 February 2:30pm – 3:30pm 

Another letter was sent home today giving details about our upcoming K2 Service Initiative.

If you wish your child to attend the afternoon tea between 2:30pm and 3:30pm, please return the reply slip by Monday 19 January. We need to finalise numbers for catering purposes so would appreciate your timely returns.

If your child is attending, he/she needs to wear something Chinese or in the colours of red and gold.

IMPORTANT

Please note that all the K2 children will need to be collected from their classrooms at 11:45am to give us time to get the classrooms ready and prepare for the event. Children attending the afternoon tea will need to be brought back to their classrooms by 2:15pm. We will finish at 3:30pm.

We are all very much looking forward to another wonderful afternoon with our elderly guests. 

K2 News - 2 January 2015

Welcome back! 

Welcome back and Happy New Year to everyone!  We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday and that you and your children had lots of quality family time, rest and relaxation and are ready for a busy Term 2.

Hats, Cardigans & Library Books

Hats and cardigans were sent home at the end of term to be washed.  Please make sure your child has these items in his/her school bag on Monday.  If you have bought new items, please ensure they are clearly labelled with your child’s name.

Please return any library books that were borrowed before the holiday.

Celebrating Achievements Board

Please do continue to send items in to school for our achievements board. It is always lovely to share things that the children do when they are not at school. Remember to include a photograph and caption about your child’s recent achievement. He/she will have the opportunity to share his/her experiences and successes with the class.

Writing Workshop

For the next six weeks, we will be doing a new writing unit called ‘All About’ books. The children will learn that ‘All About’ books teach us about something. They know from visits to the library that these kinds of books are also referred to as information or non-fiction books.

They will begin this unit by thinking of things about which they are knowledgeable, things they ‘know lots about’ and topics of interest. They will be the experts!

By looking at a wide selection of ‘All About’ books, we will identify some of the different features that can be found in these books: title, contents, chapters, headings, labels, photographs, drawings, fun facts, page numbers, glossary and index.

Each mini-lesson will focus on a feature of ‘All About’ books and give the children ideas as to what they can add to their books to make them even more like a real non-fiction book. The children will be encouraged to draw upon skills learned in other Writing Workshop units, such as adding labels, using capital letters for headings and proper names, and adding one more thing to a page.

It is a very exciting unit and we are very much looking forward to seeing the wide variety of topics that the children choose to write about.

Student-Led Conferences - Tuesday 13 January

Our Infant Student-Led Conferences will take place on Tuesday 13 January. A letter was enclosed with your child's report card detailing the times of your child’s conferences. The conference in the classroom will last for about 45 minutes, and then there are the Music and Chinese conferences, too.

Please appreciate that the logistics to coordinate those families with more than one child participating in Student-Led Conferences has proven to be a big undertaking.  Therefore we ask for your cooperation in arriving promptly so that teachers and other families’ schedules will not be disrupted.

Whilst there are no classes for K1, K2 or G1 children on this day, the rest of the College is in session so the usual traffic congestion will occur during peak arrival and departure times. Parking may be difficult, so please allow yourself plenty of time to get here.

Supervision for siblings from other Infant classes will be available in an area of the Main Hall. We request that very young siblings are not brought to school as there will not be supervision for them.

We ask that you please do not take calls or send text messages on your hand phones during the conference.  Not only will this break the rapport you have established with your child, but phones ringing, buzzing or vibrating will disturb other families who are in the classroom at the same time.

We hope you enjoy spending time with your child at school, and gain extra insight into children’s learning.

Maths

Whilst we continually revisit many different mathematical concepts during the course of a week, our main focus for the next few weeks will be on number.  We will be looking specifically at addition and subtraction. 

Key questions will be asked and explored through practical activities:

• How can I add numbers together?

• What strategies work best to add and subtract numbers?

• How many ways can I find to make 5 or 7 or 10?

Knowing number bonds (pairs of numbers that make a given total) and being able to recall them instantly, as opposed to having to work them out, will help your child’s confidence in Maths and increase the speed at which he/she can complete number problems.

For example, the number bonds for 6 are:

0 + 6

1 + 5

2 + 4

3 + 3

4 + 2

5 + 1

6 + 0

We will be spending time looking at number bonds for numbers up to 10 and exploring the number patterns. For those children who already have good recall, they will be applying their knowledge of number bonds to help with problems involving larger numbers e.g. 

15 + 11 = ? 

? + 14 = 20

18 + ?  = 30

Literacy

Over the coming weeks, our main focus will be:

• Writing Workshop ‘All About’ books 

• Handwriting – Curly Caterpillar letters: a, c, d, e, f, g, o, q, s

• Reading Workshop: independent reading, partner reading activities, shared reading, group reading

• Phonics – a few initial blends will be chosen each week from the following:  sh, ch, th, br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl

Week 17 in K2

RRR Booklets

Please remember to send the ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!’ booklet back to school on Monday 7 December. The children will be sharing and using their booklets so please make sure they are in the blue folders. We hope you have had fun at home focusing on reducing, reusing and recycling.

As a reflection on the booklets, we are asking the children to choose one thing that they think they can continue doing all year (turning lights off, reusing or sending books and clothes for others to use).

It is important that they understand that reducing, refusing, reusing and recycling should be ‘a way of life', and does not stop when our unit has been completed. With your support, we would like the children to continue thinking about the rubbish people produce, where it all goes, what we can do to help reduce the amount of waste we all create and preserve the environment.

End of Term Party - Thursday 11  December

The Infant End of Term party is on Thursday 11 December.  Please make sure the children come to school in party clothes, ready for a fun-filled day of special activities.

Please note that there will be no PE on Thursday, as all the Infant classes will be in the Main Hall at our normal scheduled PE time so there is no need to send in kit.

You will have received a letter this week giving you details about the party, with a request for a small plate of food.  Bite-sized food is ideal, in fact the smaller the better.  If you are at all concerned about what you have been asked to bring in, please contact your child’s teacher as soon as possible.  We do not want stressed parents!

Please remember to send your food contributions in a named container (if you want it back) to school on Thursday morning. In response to a question earlier this week, your food contribution is for your child’s class only. Thank you in advance for your wonderful culinary efforts!

Writing Workshop

You will be receiving your child’s latest folder of books he/she has made very soon. Please celebrate your child’s work with him/her. All of the children are very proud of their work and are eager to share their books with you.

Always recognise and acknowledge what your child can do, not what he/she cannot do quite yet. Honour his/her approximations with both illustrations and writing. Young children will not get everything correct every time they write – nor should they. Positive reinforcement and praise for his/her efforts will make your child feel good about writing, even though it is hard for many of our children at this stage of K2.

Leaving early for the holiday?

We are busy right up until the end of term and we do not encourage families to leave early for the holidays.  However, we do understand that it can be difficult to get flights at this busy time of year. If you do have to leave  before the last day of school (Friday 12 December), please let the teacher know so that items can be sent home with your child on his/her last day.

You will receive your child’s report at the end of the final week of term. Unfortunately, if you are leaving early, you will not be able to have this ahead of schedule. However, you will be able to read the report on ePortal after Friday 12 December. The actual report will be posted to you.

Library Books and Reading Books

All K2 children will be borrowing two David Watson library books to keep over the holidays. These need to be returned at the start of next term.

Please note: Levelled reading books will not be sent home in the holidays. The last day for sending levelled readers home will be Wednesday 10 December. All children will choose 3 readers to bring home on the first day of Term 2.

We would like you to read as much as you can with your child over the holiday and to  encourage him/her to continue with his/her own reading, too.  Keeping the reading process going over the three week break will make things much easier when he/she returns to school in January.

Last Day of Term

The last day of term is Friday 12 December. The Infants finish school at 11:00am.  Buses leave campus at 11:00am. Please make sure there is someone at home to meet your child from the bus at the earlier time.

Car children should be collected at 10:50am from the normal pick up point. All cars need to have left the campus by 11:10am to allow the buses to assemble to take the older students home at 12:00pm.

Reminders

• There will be no eBrief or K2 Blog on Friday 12 December

• The next eBrief will be on Friday 2 January 2015

• UWCSEA re-opens on Monday 5 January 2015

Thank you so much to all class parents and classroom helpers for your invaluable support this term. We really appreciate the time you give up to come to school and help the children with their learning.

We would like to wish you all a very happy, safe holiday.

Week 16 in K2

Performers' Assembly

On Wednesday performers from K2 and G1 entertained the Infant children during our Term 1 Performers’ Assembly. Congratulations to Isabella and James from K2SMH and Akhil from K2HWe for being such great risk-takers and performing their vocal, piano and violin pieces so beautifully.

RRR Booklets

Today, your child has brought home a ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!’ booklet. The children all know what they have to do as we have discussed it in class. It would be good for them to come up with their own thoughts of how they can help reduce, reuse and recycle at home but you may need to help them write their ideas on page 3.

Please keep these booklets at home and return them on Monday 8 December (not before). We will be reflecting upon these booklets and the ways in which the children reduce, reuse and recycle at home.

Recycling at UWCSEA

Unfortunately the Recycling Centre at school is only taking paper at the moment so please don not send in any materials for recycling. However, we still want all your CLEAN RUBBISH that the children can reuse in the classroom for models and construction.

WANTED!

We still need plastic bags of all colours for a special Art project so please do continue to send them in.

Leaving early for the holiday?

We are busy right up until the end of term and we do not encourage families to leave early for the holidays.  However, we do understand that it can be difficult to get flights at this busy time of year. If you do have to leave  before the last day of school (Friday 12 December), please let your child's teacher know so that items can be sent home on his/her last day.

You will receive your child’s report at the end of the final week of term. Unfortunately, if you are leaving early, you will not be able to have this ahead of schedule. However, you will be able to read the report on ePortal after Friday 12 December. The actual report will be posted to you.

End of Term Party - Thursday 11  December

Early next week you will receive a letter from the class teacher indicating what food items are needed for the party.

Please could you send food into school on the morning of Thursday 11 December. If you are at all concerned about what you have been asked to send in, please contact your child’s teacher as soon as possible.

This is a non-uniform day for Infant children. They may come to school wearing party clothes or festive colours.

Next Week

Maths

Running parallel to our number work will be a new unit on Data Handling and Probability.
Ways of classifying and sorting objects into given categories and counting the numbers of objects in each category will be explored. Questions will be asked: How can I organise and present the data I have collected? How do I use the information I have found?

Literacy

Our main areas of focus will be:
• Handwriting (numbers, name and ‘one armed robot letters’ r, b, n, h, m, k, p)
• Writing Workshop
• Reading Workshop
• High Frequency Words
• Phonics
• Vowels
• Blending and decoding of CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) e.g. mop, fan, pig and CCVC words e.g. plug, frog, trip.

Week 15 in K2

UN Day

Thank you for coming to support the children for UN Day today.  From comments made by the children, they all seemed to love visiting the other classrooms and doing so many different activities, as well as doing the parade and singing for you all. Hopefully they will have also learned something about other countries, too.

We were so proud of all of them and the effort they put into the celebrations in the Main Hall. They had to learn a great deal of words and sang beautifully. We had many parents giving us positive comments and feedback on the parade and singing and we are delighted that you enjoyed it so much.

Performers' Assembly

On Wednesday 26 November, performers from K2 and G1 will entertain the Infant children during our first Performers' Assembly. If your child is one of the performers you will have been contacted by Susanne Khalek and are invited to the RBT at 1:00pm to watch.

Food Festival - Friday 28 November

The Primary School Food Festival takes place on Friday 28 November. The K2 children will have the opportunity to visit the food stalls in the morning and sample the many tasty fares. We will provide biodegradable containers so you do not need to send one from home.

Children will not need any Brain Food on this day but can still bring a snack. As they will have eaten at the Food Festival before snack time, maybe some fruit would be a good idea.

IMPORTANT

We would like all children to come to school in a national costume, national colours or clothes that reflect their national identity.

HELP NEEDED!

A letter was sent home on Wednesday asking for a few volunteers to help at the Food Festival. If you are able to join us, please return the slip and your child's teacher will confirm what time she would like you to arrive in the classroom.

Next Week

Maths

Running parallel to our number work will be a new unit on Data Handling and Probability.
Ways of classifying and sorting objects into given categories and counting the numbers of objects in each category will be explored. Questions will be asked: How can I organise and present the data I have collected? How do I use the information I have found?

Literacy

Our main areas of focus will be:
• Handwriting (numbers, name and ‘one armed robot letters’ r, b, n, h, m, k, p)
• Writing Workshop
• Reading Workshop
• High Frequency Words
• Phonics
• Vowels
• Blending and decoding of CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) e.g. mop, fan, pig and CCVC words e.g. plug, frog, trip.

Week 14 in K2

Reading Programme

On Wednesday evening Celena Larkey, a lead staff developer from Teachers College, Columbia University, gave a presentation to parents about reading. During her talk, Celena focused on 6 essentials that teachers strive for every day in their classrooms. She suggests parents do the same at home to support their child’s reading in the best possible way. The 6 essentials are listed below:

1. Children need to choose their own books and spend quality time with their eyes on 'just right' books.
2. They should read ‘just right’ books with 98% accuracy. Research shows that acceleration takes place when reading is 98% accurate.
3. Children need to read something that they understand. This means a lot of re-reading of text that they find engaging.
4. Children need to write about things that are personally meaningful so choosing their own subject matter is vital.
5. Every child needs to talk with his/her peers about reading and writing. Research has shown that conversations with peers (and parents at home) improves comprehension and engagement with text.
6. Children need to listen to a fluent adult reader read aloud. This increases their own fluency, comprehension skills, expands vocabulary, background knowledge, awareness of genre and text structure.

Celena also had some suggestions on how you can encourage more reading at home:

• Become an expert at your local library and book store.  
• Keep books organised and have your child help you to organise his/her books.
• Encourage different kinds of reading.

As teachers we have learned so much this week from Celena about teaching young children to read and in the coming months we will be implementing many of her ideas in our classrooms. We are very excited about our Reading Workshops and look forward to witnessing the growth and development of the children’s skills.

More information about Reading and Writing Workshop can be accessed via this link to the Teachers College site:

http://readingandwritingproject.com/

Magic Materials

Our Unit of Study, ‘Magic Materials’ is well under way and we have all been thinking about and discussing ‘Where does all the rubbish go?’  

Each classroom will be setting up its own Recycling Centre, in order that we can focus on 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle'. Please send in your clean rubbish. Anything that you would normally throw away, or recycle somewhere else, we will be able to put to good use! Please make sure all items are washed and clean as we do not wish to attract ants!

The children can decide what they want to do with their rubbish. Items could be put in the junk modelling box for reusing and reducing waste or put into the various recycling containers. We will be making visits to the UWCSEA Recycling Centre, located by the Bus Bay, when our bins get full!

PLASTIC BAGS WANTED!

We will be doing some art projects using plastic bags. Please could you continue to send in any plastic bags you have – the brighter, the better! Thank you.

PE and Swimming

K2SMH and K2HWe have now finished their swimming programme and will be doing PE on both Tuesdays and Thursdays.

UN Day in the Infants:

Friday 21 November

UN Day is nearly upon us! 

The morning will begin in your child’s classroom. Each K2 class is going to focus on two countries (see below). There will be hands-on, practical activities set up in each room, and you will be able to go around the different K2 classrooms, doing a variety of arts and crafts, whilst learning a little about those countries along the way.

The following countries will be represented in the classrooms:

K2HWe

Japan & The World

K2SMH

Great Britain & The Netherlands

K2JiS 

Mexico & Indonesia

K2ZBr

India & Vietnam

The timings of the morning will run as follows:

8:50am  Arrive at UWCSEA

9:00am-10:00am  Activities in classrooms  

10:30am  Infant Parade and songs in the Main Hall

11:00am  Finish

Week 13 in K2

K2 Morning of Sport

The children thoroughly enjoyed demonstrating their agility, dexterity, hand-eye coordination and speed in a wide range of activities yesterday morning. It was lovely to see them showing their skills, and to see how they are all developing their ability to listen to and follow a set of instructions.


It was wonderful that so many parents, grandparents, siblings and helpers were able to watch and cheer the children on, too. Thank you to everyone involved, especially the P.E. Department, for making it a very special morning.

UN Day in the Infants: Friday 21 November

We look forward to welcoming you to school for another UN Day!

The morning will begin in your child’s classroom. Each K2 class is going to focus on two countries (see below). There will be a couple of hands-on activities set up in each room, and you will be able to go around the different K2 classrooms, doing a variety of arts and crafts, whilst learning a little about those countries along the way.

The following countries will be represented in the classrooms:

K2HWe
Japan & The World

K2SMH
Ireland & England

K2JiS
Mexico & Indonesia

K2ZBr
India & Vietnam


The timings of the morning will run as follows:

8:50am  Arrive at UWCSEA

9:00am-10:00am  Activities in classrooms

10:30am  Infant Parade and songs in the Main Hall

11:00am  Finish

If you have not yet filled in the google doc informing us which flag(s) you would like your child to make for our UN Day celebrations, please do so by Monday 10 November, as we wish to start making the flags. If we do not hear from you, we will use your child's nationality as indicated in the UWCSEA documentation. If you are unable to stay for the Infant Parade and songs, please arrange for another adult to take your place.

Events like these are an important part of our philosophy of holistic education and develop many skills, such as cooperation, spatial awareness, social, gross motor and communication skills.

Staff Training Day - Monday 10 November

UWCSEA will be closed for Staff Training on this day. We are welcoming Celena Larkey back from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York who is running further training on Reading Workshop. Our staff training continues throughout the week, both during the school day and after school. There will be times when the teachers are involved in labsites (training in classrooms with the children). When this occurs, we will have cover teachers taking our classes so your child may come home and tell you that for a small part of the day, he/she had a different teacher.

K-G2 Parent Presentation: Nurturing Our Young Readers

Celena will also be doing a presentation for K-G2 parents 'Nurturing Our Young Readers'. This will take place on Wednesday 12 November, in the Multi Purpose Hall at 6:30pm. Learn more about the research behind Reading Workshop and how parents can nurture and support young readers at home. If you would like to attend please sign up through the link in the e-Brief.

iLearn Parent Workshop: iPads for Learning 

Tuesday 18 November   6-7pm David Watson Library

It will not have escaped the notice of many parents that iPads are quickly becoming a popular tool for enhancing teaching and learning throughout the Primary School. What is perhaps less obvious is the why, the how, and the 'what do we use them for?'. This workshop will explore the most common apps your children use at school, particularly in the Infant School and Grade 2. iPads will be available for you to use, although you are welcome to bring your own.

Please RSVP here. For more information contact Sean McHugh. We recommended that you visit the Dover DLC blog and read this post prior to the workshop.

Next Week

Maths

Investigations will continue with Measurement, alongside our number work.

Why is it important to know how heavy things are and how long they are?
Which words can we use to describe length?
Which words can we use to describe weight?

The children will be learning how to describe an object using different measurements e.g. length, height, weight, size. Comparisons between two objects will be made: Which is longer/shorter, taller/shorter, heavier/lighter?

Literacy

Our main areas of focus will be:
• Handwriting (numbers, name and ‘one armed robot letters’ r, b, n, h, m, k, p)
• Writing Workshop
• Reading Workshop
• High Frequency Words
• Phonics
• Vowels
• Blending and decoding of CVC words

The K2 Team