Newsletter 29th January 2016

Our EYFS Tet celebration is fast approaching and we have begun preparing for it. In the workshop area, we have made Tet cards and Tet trees with tongue depressors and flowers. We have also been rehearsing our song and dance 'Em La Hoa Hong Nho' and most of the children have already learnt the lyrics and the dance steps. We are positive that you will have a fantastic time watching all of our performance on our Tet show. Please see below poster for more information. 

This week, we welcomed Nana and her family to our F1 unit. Nana joined in last Wednesday and we are looking forward to a fantastic year with her in class! 

For our focus groups this week, Ms Grace facilitated a counting activity on the Interactive White Board (Here is the link if you want to play it with your child at home - http://www.education.com/games/counting-pizza-party/), Ms Trinh read a story about sharing for our Personal, Social and Emotional Development focus and Ms Crislet modelled role-play in the pizza parlour role-play area. The children are becoming more aware of the routine and are beginning to engage more in the activities. 

For our investigation this week, we have looked at magnets. As some children began showing an interest in how magnets work, we have put an array of objects in the tuff spot such as coloured rice, paper clips, metal bells, pompoms and magnets of different size. It was interesting how children investigated and added more objects in the tuff spot to see if magnets will also work on them. Some children also got spoons and started scooping and filling up cups and boats with rice. 

There were loads of interesting play that happened in our investigation area this week and the children did amazing at using resources from our continuous provision. Kin even discovered that our kaleidoscopes work with magnets! 

This week, we have also used the main playground and the sports hall for our physical activities. In the main playground, Ms Grace and Ms Hoang played football with the children. They were encouraged to kick the ball towards the goal as part of our learning objectives for Physical Development. In the sports hall, we have played parachute games, danced to new action songs and did some exercise too. The children enjoyed moving around the big space so this will definitely not be the last and we will be planning more activities there! 

For fine motor skills, we have been encouraging children to try using the scissors and cut through magazine pages. Most of the children found using the regular scissors still challenging so we will be using the easy grip scissors for now. One adult support this activity at all times for safety purposes. 

NOTICES:

EYFS TET Celebration will be on Thursday 4th February at 8.30 in the foyer. All children should come in class at 8am wearing their Vietnamese traditional clothes (Ao Dai).

Library book/folder - This week, your child chose a book to bring home during our library session. We strongly encourage you to share the story with your child as this is a good way of supporting your child's language development and also a great opportunity for you and your child to spend time together. 

* Please make sure that your child's library folder and the book he/she borrowed are returned on or before Tuesday of the following week.

Swimming - Please be reminded to bring in your child's swimming kit every Tuesday and Friday. It is important that you put your child's swimsuit and towel in a swimming bag/kit as we are encouraging independence every splash pool session. We let your child bring out and tidy up his/her things independently or with minimal support.

*May we also ask you to label all your child's belongings (swimsuit, towel, swimming kit, hat, water bottles etc) to avoid any mix-ups. 

TET holiday - School will be closed from 8th to 12th February and will reopen on Monday 15th February.


Thank you!

Have a fantastic weekend!


Kind Regards;
Ms Crislet, Ms Grace and the F1 Team

Newsletter 22.01.2015

Dear Parents,

Coming to school this week was very exciting yet busy for all of us! It started with the new children joining us longer in school as they continued on in their staggered start. Another lovely child joined F1 class this week and I know all of you are happy to welcome Carly! 

Pizza making in the role play area has been an on-going interest amongst the children in class and so we are extending this through a variety of ways. Small groups of children joined in with Ms Grace on a pizza making activity. They have touched, smelled and prepared their pizza with much enthusiasm. They have also been asked to repeat names of the ingredients they used. 

In the workshop area, they used different art materials to create pizza as well. Children were really excited seeing a variety of materials resembling the real ingredients we use for pizza making.

We have also started utilising our outdoor space at school this week. Children have been running around the main playground as part of developing their gross motor skill. On the other hand, splash pool session was a success with all the children participating in the activity.

To further support the children's developing skills, we have started doing small focus groups in the afternoon. This activity will give more opportunities for the children to enhance the learning that is already taking place in the classroom. Ms Grace did a listening activity with the children to focus on how the children tune into sounds that they hear. This activity is fundamental in the children's language acquisition. Ms Crislet on the other hand, led a vocabulary activity focusing on the concept of size (small, medium and big) and the names of ingredients we use to make pizza. Ms Thuy did a very interactive lesson about shapes which is also an on-going interest in the classroom. We have been focusing on the four basic shapes but we're also extending the concept to semi-circle and diamonds for children who are already showing good knowledge of shapes.

Last Wednesday, all EYFS children trooped to BVIS to participate in the Teddy Bears' picnic! It was a fantastic day of exploring different areas and activities in another school. 

What a fun, busy week we have had at school and we couldn't wait to see what next week will be like! Thank you to all the parents for coming in and meeting with us this week. As always, should you have any concern or question please feel free to come and speak to us.

Have a lovely weekend!

Regards,

Ms Grace, Ms Crislet and F1 team

TET Collection 2016

Welcome back!

First of all, we would like to welcome all of you back and we hope you all had a fantastic Christmas holiday!

This week, we also welcomed 5 new children in our F1 family. We hope to have great times with all of you throughout this year! 

As this term commenced, we have  begun observing children's interests to see what theme we could have next. 

In the role-play area, the children have been showing a great interest in cooking especially in preparing and serving pizza to their friends and teachers. They have been 'reheating' the pizza in the microwave and putting the left overs in the refrigerator. This interest will then be extended next week by setting-up a 'Pizza Parlour' in the role-play area and doing an array of activities about this interest.

As our Maths focus, children are encouraged to recognise and name basic shapes. This week, we added shape boards as part of our Maths continuous provision so we have been sorting shapes accordingly and hopefully, begin naming them as weeks progresses. We also had a circle session wherein children were asked to hop on different shape mats according to what we pick from the shape basket, We will continue this activity to support our focus on the following weeks. 

In our workshop area, children have been spending time painting pictures. For language development, we have been encouraging children to tell us what they have painted or even name the colours they've used. We found it amazing how children can describe their picture and even share stories about it.  

Children were also encouraged to try the spray painting activity in the Fundino playground and some of them had fun using the spray bottles. This activity is to develop their fine motor skills especially their grip. 

For Literacy, Ms Clarissa and Ms Grace took the children to the library for a tour and some housekeeping. This served as an introduction to our library sessions which will start next week. We will have a story in the library every Wednesday and children will be able to borrow a book and bring it home for a week.. 

For ICT, we have changed our self-register into flowers and we have been encouraging the children to look for their names. This is one way of teaching name recognition. Ms Grace and I have also begun using tongue depressors with children's names during circle sessions. Some children are already able to recognise their names and even their friends' names. 

What a busy and fun week indeed! Well done F1 Children! 

NOTICES:

- Splash Pool sessions will start next week. This will be every Tuesday and Friday. On these days, please bring in your child's swimming kit with a towel and his/her swimsuit - all properly labelled with your child's name. 

- Library sessions will start next Wednesday. Your child will be able to borrow a book and bring it home. We encourage you to share the book with your child as this is one way of supporting your child at home. Please return the book and your child's library folder on or before the Tuesday of the following week. 

- EYFS Teddy Bears' Picnic will be on Wednesday 20th January at British Vietnamese International School at Binh Chanh District.  More details to follow. 

- Class and individual photographs for the yearbook will be on Friday 22nd January. Please bring your child in class wearing the complete uniform.

- Parent-Teacher Meetings will be on Thursday 21st January. If you haven't signed-up for this, please do on the online sign-up page sent by Ms Emma or let us know if you want to meet with us on a different day.

- For our news, please send us some of your holiday photos so your child can share them in class. Please send them to Ms Grace (gracemaling@bisvietnam.com) or to me (crisletsilva@bisvietnam.com).

Thank you very much!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kind Regards;

Ms Crislet, Ms Grace and the F1 Team

Christmas rush

Christmas atmosphere has definitely come to F1X this week! Everybody was all cheerful and excited as we started the week with a dress rehearsal. I couldn't help but feel very proud of the children in class with how confident they were on stage. We had 2 rehearsals prior but they performed so well as if they were performing for the actual show!

To set the Christmas mood in the classroom, Ms Clarissa led a baking activity with them. They made sugar cookies and learnt many food vocabularies such as 'flour', 'butter', 'sugar' 'eggs' etc. Children all shared their finished product at snack time in the afternoon. Yum!

In Maths, children engaged in an IWB activity about a gingerbread man. Children had to count the number of buttons on the gingerbread man and match it with the correct numeral. They had to navigate through the IWB and click on the correct number using the wand. Well done children!

Just before we started our party, a special person paid a visit to F1X's classroom to give his presents to the children who have been nice throughout the year. Most of the children were giddy seeing Father Christmas came in the door with his little helper 'Elf Christine'! Father Christmas saw how incredibly behaved all the children in the class so he decided that all of them deserved to have a treat! Hohohoho!!!

As we end Term 1 in an exciting and fantastic way, let us greet you a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!

Please enjoy watching the children's performance once again in the video below.

Thank you very much for all the support you gave us this term and we look forward seeing you all back to school in January.

* Term 2 starts on the 11th January 2016.
* We will start having our splash pool session in Term 2. Please make sure to bring in your child's swimming kit (towel, swimming costume - all properly labelled). More information will be sent to you when we get back from the holidays.
* We would really appreciate if you could send us a photo of your Christmas holiday so we could share it with the rest of the class next term. Please email them to us at gracemaling@bisvietnam.com or crisletsilva@bisvietnam.com . 

Regards,
Ms Grace, Ms Crislet and the F1 Team

Christmas Countdown!

Christmas countdown begins in EYFS! The children are all getting excited with Christmas, making sure that they behave nicely so Father Christmas visits them and give them presents. 

Last Monday, Harry brought in bells and baubles for our Christmas tree. Dad said Harry thought of bringing more Christmas trinkets for our Christmas tree and asked his mum and dad if he can do so. Such a sweet thought Harry!

In our workshop area, we have been making Christmas decorations. We made paperplate bells and Christmas tree photo frames with tongue depressors. The children had fun painting their plates yellow and glittering up their bells. In the end, the bells and even the children got all sparkly! 

For our investigation this week, we continue to encourage the children to explore textures with their bare hands. 

We set up a Christmas village in the tuff spot and have been playing with snow. The children particularly enjoyed naming the pictures such as 'Father Christmas', 'sleigh', 'reindeer', 'gingerbread man' and 'Christmas house'. They also sung 'Jingle Bells' and 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas' whilst playing in this area. Some children noticed that the snow is very soft, cold and white.

For our ICT this week, Kin, Bao Nhi and Monica received video messages from Father Christmas! Father Christmas asked them if they have been naughty or nice and told them that he might give them a visit if they continue being nice to their friends. 

Ms Grace was also welcomed with a message from Father Christmas and she was so happy about it! Welcome back Ms Grace! It's great to have you in class again! 

As the children are beginning to show an interest in numbers and counting, we had a counting activity from 1 to 5 during our circle session. Ms Crislet had brought along 5 Christmas hats with Christmas baubles in them. The children took turns in getting them out of the hats and counting along. Most of the children were able to join in counting and show the correct number of fingers up. 

We also used the IWB in our counting session. We counted the Christmas baubles in the tree and also saw the corresponding numbers for them. Bao Nhi and Minh Anh were very good at counting and number recognition. 

Fantastic counting children!

As we prepare for our Christmas show next week, all EYFS classes got together in the hall and had our very first run through of our performances. F1 children did an amazing job as they sung and danced 'Jingle Bells' in front of everybody, We are so proud of them and are very confident that you will enjoy the show next week!

Well done children! 

NOTICES:

The Interim Reports has been given out today. Please share it with your child, praise him/her and be aware of the 'next steps'. You can help your child in working on the next steps at home. 

Wednesday 16th December at 8.30am in TX Hall: EYFS' COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS 

- Children should come in class wearing a red shirt and a white trousers/leggings/skirt/shorts.

Thursday 17th December: Class' Christmas Party

- Children were shown some food choices and were asked to choose one that they would like to eat and bring in on the party. A food slip has been sent home today with your child's food choice and the amount you can bring in. 

- Children can come in school wearing their party clothes but please put a spare uniform in your child's bag. 

Friday 18th December: Last day of Term - Home time is at 11.30 for ALL children. Please pick up your child on time. 

Thank you!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kind Regards;

Ms Crislet, Ms Grace and the F1 Team

EYFS Christmas Show

* All F1 children should be in red shirts and white trousers/shorts/leggings.