Term 3's Fantastic Start!

Time has gone by so fast! We are now in our last term of the school year and F1 is just getting better! 

This week, 5 new children joined in our F1 family and we would like to welcome all of them and their families. We hope to make fond memories with all of you this term!

This term, our foci learning objectives are:

Personal Social and Emotional Development

-Build special relationship with other children.

-Learn that some actions can hurt/harm others.

-Express own preference/interest.

Communication and Language

-Understand 'who', 'what', 'where' in simple questions.

-Learn new words and use them in simple sentences. 

Physical Development

-Begin to use tripod grip. 

-Become more independent in self-care. 

Literacy

-Recognise own name.

-Engage in mark-making activities and describe their drawing. 

Maths

-Begin to use the language of size.

-Select a small number of objects from a group. 

Expressive Arts and Design

-Experiment with blocks, colours and marks. 

Understanding the World

-Learn that they have similarities and differences.

-Operates mechanical toys. 

These learning objectives are what we are going to work on this term. We are hopeful that by the end of this term, children will either achieve the targets or at least make progress in these areas. 

* This week, the children have been showing a great interest in taking care of babies. In the soft play room, they have been pretending that they have babies in their arms and they cuddle them to sleep. With this interest, we will be transforming our role-play area into a nursery. *

NOTICES:

* Monday and Tuesday 2nd and 3rd of May - Public Holidays. No school. 

* Wednesday 4th May - School re-opens. 

* As the weather gets really hot nowadays, may we ask you to apply sunscreen on your child before school on Splash Pool days (Tuesday and Friday). Please also put in your child's hat in his/her bag for outdoor play time. 

* Home time routine - Thank you for cooperating with us with regards to our new afternoon routine. The children are now becoming more familiar with it and are becoming more responsible with their belongings. 

* For our new theme, may we request you to bring in your child's baby photograph/s. We will be making a gallery of their baby photos and will also be sharing them with each other at group time. 

Thank you!

Have a relaxing long weekend! 

Kind Regards;

Ms Crislet, Ms Grace and the F1 Team

Newsletter 08.04.16

Dear Parents,

This term has been an amazing time to learn so many things and we couldn't be happier seeing the children develop their skills day by day. This term also sees the introduction of new approach to developing their skills and abilities. Apart from exploring the usual and familiar activities we have in and out of the classroom, children have been encouraged to participate in new and exciting teacher-led activities such as 'Focus groups', sharing of 'Weekend photos' and 'My Favourite Book', playing in the main playground and the use of 'Funky Finger' table.

Focus groups 

This activity aims to provide opportunities for all children to speak up, explore and discover learning in a small group. We believe that by doing small focus groups, children are given a richer opportunity to learn skills that sometimes are quite tricky to achieve when done as a whole class. This activity also gives opportunities for teachers to learn the skills the children already have and how we can extend it to further achieve their best potential.

Sharing of Weekend/Holiday photos and My favourite book

We have seen how the children have developed their confidence in speaking in front of the whole class and sharing their news with everybody. We are pleased that each one of them are trying their best to use the vocabulary they learn from each other as they describe the book or the photos they are sharing.

Main playground

We have also utilised the space we have in the main playground to develop the children's gross motor skills. Every week, we try to do different activities such as relay, kicking balls, obstacle course, drawing/painting.

Funky Finger table

This table specifically helps to develop children's fine motor skills. We have been using different tools such as tongs, corks, pompom balls and pine cones to help children learn and enhance their hand-eye coordination.

REMINDERS:

* School re-opens on 25th April 2016.

* Splash pool session commences that week so please ensure they have their swimming kit to school. 

* Please update your child's blog with photos of your holiday. Or you may email them to us at gracemaling@bisvietnam.com and/or crisletsilva@bisvietnam.com

Thank you very much and we're  looking forward seeing you all back at school in term 3.

Have a well deserved break!

Regards,

Ms Grace, Ms Crislet and the F1 Team

A Dino-mite Week!

First of all, we would like to thank all of you for all the children's fantastic dinosaur costumes! They all looked wonderful!

Our party started off with our new IWB Dinosaur register. All children had a go at looking for their names and finding out what kind of dinosaurs they are. All were so excited when they saw the new register and have been talking about the dinosaurs in it.

During our 'hello time', Ms Grace and Ms Crislet showed the children what they will have for the party. We had 'Dinosaur teeth' (slices of watermelon), 'Dinosaur bones (bone-shaped crackers), 'Dinosaur eggs' (grapes), 'Dinosaur scales' (waffles) and a Dinosaur cake! They all enjoyed the treats and had fun dancing afterwards.

Aside from our Dinosaur party, the children have been also spending time in our role-play area, pretending they were dinosaurs having a party! They have also been exploring the tuff spot and looking for dinosaur fossils. 

Ms Grace also did a cooking session with the children. They made dinosaur eggs using marshmallows, butter and rice krispies. They were delicious! 

In our splash pool session this week, we had a running race and also blew bubbles with straws. The children showed great confidence in water and actively participated in the activities. 

For our focus groups this week, Ms Grace facilitated a music and movement activity, Ms Trinh read a dinosaur story and Ms Crislet discussed how huge, small, tall and short dinosaurs were.

A fantastic week indeed! Well done F1 children for you great contributions to this week's activities! 

Notices:

- No Splash Pool Sessions next week. 

- Term ends on Friday 8th April. Home time for all children is at 11.30. 

- Easter holiday is from 11th April to 22nd April. 

- School re-opens on Monday 25th April. 

Thank you!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Kind Regards;

Ms Crislet, Ms Grace  and the F1 Team

Newsletter 25.03.16

Dear Parents,

Stomp, chomp, munch! ROAR!!!

Children in F1 have turned into fierce dinosaurs this week as we develop their interests. It is a delight hearing them say the vocabulary we are focusing such as huge/small, tall/short, stomp and munch in their role playing and conversation with other children. We have also been dancing and singing along the song Dino Pokey.

In the Creative area, children have been making dinosaur eggs using mudroc and balloons. They have also helped paint huge dinosaur stencils using sponges. It was indeed fun getting messy this week!

Our Funky Finger focus this week is about practising the use of small tool such as a tweezer. Children needed to pick a pompom ball using a tweezer and put it inside a bottle. Some children managed to learn the skill and a few were very clever to use their bare hands/fingers to fill up the bottle with pompoms.

Moving on to developing their gross motor skill, children have used the IWB and Activ Inspire to draw/make huge circles and lines. In the splash pool, children were asked to use a sprinkler cup to sprinkle water on their arms, legs, knees, shoulders and heads. This particular activity eases children's fear of splashing water on their faces. We have had a wonderful time splashing water in the splash pool.

In the Investigation area, they have found footprints on the floor leading to the Farm! One child thought they were arrows but after further exploring and investigation, we have learnt that they were in fact DINOSAUR footprints! 

Our Book focus this week was the story 'Things you never knew about Dinosaurs'. Ms Grace read this story to the children and afterwards asked them what they think about what the dinosaurs like doing. The wonderful responses they gave will be our focus activities next week. Click the link to watch a video of  a storyteller reading the book. It would be great to watch this video with your child at home.

We are very excited to tell and show all of you what we are going to do next week. We are certain that it will be a fantastic time in F1 as we start the week with our 'F1-nosaurus Dino-mite Party'. Please make sure to let your child come in wearing their dinosaurs costumes on Monday.

Have a lovely weeekend!

Regards,

Ms Grace, Ms Crislet and the F1 Team

Dino-mite Party

Newsletter 18.03.1

What a fantastic week we've had in F1!

Last Tuesday, we had another visit from our community partner, Animal Rescue and Care. This time, we had the pleasure of having Dr Nghia, a great vet who always ensures animal's health and safety. He taught us how he checks the animals with his special tool which is the stethoscope. He lend it to us and some children had a go at listening to the cat and dog's heartbeats. After checking the pets, we all agreed that they are both healthy and strong. 

A big thank you to Ms Koto, her friends, Dr Nghia, his assistants and the wonderful pets we've met for another successful sessions this year! Looking forward to working with you all again next year!

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For our main playground activity, we have put out buckets with water and lots of paintbrushes in different size and we did small and big marks on the floor. This activity is part of developing children's mark-making skills using small and big movements.

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For our fine motor skill focus this week, we put out plastic eggs and beans on trays and the task was to find the pair and put them together. This activity was very popular amongst all children. Victoria said "Egg surprise!"

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If you have been to the Fundino playground lately, you may have noticed some changes that we have done to develop and enhance the learning areas. One of our main goals is to develop a small garden so children can be responsible in taking care of plants. This week, we have asked children to plant 2 kinds of mint plants and coriander. All children were very excited to help out and we are looking forward to see sprouts soon! 

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For our focus groups this week, Ms Grace encouraged the children to make loud and soft sounds with an array of musical instruments. Ms Hoang facilitated a relay in the soft play room and asked the children to jump off platforms, run, go through the tunnel and jump on the trampoline. Lastly, Ms Crislet did a Maths activity where children were challenged to identify the number on cards and select the correct number and kind of animal from a big group of farm animal counters. 

Well done children for all the wonderful experiences this week!

Notices:

This week, most of the children expressed a great interest in dinosaurs so we are planning lots of fun activities to extend this on the coming week/s. In line with this budding interest, we are planning a dinosaur party on Monday 28th March and we request that all children come in on this day wearing dinosaur costumes (bought or made). More information to follow. 

Thank you!

Have a great weekend!

Kind Regards;

Ms Crislet, Ms Grace and the F1 Team 

Newsletter 11.03.16

Dear Parents,

You will see below a documentation of how the 'Farm Animals' interest amongst our children has started in the classroom. It has been a joy to see them engage in different resources and then talk about it in groups once a teacher start asking them questions.

To enhance their interest in Animals, we have had the opportunity to meet two lovely dogs named Misty and Ziggy as part of our community partnership with ARC (Animals Rescue and Care).

For our small focused groups this week, Ms Grace used a story sack to tell the story about Old Macdonald and the animals on his farm. Children were able to use the animal puppets and say the sounds the animals make. Ms Crislet on the other hand, used the interactive whiteboard and played a game called 'Can you guess what animals are these?' Ms Trinh reinforced good sharing and playing nicely with friends as part of our PSED (personal, social and emotional development) awareness.

We have also played an interactive game where the children had to click on the correct farm animals. Here's the link of the story and game that we've used in the classroom. Please have a go with your children at home.

Splash pool session will resume next week. Kindly make sure your child has her/his swimming kit to school.

Thank you very much and have a restful weekend.

Regards,
Ms Grace, Ms Crislet and the F1 Team

Ziggy meeting F1 children.

Small focused groups in action.