Newsletter 08.05.2015

Dear Parents,


Welcome back to school! I trust you all have had a relaxing holiday.

As we start the new term, let us all welcome a new member of F2, Tam. He started attending part-time last Monday and is beginning to get used to our routine in the classroom.

New term, new role play area! Children have been really busy supervising our newly opened 'business venture' - the F2 Salon and Spa. We have a complete and relaxing services available for all your needs. Children are all well trained in hair dressing and styling, nail care and even doing different kinds of massage. We have also been learning about different vocabulary related to our role play area.

In Maths, we have been doing loads of counting and representing these numbers in different ways. Some children have also been showing interest and awareness of simple number problems.

Ms Clarissa have been supporting them in their mark making skill of copying and/or writing their names. We are very pleased that majority of the children are able to recognise their names and are beginning to show good awareness of correct letter formation as they write their names. We are doing this activity to prepare F2 for when they move to F3 next year.

Next week, we are going to start introducing Phase 1 of Letters and Sounds. This is a fun way of introducing basic Phonics to children this age.
"Phase One of Letters and Sounds concentrates on developing children's speaking and listening skills and lays the foundations for the phonic work which starts in Phase 2. The emphasis during Phase 1 is to get children attuned to the sounds around them and ready to begin developing oral blending and segmenting skills."

We have also been reading the story 'We're going on a bear hunt' and have been learning about positional language such as 'under', 'on', 'in' 'on top' etc. Please see the link to watch a video of the story being told by the author himself, Michael Rosen.

We're going on a bear hunt

As you can see, we have been really busy considering that this is just the first week back. Although our hands are full, we are all having fun at the same time!

Thank you very much and have a lovely weekend!

Regards,
Ms Grace and F2 Team

REMINDERS:

* Please remember to always bring your children's water bottles and hats to school. We have been noticing that a few children have been forgetting these items at home.

Parents Lunch Out

Parents are invited to come and join a Parents Lunch Out next week. This is a good opportunity to meet other parents in the TX Community.

Please see below for more information.

Newsletter (Friday, 17th of April 2015)

The last week of Term 2 has been a hectic yet fun week for all of us.  This week, we also celebrated 'Waste Week' which is a special week dedicated to doing activities that show respect and care for our environment.  We talked about different ways on how to care for our environment and have pledged to try our best to care for our environment by not wasting food during meal times and by always using our water bottles when drinking water.  As a class, we have created an environmental pledge using our hand prints.  You can see our lovely pledge in the Green Day display in the foyer.

We have also focused on recycling this week!  The children watched videos about recycling and they learnt that recycling is creating something new out of something that has already been used such as paper, water bottles, tin cans, and toilet paper rolls.  In our class, we recycled toilet paper rolls and made lovely shakers out of them.  We have also created plant pots using plastic bottles and have planted grass seeds in it.  

Finally, children and teachers came to school wearing green clothes and celebrated Green Day on Thursday.  For an hour, the whole school switched off all lights, air-conditioners, and other electronic devices to conserve energy.

We continued our focus on shapes in maths this week.  The children extended their learning about shapes by completing shape puzzles and by also making repeating shape patterns in the maths area.  We also talked about the 'sides' and 'corners' of the different 2D shapes and many children were able to identify and select shapes that have 4 sides, 3 sides, and no sides.  We are very pleased with how the children know their shapes!

We ended this week with our Masters of Learning graduation.  For the past weeks, we have been focusing on being respectful.  We gave a special mention to Blake, Carrie, and Emily for doing a brilliant job in showing respect to their friends, teachers, and also for our school property.  They have done such an excellent job!

At the end of this term, we are also saying goodbye to our friends Blake and Eason who we will not be seeing anymore in F2 when we come back from our holidays.  Blake will be moving to a new school and Eason's family will be moving to Singapore.  It has been so wonderful to have you both in F2 and we will all miss you!  We wish you all the best in your future!  

Our children have progressed so much during this term and we will start seeing much more of their progress and development in Term 3.  Thank you everyone for your continuous support.  We all wish you a lovely restful holiday!

Sincerely,

Ms Clarissa and the F2 Team

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IMPORTANT REMINDERS: 
- School will be resuming on Monday, 4th of May
- We will not be creating learning journals in the children's blogs for the month of May in preparation for the end-of-year reports.

Thank You

Dear Parents,

As you are aware, tomorrow will be my last day in F2 with the children.  I will return to TX at the end of November when all the children will be well settled into F3!  It has been a pleasure to be with your children this year.  We are extremely proud of how far all the children have come in their personal and academic development since August.  I am handing over to the capable hands of Ms Clarissa and of course Ms Grace for term 3.

We are also sadly saying goodbye to Blake and Eason tomorrow.  We wish them lots of luck in their new places and their new adventures!

I shall miss everyone!  Thank you for your continuing support.  Have a wonderful holiday!

Kind Regards,

Gurvinder

Reminder - End of Term 2

Newsletter W.B.10.04.2015

Dear Parents,

The end of Term 2 is fast approaching and we are carrying out activities that we have been doing in the classroom for the past 2 weeks. We have been enhancing the activities by adding new resources and trying out different experiences that make our learning even more fun.

Our Sensory area has been a popular place for the children to spend time in. This week, they have explored 'basil seeds' and 'cellulose paste' slimes and noticed the texture of each type of slime. 

"Sensory play is simply play that encourages children to use one or more of the senses.  Often called “messy play,” sensory play experiences focus on stimulating children’s senses of sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, balance, and movement."

Another area where children have been showing a good interest in is our Mark Making area. We are lucky to have a big space which we can utilise to support the children's developing fine motor skill. This week, we have put out whiteboard markers and children are encourage to write their names or draw pictures on the floor.

We have also given the children opportunities to use the iPads with adult supervision in the classroom. They have been colouring pictures, tracing patterns and playing shape games.

Next week, the whole Tu Xuong campus is doing a Waste Week. Children will be involved in different activities developing their awareness of how to take care of the environment by not wasting the resources we have around us. In line with this, we will need some water bottles for a craft activity that we will be doing. On Thursday, all children should come to school wearing GREEN.

As you all know, next week is Ms Gurvinder's last week at school before she starts her maternity leave. Ms Clarissa is taking over her role in the class and has been working hard to get to know the children and the routine we have in F2. I know you will all agree with me that Ms Gurvinder's presence in the classroom will be missed and we all wish her the best with the coming of her new baby. 

Have a lovely weekend!

Regards,

Ms Grace and F2 team

REMINDERS:

* No swimming on Thursday 16th April 2015.

* All children come to school wearing GREEN on Thursday for our Green Day.

* If you have water bottles at home (LaVie, Aquafina) that we can have for Monday, please bring them to school.

Newsletter Friday, 3rd of April 2015

It has been a fantastic week of fun and learning!  The children have been enjoying our Travel Agents role-play theme.  In the role-play area, they have been playing as travel agents, holiday-goers, plane passengers, and flight attendants.  The children have been choosing Singapore, Australia, United Kingdom, and America as their holiday destinations.  Some of them have also been packing different kinds of clothes for a summer holiday and a winter holiday.  In the small world area, children have been also been enjoying the aeroplane and the ship.  They have been using words like 'We will go to Singapore!' and 'We are going on a holiday!'.

Holiday-goers are queuing to get their tickets and show their passports.

Travel Agents making calls and arrangements for the holidays!

Writing and stamping on the passports.

Arranging the passports of holiday-goers

Passports stamped and luggages ready: everyone is ready for the holiday!

Making sure that plane passengers are sitting properly in the aeroplane before take-off.

The children also enjoyed different kinds of messy and sensory play this week.  We enjoyed soap foam which the children described as 'cold' and 'frothy like cupcake frosting'.  We also played with a special gel which the children absolutely loved!  They enjoyed mixing the gel with their hands and described it as 'cold' and 'soft like jelly'.  Some of the children also sang 'Jelly on a Plate' whilst playing and making the gel 'wibble' and 'wobble'.  In the tuff spot, the children have been enjoying the beach sensory play set which is filled with sand, pebbles, shells, blue water, and toy boats.  The children have been enjoying making the toy boats sail across the 'ocean' and also listening to the shells. 

Our Maths focus this week was 2D shapes.  The Hammer and Shapes sets in the maths area have been thoroughly used by the children to create different images.  We have also been playing a shapes identification game in the Soft Play Room.  We are very delighted that most of the children can identify 2D shapes and differentiate them from one another.

Rory the Respectful Lion has still been on the lookout for respectful children this week.  We gave a special mention to Blake this week for showing respect to his friend's interests and for doing his best to include his friend in his play.  Well done, Blake!  Rory the Respectful Lion is very proud of you! 

It is such a delight to see all of our children truly enjoying school.  Everyone has been playing with each other and trying to use different vocabulary words that they learn each day.  Well done to all our children!  They all deserve a restful weekend.

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Notice: 
- In line with our Travel Agents theme, we would like to have a copy of your child's favourite holiday photo.  You can let your child bring it to school or you can simply email us a copy of it.  

Have a lovely weekend!  

Kind Regards,

Ms Grace, Ms Gurvinder, Ms Clarissa, and the rest of the F2 Team.