Tsukuba International Preschool

We are very happy to have most of our students back at TIP today, healthy, smiling, and influenza-free! Last week, while the snow and icy roads caused havoc for many, TIP students enjoyed playing in quite a bit of snow in our yard for 3 days after it had fallen. It was a definite highlight for many of our littlies.

Unit of Inquiry

This month P2 and P3 have started a new inquiry into How We Express Ourselves. We have looked at post offices from around the world and used these to help us design our very own “Everyone’s Rainbow Post Office”. Students made a post box, and have started to get busy as they experiment with letter writing. We have brainstormed important words that we use in letters, and talked about what kind of messages we put in letters. Children enjoyed reading “The Jolly Postman” and “Bedtime in the forest”.

We have also looked at pictures of telephones throughout time, and tried ordering them from oldest to newest. Children have practised pressing number buttons on the iPhone in preparation for their phone call to somebody special. We also made paper cup phones and played telephone games. We will continue to brainstorm messages we want to share with people and other ways we can do so.

Art Inquiry

During Art time in January, we did a series of lessons on portraits. We used our knowledge of mixing colours to make skin colours, and lines and shapes, to produce some beautiful self-portraits. We also learned who Pablo Picasso was, looked at some of his portraits and talked about how he had painted them. Then, we too, drew and painted a portrait Picasso style, with lots of fun shapes and colours. We did our best to paint each space or shape we had created with a  nice bright colour.

Next month, we will learn about collage and have fun creating our own!

Using a template when making a self-portrait

Painting a self-portrait

Literacy

P2 and P3 students are now comfortable with journal writing and making their own picture/storybooks. After the winter break, each student (P1-P3) chose one of these, to draw and write about their winter holiday. Students then shared their stories with the class.

This month, all TIP students have learned the phonetic sounds of the letters y, e, f, z, and j, and practised writing the letters. P2 and P3 students enjoy brainstorming words that begin with these sounds, and also looking at the shape and size of our focus letters. Are they tall like a giraffe (t, k, l, etc.)? Small like a dog (a, e, m, n, etc.)? or do they have a tail like a cat (y, j, p, etc)? P3 students are encouraged to stretch out and write words that start with our focus letter sounds, on lined paper and have learned a story to help them remember how to read ‘sh’ and ‘th’ blends in words. P2 students have been practising their name writing using bubble writing and writing between the lines. P1 have made lots of interesting things using their developing paper folding, cutting and pasting skills that start with our focus letter sounds.

Next month, we will begin an Eric Carle author study.

Inquiry through the language of maths (P2 & P3)

P2 & P3 continued to focus on numbers this month, using them in our daily language and activities as much as possible. P2 continued to play recognition games with numbers 0-10, tracing and writing the numbers, and drawing objects to match numbers. P2 students should now all be able to count and recognise numbers 1-10. P3, as well as some P2 students who have challenged themselves, have been looking at number words, (zero to ten). They have played games with these, ordered and matched them, and practised their tracing and writing of these words. Student’s knowledge of numbers will help with our unit on How we express ourselves.

P1 have also been practising to count objects out loud.

P1 students practise counting and number recognition as they put togeher a hopscotch game

Last week, Ms. Skye’s class reviewed 2D shapes and children were introduced to symmetry. Students have folded origami paper in half and cut shapes from it, then opened the paper up to see symmetry. We also looked at some pictures of butterflies and learned that they have symmetry. We put some blobs of paint on paper, folded it in half and opened it up to see our own beautiful symmetrical butterflies. Can your children find things around your home that have symmetry?

Japanese with Mrs. Hiromi

In January, all TIP students enjoyed making shishimai with origami paper and fukuwarai, in Japanese class. On February 3rd, we will recognise setsubun-no-hi and partake in some bean throwing to start Spring.

Getting ready for "Setsubun-no-hi"

Japanese with Ms. Akane Kono (P3)

P3 students had just two Japanese classes with Ms. Akane Kono in January.  They shared the following books:

- “かおかおどんなかお(different face with different feelings)”- Students learned adjective words, for example, angry, happy, sad and so on.

- “こわがりうさぎホッペル(rabbit who is always scared)”- Students learned about some feeling words (onomatopoeia), for example, しくしく、ぷるぷる and so on. They also thought about what a risk-taker is with this story, an thought about what ‘brave’ is.

Almost all of the P3 children are now able to recognise hiragana characters, and are getting better at cooperating each lesson when we work as a group to do a hiragana puzzle. Students also learned how to write the following hiragana characters in January, which are some of the easiest ones to write: し, つ,く, て, い, こ, へ, り, か, お, ま and た.

Cooperating with classmates to do a hiragana puzzle during P3 Japanese class

Violin with Mr. Craig Coleman (P2 & P3)

Everyone can now look back and review the songs we learned last year (Hot Cross Buns, Mary had a Little Lamb) except now we can use our bow instead of pizzicato. Keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing everyone at our next violin class

In January, TIP students began to look at how they express themselves with their voice, tying in with our UOI, How we express ourselves.  The children were introduced to a new song called “I’ve Got A Voice!” which gives each student an opportunity to lead with an idea by inventing sounds (singing sounds) for everyone to copy. We passed around a whispering tube to explore how to control our voices.  By whispering a short phrase to their neighbour, the children learned how it felt to focus on using the voice in a very specific way.   We further explored the use of our voices by passing around a “Noisy Box”.  Each child took a turn in using their imagination to make up a new sound for everyone to copy.  The children pretend to take out a new vocal sound as the Noisy box is passed around the circle. We also explored the instruments of the orchestra by listening to their sounds on a CD and by looking at the similarities and differences in a book with photos. I brought my flute to the class and the children were able to hear the sound it makes as well as how a flute is played. We have also started learning the song “Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun”.

Ms. Jennifer's "noisy box"

Looking forward…

-We will have 2 new students join us on Wednesday February 1st. Please make them feel nice and welcome if you see tham about TIP.

- “Show & Tell” topics for next month, with weeks starting on the dates below, are:

• February 6th – My favourite Letterland character
• February 13th – free choice
• February 20th – free choice
• March 5th – My Spring break

- Our TIP Graduation ceremony this year will be held on Thursday June 21st. Please mark this date on your calender and we will forward more information to families as it gets closer

P1 students cooking in the kitchen play area

Important dates

- Friday February 3rd – Baking activity

- Monday February 6th – Open School Day (1-2pm), Parent Circle (2-3pm)

- Monday February 6th – TIS Fund Raiser (Greek cooking class and lunch), 9am-1pm

- Wednesday February 8th – School tours (for potential TIP families)

- Thursday February 9th – Possible field trip (please keep an eye out for further details in an email to parents in coming weeks)

- Monday February 13th – 100th day of school!

- Wednesday February 15th – Soccer coaching (during PE class)

- Thursday February 16th – TIP Field Trip & picnic lunch

- Friday February 24th – Shoes Home

- February 25 to March 4th – Spring Break

- Monday March 5th – Back to School

- Tuesday March 13th – Open School Day (9-10:30am), Parent Circle (10:30-11:30am)

- Tuesday March 20th – School Holiday (National Holiday)

- Thursday March 22nd – Second Term Ends, Student Portfolios go Home, Shoes go Home, emergency supplies go Home

- Friday March 23rd – Professional Development Day (School Holiday)

- Monday March 26th – Third Term Begins

- March 26th to March 30th – Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences

Happy New Year to all our TIP families! We wish you all the very best for a happy, healthy, safe and successful 2012. We also hope you have all been enjoying the holiday season and are excited to see your children back at school tomorrow.

December was a very short month at school, and we spent quite some time preparing for our winter performance. Children developed confidence to stand up in front of a big audience and sing nicely, along with using their sign language. They also thought about what the dog “Bingo” might look like, and painted some dog ears in the colour of their choice, to wear on our performance day. Our older students were also a great help, ensuring everybody came on and off the stage smoothly. Thank you to all of the parents that were able to come along and watch the children perform! Please find a short descriptor of other things we got up to at TIP in December.

We will also continue to have the wonderful help of Ms. Meirav when we go back to school on Tuesday afternoons (P1-P3) and a small block of time on Thursdays (P2 & P3).

Art Inquiry

In the spirit of winter, children learned how to make colourful snowflakes by folding origami paper and cutting it creatively. We used these to decorate large message cards for two of our former classmates, who are now living in Singapore. Children shared a winter story and also looked at some pictures of snowmen. After this, children practised good pencil grip, drawing and cutting skills, in designing their own snowman on paper, cutting it out, pasting on coloured construction paper, and using their paintbrush in a different way to add falling snow and frost with paint. In addition, children made some snowman from oil clay, using small clay tools to cut and carve, and mould the cold, hard clay with their little hands. If you have some clay or play dough at home, this is an excellent resource to help children build strength in their fingers and hands, as well as being a fun sensory experience for them.

TIP students also made a seasonal wreath from kiwi vine which we took from the garden, and participated in making Christmas tree decorations for the TIS IIAS Christmas tree.

Literacy

Some of our favourite shared reading stories during December were “Clifford’s first Christmas” and “Clifford’s first snow day”. During shared reading time we have been focusing on main characters, empathising with characters, and relating stories to our own world (family, celebrations, etc.). We also began reading the Oxford Reading tree series, first with a large flip book, where children were encouraged to read the pictures, and listen and check their understandings. We also became familiar with some of the characters, such as Floppy, Chip and Biff. Each week we are reading one large book during shared reading time, and some P3 students have begun small focused reading groups with this series

During literacy workshop time, there has been a notable increase in children are continually choosing to make picture books, with almost all P2 & P3 students know independently making their own books. Children have been encouraged not to rush these, and are taking their time to continually go back and work on them each literacy session.

Inquiry through the language of maths (P2 & P3)

During December, P2 and P3 children practised preposition words while playing our blindfold “stick the nose on the snowman” game. We also started number exploration and learned the rhymes “5 little ducks went out to play”, “5 little monkeys jumping on the bed”, and “10 little teddy bears lying on the bed”. P2 Students have been recognising, tracing and writing numbers 1-5 with different materials, as well as drawing numbers of items to match numbers, matching picture and numeral cards, and ordering number cards 1-10. P3 students, with the addition of some P2 students, have been ordering number cards 1-10, tracing and writing numbers 1-12 (and higher) using different materials, and matching numeral and picture cards, 1-10. Next, P3 will start to look at number words, and P2 will continue their number recognition, ordering and writing through various activities and games.

Ordering numbers

Here are some ideas of how you can help your children’s number skills grow, at home or when you are out and about, no matter what stage they are at:

• Say the numbers on a car’s license plate
• Practise your home telephone number
• Count how many items are in your supermarket basket
• Read the numbers on the price tag of something at the convenience store
• Ask your child to help set the dinner table, and have them tell you how many of each plate, chopsticks, etc they will need
• Sort their toys into groups by colour, type, or some other rule. How many are in each group? Which has more? Which has less?

During December, we practised “Chime In”, which we sang beautifully with Grade 1, 2 and 3 students from TIS, at the Winter Performance.

Looking forward…

- Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in taking care of all of the things we sent home before the winter break. This is just a reminder list of the things that children will need to bring back to school on January 5th, 2012:

• Emergency supplies in a ziplock bag (no bigger than A4 size)
• Indoor shoes, hats (winter hats are OK!), Paint shirt
• Cup, toothbrush, pillow and blanket (if your child usually has these items at school)

- Please bring along a small box (such as a tissue box) by January 6th, for your child to make a post box from, for our upcoming Unit of Inquiry focusing on communications

- Also, please keep an eye out for a letter in your child’s message bag regarding contact information of people we can get in touch with during our Communications inquiry

- “Show & Tell” topics for next month, with weeks starting on the dates below, are:

• January 9th – No “Show & Tell”
• January 16th – My Winter holidays (Students who are scheduled for Monday may bring on Tuesday or Wednesday)
• January 23rd – My favourite book (if possible, a reasonable length picture book that we can share with the class)
• January 30th – Something special about my home country(ies)
• February 6th – My favourite Letterland character

Important dates

Thursday January 5th – Back to School

Monday January 9th- National and School Holiday (Coming-of-age Day)

Wednesday January 11th- School tours, 9am

Friday January 13th – Open school Day 9:00-10:30am, Parent circle, 10:30-11:30

Lunch recess

During November, TIP students enjoyed the changes of season with some regular walks in the forest, admiring the changing colours of the leaves. We had a few more holidays than usual, due to two national holiday days, as well as some Staff Professional Development days. Ms. Skye and Mrs. Hiromi have lots of new ideas after participating in an in-school PYP workshop, a PYP Early Years Job-alike at Tokyo International School, and a day observing Montessori Kindergarten classes at Seisen International School.

TIP Students also had a health check done this month, the results of which Parents should have received already.

Now that it’s getting quite cool, please ensure your children wear plenty of warm clothes along to school, as we still have outdoor play time and PE classes during the winter months. Stay warm and take care!

"T is for Tiger" - Show and Tell time

Unit of Inquiry

Some of the sensory experiences we enjoyed this month included making & tasting lemonade, picking kiwi fruits from our tree, feeling, smelling and tasting kiwi fruits, and exploring our school and toys with magnifying glasses and coloured lenses. This has been one of our favourite centres this month! We also began to think about differences in peoples sensory abilities, and how deaf and blind people can communicate. We played games such as “Blindman’s Buff”, and learned some sign language. We have also brainstormed some ways that we can take care of each other at school in regards to our senses.

We have learned a sign language song for the winter festival, and have been practising and teaching our younger classmates the actions.

Art Inquiry

We continued mixing colours his month, and observing colour changes in our environment. We made some nice autumn trees by mixing paints on our hands, and painting trees that reflected what we saw in our nearby forest. We also experienced texture through leaf rubbings, of different sized shapes we found in the forest.

We were also very lucky to have a guest Teacher early in November, that taught us how to make some very lovely bead rings for our Mummies or sisters. Thank you, Mrs. Nerve!

Literacy

This month in P2 and P3 literacy, we have started to focus more on making stories. We have looked at beginning, middle and endings of stories, and made a class book. P2 and P3 children now choose between journals, making story books, or making stories on the felt story boards during literacy workshops, and work on these independently. We have quite the confident and creative little authors on our hands! Students are then invited to share their stories they have made with the class, and peers listen in with enthusiasm and ask questions. This has led to early editing practises, where children are adding more detail to stories based on questions and comments from the class. I am very proud of the way they listen and share ideas openly and with confidence, yet in a caring and respectful manner. They always sign their books too, just like Eric Carle! Keep up the great work, TIP!!

In reading, P2 & P3 have continued to build stamina and learned the EEKK (elbow, elbow, knee, knee) position for sharing books and reading nicely with a partner.

Phonics sounds that we have learned and practised this month are Ll, Hh, Tt, Ii, Rr, Pp, Bb and Uu. One of the students favourite activities for early finishers this month has been Pictionary, where children focus on the letter sounds of the week, and have to guess what the picture is their friend draws.

P1 students have shown lots of progress in using their fine motor skills this month. With each phonics letter sound explored, children made something from origami paper that began with the focus letter sound. They have also concentrated on colouring neatly our Letterland work pages.

Strengthen our little hands with some oil clay activities

Inquiry through the language of maths (P2 & P3)

During maths inquiry this month, students learned about different kinds of simple and growing patterns. They chose activities during centre time that included beading, stamping, shape boards, blocks, cutting & pasting, drawing and colouring, as they extended and made new patterns.

Making patterns with shapes

We also practised left and right through songs such as “hokey pokey”, and made a left and write paper hand to put on our desks as a remonder of which is which. Next month we will look at other preposition and direction words.

PE 

During Monday PE classes this month, we warmed up with some yoga stretches and various full body movements such as hopping, jogging, jumping, and so on. We then rotated around three PE centres each week, in which children practised some gross motor activiies. Students were also encouraged to work cooperatively within their group, helping younger students when neceassary, and leading the group from one centre to the next. Focus activities, (modified for different age groups slightly), in each PE centre this month were:

- throwing up and catching a large ball

- throwing and catching a large ball with a partner

- bouncing a large ball on a hard surface and catching it

- individual jump rope

- hopscotch

- kicking a soft ball into a goal

Japanese with Mrs. Hiromi

During November, all of our TIP students practised their paper dying, cutting and folding paper (origami) skills, while learning about two important cultural events. The first, Shichi-go-san, is a day that parents wish for a long and healthy life for their children. These days, children are given chitose ame, a long, thin candy that symbolises longevity and healthy growth. TIP students each made a candy bag for their chitose ame.

Candy bags that students made for "Shichi-go-san"

The second day we learned about was Kinroh-kansha-no-hi, a day for giving thanks to people. TIP students made a thank you card for the staff of TIS, and also for our bus drivers, to thank them for all their hard work and taking care of us. The children talked about why theses people are important to us, and after making the cards, presented them in person.

Japanese with Ms. Akane Kono (P3)

P3 students had three Japanese classes with Ms. Akane Kono this month. Each lesson, Akane shares a Japanese children’s story and uses these as a basis for developing students listening comprehension as well as vocabulary building. The stories and vocabulary that were focussed on this month are:

- どうすればいいのかな? (How should we do it?) → We learned lots of clothing words such as “shirt”, “hats”, “shoes” as well as how we say “wear”, depending on which part of our body we wear it. We also learned about tools around us after this story, such as “clock”, and “oven”.
- ぐりとぐらのあいうえお (Aiueo with Guri and Gura) → This book uses words that start with each hiragana character,  a, i ,u ,e  and o.
- あすはきっと(Surely tomorrow) → This book uses expressions of time such as “today”, ” yesterday”, “tomorrow”, “morning” and “evening”, as well as greeting words such “good morning”, “good night”, and so on.

Students have also continued hiragana recognition activities with picture cards and worked cooperatively in teams to put together puzzles. We began pre-writing activties, such as following instructions to draw different kinds of lines that will help us with writing hiragana characters. Students have also begun to recognise and think of beginning hiragana sounds of words, in particular, ones that our classmates’ names begin with.

Violin with Mr. Craig Coleman (P2 & P3)

In November for violin class, we continued practicing correct posture for holding the violin. The music from Tchaikovsky’s Ballet music “Nutcracker” was choreographed using the violin to understand what each part of the body does to hold the violin in it’s correct position. Several chants were reviewed, such as Hot Cross Buns, Mary had a Little Lamb and Old Macdonald, to practice our finger birdies 1 & 2.

This past month we have been exploring the area of “Our Senses” through music in a variety of ways.  We listened to sounds associated with the seaside and continued to learn and sing the song “What Can you See/Hear/Smell/Feel and Taste”.  We performed actions to accompany the song and talked about the different sounds that we hear all around us inside the classroom and when we go outside.  We listened to a recording called “Sounds” and the children were asked to describe what each of the sounds in the music was being made by.

The children have continued to enjoy moving and dancing with scarves to music.  This month they drew pictures, shapes and lines to describe what they heard in two contrasting pieces of music by Edvard Grieg: “Hall of the Mountain King” and “Morning”.

To prepare for the Winter Festival, we have begun practicing the song “Chime In” and have also used hand bells to accompany our singing.

Our classroom helper leads us for "Roley Poley" before we eat our snacks

Looking forward…

- As it’s starting to get quite cold now, please ensure your children come along to school with warm clothing, especially a coat for when we go outdoors. Also, please feel free to send in a winter hat for your children to wear during outdoor recess time.

- Please refer to Mrs. Handa’s email regarding the winter performance and complete it to say whether or not you will be attending

- For our winter performance, we will not have any special costume. Although, we do ask that children think about what colour a dog might be, and try and wear this colour clothing on the day. Please ensre that it is something that children feel comfortable in, as for many it will be the first time to stand in front of an audience and perform.

- There will be no “Show & Tell” in December

- Children will have quite a lot to carry home on the last day of school for this year. Please send an extra bag along with your children to carry these things in. This is particularly important for children commuting by school bus and train.

Walking the catwalk during dressup time

Important dates

Thursday December 8th – Open school day & Parent circle (pm)

Monday December 12th – TIP Student Portfolios due back

Wednesday December 14th – Volunteer day (AM), Winter festival (PM)

Friday December 16th – Indoor shoes, hats, cups, toothbrushes, blankets & emergency supplies go home

Friday December 17th to January 4th – Winter Break

Thursday January 5th – Back to School

Playing frisbee

October was a busy month at TIP. We had a family morning and potluck lunch party, had to say goodbye to two lovely classmates who have now moved abroad, started a new Unit Of Inquiry (P2 & P3), had soccer coaching from specialised coaches, and had a whole school Fall Festival with Halloween costumes, games, and our first ever school team games.

Now, as the weather is starting to cool down, we are concentrating on developing important hygiene habits at TIP. These include washing our hands thoroughly, and not putting them in our little noses and mouths.

Friends

Unit of Inquiry

This month, we started a new unit of inquiry into Who we are. Throughout this unit, we will explore our 5 senses (touch, sight, smell, taste, hearing) and how we use them. We will also look at differences among people’s sensory abilities. So far, we have been tuning into this unit and finding out what we already know. We have taken some senses walks through the forest, focusing on different senses each time (hearing, sight, smell, touch). Students have really enjoyed exploring our feely boxes that hold different kinds of textured items, and guessing what they are. They have also been using their sense of hearing along with creativity to make dances to go with different rhythms, drawing while listening to a rain forest soundtrack, and expressing what they hear in music through painting.

I know what this is!!

This is a hand!!! Like your hands!! We touch with it!

Art Inquiry

We have focused on mixing colours this month during art. Children have been experimenting with their own paint palettes, firstly with multiple colours, however they soon discovered that most combinations they made turned out to be shades of yucky brown. We then with experimented with just primary colours and white paint, and children began to make conclusions about which colours combine to make light, and also secondary colours. Last week, we shared the book “Mouse paint” by Ellen Stoll Walsh, which confirmed some conclusion children had made, and helped others to understand primary colours a little more. They then went ahead at making many shades of secondary colours and painted some mice to create a colourful bulletin board display!!

Making new colours!

Mixing colours!

Literacy

TIP children have shared lots of seasonal books this month, as well as some Kevin Henkes favourites. Children have started to recall names of some of our favourites authors and illustrators. They have also developed a lot of independence in literacy activities, such as their letter writing and journals, as well as exploring free choice activities such as name puzzles, word building with alphabet lego, magnetic letters, and making letters and words with pipe cleaners.

Building names with magnetic letters

In reading, P2 & P3 have been practising to read books independently and with friends, by memorising favourite stories, and reading pictures.

Building stamina during independent reading time

This month in phonics time, we have explored the letters Aa, Dd, Gg, Ss, Mm, and Nn.We learned a song and action about the Letterland characters and letter sounds for each letter, and also looked for words that begin with those sounds.

P1 students have combined their phonics exploration with developing essential motor skills, such as pencil grip, colouring, cutting and pasting as well as spatial awareness. This month some of the activities they have done are cutting and pasting to make an apple tree, and colouring and cutting to make a colourful snake!

P1 students make apple trees

Snakes start with sssssssss

Making a snake

Inquiry through the language of maths (P2 & P3)

At the start of October, we finished off our classification learning, sorting things by colours, shapes, kind, and our own rules. We organised our classroom toys using these skills, and also thought about which senses we use for particularly sensory experiences.

Sorting blocks by colour

Sorting classroom toys by our own rules

We also started a new maths unit on shapes. We have been identifying, tracing, drawing, and finding different 2D shapes around us. We also learned attributes such as how many sides, corners, and what kinds of lines make shapes, and used these skills to identify shapes in our feely boxes.

Searching for and identifying shapes around us

Making shapes from shapes

Making shapes from shapes

PSE

This month we continued to focus on being caring. Children drew pictures of what caring means to them, we brainstormed “What caring sounds like”, and took photos of “What caring looks like”.

During afternoon circle time, teachers and students have begun sharing their joys and worries with the class. This has turned into a much powerful exercise than I had anticipated, with children sharing all kinds of concerns and happy moments from their school day. Classmates are showing genuine interest and care, and quite enjoy the compliments that have been shared and support for concerns that are brought up.

PE with Mr. David Ohuoha

During October, TIP children participated in a lot of soccer practise during PE class, including activities with visiting soccer coaches. The aim was for children to have fun and learn to cooperate with one another through team work. The children learned techniques in expressing themselves with the ball.

Next month, Mr. David is planning for children to create fun-loving games through which the children can learn to be creative as individuals and also to cooperate as a team.

Japanese with Mrs. Hiromi

P1-P3 enjoyed some seasonal activities in Japanese class this month. They used their sense of touch to explore different sized sweet potatoes from Mrs. Hiromi’s garden, and then painted their own. Students also learned about the cosmos flower which is currently in season. Children took great care in dipping traditional Japanese paper into water colour paint, and then cutting it into the flower shapes once dry.

An assortment of blooming cosmos flowers

Japanese with Ms. Akane Kono (P3)

P3 students began weekly Japanese language classes with Ms. Akane Kono this month, and have been practising Japanese class routines, remembering important manners, and practising everyday Japanese language. They have been participating in vocaublary building activitoes, focusing on fruits, vegetables and animal names. Ms. Akane has also shared the following stories with her class, all available to borrow at the TIS school library:

- おかあさんどーこ? (Where is my mother) → An enjotable story which we read to practise our good listening skills
- かぞえてみよう (Let’s count)→ A book about counting 1-10
- こわがりうさぎホッペル (A rabbit who is timid) → A book to help us learn the names of animals

P3 children have also been learning to recognise and read Hiragana chracters through group play activities such as puzzles.

Violin with Mr. Craig Coleman (P2 & P3)

Looking forward…

- Upcoming “Show & Tell” topics for the weeks beginning the following dates are:

November 7th- something starting with n and/or l

November 14th- something starting with h and/or t

November 21st- No “Show and Tell” this week

November 28th- Winter

December 5th- No “Show and Tell” this week

December 12th- No “Show and Tell” this week

Important dates

Wednesday November 2nd – Open School Day 9:30am, Parent Circle 10:30am

Thursday November 3rd – School Holiday (National holiday)

Thursday November 10th – Health checks with Dr. Ono, at TIS

Friday November 11th – Ms. Skye & Mrs. Hiromi attending PYP Early Years workshop at Tokyo International School (Ms. Meirav filling in)

November 21st & 22nd – PYP in-school Workshop for Teachers, School holidays

Wednesday November 23rd – School Holiday

Friday November 25th – Shoes home

Wednesday November 30th – First term ends, TIP Portfolios go home

Thursday December 1st – Professional Development Day, School Holiday

Thursday December 8th – Open school day & Parent circle (pm)

Wednesday December 14th – Volunteer day (AM), Winter festival (PM)

Friday December 16th – Shoes & emergency suppies go home

Friday December 17th to JAnuary 4th – Winter Break

Thursday January 5th – Back to School

Thank you very much to all of the parents that came to see us for Parent-Teacher conferences this week. We really enjoyed talking with you all and thank you for your honest communications and continued support and cooperation. We are very lucky to be working together with such supportive families.

This week, P2 & P3 students began to spend their mornings upstairs with Ms. Skye, while P1 students remain downstairs in a very small learning group with Mrs. Hiromi. Below are some of the things that we got up to this week.

Learning some songs from Grade 2 at TIS

Phonics

The Letterland characters we learned about this week were “Clever Cat” and “Oscar Orange”. We practised the sound each of these character’s letters make through an accompanying song and actions. We also practised the shape of the letters, “c” and “o”, and correct pencil grip. P1 did some recognition and colouring activities associated with this week’s phonetics. They also used their fine motor skills to complete some collages.

P1 students learn about Oscar Orange

Taking initiative and writing names with alphabet lego blocks during free choice activity time

Reading & Writing

We are working on empowering our P2 & P3 students as readers and writers.

We have begun to learn “3 ways to read a book”:

1. Read the pictures

2. Remember and reread a story

3. Read the words

This week, we practised reading the pictures of books.

Reading to children everyday has so many benefits, such as helping with cognitive development, and most importantly, develops a child’s interest in books and literacy. Here are some things that you can do to help build your children’s literacy skills at home:

- Put a book in your child’s hands cover up

- Use your finger to point out the title of the book as you read it

- Read the author’s name, and ask your child why there is a name on the book

- Look at the pictures on the cover and ask your child what they think the story might be about

- Ask your children to read the pictures of a story book to you

- When reading to your child, follow the words with your finger as you read (so children understand the direction of print)

- Have your child practise turning pages one at a time until you reach the end of the book

- Guide students to recognise letters that we have been learning in school

There is also a collection of free oxford e-books available online for you to read with your children! You can find them here:

http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/FindBook

Children also completed a page in their journals, writing a story of their own, and sharing it orally with the class. All of our children are now comfortable sharing in front of the class, either in English or their mother tongue. Way to go boys and girls!!

First "Show & Tell" at TIP!

Sharing stories of a visit to Australia for "Show & Tell"

Maths

Every morning, TIP children continue to become familiar with days of the week, months and numbers during our daily calender routine.

Our maths focus this week in P2 & P3, were:

- Same (colour/number/shape) and different

- Sorting by colour

Children did some cut & paste activities, sorting ‘like/same’ colours. We also played the card game,  “UNO”.

Learning "same" and "different" through UNO

Learning how to play UNO

Where we are in Place & Time: Growing and Changing

Understanding our abilities and setting goals are important at any stage of our lives, and that is exactly what P2 & P3 children worked on this week during inquiry time. We reviewed “From Head to Toe” and drawing that we had done of things that we can do. Then we read “Leo the Late Bloomer”, a story about a small lion who takes a very long time to learn things such as reading, drawing nice pictures, writing, catching butterflies, and so on. By the end of the book he accomplishes all of these things.

Following the story, I shared a personal story about things that I was still learning, and the children began opening up about theirs. We watched a short video clip of children in a  kindergarten classroom in the US, sharing their hopes and dreams with the class. P2 & P3 students then thought about a hope that they have for our school year at TIP, and drew a picture of it on a cloud, which we have displayed in our classroom. We will reflect on these later in the year.

Art

During art this week, we reviewed colours, and drew different kinds of lines (straight, curved, zig zag, wavy) all over our page. We then painted different colours in all of the funny shaped spaces our lines had created. Students tried hard to stay within the lines, and also to wash their paintbrush carefully between different paint colours.

Looking forward…

- Upcoming “Show & Tell” topics for the weeks beginning the following dates are:

October 10th-My name

October 17th-Fall/Autumn

October 24th-No “Show and Tell” this week

October 31st- “Ss” or “Mm”

- Please note the date of our fall festival below. TIP will join TIS for the afternoon festivities, in which we encourage parents to also attend. More information will be sent out from TIS Teachers soon. In the meantime, please encourage your children to think about something they might like to dress up as, and help them to prepare a costume. Please note that we highly encourage children to be creative, and make a costume together with their families, rather than purchasing one.

- We are very much looking forward to having our parents in on Tuesday morning to share in our learning, and also to have a picnic Potluck lunch party! We will be sad to say goodbye to two of our favourite classmates soon, but feel really lucky to have had them as a part of our class. If you have not already RSVPd to our party on Tuesday, please email Ms. Skye before Tuesday. Thank you!

Watching puppet shows put together by Grade 2 students

Important dates

Monday October 10th – National holiday, No school

Tuesday October 11th – TIP Family gathering (10:00-12:30), Open School Day (1-2pm) & Parent Circle (2-3pm)

Wednesday October 12th – School Tour for prospective families, 9:30am

October 20th to 21st – PYP Authorisation visit

Wednesday October 26th – TIS & TIP Fall Festival

Wednesday November 2nd – Open school day (am), Parent Circle

Thursday November 3 – School Holiday

November 21st & 22nd – PYP in-school Workshop for Teachers, School holidays

Wednesday November 23rd – School Holiday

Wednesday November 30th – First term ends, TIP Portfolios go home

Thursday December 1st – Professional Development Day, School Holiday