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

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

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

Look what I found!

This week, students at TIP completed their textured name cards with some colourful pictures. From next week, we will use these cards as helper cards, where each day a different student will take on the roles of line leader and teacher’s helper. We hope this will be a good exercise in students taking leadership and developing confidence in their abilities, as well as good practise in taking turns. Please see below for some more things that we have been up to at TIP this week.

Unit of Inquiry

Where we are in Place and Time: Growing and Changing, is our year long Unit of inquiry focusing on children’s developments, progress and achievements in all areas, throughout the year. The first month of school has provided some time for Teacher’s to observe and document where children are at, and for students to do some initial work samples. We hope that over the course of the year we can reflect with students on their achievements, and set some goals together. This will be reflected in the students portfolios.

This week, we continued name recognition activities, and completed some bubble name writing (or in the case of P1 students, colouring). We also began to look at our first line of inquiry with students, “similarities and differences between past and present”. We shared the story From Head to Toe by Eric Carle, which sends a confidence building message of “I can do it!”, while introducing body parts and movements. Students danced to the accompanying song, and then thought about things that they can do, and also things that they weren’t able to do as a baby, but can now. We will continue to look at our abilities and why these have changed, next week.

Art

Preschoolers continued exploring colours and spatial awareness in art this week. We shared Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert, talking about the shapes and colours of all the flowers in the book. We then set out to create our own colourful garden, each drawing a flower to contribute. We also finished off some hand print butterflies by twirling pipe cleaners for antennas and sticking them on. Over the next month, we will explore mixing colours, primary and secondary colours, as well as lines.

Flower design

Drawing colourful flowers

TIP Garden

Flowers and butterflies

Sharing our world

We have been very lucky to have had Ms. Meirav, from Israel, helping out with our class over the past couple of weeks. This week, we learned a little more about her culture as she shared with us a story about the Jewish new year, which was celebrated last week. One of the big customs that she does during this time, is to eat various foods that symbolize her wishes for the new year.  The most popular ones are apple and honey, which represent a sweet new year, and pomegranate seeds, which represent the many good deeds for the upcoming year. Children listened attentively to a story, partook in some eating activities, and a collage art activity with Ms. Meirav.

Learning about Jewish New Year traditions from Ms. Meirav

Tasting some apple and honey which represent a sweet new year full of good deeds according to Jewish traditions

Reflecting on what we learned about the Jewish New Year, with an art activity

Literacy

From next week, TIP students will begin our phonics program. We will concentrate on 2 letters and their sounds per week, using the Letterland approach, amongst other literacy activities. Letterland is a multi-sensory phonics approach to teaching children how to read, spell and write through child-friendly characters. Children will become acquainted with characters featuring lowercase letters of the alphabet and their sounds, through songs, dance, movement and stories. As a class and independently, we will use children’s inquiry skills to also explore words that begin with different sounds we learn. At TIP, we teach lowercase letters first, as these are what are most commonly found around us, and most children already have some familiarity with uppercase letters. We also teach the sounds of letters before the names of letters, as this is what helps us to take the steps towards becoming readers. Depending on the age and stage each child is at, we have different activities to consolidate learning from P1 through to P3. At first, you may find it strange hearing your child talk about Clever Cat and her whiskers while singing about her saying keh-keh-keh, but we have found it a very valuable approach for students of all abilities and backgrounds at TIP. If you would lke to know more about Letterland, they have lots of information on their website, as well as free downloads: http://www.letterland.com/

Japanese

In Japanese class this week we read a story and talked about chestnuts, which we have plenty of in our school yard! Children then used their developing cutting, sticking folding and spatial awareness skills to do a lovely visual representation of both the outside and inside of a chestnut.

Next week, P3 will begin their Japanese classes with Ms. Akane, twice a week, and P2 will join P1 for an additional Japanese class each week with Mrs. Hiromi. In addition, all TIP students will still continue with their weekly culture and language class with Mrs. Hiromi and Ms. Akane also.

Scissor practise

Cutting pieces of construction paper for our chestnut collage

Making a chestnut shell collage

Our Chestnut display from Japanese class, with Mrs. Hiromi

Looking forward…

-You will have noticed that your children brought home their indoor shoes, cap, cup and toothbrush on Friday afternoon. These are sent home on a monthly basis to be cleaned, and sent back to school with your child the following Monday. Please remember to send them back on Monday October 3rd. Thank you so much!

- Thank you very much to parents who have already made appointments for our Parent-Teacher conferences next week. Please be advised that unfortunately there will be no child minding facilities for TIP children during our conferences, so please pick your children up as usual, even if you have a conference. Also, please do not hesitate to bring your children along with you to the conferences. For parents of children who take the school bus, we will contact you directly regarding your situation on conference days.

- Next week will be our first week of “Show & Tell”. Please check my previous email regarding your child’s designated day, and encourage them to bring something along to share with their class. Next week’s topic will be “Me”, which may include a photo or drawing of something, a favourite toy, something your child really likes, etc, and will help us get to know our friends a little more. The following week’s topic will be “My name”.

- Please send your child’s small music file that they received from Mr. Coleman to school next Friday. Children do not need to bring their large music file to school.

- From next week at TIP, P2 & P3 will be introduced to their second classroom, upstairs, where they will begin to start spending their morning learning times.

- Next Wednesday, we will have a new friend join our class at TIP. Please give a big warm welcome to her and her family if you see them about.

- We are planning a special family morning at TIP on Tuesday October 11th, the same day as our next open school day. Please keep this day free if possible and come along to join our classroom for a fun and interactive morning. We will send more information to you soon.

Making mud dumplings during recess

Important dates

October 5th to 7th – TIP Parent-Teacher conferences

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 Wokshop for Teachers, School holidays

Wednesday November 23rd – School Holiday

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

Thrsday December 1st – Professional Development Day, School Holiday

Our colourful rainbows!

This was a very short week for us here at TIP, but we still managed to be quite busy little bees. We  spent lots of time exploring colours this week! We played colour games, identifying and naming colours in our classroom and environment, learned the rainbow song, and reread “Where is the green sheep?”, by Mem Fox. Students also practised being good leaders by taking turns leading the class in our colour games.We also shared a big colourful pop up book, “Colours”, which walks us through colours in the environment.

During art, we focused on spatial awareness (filling our page), drawing curved lines and using lots of colours. Students practised these skills by drawing their own rainbows, and also made some nice new place mats! We will continue to explore colour and line in the coming weeks.

Drawing a rainbow

Designing colourful placemats

Looking forward…

- Parents will be receiving an email regarding appointments for our upcoming Parent-Teacher conferences very soon. If you are unable to come on one of the scheduled days, we are more than happy to find a time when you are available, so please do not hesitate to let us know.

- We will begin “Show & Tell” from October 3rd. Our first week’s topic will be “Me”, which may include a photo or drawing of something, a favourite toy, something your child really likes, etc, and will help us get to know our friends a little more. The following week’s topic will be “My name”.

- Ms. Skye Wheat is still in Australia next week, but will return to TIP October 3rd. For day-to-day matters, please email Mrs. Hiromi Yagishita, or for non-urgent matters Skye is still  checking email from time to time.

Important dates

Friday September 23rd – National holiday, No school

October 5th to 7th – TIP Parent-Teacher conferences

Monday October 10th – National holiday, No school

Tuesday October 11th – 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

Thursday October 27th – TIS & TIP Fall Festival

Our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom bulletin board complete

Welcome back to another week of what has been happening at TIP! Below are some highlights of what we got up to this week.

Understanding and making sense of our small world and celebrating diversity

This week at TIP we gathered around our world map and talked about where we all come from. It was an exciting time, learning that in our little classroom, we have people from 7 different countries, close to our school in Tsukuba, and far away on a jet plane! We appreciated that we are from many different places, yet all learning together and about each other, here in Tsukuba, Japan. Children had lots of questions about what languages people speak, what is different and the same in each other’s countries, and so on, so we shared a picture atlas, our knowledge and experiences. Students placed their pictures on the wall around the map, and connected them to their countries of origin(s), with yarn. It was like one big puzzle! We also introduced the concept of mapping this data on a graph, to compare where ‘many’ or ‘more’ classmates came from, or where ‘few’ came from. We will revisit these terms in maths in future weeks.

Independence

Developing independence, thinking and working on one’s own in many areas, is one of our big goals at Preschool, and is also one of our PYP attitudes that we strive to achieve. TIP Children are already working hard at becoming more independent! Each morning, after unpacking their bags, children now check themselves in by putting their name & picture card on the correct side of our check in chart. This week, TIP students were also wonderful helpers, learning to help set up and clean up art equipment, and putting things back to where they belong without being asked.

Literacy

Our reading goals for this week were name recognition, understanding that English text goes from left-to-right, making text-to-self connections, understanding what an author is, and joining in with familiar stories (“Who took the cookie,,,”). Children joined in with the repetitive yet descriptive book, “Where is the green sheep?”, by the great Australian children’s author, Mem Fox, and added lots of gestures to match the story. Our favourite picture book this week by far though, would have to have been “My name is Yoon”. It is a story of a young Korean girl who finds great difficulty adjusting to her new life and school in America. Children made connections to times when they had been somewhere new, or visited somewhere different, and felt scared.

In shared writing time, we composed our personalised class book “Who took the cookie from the cookie jar?”. Children are now taking it in turns to share this with their families at home.

Independently, children composed their own journal page on Monday, telling their own story through words, drawings, actions on their paper and some letters and words. Afterwards, we learned about good presentation skills and reviewed what good listeners do. Then, almost all of the students took a turn at sharing their journal page with the class! We were super impressed by their patience and willingness to speak in front of classmates at such an early time in the school year. Our confident speakers did not stop there! They also shared their valuable ideas on what it takes to take good care of books, and we compiled a list of “student jobs”: Don’t pull or tear the books, read nicely, share our books, don’t stand or sit on books, and so on. We decided that the “Teachers job” was to mend any damaged books, and that students would put them in the “Book Hospital” when this needed to be done.

Checking for damaged books to put into our Book Hospital

Reading carefully and independently

Re-reading a new favourite, "Clifford, the Big Red Dog"

Students are increasingly more attempting to our writing their names on their work, like any good artist or author. This week, we traced the letters of our names on our glitter name cards that we made last week. We then did some bubble rainbow name writing, which requires us to write our names many times in different colours, on top of each other and within bubble letters, to create a beautiful name rainbow. For students still developing letter sense and fine motor skills, it was a good chance for them to colour over each letter of their name, recognising that each letter was separate, using one colour for each letter.

Japanese

In Japanese class with Mrs. Hiromi & Ms. Akane, TIP students learned about respect-for-the-aged day, which will be celebrated on Monday. They made  alovely pen holder for their own grandparents (or parents), by decorating Japanese paper with bright colours.

PSPE

During PE class this week, and for the following three Wednesdays, TIP children will be participating in special soccer workshops. This week was a major success!

On the playground, TIP students are also learning to be problem solvers. We have learned that when we don’t like what somebody is saying or doing to us, we use our words, and tell them to stop. If they continue, we tell a teacher.

Learning soccer skills with our visiting coaches

Music

Parents should not be surprised if their children start singing a song full of ‘hellos’ from around the world! We learned this during our world exploration times, and have added it to our morning songs. We also practise composing variations of “If you’re happy & you know it…” by switching up the feeling words and matching them with actions.

In music class with Ms. Jennifer, students practised using high and low voices and moving to different tempos as a group.

Moving to music with colourful scarves

Our goals in violin class were to review how to care for the violin, and how to hold and stand with it. We also learned where the first 3 lady birds sit. As we will not have violin class for two weeks, our homework is to practise these things at home.

Violin class

Looking forward…

- We will begin “Show & Tell” from October 3rd. Our first week’s topic will be “Me”, which may include a photo or drawing of something, a favourite toy, something your child really likes, etc, and will help us get to know our friends a little more. The following week’s topic will be “My name”.

- September 20th-30th, Ms. Skye Wheat will be in Australia. For day-to-day matters, please email Mrs. Hiromi Yagishita, or for non-urgent matters Skye will still be checking email from time to time.

- Please keep an eye out for an email regarding appointments for our upcoming Parent-Teacher conferences

Important dates

Monday September 19th – National holiday, No school

Friday September 23rd – National holiday, No school

October 5th to 7th – TIP Parent-Teacher conferences

Monday October 10th – National holiday, No school

Tuesday October 11th – 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

Thursday October 27th – TIS & TIP Fall Festival

A walk in the forest

This was our first full week at TIP for the 2011-2012 school year, and we all survived, students and teachers! What a busy and exciting week we had being risk-takers and exploring beyond our comfort zones, from getting our fingers dirty with finger paint, singing in nice loud voices and playing with new friends, to touching creepy crawlers and frogs in the forest. This was also our first week of classes with our specialist PE, Music & violin teachers.

Making friends

Enjoying recess time

Catching grasshoppers

Monday

This morning we though about behaviours that are good choices, and those that are not. We made three “Class promises”, posted them on our board, and did some mini skits:

1. Take care of our friends

2. Take care of our school

3. Take care of me

To help children deeper understand what these could mean, please encourage your children to talk about them, along with examples of good choices of behaviour, at home.

Children also did their first “journal” page today. This was a good activity for children to draw and think about a ‘story’ and retell it to their teachers. In the afternoon we shared “Clifford’s first school day”, and predicted what was going to happen at different stages of the story.

Reading with friends

Tuesday

Today we started out with some shared reading, “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom”. It is a fun story about the letters of the alphabet climbing a coconut tree, then falling out because it gets too heavy. We did some letter recognition activities and games using children’s first names, and also made some letter collages for our classroom  “Chicka Chicka Boom Booom” Bulletin board. There is a fun video online that sings the story book and can be found here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEUp6BPm6pM

After lunch, children brainstormed different ways of drawing facial features and we did some pencil portraits, now on display in our ‘Art gallery’.

First initial collages

Wednesday

Our shared reading activity for today was a book called “Who took the cookie from the cookie jar”. Children laughed, sang and predicted their way through the book, following it up with a games of “Who took the cookie from the cookie jar in our classroom”. Children learned where our painting equipment was kept, and practised taking good care of the equipment and washing their brush between colours, as we painted our own cookies! We also played some games and ran around outside with Mr. David, our PE Teacher.

Playing "schools" with the doll houses

Thursday

Knowing what to and what not to touch is important when we spend so much of our time at TIP up close with nature. We reviewed good listening skills and set off for another adventure in the forest this morning, observing different insects and plants, jumping over mole trails, ducking under spider webs, and collecting acorns and chestnuts. Back in the classroom, we reviewed our cookie jar song & story with a game, made helper cards with glue and glitter, and tried our hands at finger painting!

Finger painting

Friday

Today we had our first violin lesson with Mr. Craig Coleman. We learned how to take our violins out of the case, how to hold them (in rest position and on our shoulder), and how to stand. We looked at how many strings they ahd and other features of the violin. Mrs. Jenifer Sadler also visited us for music class, and we all had a blast dancing around the room with colourful scarves, to different temps of music, as well as singing some new songs. What a great week!

Looking forward…

- We will begin “Show & Tell” from October 3rd. Our first week’s topic will be “Me”, which may include a photo or drawing of something, a favourite toy, something your child really likes, etc, and will help us get to know our friends a little more. The following week’s topic will be “My name”

- September 20th-30th, Ms. Skye Wheat will be in Australia. For day-to-day matters, please email Mrs. Hiromi Yagishita, or for non-urgent matters Skye will still be checking email.

Important dates

Monday September 12th – Open School Day (9:00-10:00am) & Parent Circle (10:30-11:30am)

Wednesday September 14th – School Tour for prospective families, 9:30am

Monday September 19th – National holiday, No school

Friday September 23rd – National holiday, No school

October 5th to 7th – TIP Parent-Teacher conferences

Monday October 10th – National holiday, No school

Tuesday October 11th – 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

Thursday October 27th – TIS & TIP Fall Festival

This week was our orientation week, allowing children plenty of time to get acquainted with their new friends, teachers and school environment.  We were surprised how quickly this year’s class were able to settle in and begin following daily routines. We sang lots of songs such as “Hello, hello…”, “Heads, shoulders, knees and toes”, “The wheels on the bus”. “If you’re happy and you know it”, as well as a days of the weeks song. Below you will find a highlight of what we did during our mornings at TIP this week, as well as some photos of our children in action.

Tuesday August 30th

This morning we met all of our new friends, and went on a gingerbread man hunt to become familiar with our school. Children followed clues such as “I am somewhere where there are lots of books….”, until they eventually stumbled across a gingerbread man story book and basket of cookies. We practised our “Roley Poley” song of thanks which we sing before each lunch and snack time. Before going home we read “David goes to school” which is always a favourite story at Preschool!

Look what I found!

Finding our favourite seats on the first day

Wednesday August 31st

Today we tried to recognise the first letter and sound of our own and friends names, as teachers handed out name tags. During morning meeting time, we also considered some different ways we might be feeling this morning, such as happy, excited, sad and shy. Children also did their first drawings of the year, of their favourite things, on some large puzzle pieces of paper. During free play time, children practised cleaning up one toy, before they chose another to play with, as well as cleaning up nicely on the teacher’s prompt. Children were also introduced to PE class, doing some stretches, funny shape running, and finished off with a game of “What’s the time Mr. Wolf”. Our shared reading for the day was “No, David!”, another fun story about David getting himself into mischief.

Building blocks with new friends

Perfecting a rocket

Exploring new toys

Thursday September 1st

During morning circle time today, We reviewed some feeling words and began our weather report and daily calender activities. We also reviewed some feeling words and pulled faces that could represent these feelings. Today we also used our puzzle pieces from yesterday to move around the classroom and find a friend whose puzzle piece fitted nicely with our own. Children then collaboratively taped the pieces together, and we displayed them at the entrance to our classroom. After that, a walk in the forest provided children with the opportunity  to practise being partners with a friend, and exploring the many creepy crawlies, and nature that surround our school. We also played a listening game and reflected on how we had been good listeners. We documented this on e a mini poster: Good listeners…Stop! Look! Listen! We practised neat colouring in on a dumbo colouring activity, and older students thought about the kinds of things they learn when they listen to their friends, teachers and parents.

Exploring the classroom toys during indoor recess

Making dinner in our kitchen area

Friday September 2nd

We continued to practise all of our daily routines today, and children showed much improvement on managing their toys during play time, and making beautiful lines while waiting for the toilet and waiting to go outside. We are so proud of them! We also reviewed “How to be  a good listener”, and that is exactly what all of the boys and girls did when we shared “The Gingerbread man” and did our earthquake drill. We learned where the safe area of our classroom is, and practised responding to teachers announcements “Earthquake, jishin“, by moving to the safe area quickly, and then to “Duck” (get down on the ground and tuck their head under) and “Cover” (cover the back of their head with their hands). Although many of our students are quite used to earthquakes and what to do nowadays, we would like to ask parents to review this at home with your preschoolers, and talk about where the safe place in your home is in the event of an earthquake.

Children find a soccer ball on the field at recess, and practise their soccer skills

Reminders…

- Thank you to all the parents who have brought in children’s supplies already! If there are are still some things that your child needs to bring in, please try and send them to school this week.

- If you are interested in volunteering at TIP, please try and return our “Invitation to volunteer” during the coming week. Thank you!!!

Important dates

Monday September 12th – Open School Day (9:00-10:00am) & Parent Circle (10:30-11:30am)

Wednesday September 14th – School Tour for prospective families, 9:30am

Monday September 19th – National holiday, No school

Friday September 23rd – National holiday, No school

October 5th to 7th – TIP Parent-Teacher conferences

Monday October 10th – National holiday, No school

Tuesday October 11th – 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

Thursday October 27th – TIS & TIP Fall Festival

Running on the field