Term 3 Week 5

House Keeping

• Congratulations to Alex for receiving Kaz this weekend. He has shown that he continues to try his best during our Arts Festival Rehearsals, he is a communicator by taking turns to talk and keeping an open-mind when others share their opinions too. 
• If you haven't already returned your Arts Festival form with your ticket requests please do so by next week if possible. 
• The classroom has become a very chilly place again, please place a jumper/sweater in your child's school bag should they need to warm themselves up. I have contacted facilities and am hoping this will be fixed soon. 

Looking to the skies

I can safely say I'm sure your children are exhausted after the week we've had! 

On Tuesday, thanks to Jonathan and Yuri Forth we had a lovely Singapore Airlines pilot, Captain Jay, come to answer all our questions. We also happened to have a fire drill at that time too!

On Thursday, with the help our most of our ReJ parents we went to the airport - It was a whirlwind trip, but it seemed, the children really enjoyed the experience. Thanks to Elizabeth for sending through the parent photos and to all our parents for coming down to help, we couldn't have done it without you! 

                  

On Friday, the children were super excited to meet Aki our UWCSEA Alumni astronaut.

Our jungle has continued to develop and with the help of our Make and Take mummies next week I hope to see some life in the trees! 

Thanks to our Communicators: Rafe, Kaia and Liam this week for your sharing. 

(Sorry Kaia, I was sick on Wednesday and missed your news so don't have a photo. I heard it went well.)

Term 3 Week 4

House Keeping

• Congratulations to Lucas you have show you are a communicator. You have used your active listening skills to listen to the ideas of others and you have used your speaking skills to communicate your ideas clearly. You have also shown you are responsible as you take on leadership roles in your classroom. Well done!
• Thank you to all the parent who have volunteered for our Airport Field trip this coming Thursday 12 May. If you are taking the bus with us could you please meet us at the car pick up area no later than 10:55am. We are hoping to leave by 11am. If you are meeting us at the airport could you please email me to let me know. 
• Remember to check our Parent Helper Folder to see when your child's News Telling turn is. 

This Week's Highlights

This week the children have begun practising for their Arts Festival with their Music Teacher. They have been doing such a great job, practising their songs and dances. We are so proud of them!

We continue to look into life in the Jungle. Some girls had a long conversation about what could be found under ground in the jungle. We have some very knowledgeable children. 

An excerpt of a very interesting conversation...

Lily "The flowers that fall down and rotten on the soil because then they're dead. It helps other flowers grow. Rotten flowers make food for the other flowers."

Lizzie "You know all the stems go under ground." 

Lily  "Let's draw the stems then. You know roots go underground."

Lizzie "Roots and stems are the same thing." 

Lily "The roots are attached to the stems and they're all squiggly."

A group of children also looked at how to create specific colours when painting using a colour wheel. 

Taking turns to add the paint needed. 

Checking the colour is the one they wanted to make on the colour wheel. 

After using paint brushes and sponges to paint it was decided that hands are a lot more fun to use!

Taking responsibility for their tools by washing them after. 

We had some Tech Experts in our class this week teaching their peers about how to expand on their Puppet Pal stories.

Thank you to Finn for sharing your news confidently with us this week. You answered everyone's questions very clearly and thoughtfully.  

Thanks to Simon for being our Mystery Reader. 

Thank you to Soumee and Hilda for braving the rain to be our Sandpit Helpers this week. Thanks for the photos too!

Term 3 Week 3 - All About Animals

House Keeping

• Please remember we have no school Friday 29th April and Monday 2nd May. Enjoy this extra time with your children. To our teacher parents: Have a productive PD tomorrow.
• Congratulations Mya Jade for receiving Kaz this weekend. You have shown true determination and resilience when writing. You have also shown respect to your friends and teachers when in discussions during meeting times by using your listening ears, looking eyes and by taking turns to talk. 
• I may need some mum and dad volunteers for May 12th from roughly 11am - 1pm. Nothing has been confirmed as yet however, if you are currently free that day could you please continue to try to keep it free. I will need about 10 volunteers. Watch this space. Thank you!

This Week In Class

We had some very excited children this week in class! We did need a few moments to stop and take some deep breathes to calm ourselves down. We continued having discussions about friendships, using caring voices and hands when with others. 

Airports and Animals

For the next few weeks our main two inquiries in class are likely to be around the concept of systems, responsibilities and relationships through the lens of Airports and Animals. This week the children began tuning into what they know about animals and their habitats. They watched videos, read books and used their 100 languages to communicate their knowledge. 

Watching Disney Oceans - Drawing and talking about what they see. 

Interacting with the same video using white blocks and puppets.

Brainstorming what animals like to live together. 

Brainstorming what types of places animals like to live. 

Making a home for a polar bear. 

Looking inside a fish.

Next week we will begin to build on a jungle in our class. If you have any jungle themed materials or items, you no longer want or need feel free to drop them off to us.


                     

Thank you to Wilbur and Artemis for being our first two ReJ Communicators. 

Talking about a family photo and fish and chips!

Explaining who the people in her family are using a family tree. 

"Any questions?"

We saw some really thought out work in the Investigation Journals again this week. So proud of our K1 writers!

Thank you to our Parent Helpers this week: Soumee and Tiana. It seemed like you both had a lot of fun with the children at Make and Take. Thank you too, to Armaan's grandma for taking these photos. Thank you for braving the sandpit for us too!

Thank you to our Mystery Reader: Luca (Leone's Dad) for your book about the lion.

I've added a link to our blog this week that will take you to an interesting and hopefully helpful article about dealing with aggressive or defiant behaviour at home. At this time of year, children will often begin testing the boundaries because they know they are moving up in the school. They are no longer the 'little kids' and what to be treated as such, at the same time they still need mum and dad. This can be a very conflicting and frustrating mix for them and you. I hope this article helps give you some strategies and insights.

Created with Padlet

Some photos from last week's SLCs. I heard you all had a great time and that the airport was very popular! 

                      

Welcome to Term Three

We are in Term Three! How our children have grown! There's a lot in this week's blog please do read it all. 

House Keeping

• Congratulations to Maya. Maya will be hosting Kaz this weekend for showing great determination and risk-taking when writing in class this week. Well done Maya! 
• This Term we are having News Telling in our class (Show and Tell). I have created a document which has what day your child will have an opportunity to share news of their choice. This document also has a planning sheet to help your child prepare their presentation to the class. You can find the document in the Parent Helper Folder. Or you can find the link here.  Please note this is optional for your child. 
• Next week is our Student Led Conferences 21st April. This is not a normal school day. Please be sure to check the email sent to you regarding details and your time slot for this day. 
• We still need as many recycled materials as possible, if you have any please send them to school asap. Thank you in advance!
• cardboard rolls (toilet paper rolls, tubes from cling wrap etc)
  cardboard egg cartons
  plastic bottles (no milk containers)
  empty coffee capsules - cleaned
  bottle tops and lids
  corks
  tissue/wrapping paper/other interesting papers
  small cardboard boxes 
  yoghurt pots
  yakult bottles
  ribbon
  netting from produce bags
  styrofoam trays
  small plastic containers
  packaging peanuts
  fabric pieces

  foam pieces

  screws/washers/bolts

  
  

  AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT WOULD INTEREST A CHILD
• Lastly, I will be away all of next week, taking part in a Professional Development course in Reggio Emilia. Ms Raisha will be covering for me, she knows the children very well and they have a good relationship with her. Please be sure to email the Infant Office or Carla (our Head of Grade) if you have any questions or queries next week, as I am unsure if I'll be able to check my mail. Use the pink book to notify Sue and Raisha of changes to transport. 
• The Head of Grade Blog has been updated please be sure to check it for important information regarding next week.
• During Student Led Conferences you will be asked to take your child to the Arts Exhibition at the RBT about 15/20 minutes before you come to the classroom. The Arts Exhibition for K1 looks a little different (and is a lot of fun!). The children, in collaboration with you, will be choosing and making an art piece, based on materials and topics covered over the year.  There will be prompts there to help you and the children will be able to watch as the piece grows over the course of the day. 
• Mystery Reader Next Friday 22nd April, 1:30 - 1:40pm: Barbara (Leone's Mum). Please do not tell your child you are the Mystery Reader - Quite a lot of the fun is the guessing part.  Thank you. 

Back at School

We've been talking a lot about growing, so this week we re-introduced comparative measurement and non-standard measurement. As a class we used the unifix cubes to measure Lily. Using the same cubes we compared everyone in the class and found out Lily is quite tall! The children have also been practising their Mandarin numbers, so have been measuring themselves using the same unifix measuring tower in Mandarin! 

We also explored our sense of smell, we asked the children if all plants and flowers have a smell. One child suggested we use the flowers in class to make perfume, which made for some interesting experimentation. 

"My one is called Glimmer Flower."

"Mine is going to be Happy Butterfly."

Mixing ingredients. 

Some children have really started taking to writing. They have been challenging themselves to write sentences in their Investigation Journals. Others have made postcards week too. 

                                

                                  "On my holidays I went to a mountain."

                                      Discovery Time Reflection: "I made a bamboo house."

"On my holidays I did kids yoga."

"On my holidays I went swimming."

"On my holidays I was living in a hotel."

"On my holidays I went to Disneyland."

"On my holidays I went swimming."

We had our first gym session this week! 

Other highlights of the week...

Alice, thank you for being our first Sandpit Parent Helper, they loved it. The children are so excited to see who's coming next time!!

Wednesday Mystery Reader

Jamming in ReJ with Ms Luiza...

                       

Friday Mystery Reader!

Making Clay Flowers

Meeting the Australian Rugby Sevens Team!

It has been a busy week. I know next week will be just as exciting. The children are really looking forward to being a teacher for the day during their student-led conference with you.