It’s great to be back to the swing of things! As we kick off to a new year, the children are ready for some new challenges. We would also like to welcome our new friend, everyone is eager to help him get acquainted with the routine at school. 

First thing off the bat, we started our UOI discussion about community helpers. The children will be learning what community means and the various helpers that are in our community. They will take a deeper look at what exactly the community helpers do, and the tools they use to perform their jobs. In the first lesson, the children each picked an item from the pile of tools of which they think a certain job uses, and had a discussion about who are these people that use these tools. They are off to a great start as they discover further about the various community helpers and their importance in our community. 

Workstations have served its purpose weekly by providing opportunities for more practices on skills the children need. Whether it is performing a counting exercise with teddy bear counters, practicing their sight words spelling skills, or learning the geometrics with tangrams, the children were focused and enjoyed these hands-on activities.

It was probably the coldest day of the week when we walked to the large park. Despite the chilling weather, the children always tried their best on the walk and had a blast running outside getting some fresh air!  

Another thing we have started on this last quarter of the year is the reading block. The children have worked on their phonics skills in the past 8 months, and are now ready to put it to test. They read the Sound and Symbol books as they sounded out each letter and blended them together to form words. It is not easy for some, nonetheless with consistent practices they will all master the skill and become a better reader. Along with the reading exercises the children also kept a reading log by stamping their friends’ logs once they have heard their friends read. They are required to read to three friends at each reading block, and some children commented how much they enjoyed the reading time. 

Last but not least, we enjoyed watching the show-and- tell from our friends. Whenever they make a project or have something special they would like to share, we provide the platform for them to express their excitement. We absolutely love it!