K1 Monkey Class

Dear Monkey Class Families, Can you believe Term 2 has already flown by? It feels like just yesterday we were embarking on our "How the World Works" journey! This week, we celebrated all the learning and discoveries we made, reflecting on our favourite moments. Our circle time "share-a-thon" was a whirlwind of excitement, with everyone eagerly recounting their favourite experiments and inquires. We heard tales of construction projects, fizzy colour explosions (our mini-volcanoes were a hit!), and fascinating tool explorations. To solidify these memories, we engaged in a collaborative project, creating reflection posters in small groups. These mini-reporters shared photos and stories, and even came up with titles for their investigations. Last week, we took a unique approach by placing the reins in the children's hands. I asked, "What do you want to explore next?" Their responses were wonderfully diverse and enthusiastic! AM Class: The resounding reque...

Dear Parents and Caregivers, As part of our inquiry unit, we have been focusing on understanding the properties of different materials. In addition to paper, wood is a common material that the children encounter in their daily lives. They have been engaging with wood through playful activities using sticks and wooden pieces, observing how these items float and sink in water, and learning the story of Pinocchio (小木偶皮诺丘）. Through these experiences, the children have discovered that wood is hard, durable, and capable of floating.    With Easter approaching, we took the opportunity to create colorful wooden Easter eggs using markers and read stories about Easter eggs （彩蛋）. This activity not only reinforced our understanding of wood but also prepared us for our upcoming unit on colors. Last Friday, we held a Chinese assembly themed around Easter. The children enjoyed reading the story "Spot’s First Easter" （复活节彩蛋在哪里？） which introduced them to the special tradition of egg hunting. ...

Dear Monkey Class Families, As we approach the final week of Term 2, it's incredible to reflect on the whirlwind of learning and discovery we've experienced. The children's natural curiosity has been our guiding star, leading us on exciting explorations into the realms of magnets, marbles, and the ever-fascinating world of water. This week has been filled with hands-on experiments, collaborative problem-solving, and a whole lot of joyful learning. How the World Works  Magnets and Marbles: Exploring Movement We've had a wonderfully engaging week, delving into the children's fascination with magnets and marbles. We observed their love for magnets and aimed to expand their exploration, using magnetic bells to discover how magnets facilitate movement. Combining this with their enthusiasm for marbles, we created magnetic marble runs on the whiteboard. It was truly inspiring to see the children collaborate, problem-solve, and share resources. While some faced moments of f...

Dear Monkey Class Families, It's been a wonderfully busy and engaging couple of weeks in our classroom, and we're excited to share some of the highlights with you! We’ve been diving deep into our "How the World Works" unit, fostering curiosity and encouraging exploration. Pamela Peck Discovery Space A huge thank you to all the parents who joined us for our recent excursion to the Pamela Peck Discovery Space! It was a fantastic day filled with exploration, play, and a healthy dose of risk-taking, especially on the climbing frame! It was wonderful to see the children being courageous as they tried new things. Seeing the children (and parents!) engage in collaborative play and create those special candid moments was truly heartwarming. We've captured some of those joyful memories in the photos below. Monkey AM - Pamela Peck Photos      |      Monkey PM - Pamela Peck Photos  Water Wonders: From Ice to "Hey Water" Building upon the children's natural curi...

Dear parents and caregivers, I hope this message finds you well. Over the previous weeks, we enriched our understanding of the UOI "How the World Works" by focusing on numbers, counting, and the exploration of common materials, particularly paper. In the engaging story "数字藏猫猫" (Number Hide-and-Seek), children developed a strong connection between numbers and quantities. Through the interactive game "What's the Missing Number," they also strengthened their number sequence and recognition skills. During the following week, we connected this knowledge to everyday experiences. We read the story "叮叮当当杂货店" (Meimei's Grocery Store), where children role-played transactions, practising their number skills and language usage in a fun, practical context. Additionally, we introduced the delightful number song "从一数到五" (Counting from One to Five) to help reinforce key vocabulary. We then shifted our focus to the exploration of materials, star...

Dear Monkey Class Families, Our classroom has been full of energy lately, filled with exciting new explorations and the joyful revisiting of familiar favourites! We've been so impressed with the children's growing collaboration and problem-solving skills as they navigate different ideas and learn the art of compromise. It's wonderful to see them working together so effectively. We've also been focusing on strengthening our number sense, mark-making, and fine motor skills. We've had lots of fun with Numicons! We've been using them to make cool building shapes, like houses and towers, and we drew little windows on our Numicon buildings to make them look even better! We also traced the Numicons to make our own pictures. We matched the Numicons to numbers. Then, we used tiny tweezers to put fluffy pom-poms into all the holes. Some of us even tried putting two Numicons together to make bigger numbers. It was a great way to learn about numbers and shapes. The children...