NTSIS PYP Preschool Newsletter (23rd September– 207h September 2019)
Transdisciplinary Theme: Who we are
In conjunction with the upcoming Chinese National Day, the Chinese teachers in the primary section prepared students to share and present various aspects of National day around the world during the PYP assembly. While the little ones did not participate in the assembly items, many of them rose to the occasion by putting on traditional costumes. This made the assembly even more significant. Thank you parents for participating. Hope everyone would have a good holiday break!
What a busy week…
Nursery:
Central idea:
Getting to know about myself
Line of inquiry 1: Our body functions
Line of inquiry 2: Our abilities
Line of inquiry 3: Likes and dislikes
Last week, students continued to discover what they can do with the different parts of their bodies, and learned how to take care of their bodies, such as brushing their teeth, combing their hair, washing their hands. The children were also introduced to the various National Day celebrations. They learned to identify the flag of China, 5 stars and red flag.After the National Day holiday, the new term will continue with students “Getting to know about myself”. We will focus on the likes and dislikes of children and their self-help skills, such as combing their hair, brushing their teeth and washing their hands.
Students will be learning their ABC and the sounds they made. They will be exploring alphabet letters and numerals through various activities.
What a busy week…
Kindergarten 1:
Central idea:
Senses help us experience the world
Line of inquiry 1: The senses
Line of inquiry 2: Functions of senses
Line of inquiry 3: Experiencing with senses
We inquired into taste and had two activities on food tasting experiences. First, we explored fruit flavoured jelly beans (strawberry, banana, apple, orange, peach, blueberry, peach) and then colourless liquids which tasted salty (salt), sour (lemon), sweet (sugar) and tart (white vinegar). These two experiences required us to heighten our taste buds and determine the favours of food that we are tasting. For Language, we have been practising vowels, sight words and vocabulary (action words). For Maths, we practised counting aloud, counting and simple addition.
We will continue our inquiry into smell, experiencing how it is closely linked to our ability to taste.
What a busy week…
Kindergarten 2:
Central idea:
Everyone is different
Line of inquiry 1: Physical characteristics
Line of inquiry 2: Personal characteristics
Line of inquiry 3: Learning through experiences
We expanded our animal vocabulary, shared our favorite animals and began to explore simple facts about the animals we love. We used colorful animal counters to count in sets of 5 and 10, making different equations on the black board in teams. We then went on “safari” outside to find the 30 animals that had escaped. We discovered it was faster to count by 5’s than by 1’s or 2’s.
In the warm, autumn afternoon we went on another “safari” to find animals that live around our school. We saw a lot of bugs! We talked about how bugs are different than us, but share the same fear of us that we do of them. Our friend David turns 6 this week! He brought a delicious cake and we made him a surprise birthday card. Happy Birthday David!
This week, we feature specialist subject: Chinese
Here are some of the highlights:
Nursery: After we read the story <石头汤>, we practiced oral Chinese by sharing the different ways that we can make ourselves happy.
K1: The children investigated the smell of essential oils. At the end of the activities, the children decided on their favourite scents. We even had a fun activity where they tried to draw their favourite scents!
K2: The K2 students observed and touched the textures of grass and stone. They acquainted with the characters 草 and 石. They got to imagine what it would happen if we combine the two materials.
Celebrate National Day @assembly 27th September 2019
Grade 1 presented on significance of country flags
Students of Grade 2 may have come from different countries yet they could appreciate and sing the national anthem of China as class. We learned that every country has its own national anthem.
Grade 3/4 recited a poem about motherland in Chinese. We learned that no matter where we are, our countries will always be our motherland.
Grade 5/6 shared about their national day celebrations of their countries.
Ms. Serena explained etiquettes during ceremony where national anthems are being played.
Even the little ones dressed for the occasion!
