As we are sure you have already heard, the Grade 1 children did a fantastic job as the surprise, top-secret final act at Tuesday’s Grade 12 Leavers’ Assembly. When the curtain rose (very slowly!), the whole Sports Hall erupted in spontaneous applause and, in spite of the large crowd, the Grade 1 children performed loud and proud...even though we had been waiting in silence for 20 minutes! By the end, there was hardly a dry eye in the house. We might just be invited back next year.
We are all very excited about next week’s visits to Tampines Eco Green. This is one of Mr. Morley's favourite places in Tampines and, weather permitting, we will have the opportunity to explore the whole area. We do not want to preempt any thinking but we are hoping it will help to frame some of our ongoing discussions about the interconnection between humans, animals and the environment.
This is something we have been thinking a great deal about in the class as we explore the impact of humans on the environment and how this has changed over time. One learning experience that really peaked our collective interest was to consider the view from our classroom windows. After enjoying the wonderful book "Window" by Jeannie Baker, we spent some time imagining how the view has changed over time and record what it might have looked like in the past and, indeed, what it might look like in the future, explaining their reasoning throughout. We have also started watching the fantastic Sir David Attenborough documentary, "Wild City," which was filmed in Singapore recently.
On Wednesday, we spent the morning with Mr. Betts in the Art Room, creating some amazing animals using old plastic water bottles. This is something we will be sharing with our friends at Kuma Cambodia as part of our ongoing Service initiative...look out for them outside the classroom as soon as the paint dries!
This week, 1BeM have welcomed a number of unexpected yet strangely familiar characters to our Morning Meetings. Chrysanthemum, Thing 1 and Kevin Henkes’ Lily have all come to talk about their character traits and motivations...and Willy Wonka has been spotted around our room too!
With this in mind, we are planning a “Character Morning Tea” on Wednesday 11th May. On this day, the children are invited to come to school as a favourite book character (with the emphasis on book) and bring a small plate of something delicious to share with their classmates that reflects their character. We do not want them to go out and purchase an elaborate costume and would much rather they came to school in something homemade. Their “costume” may well be nothing more than a few props, perhaps a hat or a simple accessory. We are letting you know now to give everybody plenty of notice although, once again, the main idea of the morning is for the children to come “in character” rather than it being a “dress up day.”
This week, we have been exploring addition, subtraction and the number system. This is a unit we revisit continually throughout the year as we develop strategies and deepen our understanding of number relationships. At the moment, we are focusing on fluently adding and subtracting within 20. “Fact fluency” is something we concentrate on, however, we are more interested in the children understanding their mental computations than reeling them off regardless. This unit will give the children plenty of scope to practice and consolidate various strategies, such as counting on, making ten, decomposing a number leading to 10 and so on.
Reminders and Requests
*Wednesday 27th April-Visit to Tampines Eco Green-1MLN, 1PTh and 1BeM-8.20-10.00am
*Tuesday 10th May-Grade 1 “Love Your Lungs” Morning-Infant School Playground/Pool:
1BeM-10.10-10.40am. Please come along and cheer us on!
*Wednesday 11th May-G1 Character Morning Tea
*Thursday 19th May-G1 to G2 Transition Meeting for Parents-8.15-9.15am-Conference Room 3 (followed by the Principal’s Forum)
*Tuesday 7th June-G1 Swim Gala-8.30-10.00am-Main pool. Parents welcome.
Have a lovely weekend
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