Week 23 Update and Pictures February 12 15

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Chinese New Year Holiday! Lots of good luck for the year of the dog! 

WOW! What a BUSY but fantastic week!

Empty Bowls, Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year…it was full on!  Your children did amazing with their CNY dance!  Proud teacher here! I am attaching a video—sorry about the bounciness—I think I was dancing with them!  Also, they did great with the Lion Dance this morning, even though it was so loud! I hope you all enjoyed your Valentine’s day cookies yesterday! A great week all around.

We will see your beautiful kiddos back here next Wednesday, February 21^st!

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*We are really low on fruit, granola bars and crackers. (We have VERY hungry children first thing in the morning!) Please feel free to send in some things for the class.

*February 16^th to 19^th: No School-Chinese New Year Holiday

*February 20^th: No School for Students-Teacher Inservice Day

*March 22^nd and 23^rd: STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES- The ELC will be participating in student led conferences this year (your child will lead you through some learning and you will have a conference with me.) You will get all of the details and how to sign up soon, but please do save the date for these days. If not done on one of these days, there will only be a traditional parent-teacher conference, as the student led conferences involve a lot of set up in the classroom. A note: Student-led conferences are an AMAZING thing to be a part of!

Week 23 February 12 to 15

93 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt

"Dragon and Snake Hallway" and Lion Dance Art

“I’m a snake!” Cheng Qian announced at connection time one morning.

“I’m a dragon! For Chinese New Year!” Arsh said.

“Can you be any animal you want?” Harrison asked.

“You are the animal because of the year you are born.” Shulynne answered.

The class looked at the two different years the children were born in. We figured out who is a snake and who is a dragon. A few children then decided to make their Zodiac animal out of recycled materials, and many others followed this idea.

“We need to hang them! Right by our lanterns for good luck! A dragon and snake hallway!” Arian exclaimed!

“And don’t forget to look at the red lanterns! Our class will have so much good luck this year!” Alisa added.

The hunt for good luck continued, as Jaden and Yoonjin looked on our calendar.  The Lion Dance on the special day before the Chinese New Year holiday peaked their interest.

“A Lion Dance! We should make a lion for our hallway!” –Jaden

“Red, yellow…sparkly!” –Yoonjin

“But let’s make it really, really big. We can all work on it together!” -Shulynne

Week 22 Update and Pictures February 5 to 9

Mango and Oreo Cookie getting so much love (and food!)

The pigs spent a lot of time out this week, just being a part of the class.

Chinese New Year inspired art and stories

The big collaborative Lion Dance

Discussing how to protect different species of animals

A collaborative effort to make a safe habitat

Mango snuggles

The children made an extension to the habitats they constructed.

A discussion about the difference between wild animals, farm animals, and pets

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Another great learning week, with so much going on! Please send in 5 dollars next week if you can for the Empty Bowls fundraiser. You can refer to the note attached to last weeks e-mail for details about this. The students will be making their bowls on Tuesday and will be buying and eating out of them on Thursday at lunch. You can still send in a home lunch (and still send snacks!) and they can still have the school lunch. Please let Ms. Aidah know if you want your child to ONLY have the rice or pasta with their bowl next Thursday

Our animal project is continuing to develop…discussions on the difference between wild animals, farm animals and pets, making habitats that are healthy and give animals what they need to live, the rights of humans and animals in the world…the concepts of protection, belonging and care are coming to the surface as the project continues.

Chinese New Year has inspired a Lion Dance creation to add to our “Snake and Dragon Hallway!” 

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*We are really low on fruit, granola bars and crackers. (We have VERY hungry children first thing in the morning!) Please feel free to send in some things for the class.

*Tuesday, February 13^th: Empty Bowls- A wonderful and amazing collaboration with high school art students for a good cause. See attached letter.

*Wednesday, February 14^th:  Valentine’s Day- We are going to keep this low key. We are not having a party, but if parents would like to send in some festive snacks with your children to share, that would be great! No need to do Valentine’s cards (unless this is something your family does anyway) as it is a lot for these young learners! We will be doing some fun things with them as a group. The children are welcome to wear pink, red, white!

*Thursday, February 15^th: School Chinese New Year Celebration- Students can wear Chinese New Year clothes or colors. We will see a lion dance in the morning and attend an ES show.

*February 16^th to 19^th: No School-Chinese New Year Holiday

*February 20^th: No School for Students-Teacher Inservice Day

*March 22^nd and 23^rd: STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES- The ELC will be participating in student led conferences this year (your child will lead you through some learning and you will have a conference with me.) You will get all of the details and how to sign up soon, but please do save the date for these days. If not done on one of these days, there will only be a traditional parent-teacher conference, as the student led conferences involve a lot of set up in the classroom. A note: Student-led conferences are an AMAZING thing to be a part of!

Week 22 February 5 to 9

87 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt

Week 21 Update and Pictures January 29 to Feb 2

Collaborating on making all 4 terminals of the Changi Airport

Working on stories to add to our classroom library. We are Authors!

"I am a Chinese New Year Snake!" (made out of recycled materials)

"These animals are all in Africa. The families stick together to protect." 

"Superman is coming to save all of the animals in all of the countries! He is going to make sure they are okay!"

Creative snake making

A preview of the amazing representations of Chinese New Year...a book in the making.

"A dragon dance for good luck. All the people have to work together."

"You can make curls like my hair in the clay. I need to show everyone this new way to do art!"

"This is an Ipad. All the apps are here, especially if you want to learn your sounds!"

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There are some new events added this week-be sure to take a look below.

Our animal project has taken many different turns, from how the environment affects the animals, where different animals live in the world, animal babies and families, camouflage protecting animals, shadows that animals make…much documentation in progress right now!

The children have been inspired by the celebration of Chinese New Year, and have busily been decorating. They want to make a book for our library with their drawings and thoughts so they are working hard on that. Also, we have figured out which students are snakes and which are dragons and they have been using the Maker Space to create these animals for our hallway.  Be sure to look though the pictures to see a few of the other explorations in action…

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*We are really low on fruit, granola bars and crackers. (We have VERY hungry children first thing in the morning!) Please feel free to send in some things for the class.

*Tuesday, February 13^th: Empty Bowls- A wonderful and amazing collaboration with high school art students for a good cause. See letter I sent with the Friday e-mail.

*Wednesday, February 14^th:  Valentine’s Day- We are going to keep this low key. We are not having a party, but if parents would like to send in some festive snacks with your children to share, that would be great! No need to do Valentine’s cards (unless this is something your family does anyway) as it is a lot for these young learners! We will be doing some fun things with them as a group. The children are welcome to wear pink, red, white!

*Thursday, February 15^th: School Chinese New Year Celebration- Students can wear Chinese New Year clothes or colors. We will see a lion dance in the morning and attend an ES show.

*February 16^th to 19^th: No School-Chinese New Year Holiday

*February 20^th: No School for Students-Teacher Inservice Day

*March 22^nd and 23^rd: STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES- The ELC will be participating in student led conferences this year (your child will lead you through some learning and you will have a conference with me.) You will get all of the details and how to sign up soon, but please do save the date for these days. If not done on one of these days, there will only be a traditional parent-teacher conference, as the student led conferences involve a lot of set up in the classroom. A note: Student-led conferences are an AMAZING thing to be a part of!

Week 21 January 29 to February 2

51 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt