As part of the CNY celebrations, the children talked about why the lion dance is so important, what food is eaten at this time of year, and who celebrates this holiday.
On Friday 8th February, the grade 1 and 2 children put on a play during assembly to help the rest of the ES understand about Chinese New Year. They also sang some songs as well as did a lion dance! The children were very excited to see a lion - and could not wait until Wednesday 13th when the lion dance would come - along with the drums to school.
On Wednesday 13th February 2013, the children came to school wearing either red, or traditional chinese costumes and watched a lion dance - (including the very loud drums!)
Unfortunately I was sick on this day and was unable to attend the lion dance myself with the children... however they did tell me the next day that they all enjoyed it.... other than the loud sound!
The children were so excited about lions, that we created our own class lion!  Here are some pictures of our celebrations!

Regards
Ms Jenney

Since our trip to Marina Barrage, the children have been talking non stop about dirty water, and where the extra rain water goes (since we have had more than our usual share of rain recently!).
It is nice to see that the children have an understanding about how water is managed in Singapore.

Book Week was a very busy week for our class.
On Monday, the children were read to in their Mother Tongue languages by children from the Middle and High Schools. (The children came back excited to have been by themselves with other children in the ES School who speak the same language!).

On Tuesday, we visited with Singapore Author 'Adeline Foo'. She talked with the children about needing ideas before you can write a book. She helped the K1 and K2 children create a monster character and then the children were given the opportunity to come up with ideas for their own monster character. The children had lots of fun creating their own monster drawings, which they later shared with the class.

On Wednesday, we watched stories on the big screen in our classroom. We watched 'The Midnight Cat' and 'Green Eggs and Ham'. We had fun talking about rhyming words and coming up with some of our own.

Thursday was Literacy Night! Many parents and children came to school to participate in activities that are taught during the school day! It was great to see so many parents sitting with their children and having a go at the activities! What a great night!
Thank you to everyone who came along in the pouring rain!

Friday was probably the most memorable day for the children as they dressed up as their favourite book character! We had many Cinderella's but no prince charming for them! We did however have a dragon, a pirate, a power ranger, a pizza boy, Woody and 4 arms (Ben 10 alien)!

What a great week!
Regards
Ms Jenney



  

On Thursday 31st January 2013, the K1 classes visited Marina Barrage to help find out more about water. 
Upon arriving at Marina Barrage, we were greeted by a guide who talked about the many uses of the complex. She talked about how the water collected from many rivers in Singapore is collected and cleaned for our use, as well as helping to stop floods by letting water out to sea, if too much rain falls at any given time. The other important use for the complex is for leisure - many people use it for flying kites, having picnics and for exercise.
The classes moved on to a viewing platform, which showed the children the sea and the reservoir.. with a bridge separating them (what a view!). Next, we moved inside to a special tree, where the children were able to see pictures of water in everyday use  (they discussed the need to keep the water clean).
Along from the tree, was a wall made out of plastic bottles (15,000 to be exact!) - the children had fun touching and pulling them out! Moving through the gallery, the children came upon many pictures of previous floods in the 1960's.. (they were able to see why the need for the removal of excess water). We shown how the water is removed by an indoor flood gate! The children watched eagerly as the shower water grew higher - and then the gate slowly opened letting water through!
Next came the glass floor area - with singapore houses and rivers underneath! (Some of the children later commented that they were hoping the glass would not break when they were walking!).
Last but not least, we pledged that we would look after the water and had our pictures taken by a special wall camera that we activated with our hands.
After our tour was complete, we went to to roof which was covered with grass.... we had a lovely picnic (snack) and spent some time kicking around a foot ball (soccer where I come from!).
What a great time! The children had many questions when arriving back at school.. and we have been discussing these together.
Here are some pictures of our trip, so you can see some of what we did.
Regards
Ms Jenney

The children have been exploring the letter ‘F’.

The sound of the letter ‘F’ is like a swimming ring being deflated! The children had fun using their hands to show this movement and making a deflating sound!  (I am thinking you all have had a demonstration of this at home!)

When discussing words that start with the Letter ‘F’ – fruit became a hot topic. The children examined their snack and lunchboxes and talked about their favourites.

As a class we decided to make a fruit salad…. so we asked parents to send in 1 piece of fruit.  We had bananas, strawberries, grapes, pears, oranges, apples, raspberries and nectarines!

The children were very thorough with their cleaning and washing of the fruit (connected to or UOI about water) and helped their teachers with the cutting and peeling of the fruit. (We only had a few grapes roll of the table!)

The children were proud of their fruit salad and many said it was the best fruit salad they had ever tasted – and I have to agree!

Ms Jenney