Blog Archives

Week ending 26.9.14

9/25/2014

Hello to all,

Another good week has passed, with the children succeeding in completing some very good work.

A big issue for me is how the children can complete their tasks independently. Some have been able to do this well, others are still learning. It would be very helpful for your child to learn to work independently at home, too. A great place to start is their homework. After an initial ‘bit’ of help from you to ensure they understand what they should do, please let them go off and try by themselves to complete the task. It is not easy to do this, but if you sit with them for every piece of homework, they will always be reliant on someone to help them complete their tasks.

We have again focused on information text tasks, culminating in a piece of writing based on a ‘fictitious’ animal the children created earlier in the week. In their writing they had to write about their animal, in information text style, and tell us about the animal, their habitat, life cycle, food source, etc.

Earlier in the week we looked at this website:
http://www.buildyourwildself.com/
on how we can create different creatures. I promised the children I would put it on the weebly as they had a lot of fun creating a creature, and thought they would like to make their own.

Other Literacy activities included creating a small booklet about the tiger, more practise of their handwriting, and testing of their spelling words.

The children also created some fantastic art this week, based on the art of Henry Rousseau*, including their ‘new’ animal in the scene. I was very impressed with their efforts, and you can be too, as they are proudly hanging in our classroom right now. Drop in and have a look whenever you can.
* I have included a small file/dvd below about the life of Henry Rousseau. It is quite interesting about how he persevered with his painting despite what 'the critics' said about his art.

I hope you enjoy the photos below; they are a mixture of the children at play, in class and during PE.

I trust you will all have a happy and restful holiday,

Greg
P.S. Below are some links re sentence writing, using capital letters, etc., that may be useful to you for helping/(reminding) your child at home with their writing.

http://www.funenglishgames.com/grammargames/punctuation.html
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/k_5/quizzes/?x=112&y=14
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/grammar/capitalization.htm

extended_book_trailer_for_the_fantastic_jungles_of_henri_rousseau.mp4
File Size:	20975 kb
File Type:	mp4

Download File

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Week ending 19.9.14

9/19/2014

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Hello to all,

Despite the weather forcing a few indoor play sessions, the children did very well during this week’s lessons. The children still seemed to enjoy the indoor play if you look at the pics below - they do look very content!

You can also see the children learning to take their pulse in some of the pictures below. During our science lessons we looked at our bodies and exercise, and focused a lot on what happens to the heart rate when we are at rest, and during exercise. Below are two websites we looked at to help us understand this concept, as well as what ‘fuels’ our body needs to keep us healthy every day. Children, do you remember what we need the most everyday to keep us very healthy?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/health_growth.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/keeping_healthy.shtml

Also, early in the week, we looked at what are Non Fiction/Information texts, and by discussing with our classmates and looking through many different books, we soon learned that most non fiction books contain the following: A Title, sub titles, a Table of Contents, an Introduction, information, photos, drawings, diagrams, labels, captions, a Glossary, an Index and a Blurb. We also now know where in the book these different things can be found, e.g., the Index is always found at the back of the book.

We also looked and listened to three non fiction books on tumblebooks.com* called: 'Animals In Camouflage', 'Meet the Meerkat' and 'A Platypus, Probably', to understand how information can be given in different ways for people to learn about these animals. We also noticed something different about how the titles are written - can you remember what they looked like? (The children can post their comment/answer if they would like. I would love to see their answers!)
*Just a reminder about tumblebooks.com - you can visit there anytime by using the username dulwichshanghai, and the password books. There are many great books for all ages on this site.

During other Literacy lessons, we again practised our handwriting, had a spelling test on this week's words, and wrote a letter to a teacher in Dulwich Seoul. Neil Gorton, a Year 2 teacher in Seoul, contacted us recently to find out if we would like to become 'pen pals' with his Year 2 class. He sent us a picture of his class, gave us a bit of information about the school and his class, and a few questions about our school and us. It is hoped that each child in Tigers, in the near future, can have a pen pal that they can write to and learn much more about each other.

* Just a further reminder about lessons starting at 8.30 - we have now begun our 'Phonics' lessons, which means for many of the Tiger children, they are starting in another classroom or area AT 8.30 four times/week. The children need at least five minutes to complete 'all their morning jobs' which now includes collecting their very important house points and 'Dojo' points. They know this is the only time they can collect them, so getting in early is very important. Please help your child have a great and comfortable start to the day by arriving 5-10 minutes early. Thanks.

And finally ...

A note from the Year 2 team re handwriting in Year 2:

We just wanted to inform you that details about handwriting and letter formation are now on the weebly in the 'documents' section.

We are really trying to encourage the children to practise and form all of their letters correctly at this point of the year. They should be starting from the right points and thinking about the letter families. When your child is able to do this, they will then move onto joining their letters which will help them to think about the correct letter size and will improve their spelling and the natural 'flow' of writing will come easier to them.

Also, all homework writing tasks will be sent home in the same format with the handwriting lines this term. Please encourage your child to be thinking about:
Tall letters reaching the sky (the top line)
Hanging letters hang in the soil (the bottom line)
Grass letters sit in the grass (between the dotted lines)

Many thanks for all your support and please let me know if you have any questions at all.

Best wishes for a happy weekend,

Greg

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Week ending 12.9.14

9/12/2014

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Hello to all,

A short but happy week was had by all! Well, I hope so – I know I enjoyed myself, especially seeing the children socialise and work with each other so well.

If you see the photos below, you will see we had a bit of fun with some activities, but also completed a task that has taken a bit over a week to do so. If you remember last week we studied the human body and body parts, and then began a ‘life-size’ display of Mr. Burgess and Miss Yu in our classroom. Well, thanks to Miss Yu and the children, we now have a fantastic display showing all the major body parts labeled in both English and Chinese – well done to all!

During Literacy, we looked at instructions. In class we looked at the importance of instructions and why we should follow them as they are given or written. We learned and practised ‘The Chicken Dance’ by following instructions, gave instructions to a partner so they could draw a favourite animal, practiced the instructions of what the children should do at the end of break times, discussed what we should do to give instructions on how to look after a pet, and then finally, wrote and drew pictures for looking after that pet.

In our Curriculum Diversity time we looked more closely at all the Year 2 class animals, by concentrating on their characteristics, their habitat, life cycle, and a few fun facts. The children discovered and recorded many new facts about these animals, and again we will soon have another great classroom display showing all their new found knowledge. One site we looked at and you may wish to visit again with your child is:

http://www.pebblego.com/login/

The username is myworld and the password is pgo. There is a lot of other facts and information to view and learn besides the many, many facts about animals.

Just a few things about homework:

Maths homework is given by your child’s maths teacher on Monday, and at the latest, should be returned the following Monday. Of course, it can be returned earlier if finished, and should be given directly to their maths teacher.
Spelling homework is also given out on a Monday, and should be returned, fully completed to our classroom on Friday morning. It should be practised every night to allow your child their best chance to learn the words. Please note that there were about 5-6 children that ‘did not’ bring back their spelling homework this week.
Curriculum Diversity/Literacy homework will begin next Monday. It should be fully completed and returned to our classroom by the following Monday, or earlier if fully completed.
Reading should be done every night, for 10-20 minutes, and should be, wherever possible, discussed with your child about the story, likes, dislikes, characters, setting, lesson/s learned etc, from their story.

Just a note about the yellow books – I had a few notes about the children using them, but I did not see them. It is their responsibility to give it to me inside their homelink book in the morning, whenever they write. I will check, and reward in some way, later in the day when I go through all their homelink books.

Finally, I sent home a few worksheets with the children this afternoon. These are various activities the children may do before school or at times during the day that generally support what we are doing in class through our curriculum work. These sheets do not have to be completed unless the children wish to do so. I have told the children if they want to do this, they can return their ‘fully completed’ sheets to me for checking and ‘probable’ reward.

Remember, if you have any comments; please do so through this site – I’d also love to hear from the children about what they enjoyed through the week.

Happy weekend to you all,

Greg

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Week ending 5.9.14

9/5/2014

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Hello to all,

Welcome to the first posting for the year to the Tiger weebly!

The site will include information and news about ‘what’s happening’ in the classroom, including photos of the children and links to various websites we have used in class, or for your reference. You can comment about anything on the website by clicking on the ‘comments’ link whenever you feel inclined to do so (please do!).

For this week, the weather tried hard to spoil our week, but it did not! The children have settled in very well in all aspects of their school life, which has been very pleasing to see.

Thanks very much for coming in this week for our parents meets to chat about your child. It was great to talk to all of you and give some happy and positive news about the children. Please remember that you do not have to wait till the next parents meetings to have a chat about your child. If ever you feel the need to find out something, please contact me through the home link book or email, and we can work out what time we need to discuss the matter.

In class this week we began some handwriting activities to prepare for the weeks ahead where the children will begin to learn and improve their ‘joined up’ handwriting. We also went through the process of ‘look, say, cover, write and check’ for the children to learn and practise their weekly spelling. This week we began with a review of some Year 1 key words and the words came home yesterday with the children. We have encouraged the children to follow this process with their weekly words, and also to practise each day. All sheets should be returned to class each Friday morning.

We spent some time learning about our class animal, the tiger, this week as well. We learned and recorded facts and information relating to the tiger, the loss of its habitat, and why the tigers may become extinct if ‘we’ do not change some of the things we do with regards to these animals and their habitats.

In other ‘Curriculum Diversity’ time, we looked at the human body and body parts. We watched and danced to ‘Dem Bones/The Skeleton Dance’ (see the pics and video below); and sang and practised ‘Heads, shoulders, knees and toes’ in English and Chinese to reinforce our knowledge of the main body parts, and ‘what is connected to what’ in the human body. As the week drew to a close, we also began working on two life size drawings of Miss Yu and Mr Burgess for a class display to show the various body parts. This will be completed next week for all to see. We also went to the website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/ourselves.shtml

to see and complete the task of naming and adding the human body parts. We started the quiz related to this activity, but ran out of time to finish it. You may wish to review this activity, and then complete the quiz with your child if you have the time.

To finish off our Literacy this week, we wrote a story related to a book we read in class called “A tiger came to tea”. The children were encouraged to use the story, but use another animal, to write their own story. Most of the children did a very good job with this, especially with their efforts to work and complete the task independently.

Happy weekend to all,

Greg

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4.9.14

9/5/2014

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Below are the Tiger class photos to the end of Week 2
(... and a few from last year!)- Enjoy!

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September 3rd, 2014

9/3/2014

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Hello to all Parents,

The information below belongs to Tiger class 2013-2014.
For all NEW information and pictures about Tigers 2014-15, please look above this post.
Thank you,

Greg Rendall

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Week ending 26.9.14

Week ending 19.9.14

Week ending 12.9.14

Week ending 5.9.14

4.9.14

September 3rd, 2014

Welcome to Tiger Class!

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