And how they grew...: 2011

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Sports Day and Halloween Party

Sports Day and Halloween Party, a set on Flickr.

Here are the promised photos. Enjoy!

General Update

As you can see, I have fallen a bit behind on my blog updates. My apologies! Things have been a bit busy for me lately, but I'll just give you the highlights of the last few weeks as I've tried to make the weekly reports detailed enough to make up for the lack of updates here.

This month has also been quite a busy one for Deer Class with PTA, a Sports Day, Student of the Month Assembly, and a Halloween party/parade. Also, this month I've made a big change in the way that story time is carried out. Originally, I was simply reading the stories to the students and asking them to point to different items on the page, but I really didn't feel that this method was sufficiently reinforcing their listening comprehension. So, now, after reading a story, we (as a class) reenact it. The students love it and hearing about a story in English and then acting out really helps them understand and remember the English better. It is really quite fun for everyone.

The Sports Day was a great success. Your lovely children were still telling me on Friday how much they enjoyed it. I will be posting pictures of the Sports Day, as well as the Halloween party, soon. For those of you who were unable to make it this year, we look forward to having you their next year, especially you lovely moms (so that you can race next time - instead of me). ~_^

The Halloween party was so much fun. Everyone had fun and colorful costumes. Each of your children were so proud of their costumes. Great job on the lovely costumes! As I mentioned above, pictures are soon to follow. At the Halloween party, the students were able to go into a "haunted house", a skull room, a laser dance room, and a "scary box" room. Some of the kids were a little frightened , but I think, overall, everyone enjoyed themselves.

Now allow me to update you all on the Star Students of the last few weeks (*indicates multiple times):

Week 6
Elly*, Randy*, Rueben*, Stella, Candy, and Ryan

Week 7
Stella*, Rueben*, Elly*, Randy*, Candy, and Jimmy

Week 8
Rueben*, Candy*, Randy*, Herman, and Jimmy

I would like to emphasize that the Star Student award is given entirely based on classroom behavior and participation. Students who do not earn this award are by no means bad students or bad kids. All of your children are wonderful!

Rueben

Randy

Herman

Elly

Candy

Stella

Jimmy

Ryan

And a special congratulations to Randy, who earned the Student of the Month award!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Deer Class - Week 5

This week was a review week for Deer Class. We went over all of the previous grammar, vocabulary, phonics, and math. I was very pleased with how well the students know the materials we have already covered. This is yet another example of how bright and hard working your children are.

In Science, we learned all about the five senses: taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell. The students were able to use the touch-me-tables to experience the different surfaces: hard, soft, smooth, rough, bumpy, etc. They used their sight to identify the colors of different objects and they used their sense of smell to smell a flower.

We learned the song, "Little Bunny Foo-foo", which tells the story of a bully who gets in trouble for picking on those smaller than him.

In story time, we read Is That You, Santa?"

And now, the Star Students of Week 5 are: Ivan, Elly, Cindy*, Randy*, Jimmy, Rueben*, Herman, Jingo, Mars, and Lucas. Way to go!