Term 2 Week 4: Jan. 31st – Feb 4th

Dear EY1 Community,

It’s been a very fun, yet, eventful week in EY1. We were back to a 5-day learning week, with many of the children showing fatigue towards the end of the week. Thank you for your support with communicating with teachers about their sleep routines. This really helps us understand when children might need some extra support each day.

Your child may have mentioned ‘Special Helpers’ this week at home.This is something we have introduced to support the children in being responsible and principled learners. The Special Helper has many important jobs such as being the head of the caterpillar line, turning off the lights when we leave the classroom, supporting the teachers with choices of songs and games as well as choosing the Special Helper for the next day. 

 

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This Week’s Learning & Fun
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This week our EY1’s were amazing global citizens and open-minded learners as they strived for understanding of different cultures and how people celebrate around the world. 

Chinese New Year

The children contributed to the wonderful CNY decorations in the atrium by each making their own lanterns and they looked amazing on Tuesday in their red red CNY outfits. The EY1’s demonstrated that they are caring and generous members of the community, showing such excitement and enthusiasm to hang their red envelopes with donations on the tree. We also collected data on each person’s Chinese zodiac animal within the class community, learning our own as well as others’. We had a class discussion on which zodiac animal had the most or least amount of people and how did we know.

 

Waitangi Day (New Zealand’s National Holiday) and the Story of the Taniwha

The children really enjoyed listening to the Maori legend about a Taniwha. A Taniwha is a mythical creature who lives in the rivers near Maori towns and villages. The Taniwha protects the village people from danger and scares away evil spirits. He meets a little boy called Maui and they form a special friendship. They go on wonderful adventures together, travelling under the water, seeing many ocean animals and amazing treasures deep in the ocean. It is based on the song ‘I saw a Taniwha,’ which we also learned this week! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8QvdQGcsA

The children contributed to the story by making connections to some ocean animals they know and drawing these on the whiteboard. The children are learning how powerful storytelling can be. Stories teach us about life, about ourselves and about others. Storytelling is a unique way for children to develop an understanding, respect and appreciation for other cultures, and helps promote a positive attitude to people from different lands, races and religions.

 

We continued to inquire and reflect on the different types of play for our unit of inquiry, looking at how we play, who we like to play with and where we like to play. The children are enjoying the various play centers and are revisiting and extending their ideas each time. This week we introduced a new sensory based center ‘Water Play’. The children took action in choosing their resources and colours of the water each day. They used their imaginations and immersed themselves in role play scenarios with friends making tea, coffee, sodas, juice and more! They are exploring concepts such as light/heavy, float/sink, full/empty and shallow/deep. We are learning to share space and resources with friends, and concentrate and solve problems. For many children (and teachers), this is also a very therapeutic and relaxing experience too.

Photo Gallery – Week of Jan. 31st – Feb 4th

Special Guest – Ms Alex 

This week Ms Alex came to visit us in EY1. We learned about her role as the school counsellor and she explained that she has a very special job as KIS. She supports all the members of the community such as students, teachers and parents! They are able to come to her with many different problems and feelings.

Her main focus for this particular visit was to talk to the children about BODY safety. We had a class discussion about being the ‘BOSS’ of our own bodies because we are in control of them. We make our bodies go, use our brains for thinking and we have our own feelings inside us. To support our lesson on body safety, Ms Alex read us a story called ‘No Means No’ by Jayneen Sanders. She also taught us a new song called ‘My Body’.

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Parenting Corner
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As I’m sure many parents have noticed, we LOVE to sing songs in EY1. Some parents have been requesting us to share links and videos to these. Here are a couple of our favourites for you to sing along with your child at home. 

– Days of the Week

– Tap, Tap, Tap!

– Stand up 

– My Body (with Ms Alex)

Link to EY1 Songs (Videos)

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Upcoming Dates & Reminders
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• • Feb. 7th – 9.00am – 10.00am – HOS Parent Coffee [Meeting Link]
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  • Feb. 9th – Library Books Due
    Please help the children pack and bring back the library books on THURSDAYS. Book checkouts will now be on FRIDAYS.
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  • Week of Feb. 7-11 – Math Week
    More details to follow.
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  • Feb 10th – Remote Learning Day
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  • Feb 10th – Primary students invited to come to school wearing mathematics!
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  • February 11 – 8.00am – PS Parent Forum [Meeting Link]
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  • Week of Feb. 14-18 – February Break
    No classes. Campus closed to students.

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