Week of June 6th- 10th

Posted on June 10, 2022 by cadidjatu.ba

Dear EY3 families,

The end of the school year is here. This will be our very last blog for EY3! This is such a bittersweet time of year. It is exciting, exhausting, joyous, and sad all at the same time. 

A BIG thank you to all EY3 families for the beautiful gifts we received on Monday. We loved every item we received (especially the wine…!). What a lovely and thoughtful group of parents you all are. We thank you so very much for all the support and encouragement you give us and your children! It really means a lot.

We have loved getting to know and building relationships with your little ones. They have grown so much over the year and we couldn’t be prouder! Thank you for taking such an active interest in your child’s education. You have all aided greatly in their educational development and made our jobs even more enjoyable!

The children enjoyed their last day of swimming. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm. Everyone had an absolutely fantastic day of swimming. We saw lots of smiles and excitement on the young ones’ faces.

 

We had a great time on Wednesday. The children enjoyed watching a movie called ‘Paw Patrol’ and were surprised by delicious popcorn. They filled the room with lots of smiles and giggles while watching the movie and enjoying their yummy treat.

 

 EY3 Class Party:

Thank you EY3 families for the delicious food provided for our class party. All your time and efforts in planning and preparing those meals were much appreciated. Everything was yummy and mouth-watering. We can’t remember tasting anything so scrumptious!

 

It was Ms. June’s and Mr. Mike’s last day at KIS, all children and staff members attended a Tuk Tuk festive farewell parade to cheer them on their last morning at KIS. We will miss them so much and we wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

 

 

Over the summer vacation, we recommend you set aside some time to read to your child daily, practice handwriting in both upper and lower case, and practice counting orally and in writing. Furthermore, please review the high-frequency words we have read throughout the year to help keep them fresh in your young one’s mind. 

Again, we would like to say a HUGE thank you to all of our families this year. You guys have been amazing and made this year one of the best. 

We wish you a wonderful summer, and we look forward to seeing you in August!

 

                           Thank you for your amazing support and partnership!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Week of June 6th- 10th

Week of 31st May – 2nd June

Posted on June 2, 2022 by izabella.co

Dear Parents, 

As we almost come to the end of our exciting year in EY3, students enjoyed another busy and fun-filled week of learning with their friends. Our literacy engagements continue to be popular at centre time, students used their imagination and creativity to express themselves. Using a combination of pictures, letters, and words we made books, wrote stories and wrote weekend recounts. During circle time, students used their communication skills to discuss what they did at the weekend. We exchanged our ideas and then wrote words and sentences together through shared writing. Shared writing is a great way to fire up children’s imagination, collaborating on ideas and borrowing from others provides children with a much richer vocabulary to use when writing. It also gives children a model of what they could include when they are in the writing centre, in terms of content, spelling, punctuation and grammar. We are very proud to see significant writing and reading progress made across our EY3 community. In our art centre, we created letters and decided to write a special farewell message for Ms June. 

We had a lovely surprise guest on Tuesday as Ms Sian came to EY3 to read the story ‘Baa Baa Smart Sheep’ by Mark and Rowan Somerset and ‘The Book with No Pictures’ by BJ Novak. Ms Sian spoke about the importance of mindfulness and students enjoyed learning about meditation and mindfulness skills which will increase their well-being and enable them to meet the stresses of the world with presence, self-compassion, and openness. Thank you, Ms Sian! 

It was a very exciting week as we celebrated Nene’s birthday. We hope you had a lovely time celebrating your special day with your friends and a big thank you for the delicious chocolate cakes. Happy 6th Birthday Nene!

We had the privilege of watching an amazing A Capella Performance with The Harvard Kroks and Radcliffe Pitches who have delighted audiences around the globe with their unique blend of Acappella harmony and humour. With over thirty albums, they tour the world each year and have performed for guests such as King Bhumibol, President Mukherjee of India, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Aga Khan. Click on the link to watch a few of the videos of the performance which we had the privilege to watch. 

Amazing A Capella Performance

This week school photos that were taken in April were sent home with students. If you would like to purchase photos please check the envelope for instructions. Write your order on the envelope ensuring you include the payment. Then drop the envelope into the box which is located by the PYP school entrance next to the security guard’s desk. Photos will be delivered by post before the 22nd of July. 

This Week’s Learning and Fun

 

Upcoming Dates and Reminders

Thursday 9th June: EY3 Class Party

Friday 10th June: End of Academic Year (school finishes at 12.00 for students)

Thank you for your continued support and partnership!

Have a restful weekend!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Week of 31st May – 2nd June

Week of May 23rd – 27th

Posted on May 27, 2022 by risa.la

Dear Parents,

This week we continued our inquiries into storytelling and number sense. We were also busy doing year-end assessments of literacy skills and math, and were very impressed to find how far the children have come.

Friday was an exciting day filled with special events: our successful garden sale first thing in the morning, and later the house challenge obstacle course, planned and organized by the Student Council.

A huge thanks to all the parents who supported the garden sale! We raised over 4600 baht, which will go to supporting the garden project in the future. The children did some great mathematical thinking to count up the money, and proudly delivered it to the finance office.

Garden Sale:

 

House Challenge Obstacle Course:

 

As we approach the end of the school year, there are many special events on the horizon. Please have a look at the End of Year Calendar below and note any dates that apply to EY3.

End of year calendar PYP 21-22.docx

Red Bins F.pptx (2)

Have a great weekend!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Week of May 23rd – 27th

Week of May 16th- 20th

Posted on May 20, 2022 by cadidjatu.ba

Dear EY3 families,

It has been a wonderfully busy week of learning and fun for EY3.

Well done to you all! It was delightful to see students engaged during our Student-Led conferences and morning meetings. 

Teachers and students all spoke positively about the collaborative model and it was great to see students leading their learning in such a positive way.

A Big thank you to parents for attending our Student-Led conferences. Your continued support means the world to us!

 

 

 

* Unit of Inquiry

Our transdisciplinary theme is “How we express ourselves”, with a central idea focused on Storytelling and how it connects to us.

Through exploring this unit of inquiry, the children realized that across every culture, stories share common themes such as; the importance of family, caring about others, being kind, making good choices, and our love for living things. They re-told familiar stories using role-play, toys, puppets,  music, and movement. They created their original fictional stories through dress-up and puppetry. They had a great time listening to stories told through books and songs. They also continued to share their favourite storybooks with the class. 

Stories have the power to capture our attention and engage us in a way that facts and statistics sometimes do not. Above all, stories allow us to learn from one another. They can shape, strengthen and challenge our opinions and values. Incorporating what we learn from fictional heroes can positively affect our health and wellbeing.

 

 

 

*Math 

We have been doing lots of active counting by adding and subtracting during our maths lessons this week. ​​This approach enables students to explore how to represent addition and subtraction as a prerequisite to solving addition and subtraction problems.

Children have been looking for patterns within groups of objects in a variety of forms, such as numerical, drawings, words, numicon shapes, ten frames, and unfix cubes. These strategies enable students to deepen their understanding of mathematical patterns.

Throughout the week, the children have had opportunities to practice their adding and subtracting skills through bowling with numicon shapes whilst using a whiteboard to write the equations. Many of the children were making great connections on how to add or subtract one or two digits numbers.

Knowing the names of numbers and the counting sequence help students to develop a deep understanding of numbers so that they can visualize them and mentally manipulate quantities. Children told their number stories with pictures, narration, and unifix cubes, finally connecting them with a number sentence.

The ability to represent mathematical thinking will serve students both in problem-solving and in the communication of reasoning. Students will learn the vocabulary of addition as ‘putting together’ and subtraction as ‘taking away’. They learned how to represent addition and subtraction situations using sounds, drawings, and objects.

 

 

 

The Dramatic play center continued to be popular among the children. Children were sharing ideas and improvising dialogue to fit different roles, teaching them to speak clearly and effectively. They learn that words are powerful tools, which improves their vocabulary and encourages activities such as reading, writing, and public speaking.

Benefits of dramatic play:

  • It helps children to recognize what is real and what is fantasy.
    Children tend to be very apt at switching between real life and make-believe, they may even break from character to ask for a drink or take a break, happily going back to a creative voice or donning a cape once again, when they are ready.
  • Children use dramatic play to explore their thoughts and feelings. This is especially important for children who have seen something upsetting or scary in their daily lives. Dramatic play gives them an opportunity to sort through difficult emotions and practice being in the world.
  • Dramatic play teaches and encourages expressive language. Children are motivated to communicate their wishes to their peers and therefore must learn to speak from the perspective of their pretend roles. Dramatic play is often a very comfortable place for children who are shy or withdrawn to participate in a group.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to Dean and Deedy who turned 6 this week. We hope you had a lovely time celebrating with your friends and families and thank you for the yummy doughnuts and cakes.

 

 

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

Monday,  23rd May – Changing Library Books and Independent Readers

Friday, 27 th May – House Day, Students to wear House Shirts to school

Friday, June 3rd – HM Queen Suthida’s Birthday (holiday, school, and office closed)

Friday, June 10th – Last Day of School (half-day, 12:00 pm dismissal)

  • Please be reminded to bring back the books sent home for independent reading on Monday.
  • The library books and independent readers will be changed every Monday.

 

                            Thank you for your fantastic support and partnership!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Week of May 16th- 20th

Week of 9th – 13th May

Posted on May 13, 2022 by izabella.co

Dear Parents, 

EY3 had a fun-filled week as they inquired further into the unit of inquiry ‘How We Express Ourselves’ where they continued to be inspired by storytelling. Through storytelling, the children are being exposed to sounds, words and language, developing early literacy skills. Throughout their learning engagements which include using puppets, acting, music, drawing, and play, students are improving their listening skills, fostering imaginations and improving social skills. 

Our literacy engagements continue to be popular at centre time, with many children keen to read and write words high-frequency words.  High-frequency words are common words, words that appear very often in written texts. They are a mixture of decodable words which are words that can be sounded out, and tricky words which need to be recognised by sight. Students showed enthusiasm to learn new words and were identifying these words when reading books and also using the magnetic letters to spell the words.

This week our maths focus was on developing number sense and continued to learn about addition and subtraction. Using unifix cubes, flashcards, dice games, Numicon shapes and a variety of other hands-on activities students practised adding and subtracting. The subtraction bowling game was a popular centre which involved subtracting the number of bowling pins that were knocked down and calculating the remaining pins left standing. This helps our learners understand the meanings of operations and how they relate to one another and also provided them with opportunities to represent addition and subtraction. 

We want to say a big thank you to Ms Earth and Ms Lisa for organising the Cartoon Character Exhibition. Over the past two weeks, students had the opportunity to demonstrate their creativity and storytelling skills by either re-creating an exhibiting character they are familiar with or coming up with their own character. This week the children were invited to look at the amazing PYP Cartoon Character Exhibition where they saw all the wonderful work of the artists at KIS.

        

It was a very exciting week as we celebrated two birthdays in EY3. Happy 6th Birthday to Wynn and Freya! We hope you had a lovely time celebrating your special day with your friends and a big thank you for the delicious cupcakes. 

We are excited that the EY3 parent community finally have a chance to come into the classroom for the Student Led Conferences on Monday. All our families have signed up for one-hour time slots and students are expected to come in their school uniforms with their family members at the time they have signed up for. Please note that a negative ATK submitted the day before is required for anyone coming onto campus. Students and teachers are excited as this is a great opportunity for students to share a variety of classroom learning experiences with their families. This is the first time in two years that parents can visit the classrooms, so we are all very excited to see you on Monday. 

This Week’s Learning and Fun

 

Upcoming Dates and Reminders

Please bring back library books and independent readers on Wednesday. This will only apply to next week due to the Student Led Conferences on Monday. 

Monday 16th May – Student Led Conferences 

Wednesday 18th May – Library books and independent readers will be changed 

Friday 27th May – House Day (students to wear house shirts to school)

Monday 3rd June – HM Queen Suthida’s Birthday (school & office closed)

Friday 10th June – End of Academic Year (school finishes at 12.00 for students) 

Thank you for your continued support and partnership! 

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Week of 9th – 13th May

Week of May 2nd – 6th

Posted on May 6, 2022 by risa.la

Dear EY3 Families,

We hope that you all enjoyed your holidays on Monday and Wednesday this week, while we had a fun-filled but short week at school.

As our inquiry into how we express ourselves continues, the children dove further into their exploration of storytelling. They re-told familiar stories using role-play, toys, music and movement, made up their own original stories expressed through drawing, writing, dress-up, and puppetry, and enjoyed stories told through books and songs. Many children also brought their favourite story books to school to share with the class. These learning engagements provided opportunities to make connections between texts by identifying similarities and differences, and to build an understanding that stories can be told in different ways. They also provided opportunities to learn about story elements such as characters, setting, and plot structured around a problem. Learning about story elements and structure supports the development of reading comprehension skills, as well as writing skills, helping the children understand how to craft their own narratives.

 

 

This week children also continued to draw cartoon characters in the art centre in preparation for the Cartoon Character Exhibition. To mark Cartoonists Day on May 5th, the children attended a Zoom session with a guest speaker, a professional cartoonist and illustrator. They loved hearing him answer student questions and learning how he created some of his work.

 

 

Our math focus this week was on developing number sense, including building an understanding of place value, addition, and subtraction. The children took part in various hands-on activities where they represented number in different ways, such as numerals, drawings, words, Numicon shapes, ten frames, unifix cubes, and more. Such activities help students to develop a deep understanding of number, so that they can visualize them and mentally manipulate quantities. Many of these our materials and representations group quantities by tens, helping students to understand place value and the base-ten number system, which is essential for computational fluency later on. Some children also created “number stories,” simple scenarios that represent addition and subtraction, helping them to understand what these operations mean in real life. Children told their number stories with pictures, narration, and unifix cubes, finally connecting them with a number sentence (an equation). This was a wonderful way to connect with our storytelling inquiry, as the more connections we make, the more meaningful learning becomes in all areas.

 

 

Student-Led Conferences

Student-Led Conferences will be taking place at on Monday May 16th. Play and inquiry based learning centres will be set up in the classroom as a sample of what the children have been doing throughout the school year. Your child will guide you through these centres, where you are encouraged to engage and explore together. Teachers will be present, but on this day the children will be taking the lead! This is always an exciting day at KIS, as the children take pride in showing their families what they have been doing at school and how independent they have become.

Regular classes will not be taking place on the day of Student-Led Conferences. Instead, each family will sign up for a one hour time slot to attend. Please look out for registration information including appointment sign up sheets, to be sent on Monday.

 

A Note About Smart Watches

We have recently become aware that several students are bring smart watches to school, and would like to advise all families that these should not be worn at school. Bringing smart watches to school raises concern about privacy and online safety, not to mention the possibility of children losing or damaging a valuable item. If parents need to communicate with their child at school, they can always email teachers or call the PYP office. We thank you in advance for your understanding and co-operation!

 

Important Dates:

Monday May 16th – Student-Led Conferences

Friday June 3rd – HM Queen Suthida’s Birthday (holiday, school and office closed)

Friday June 10th – Last Day of School (half day, 12:00pm dismissal)

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Week of May 2nd – 6th

Week of April 25th- 29th

Posted on April 29, 2022 by cadidjatu.ba

Dear EY3 families,

It’s been another week full of exciting learning in EY3. All members of the EY3 learning community adjusted to the multiple unique ways of learning throughout the week extremely smoothly. Well done, EY3! We want to give a big thank you to parents, for your flexibility and continued support!

 

Unit of Inquiry

Our transdisciplinary theme is  “How we express ourselves”, with a central idea focused on storytelling and how it connects to us. The children inquired into the different ways of telling stories by using puppets, acting, music, drawing, and through play. The young learners shared their different ideas and were all very excited to do so. They loved expressing their knowledge of their favorite books by retelling the stories through forms such as dramatic play and narration.

The children have learned that stories are everywhere. They understand that stories are powerful recreations that shine a light on our experience of moving through the world. The students reflected on how stories affect how we think, plan, act, and find meaning. 

Some children thought a story could only be contained in a book but after much discussion and inquiry, they realized that a book is just one of many ways to share a story. The students explored stories from different cultures around the world. It was wonderful to hear about the students’ prior knowledge of stories and storytelling from around the world.

 

 

We introduced our new dramatic play center this week where we saw a lot of excited children taking on roles of police officers, chefs, princesses, firefighters, and doctors.

Dramatic play helps the children to interact with other children, and use their imagination. It is also a place students can go to pretend, imagine, and be creative.  Students can step into the shoes of different people and develop empathy and understanding of different viewpoints. This was extremely powerful for our little learners as it also helps promote high-level thinking, problem-solving, turn-taking, and is a rich place for teaching vocabulary.  Students can learn and develop skills in all areas of learning (language, literacy, math, science, social studies, fine motor, gross motor, and social skills) through pretend play.

 

 

Math and Literacy

Our writing centers continued to receive a lot of enthusiasm. Students were eager to learn and explore while using their imagination to create their own books and stories. It was amazing to see them using their independent drawing and writing skills to develop these books and stories. This approach helps strengthen both their letter writing and their ability to sound out new words. They also practiced their ICT skills by using the iPad to practice writing numbers and lower case letters. 

Our mathematics focus this week continued on learning about measurement and estimating length using rulers, meter sticks, and tape measures to measure their height,  through basic comparison of longer/taller and shorter than. 

The children participated in various activities where they compared and ordered different objects in the classroom according to their size. The children discussed the meaning of measurement and shared ideas on how to measure and how different materials compare to each other. They also began to develop the vocabulary of measurement using terms such as longer, shorter, and taller.

 

A big Happy Birthday to Segev who turned 6 this week. We hope you had a lovely time celebrating with your friends and families this week! A BIG thank you to Segev’s family for the yummy cupcakes and also thank you Ey3 for making the day special.

 

                    

 

                           Upcoming Dates and Reminders

Monday 2nd May – Labor Day Substitution  (school & office closed)

Tuesday 3rd May – Changing Library Books and Independent Readers  

Wednesday 4th May – Coronation Day (school & office closed)

Monday 9th May – Cartoonist Day

Monday 16th May – Student Led Conferences

  • Please be reminded to bring back the books sent home for independent reading on Tuesday. 
  • The library books and independent readers will be changed every Monday due to a holiday next Monday it will be changed on Tuesday.
  • Kindly remind the children to bring their favorite books to share with their EY3 friends.

                                     Thank you for your amazing support and partnership!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Week of April 25th- 29th

Week of 18th – 22nd April

Posted on April 22, 2022 by izabella.co

Dear EY3 families,

We had a wonderful, busy first week back on campus after the Songkran break. It’s been wonderful to hear about the children’s adventures these holidays and it sounds like everyone had a great time celebrating Songkran with their families. A HUGE welcome to our new classmates this week and to students who have been learning online. Wynn, Pam, Deedy, RunnRunn, Marvin and Louis all adjusted remarkably well into our community and we are excited to learn more with them next week.

Following the Songkran break, students were excited to share their holiday recounts. Our language focus this week allowed for students to use their communication skills as they created journal entries about their holidays and retold the events making connections to the Songkran celebrations. 

Students were excited to continue to learn about measurement and they enjoyed estimating and then measuring various objects around the classroom. Students were comparing the length and used vocabulary such as taller and shorter. They enjoyed using rulers, meter sticks, tape measures and unifix cubes to measure length and height. Predictions were made to inquire about who was the tallest and shortest in the EY3. We integrated measuring into the natural world and students were inspired to measure items from the natural world such as leaves, flowers, and sticks.

 

It was also a very exciting week as we celebrated Wish’s 6th birthday. We hope you had a lovely time celebrating your special day with your friends and a big thank you to your family for the delicious cupcakes. 

Our next unit of inquiry will fall under the transdisciplinary theme ‘How We Express Ourselves”. This unit will focus on the purpose of storytelling, the ways we can tell a story and the connections we make through stories. To get the unit started, we are requesting that children bring in their favourite books to share with the class next week. 

As always on Monday EY3 will be bringing library books but they will also choose two books that they can read independently or with some support from an adult. Some books will be wordless picture books which are valuable tools for literacy development as they engage children, regardless of reading level, in prediction, critical thinking and storytelling. A reading record will be used so students can write titles and monitor books they have read and there is also a space for parents’ comments and a space for children to give feedback, through the smiley face column. The library books and independent readers will be changed every Monday. Please see an example of a reading record below.

 This Week’s Learning and Fun

 

Upcoming Dates and Reminders

Monday 25th April – Library Day. Bring library books to swap. 

Friday 29th April 29 – House Day. Students to wear House Shirts to school

Friday 29th April – HOS Coffee Morning

Monday 2nd May – Labor Day Substitution  (school & office closed)

Wednesday 4th May – Coronation Day (school & office closed)

Thank you for your continued support and partnership!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Week of 18th – 22nd April

Week of April 4th – 8th

Posted on April 8, 2022 by risa.la

Happy Songkran Everyone!

 

Our EY3 community had such a lovely final week of Term 2 together, with all kinds of fun and festive special events. We created art work for the Songkran door decorating contest, dressed up in Thai clothes, crafted Songkran flags during Thai class, and had a blast playing with water. Take a look at the slideshows for some highlights.

 

Songkran Arts & Crafts:

 

Water Play Fun:

 

We also celebrated two birthdays this week. Happy birthday to Lina and to PunPun! A big thank you to Lina and PunPun’s families for sharing some treats to help make the day special.

 

 

After the break, we will begin Term 3 by re-visiting our year-long inquiry into community relationships, with the transdisciplinary theme of “Who We Are.”

 

 

Important Dates:

Monday April 18th: First day of Term 3

Monday May 2nd: Labour Day Substitution Holiday (no school)

Wednesday May 4th: Coronation Day (no school)

 

 

Enjoy the holidays, and see everyone back at school for Term 3 on April 18th!

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Week of April 4th – 8th

Week of March 28th- April 1st

Posted on April 1, 2022 by cadidjatu.ba

Dear EY3 families,

Thank you for another wonderful week of learning in EY3, and also a big thank you to all the parents for your continued support of this week’s remote learning.

Although our young learners felt frustrated at not being able to come to school, it was still a successful week online where we were able to communicate and engage with each other. Within our classes, we discussed the reason for returning to remote learning and reinforced the importance of safety measures during covid times, such as social distancing, wearing masks, and washing hands. We will continue to be vigilant in our efforts to create a safe learning environment and prepare our young learners for when they are back on campus next week. 

 

The children were excited to welcome some more furry friends to our remote classes this week. Aimee’s precious puppy Coco and Hugo’s beautiful golden retrievers. 

 

Our focus in language was on learning the sounds of the letters and also encouraging students to write and sound out words using these letters. The Seesaw activities for the online segment of this week helped to consolidate the children’s vocabulary and awareness of these letter sounds.

 

 

For our unit of inquiry “How the World Works”, the children continued to be inspired by the natural world. This week focused on the concept of the life cycles of animals. Our inquiries into the life cycles of butterflies enabled the children to strengthen their thinking and communication skills through wondering and questioning. As always, we encouraged the students to think critically through dialogue and discussion.  

 

 

We celebrated Lina, Lily, and Theda’s 6th birthday this week. We wish them a very happy birthday and thank all Ey3 for making the days special.

 

FUN FRIDAY- DRESS-UP DAY

It was great seeing all students dressing up as their favorites characters and sharing their books and stories.

We would also like to give a BIG thank you to parents for supporting your child with Friday’s dress-up day. We were blown away by the thought and creativity of the EY3 students and their families. 

 

 Important Dates and Reminders:

Wednesday, April 6th: Chakri Day – school and office closed

Thursday, April 7th- Thai clothing to school.

Monday, April 11th – Friday, April 15th: Songkran Break – no school

 

                                             Thank you for your amazing support.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Week of March 28th- April 1st