EY3 Class Blog

Week 18: 13th – 17th December

Posted on December 17, 2021 by izabella.co

ANOTHER fantastic and festive week in EY3 full of cheerfulness, exploration, creation, and wonder!

It’s almost the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas is nearly here and we had a great time this week with festive activities and exchanging gifts. We sang Christmas songs, created Santas, snowflakes, Christmas trees, and donated gifts for children in need.

Christmas time is the perfect opportunity to write letters to Santa. We set up a ‘Letters to Santa’ Writing Center and students used writing prompts, paper, and envelopes to write to Santa. Students loved engaging with this space as they busily wrote letters and showcased their learning from this past semester.

We had fun practicing how to write capital letters and learned that we always start writing the letters in the top left corner with a big line down, then jumping back up to the starting corner.

We read Christmas stories, played games, and enjoyed playing outdoors. We had opportunities to use our creativity, problem-solving skills, and communication skills. Using our thinking skills we decided how we could make Samba the Bear a Christmas outfit using arts and crafts material.

We were all very excited that the festive season is approaching. On Tuesday and Friday, we had fun at our Christmas party where we played games, listened to music, shared gifts, and ate delicious party food. Thank you for the continued support and generosity when contributing to party food and gifts for both students and teachers. We are extremely grateful!

Jingle bells… Jingle bells… Jingle all the way! We sang Christmas songs with all the other students in the Primary School. The music of Christmas lifted our spirits and made us happy and excited for the holiday season!

Snowman Scurry, Sled Race, Elf Fun, and Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. Enjoy watching our videos!

The slideshows below show activities the children engaged in this past week. They explored, interacted with each other, collaborated, communicated and so much more – all while they were playing!

Group One Slideshow Fun

Group Two Slideshow Fun

Remote Learning Slideshow Fun

Coming Up Next Term:

Campus Reopening in January!

A decision has been made to fully reopen the school on Monday, January 10, 2022. We appreciate the recent feedback from our KIS community which led to this outcome following extensive leadership discussions. We are confident that this is a safe and prudent path forward and good news for our students and community.

The Primary School will begin with half of its students on Jan. 10th, the other half on Jan. 11th, and all students on campus on Jan. 12th.

Remote learning continues on January 10th as an option for families but these accommodations will look different.

We have had a fantastic first term with our students and we truly appreciate all your support. We are very much looking forward to seeing all students on campus soon.

Dec. 20th – Jan. 7th – December Break – NO SCHOOL
Jan. 10th and Jan. 11th – First day of Term 2
Jan.12th – All Students on Campus

Thank you for your continued support this term!

Wishing you all a fabulous, relaxing break and we will forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

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Week 17: 6th – 10th December

Posted on December 10, 2021 by izabella.co

It’s been another exciting week in EY3! The children had opportunities to inquire, create, investigate, and interact with their peers. Communication and social skills have been developing during center time with our friends.

For our Unit of Inquiry, we have explored countries around the world by looking at globes, atlases, and flags. Using our knowledge of where we live and where our families are from, we located those countries on a map of the world. We also spent time discussing the learner profiles and why they are important in our daily lives.

During Maths learning we have focused on numbers where we identified numbers, counted objects, and wrote numbers. We practiced correct number formation focusing on starting to write the number from the top and finishing at the bottom.

In Langauge, the students used their communication skills as they created journal entries about their weekends and retold the events making connections to question words such as who and what. An emphasis was placed on using words in the past tense such as went, had, and played. We continued to learn new letters and sounds, focusing on how to write these letters, thought of words that include these letters, and also sang songs with actions that helped us remember the letters and sounds.

Students were particularly keen to take on a challenge and used their thinking skills to assemble a wheelbarrow. After lots of discussions with their friends, they were able to solve problems and make decisions together.

The festive season is approaching so we had arts and crafts fun creating trees, Santas, snowflakes, cards, and decorating the Christmas Tree.

Students are starting to bring in gifts that will support organizations for children in need. Please support the children and make their holidays special. The Gifts will be picked up on Thursday, December 16th. Thank you for your support!

Group One Photo Slideshow

Group Two Photo Slideshow

Coming Up Next Week:

Literacy – We will continue to learn new letters and sounds and will also write letters to Santa.

Maths – We will create Christmas decorations that have a variety of patterns.

Unit of Inquiry – We will continue to explore maps and will look at flags linked to these countries.

Dec. 14th and 17th – End of Term Christmas Parties
Dec. 17th – Last day of Term 1
Dec. 20th – Jan. 7th – December Break – NO SCHOOL
Jan. 10th – First day of Term 2

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Week 16: 29th November – 3rd December

Posted on December 3, 2021 by izabella.co

Thank you for another great week of learning!

This week we have been considering the aspect of ‘place’ within our Unit Of Inquiry. Students used their thinking and communication skills to discuss where they are from, where their parents are from and where they live now. We looked at maps and created flags to represent the countries associated with us and our families. Using our research skills we used the iPads to find out what flags from different countries look like and then we had fun creating the flags.

In Literacy week we have started to learn letters and sounds and had fun identifying these letters when reading books. We learned how to write these letters, thought of words that include these letters, and also sang songs with actions that helped us remember the letters and sounds.

In Maths students explored activities involving data handling. We have been developing our understanding of numbers. We explored numbers from one to ten and practiced writing numbers using the correct number formation.

During Center Time we have enjoyed learning, exploring, creating, and inquiring. Our gardening center has been a popular choice as we can help with the weeding, watering the plants, digging the soil, and planting new seeds. We were excited as Ms. Lek brought in cocoons and we watched the amazing Atlas Moths emerge out of the cocoons.

Sports Day was so much fun as we participated in activities with our friends and were keen to stay active, healthy, and accumulate points for our teams. Well done to everyone involved and the House Teams for being so enthusiastic!

We also celebrated the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s birthday at school this week, with yellow dress day and fun activities to acknowledge this day. We hope some of you will be able to celebrate Fathers Day with your families on Sunday.

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Coming Up Next Week:

Literacy – We will continue to share our weekend recounts and will learn new letters and sounds.

Maths – We will continue to focus on number formation and will count to determine the number of objects in a set.

Unit of Inquiry – We will explore maps and will identify and locate countries that our families are from.

* * * * *

Important Dates:

Dec. 9th, 8 am – 9 am – HOS Parent Coffee (see weekly schedule for meeting link)
Dec. 17th – Last day of Term 1
Dec. 20th – Jan. 7th – December Break – NO SCHOOL
Jan. 10th – First day of Term 2

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Week 15: November 22 – 26

Posted on November 26, 2021 by risa.la

Dear Parents,

This week we have continued to invite children to share their artifacts with the class. The children are speaking confidently while constructing understanding of their personal and family histories. We still have a few children who have yet to bring in their artifacts, so please support your child in selecting an object to present this week.

Children have also continued to explore gathering data by conducting surveys. We love seeing each child articulate a unique question that interests them, and circulating independently to collect answers.

Centre time is a great opportunity for child-directed inquiry, and we are observing so much learning happening as they play, interact, investigate, invent, question, and create. Popular pass-times lately include painting, math games, tic-tac-toe, gardening, and playing doctor. The children are also helping to build our learning environment as they make signs and labels for the classroom (such as our class job boards, schedules, and name plates), giving them a sense of ownership of the space and providing opportunities to write with authentic purpose.

Next week we will delve further into our Family Histories unit, looking at the concept of “place” by inquiring into where our families come from and where we have been. Teachers have also been spending time assessing literacy and numeracy skills to inform our teaching going forward, which will continue next week as well.

Resources for Next Week’s Remote Learning:

Important Dates:

Dec. 6th – In remembrance of HM King Bhumibol’s Birthday – NO SCHOOL
Dec. 17th – Last day of Term 1
Dec. 20th – Jan. 7th – December Break – NO SCHOOL
Jan. 10th – First day of Term 2

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Week 14: November 15 – 19

Posted on November 19, 2021 by risa.la

Dear Parents,

The children had lots of fun at school this week! Many students brought their artifacts to school, and took pride in sharing them with their classmates. If your Group 1 or 2 child’s artifact is not yet at school, please send it with them when they are on campus next week. The artifact should be an object that reminds them of their personal history, or connects to a memory of when they were younger. You can share your stories about when our big kids were babies as well – the children love hearing about when they were little, and this will give them more to talk about when they share with the class.

The children are helping to make the classroom space their own. This week they created self portraits, which will be on display outside the classroom, and made artistic name plates using the “loose parts” technique, which we will use to label their storage bins.

We have been learning about data handling, skills that the children are now applying to learn more about our community. They are generating their own survey questions, setting up tally charts, and gathering data from their classmates and teachers. We now know a lot about favourite pets, ice cream flavours, and career aspirations!

This week, the EY3 students brought home their first library books of the year. In compliance with the KIS “bubbles”, we are not able to visit the library for now, however our librarian Ms Earth has been helpful in organizing a work-around. A trolley full of books is delivered to our classroom on Mondays (for group 1) and Thursdays (for group 2). The children can select two books from there, which Ms. Earth picks up for check-out, and then brings back to us the following day for taking home. This means that Group 1 will bring home library books on Tuesday, to be returned the following Monday, while Group 2 will bring home library books on Friday, to be returned the following Thursday. Please be aware that the library books are not (in general) at the children’s independent reading level. They are often wonderful for read-alouds and bedtime stories to be enjoyed with an adult. Such experiences help your child to develop comprehension skills and nurture a love of literature, so do not underestimate the value of story time!

We also celebrated Loy Krathong at school this week, with Thai dress days for both groups, and paper Krathong making with the Thai department. We hope some of you were able to celebrate with your families as well!

Coming Up Next Week

Next week we will continue to share artifacts connected to our personal histories. We will also continue with community-building engagements, such as conducting surveys, adding to our physical learning environment, and inquiring into the in-person applications of our essential agreements. Children will also begin the ongoing process of selecting work for their portfolios, a valuable exercise in reflection for learning.

Resources to prepare for next week’s remote learning:

Support and Resources for Parents

Please remember to check out Ms. Alex’s fantastic PYP Counsellor blog, which is updated regularly. Topics include remote learning, transitioning back to school, and the importance of play for learning and development. You can access Ms. Alex’s blog here, and subscribe by entering your email address in the box in the upper right hand corner.

Important Dates:

Dec. 6th – In remembrance of HM King Bhumibol’s Birthday – NO SCHOOL
Dec. 17th – Last day of Term 1
Dec. 20th – Jan. 7th – December Break – NO SCHOOL
Jan. 10th – First day of Term 2

*We have noticed that several children are bringing their Home Learning Packages to and from school each day that they are on campus. Please be advised that Home Learning Packages can stay at home, as we have all necessary supplies at school already.

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Week 13: November 8 – 12

Posted on November 13, 2021 by risa.la

Dear Parents,

We had a great first week of hybrid learning and it was wonderful to see the children in person again.

Our on-campus days were spent familiarizing ourselves with the new classroom environment and routines, exploring the EY3 learning centres, and making the space our own by painting name tags for the cubbies and class jobs board. We worked with numbers on the calendar at Circle Time, applied our knowledge about data handling as we began to conduct class surveys, and enjoyed stories and songs together. It was lovely to see new students making friends, and we were impressed at how confident the children were at navigating a new setting. Remote learning engagements provided opportunities to introduce, explore, and review the learning outcomes addressed at school, as well as inviting children to undertake some independent work.

Group 1 Slideshow:

Group 2 Slideshow:

Coming Up Next Week in EY3

Next week, the children will be invited to create self-portraits, with the goal of developing observation skills and turning our classroom into a community space. Self-portraits created periodically throughout the school year will become a useful tool for reflection, as we look at how we change and grow over time and develop the skills of symbolic expression. We will also go further with data handling, as the children conduct their own surveys to get to know their classmates. Artifact sharing will be an exciting focus next week as well, as part of our second Unit of Inquiry.

Artifacts of Personal and Family Histories: Building home/school Connections

For our current inquiry into family histories, children are invited to bring an artifact to school, following up on the sharing they did last week on SeeSaw. The idea is that artifacts can provide a connection to memories and family stories, and therefore we are asking children to bring an object that reminds them of when they were little. The object might be connected to a memory of their own, or a story a parent has told them about when they were younger. Some children may have already chosen these objects and shared them on SeeSaw, while others might be making the initial choice now. Please support your child in choosing an artifact, and have a conversation with them about it’s meaning so that they will be prepared to talk about it with their classmates. We would like to put these on display in the classroom as conversation pieces for the duration of the unit, so please do not send items that you are not willing to part with for a few weeks. (We will of course be careful with your keepsakes, and ensure that they all make it home to you again when the unit is finished.)

Once again, we’d like to thank all of you for your support and patience as we acclimatize ourselves to yet another new learning situation. Our parent community has helped to make it a smooth transition, and we were so pleased to welcome back a group of happy learners who took all the changes in stride.

Resources to Prepare for Next Week’s Remote Classes:

Support and Resources for Parents

Our PYP Counsellor, Ms. Alex, has a helpful and informative blog that we encourage all parents to visit. Topics include remote learning, transitioning back to school, and most recently a post about this importance of play. You can access Ms. Alex’s blog here, and subscribe by entering your email address in the box in the upper right hand corner.

Important Dates:

Dec. 6th – In remembrance of HM King Bhumibol’s Birthday – NO SCHOOL
Dec. 17th – Last day of Term 1
Dec. 20th – Jan. 7th – December Break – NO SCHOOL
Jan. 10th – First day of Term 2

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Week Ahead

Posted on November 12, 2021 by rachel.dr

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Week 12: November 1 – 5

Posted on November 5, 2021 by risa.la

Dear EY3 Families,

Thank you for yet another week of support with remote learning. We truly could not do it without you. This week we have been busily getting ready to welcome many of the children back to the KIS campus for two days a week. We have been revisiting the Essential Agreement we created with the children, thinking about how we will demonstrate the same principles in person as well as online, and continuing to inquire into the learner profiles. Our inquiry into Community Relationships is providing a useful framework helping the children adapt to our ever-changing circumstances, which give us an authentic context to apply our learning.

Next week, our hybrid learning model will begin. As you are aware by now, students assigned to Group 1 will be on campus Mondays and Tuesdays, Group 2 will be on campus Thursdays and Fridays, and Group 3 will continue with remote learning the whole week. All students will be remote on Wednesdays, which will provide an opportunity for deep cleaning at school as well as a chance for homeroom groups to re-connect with those they are not seeing in person.

For on-campus days, EY3 classes begin at 8:10. Students will not be permitted to play on the playground before school as they have in the past, and therefore we request that they not arrive early unless it is absolutely necessary. Children with older siblings (who have earlier start times) can be dropped off earlier and will be supervised in the classroom, however no one will be allowed on campus before 7:30 am. Dismissal time for EY3 will be at 2:40pm. If you have children in different grades, please choose the drop-off and pick-up time for ONE grade, so that you can pick up your children at the same time. (It is not permitted to come at the drop off time for one grade, and pick up time of a different grade.) EY3 students will enter through our own private back entrance through our terrace, where teachers will greet the children and escort them into the classroom and help them find their cubbies in the atrium. Our outdoor learning areas (the EY3 garden and terrace) are accessible to parents, while the indoor areas are not. We look forward to welcoming you indoors when it is safe to do so, and hope it will be soon!

If you have not done so already, please take a look at the Early Years Hybrid Learning Guidelines, where you will find more important details.

Welcome Back (Early Years EY1-EY3) 30_10_21

When your child is not on campus, remote learning will continue via Zoom and Seesaw. Seesaw activities can be completed at any time throughout the week, regardless of when they are assigned. Specialist classes will continue to be delivered remotely, on days when your child is at home. The exceptions are Thai and TAL, which the children will attend both at home and at school.

We understand that there is a lot of information to digest, so please do not hesitate to email us anytime, or come to our Help Desk (on Zoom) with any questions. Help Desk will take place at 12:00 PM on Mondays, and at 10:30am on Tuesdays through Fridays. You should be receiving schedules and group lists by email, so please do check and let us know if you have not received them.

Important Dates

Nov. 8th – Primary School Hybrid Model Begins
Dec. 6th – In remembrance of HM King Bhumibol’s Birthday – NO SCHOOL
Dec. 17th – Last day of Term 1
Dec. 20th – Jan. 7th – December Break – NO SCHOOL
Jan. 10th – First day of Term 2

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Week #11: Oct. 25th – 29th

Posted on October 29, 2021 by rachel.dr

In Literacy, the students used their communication skills in the form of speech and drawings as they created journal entries about their long weekend and retold the events making connections to question words such as Who?, What?, When?, Where? Why?, and How? Some are beginning to add labels and other text to their weekend recounts.

Students listened to the story, David Goes to School, looking at how the main character’s choices and actions affected the people around him. Students used their thinking and communication skills to share their understanding of what their responsibilities are as a student in the KIS school community.

* * * * *

For our Unit of Inquiry, EY3 students responded to the Kelso’s Choices story, The Houseboat, in which Lily the frog was learning to become a problem-solver and helping others to learn too. Students continued to make connections to the characters in the story, their own experiences, and shared their understanding of how we can solve problems without hurting other people’s feelings.

* * * * *

In Numeracy students continued exploring activities involving data handling. They sorted a collection of objects to create concrete graphs, and used information from images to create pictographs.

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Here are some pics from our Halloween Morning Meetings and Friday FunZOOMs…

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Coming up next week…
Literacy – We will continue sharing our weekend recounts (Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?) as well as exploring the Key Concept: CAUSATION.

Numeracy – We will practice data management skills through creating tally charts and organising data using Venn diagrams.

UofI – We will revisit the Learner Profile as well as discussing what our Essential Agreement will look like when we return to school.