Dear Parents,

Welcome back to school! I hope you had a great Winter vacation and you enjoyed this special time with your dear ones.

We have started our week with a recount of our holidays. I was very pleased to hear our students talk about their vacation with joy and many smiles and also to see them write with stamina about it. Their writing skills have greatly improved since the beginning of the year. They are now able to write a structured recount with less teacher support and they can organise their thoughts in a meaningful way in English, with guidance.

In reading we continued to look at books such as “The Big Kick“, ”Jake’s Big Goal“, “Little Teddies’ Picnic” and “Hello, Snow“. These books have a slightly higher degree of difficulty, an increased number of words and more challenging spelling patterns. It is a pleasure to watch our students’ engagement while reading and their delight while listening to books read-aloud.

This week we also spent some time working on sequencing events, as it helps us better plan and organise our recounts and our retelling. The students organised pictures in a logical sequence in order to create a meaningful story and then shared their stories with their classmates. We also practiced writing using white boards and we played Head Bandz, which is a great way to engage students in conversation and to help them ask and answer questions in a fun way. We also continued to practice English through songs, because we all love them!

Please find below a couple of pictures taken during our classes this week.

This week has been very special for the Grade 1 ESL students.

On Monday, we finished our LAS Links testing and I want to take this opportunity to commend our lovely students for their patience through this challenging test, for their hard work and for their determination to do their absolute best.

On Tuesday we went on a field trip to the SOS Clinic, where the kids got a chance to ask many (sometimes challenging) questions to Dr. Xavier and Nurse Ally, and then got their arm set in a cast, to see how doctors mend broken bones. They all had a great time on the field trip and had a lot to tell as we came back to school! We also continued to research and to ask questions related to specific organs in our bodies.

On Wednesday and Thursday we’ve been busy writing a recount about the field trip, which is also going to be their mid-year writing sample. I was very pleased to see the students’ hard work through all the steps of the writing process: talking, planning, drafting and editing.

On Friday, we had a special day, as we practiced for the upcoming Winter Show on the upcoming Wednesday.

But besides testing, writing and rehearsing, we also continued our Guided Reading sessions with books like: My School, My Play House or Zac and the Ducks. Our students are getting more and more confident while reading and they show great enthusiasm for each new book we discover together!

This week we also practiced creating sentences using the 4 W’s: Who?, What?, When?, and Where?. The students love experimenting with funny, unusual or challenging sentences.

Please find below a few pictures taken during our sessions this week. We have a busy and exciting week ahead, as we get ready for the Winter Show and for the upcoming Winter Holiday! Enjoy watching our kids in action!