Welcome back!

We have had a great week. We started with some very excited Kindergarteners arriving at school on Monday sharing all sorts of amazing adventures from their week holiday. Many travelled to different countries and experienced new and exciting things. Our Journal writing was amazing with some children writing two and three pages all by themselves! 

We also started our final Unit of Inquiry for this year 'Shelters' We have been tuning into what homes/shelters are and how they can look similar or different around the world. We brainstormed what we thought a shelter was and wasn't. The children did a great job and already knew a lot about this.

We then got into groups and had to sort out a range of photos under the categories of 'Shelter and Not a Shelter'. This led to some very interesting discussions and debates on what really can be classed as a shelter and not.

The children have already been talking about why we have different kinds of houses in different parts of the world and why they need to be different to deal with the weather and use different materials to build them. In groups the children classified the photos into what they thought.

Next week I will be introducing my house in New Zealand to the children. This I hope will encourage the children to then want to share what their house looks like in different parts of the world. If you have a home in a different country please send me in the pictures of the house and I will have your child explain the different materials the house is made of and various other aspects that make your home, your home. Plus why it is good for the climate you live in.

In groups of 4/5 the children were given the task of creating a house of their own. We talked about when working as group it is important to listen to each others ideas and to work together to create a final product. All the groups did an amazing job and the houses they designed were fantastic. They were great at using all the resources in the classroom to help - unit books, iPads, photos and prior knowledge.

Please ask your child about the house they designed with their group.

Brick House - Cool climate

Tent - Warm climate

Igloo - Very cold climate

Stilt House - Warm Climate

                                 Mystery Reader

A very big THANK YOU to Brigit Strube (Carla's Mum) for coming in and sharing a brilliant story with us today. The children had been trying to guess all day who the mystery reader was but no one was as surprised as Carla when she came in from lunch to see her Mum sitting on the chair with a book to read. I think it made her day :-)

Brigit read - Zilly, die Zauberin (Zilly, the sorceress) written by Korky Paul and Valerie Thomas. It was a great book about a witch who lived in a black house with everything black even her cat. After always falling over her cat because she could never see him she decided to decorate with wonderful colours. It was a great book that worked well with our current unit of inquiry. The children really enjoyed the story and LOVED the illustrations.

Maths

This week in Maths we have been learning about 3D shapes. We can recognise these shapes:
Sphere, cube, cone, cylinder, triangular prism, retangular prism, hemisphere, pyramid.

All photos were taken by the children :-)

We are all really looking forward to the trip next Wednesday. Thank you to everyone for getting the forms back to me straight away. The whole class is going :-)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Khmer New Year!

We have had a great week finishing off all of our 'Going Green' unit work. Maths and Language assessments done and getting ready to start all new units when we get back from our week long break. 

• Please check your child's individual page to see their 'Going Green' book from the student - led - conferences.

• You will also see an Action Plan. These plans were created by your child to try to make a difference in their environments. It would be great if your child takes any steps toward this action plan during the break that you take a photo as evidence and email it to me. Then I will know that they have acted on this plan and taken action!

Khmer New Year

On Wednesday Ms Sophie shared with us some information about Khmer New Year.

and taught us two really fun games - Leak Konseng and Donderm Sleukcher. 

The first game we played was Leak Konseng. We all sat in a circle and one person walked around the circle holding a scarf. Everyone in the circle say the Leak Konseng song. When they dropped the scarf behind you, you had to get up and chase the next person beside you with the scarf. If you hit the person with the scarf you were the winner. It was hilarious!!

The second game Donderm Sleukcher was brilliant. We had two teams and each person had a number. If your number was called you had to run to the middle and try to get the stick before the other person. You then had to run back to your place without getting tagged. At the end the losing team had to carry the winning team on their back which was so funny.



Finally we did a traditional dance in the class. We have some really good dancers in our class :-)

Buddies

Our buddies came to see us today. We were treated to a play that a group of students had written themselves. They designed all the props and did a great job acting out each scene.

We had certificates this week. A big congratulations to Anna and Champa on receiving a very special award each.

Anna showed that she is really KNOWLEDGEABLE. Anna was always involved in all of our discussions about recycling and shared a lot of her prior knowledge about the environment and what we need to do to look after it. Thanks so much for sharing all your brilliant ideas and giving great advice!

Champa showed that she is very CARING. Champa is always making sure that everyone in the class is ok. She helps to carry in the snack basket and the water bottle basket from outside. Champa has been a great help making sure that all our plants have been watered and taken care of. Thanks so much for all your help and for being such a great friend to everyone in our class!

Have a great holiday everyone and enjoy any celebrations you maybe having!

Student - Led - Conferences

Thank you so much for sharing in your child's learning on Friday. All the children were so proud to have their family members here and I was very lucky to be able to see how confident and excited they were to lead you around the activities and the classroom. Thank you :-)

Slideshow of all the fabulous pictures we got of all the family members interacting with our little learners.

Book Day and Mystery Reader

We had a great start to Thursday with our Book Day costumes. It was so great to see many of the children dressed up as one of their favourite book characters. We joined with the other two Kindergarten classes and shared a story "Room on the Broom" By Julia Donaldson and had fun dancing to the book week song. Gotta Keep Reading



We had certificates this week. A big congratulations to Marcus and Anton on receiving a very special award each.

Anton showed that he is really REFLECTIVE. Anton had fantastic background knowledge already about looking after our environment. He brought so many things into school for us to recycle and shared a lot of his ideas. Anton is now thinking of an action plan to do his part to help look after his environment and he has been reflecting on the things that he sees around him. Outstanding job Anton!

Marcus showed that he is very CARING. We planted our bottle plants in the area outside our classroom. Marcus has been great at making sure we water the plants and take care of them. Thanks for all your help Marcus.

Mystery Reader

A very big THANK YOU to Bjarke Skaanning (Anton's Dad) for coming in to read to us on our book day! The children had no idea we were having a mystery reader and got a very big surprise when Bjarke gave a loud bang on the door and asked if he could read us a story. Of course we let him in ;-)

Bjarke read - "Mimbo Jimbo" written by Jakob Martin Strid. It was a very funny story about a very brave little blue elephant that wants to travel and see new things. As a class we talked about what it is like when we go to different countries and whether things are the same as home or different. The children had some very insightful observations about their travels and for some what it is like living in a different country.

Friends International and Parachutes!

We started the morning with another fantastic guest speaker. This time we had James Sutherland from Friends International share with us the amazing things that Friends are doing for Cambodia. Some of the children were all ready very familiar with the restaurants and shops that Friends have and were very excited to hear that they would be making some magic beads.

The children got to have a go at making their own magic beads.

- Quotes - 

"It looks so easy but it is really, really hard"

"The people who make these beads are really clever"

"These beads are so beautiful, I can't believe they are made from magazines!"

"I like that these beads are magic!"

?? Please ask your child why the beads are magic ??

The idea behind the beads being magic was explained by James. 

- The beads are magic because they can transform someones life. They get a job, they can make money for their family and send their children to school for an education. They can learn new skills and work from home and still be able to care for their family -

Such a great cause to support and the jewelry is beautiful.

Have a look at us trying our best to make beads!

Parachutes

Last Friday we made a figure of ourselves. They were then attached to a plastic bag to make a parachute. The parachutes were awesome!! We decided to drop our parachutes from the balcony above our classroom. First we went in groups of 4 to see how well they flew. They flew the best when there was a little bit of wind! Then we decided to all go as a class and let our parachutes go. We had to do a lot of chasing once we came down from the balcony ;-)

Again another easy way to reuse our plastic bags and reduce the waste going into the landfill.

The week has started....

This morning we were treated to a guest speakers from ISPP. Taivan, a student in Grade 2/3 came to talk to the Kindergarteners about the action he took to help Cambodia tidy up the environment. Taivan takes a ferry across the river from his home to school. He noticed that there was rubbish everywhere and the reason for this was because there were no rubbish bins on any of the ferries. Taivan, with help from his peers and family organised rubbish bins to be bought from Cintri, decorated them bright and bold and placed onto each of the ferries. They put signs on the bins to encourage people to stop throwing rubbish in the river and put it in the bin. The bins are a great success and if you ever happen to be on one of the ferries do look out for one of Taivan's rubbish bins! 

It was so great for the children to see that someone from our school has taken action and they asked very good questions. I am looking forward to hearing all the ideas our kindergarteners now have on what kind of action they want to take to help Cambodia's environment. 

Book Day

This Thursday April 2nd ISPP is celebrating book day. This day is very special because it is International Children's book day and Hans Christian Anderson's birthday. 

The children are all encouraged to come to school dressed up as a favourite character from a story and bring the book if they can. 

Stuck for ideas? Here is a great website for inspiration.

Click on the link below:

World Book Day Costumes

Student - Led - Conferences