Headphones / Ear Buds

As you can probably imagine, having a number of students in the classroom using computers can be quite a noisy affair.  Inevitably research work takes students to videos and most literacy and numeracy activities have sound effects.

We have been providing each class with headphones.  This overcomes our noise issue, but opens a new dilemma – hygiene.  We clean the headphones regularly, but disinfectant and electronics don’t mix well and it isn’t possible to clean them between every user.

In talking about this issue, with a number of parents, it became clear that many people have a spare set of ear buds that came with a newly purchased phone at home. 

If you share our concern about hygiene, we would welcome your child having their personal ear buds/head phones.  It would be preferable that these be small enough to keep in a pencil case and it would be essential that they are clearly labeled (coloured tape folded and name securely attached).

If you don’t have a spare set at home, they are very cheap at local IT stores such as Banana IT,  http://www.bananait.com/home.php?cat=324, or in places like Advice Shop in Phuket Town, advice.co.th.  

Ideally the devices brought in would have sound and microphone (as do the telephone ear buds).

Thanks for your support

Karen Cornelius

Deputy Principal

Brain Day, Halloween and Loy Krathong- two busy weeks!

Wow! -the last two weeks have been so busy, packed with learning and special events. Here is a round up of them.

Brain day focused on what we should eat and drink to keep our brains healthy. The children learned that the brain needs water with Mr Carey and they did an experiment using flowers to see how they absorb water, much like our brains.

The flower experiment

Water is good for our brains

Ms Griffiths helped the children learn what a healthy plate of food looks like-making sure it has a balance of food groups.

Ms Sherlock looked at a story about processed food and taught a song to help us remember our brain food. On Friday in assembly Year 2 sang the song for the whole of the Primary school.

Some of the children were still dressed in Halloween costumes as they chose to dress up in their Golden Time.

A spooky looking Year 2

Last week we found out what the children know about the Heroines. They were shown photographs of the Heroines Monument and asked who they thought the people were and how they have Made A Difference. We got a wide variety of ideas! We will now begin finding out more about them.
We will be continuing to read a wide variety of information texts including biographies with the children to find out about different people from the past and considering how they have Made A Difference to our lives.

In Maths the children have been collecting data using tally charts and representing the information on bar charts. This has involved them in problem solving activities in small groups-considering how the information which involves large numbers can be shown and read easily.

Working together to solve a Maths problem

Thursday was extremely colourful as we celebrated Loy Krathong. The costumes that the children wore were amazing and so were the Krathongs that they made. Thank you to all the parents who came along to help and join in this wonderful day.

 On Friday BISP hosted the biggest Football Tournament we have ever had with over 1000 children from across Asia playing football games. Well done to Tegan who played in the Under 9 Girls Team. She played so well, gave her best  and never gave up!

Finally a huge Well Done to our Year 2 Stars of the week-we are very proud of you! And we would like to welcome Rawad and his family to BISP, we hope you will enjoy being part of this friendly community.

Our stars!

Who has Made A Difference to us?

Our new topic has got off to a great start this week with the children full of questions. The topic is 'I Made A Difference in the Past' and we will be learning which people have made a difference to our lives and how. On Monday Ms Sherlock, Ms Griffiths and Mr Carey dressed up as famous people from the past who have Made A Difference and the children had to ask questions to discover their identities.
They discovered that Ms Sherlock was Jane Goodall who has made a difference to wild animals and encouraged people to look after their environment. Ms Griffiths was J. K. Rowling who has made a difference by making reading exciting for millions of young people, and Mr Carey was one of the Wright Brothers who made a difference by adding a motor to an aeroplane, enabling us all to travel further quickly.

We will now be starting to find out who the Heroines are and why there is a statue of them in Phuket.

Brain Day
On Tuesday we had our Brain Day and learned which foods are 'Brain Foods'. We found out that natural foods are best,  not processed foods and that fish, nuts, avocado's and blueberries are super foods. Ask your child to sing the Brain Food song to you-it's very catchy!

Phonics
This week the children chose which Phonics group they should join. After showing them the different sounds we would be learning in each group they thought about what they needed to learn to develop their reading and writing. We are approaching Phonics teaching in this way to give the children some control over their learning and encourage them to think about their learning and what they need to do to improve. This also means that they are not in an ability group but join a group for specific sounds that they are unsure of. The groups will change each week.   We were thrilled to find that the children approached this very sensibly, choosing appropriately (they joined the groups exactly as we would have placed them!).

Halloween
On Friday it is Halloween. It is also our Golden Time! So we have invited the children to bring in some simple Halloween clothes to wear during Golden Time if they wish to.

Swimming
Please note-there are no swimming lessons for Year 2 this half term. Instead the children have 2 PE lessons each week so please wear PE kits on Mondays and Wednesdays. Children will be doing Fusball and Tennis during these lessons. Please make sure they bring a water bottle and a hat.  Swimming lessons will begin again after Christmas.

Loy Krathong
On Thursday 6th November the school will celebrate Loy Krathong. For this lovely celebration we ask all children to wear traditional Thai clothes. At 10:40am we will be making Krathongs in our classrooms and we invite all parents to come and join in. Following this (around 11:00am) we will walk to the pond in front of the main school building where we will float the Krathongs.

Uniform
Children should wear their school uniform with black shoes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (the days that they don't have PE).  If they need to wear sports clothes for an after school activity they should bring these in their school bag and change before the activity.

Hats

Our school has a rule,  NO HAT = NO PLAY IN THE SUN!
Therefore please make sure that your child has  a hat with their name in it so they will be able to play with their friends outside.

Support reminder

If you or other parents are having trouble 'getting connected' with the school blogs, you might like to pop in for some support on Thursday 30th October from 8:05am.

Jon Clark the Head of IT and some other staff will be in the Early Years Unit eating room (previously Reception Orange - middle room on the primary playground side) to help you connect up successfully.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Getting Connected

Dear Parents

This year the school has moved to  using Blogs as the main communication source with parents

If you or other parents are having trouble 'getting connected' with the school blogs, you might like to pop in for some support on Thursday 30th October from 8:05am.

Jon Clark the Head of IT and some other staff will be in the Early Years Unit eating room to help you connect up successfully.

Please pass on the word to friends.

Thanks!

Karen

Karen Cornelius
Primary Deputy Principal

Rainy Days!

Well this week has been an extremely wet one and due to this x-country was canceled on Tuesday. We hope the weekend will stay dry and allow us to hold the x-country on Monday morning. If it is dry please can children come to school wearing their colour team shirts, sports shoes and shorts. Don't forget a hat and water bottle! Parents are invited to come along and cheer us on between 8:15 and 10:00.

2JS children wowed us all on Friday afternoon with their assembly performance. Nerves were high beforehand and many children had 'butterflies in their tummies', but it didn't show and the children spoke loudly and confidently. More importantly they worked closely as a team, encouraging and praising each other which is lovely to see. Well done 2JS.  Also a big Thank you to Mrs Ueckermann for arranging the costumes and props and the other mums who helped get us ready.



Here is the assembly video.  http://youtu.be/KTdHZskih-Q

Rainy Day / Holiday Activities
Next week school finishes for the half-term break on Wednesday at 2:35. The next half term will begin on Monday 27th October.   There are several things your child can be doing during the holidays. All the children are now signed up for Sumdog at www.sumdog.com so they can practice their Maths skills online. There are also several things to practice on edmodo including key words to read. And finally, did you know that you can visit the school Library with your child any day after school between 2:35 and 4:00pm and take up to 7 books out! So why not treat your child to 7 books to read over the holidays.

Parent Teacher Conferences
If you have not yet made an appointment to meet your child's teacher please write your name on the appointment sheet on the classroom door.

Please note that there are no school run activities next week due to the conferences, however Paid activities continue as normal.



WELL DONE to this week's STARS OF THE WEEK

Let's Thrive!

As we near the end of our 'Survive and Thrive' unit we are considering how we thrive. Why is it important to keep healthy? And what can we do do help us thrive?

On Friday we had a visit from Ruby's mum, who as a trained nurse,  helped the children consider healthy and unhealthy choices they could make. These choices ranged from selecting food to considering healthy and unhealthy lifestyle choices. Many thanks to Mrs Vidotto for helping us understand these important points.

The children have been working hard on sharing the information found from their research into Living Things. Their challenge is to teach other Year 2 children. This means they have to present their material thoughtfully. Children are using video, pictures, ibooks, posters and speech to communicate. They have been given feedback on how successful their presentation is from the other children  and now have time to act on the feedback and make improvements- an important skill!

In Maths the children are learning how to sort, collect and present data in the form of diagrams and charts. They are using Venn Diagrams, Caroll Diagrams, Tally charts and bar charts. So far they have been sorting shapes by considering their properties and placing them appropriately in Venn and Caroll diagrams. As shapes share many characteristics a lot of thinking is necessary to place them in the right spot.

We have many reminders this week.....

X-country
On Tuesday from 8:05 - 10:10am the Primary x-country will be held. All children need to wear sports shoes, P.E shorts and their colour team shirt. Please can all children wear a hat and bring their water bottles too. We hope parents will come along and cheer on their child. The start and finish will be on the field close to gate 5.

Sumdog
The children all now have sumdog accounts set up. Sumdog is a Maths site which allows children to practice Maths skills and progress at their own level. It is a fun site and children love it! Children can work their way through Sumdog and at certain times teachers will add challenges appropriate to their level. They can log in using their edmodo username and password (which is attached to their Reading Diaries).
2JS however have slightly different usernames and these will be sent home on Monday- the system would not log us in with our edmodo usernames!

Parent Conferences
Next week 13th, 14th and 15th October are Parent, Teacher Conferences. This is an opportunity to find out how your child is developing in their learning. A letter will be sent home this week where appointments can be booked.

Assembly
Finally on Friday 10th October it is 2JS' assembly. This will be at 1:45pm in the Primary Hall. We invite all parents of 2JS children to come along and watch. We will be the first class this year to present an assembly so we are all a bit nervous!

Will you go MAD?

You may have heard that children are going MAD at school. Don't worry-this doesn't mean they are going crazy, it actually means they are doing a good thing - Making A Difference!

MAD means Make A Difference

In Year 2 the children are helping to Make A Difference in our school community. As the children move up through the school they will Make A Difference beyond the school community, with projects across Phuket.

Each week 3 children from each class are randomly chosen to be MAD for the week. They meet up to decide how they can help and follow this up with action. So far the children have read to younger children, taken care of plants in the school environment, recycled rubbish and assisted with Music. There is a noticeboard in the Pod showing which children have gone MAD and what they have been doing so far.

We have intensified the pace of our research into living and non-living things, focussing on the key characteristics shared by all living things. The children have been working hard in their groups to find information. They are becoming aware of the need to find new and even surprising information. It turns out that baby hedgehogs are called hoglets and that horses have amazing memories, even better than elephants it would appear.

We are very pleased with how keen the children are to read at school. Many are using different strategies to help them but most rely on Phonics at this stage-saying the sounds in a word and blending the sounds together. We have noticed that the children are often over-pronouncing sounds which is making it more difficult for them to blend. Children are adding an 'uh' sound to all their letter sounds. The video below explains this and shows the correct pronunciation of English sounds.

If you help your child say the sounds or listen to them please be aware of this.

Thank you to those of you who have kindly offered your spare time to come and read with the students.  The students are really enjoying going out to read with you. 

On Monday there will be a Reading Workshop for parents who want to help children read.

Parent Workshop 'Supporting Reading at School'. All parents who would like to assist with reading in KS1 are welcome to attend. 08:00-09:30. Primary Hall. 

We hope you may consider going along and become interested in Reading with the children at school.

We are researchers

Firstly the children should be congratulated on making an amazing start to their homework.  We have seen some interesting and creative ways to tackle the tasks.  The children are extremely proud and have been communicating their ideas and have enjoyed sharing their work in front of the class.  We hope that the other children now have some ideas for how they would like to present their ideas. Keep going Year 2!

 Armed with their notebooks the children have started their research into Living Things, working in small teams based on the area they have chosen. Over the next few weeks they will be encouraged to think about how they will find the answers to their questions and record these in notes. Later they will think about how they will show what they have found out.

Mr Carey, Ms Griffiths and Ms Sherlock are researching 'Humans' alongside the children and are trying to find out how humans grow and  how we breathe, amongst other things. The children helped out with some suggestions such as....

'We grow when we hiccup',  ' We grow on our birthday' and ' Children grow taller but adults grow wider!'.

Thanks for these ideas. We are going to find out if these are true. It's Tegan's birthday soon so we will be measuring her before, during and after her birthday. Also watch out anyone with hiccups-we will measure you! We believe the third idea may be true and the teachers may be proof of this!

The children will be researching using books, the internet, observing and asking questions. When using the internet to research we will be finding appropriate websites for the children to use. We do not advise children using search engines on their own as content should be carefully checked. We will be adding appropriate information texts and images to "Edmodo' for children to use.

The children will all be bringing home an edmodo login card. This will be attached to their Reading Diaries. We will be logging in and using edmodo at school to help research and they can also do this at home. As well as research there are games for children to practice skills.

Here is a video showing you how to use edmodo.

http://youtu.be/jCk1bOunPxg

Thank you for all the beautiful flowers given today for 'Wai Kru' day.  We hope the children enjoyed their assembly and well done to those who performed the terrific Thai dance.

On Tuesday 7th October the children will be taking part in the cross country at school. All children will need a colour team shirt for this event- these are available from the school shop. Check your class noticeboard or ask your child which colour team they are in.

The secret of life!

This week the children have been busy considering what all Living Things have in common. They were asked to finish the statement 'All Living Things...".   This prompted lots of discussions, explanations and questions. We finally all agreed on 7 different things that all living things do.

The children have now chosen their area for research and next week will be starting by thinking about what they already know and what they want to find out. Many children seem particularly interested in reproduction!

In Maths  we have started to look closely at number bonds, finding different ways to make a number using addition. We will continue working on this next week using practical equipment to see patterns and recording using the + symbol. Children will be learning and hopefully remembering  the number bonds for all numbers up to ten and then extend this to working with numbers up to 20 and 100 (in multiples of ten).

We have all been reading the story of the Enormous Turnip this week, acting it out, finding adjectives and noticing verbs in sentences. We will be continuing to look at verbs and how they change to form the past tense. Children have started  to write their own stories by introducing and describing their character. Next they will describe the setting in their story.

Illustrating adjectives using playdough.

2JS noticed that there was an unusual visitor in school on Wednesday so we crept off to have a little peak. The children used lots of adjectives to describe him!

Prickles the hedgehog.

The children have thoroughly been enjoying their golden time on Fridays. This time is a reward time for following the Golden Rules. It is always interesting to see what the children choose to do. Model making, using the ipads and creating games with toys brought from home have been popular so far.

Proclaiming their love of school and forming a
Dance Club during Golden Time

Next Friday is the Wai Kru assembly. This is always a lovely day where the children show respect to their teachers.


Well done to the Year 2 stars of this week. 

Are we alive?

This is the question that Year 2 tried to answer this week. It seems a simple question but we had many answers particularly when children tried to explain what makes us living.

The children have now managed to sort objects into sets of Living, Once living and Never Living. We will be making a display outside the Year 2 classrooms for children to add objects or pictures of objects to under these headings.

Making sets of Living and Non-living things

Next week we will be trying to identify the specific characteristics of all living things ready for our research projects.

In Maths this week 'Hundreds, Tens and Units' have been our key words.

'Farmer Duck' by Martin Waddell  has been a hit text this week and has encouraged children to think of 'Amazing Adjectives' to describe the characters and setting. Children have also worked in teams, pretending to be the animals and forming a plan to help the duck.

The children are loving the chance to read independently, to each other in class and with their Year 6 buddies in the library.  This is fantastic to see, please continue to encourage them to enjoy reading.

Next week Activities will begin. Please make sure you have checked which activities your child is signed up for and where the pick-up points are. If you need to make any changes please either contact the activity teacher if it is a paid activity or the Primary Office if it is a school activity.

On Monday we will be sending home the Homework grid for this half term. We are looking forward to seeing the variety of ideas that come from homework tasks.

Classes 2KG and 2CC are still needing  Class Representatives - please let Ms Griffiths or Mr Carey know if you would like to help. We would also love to have any parents come in and help with Reading!

A HUGE Well Done to all our new students that have joined Year 2 this year. They have all settled into their new school lives so quickly and confidently and we love having them in Year 2. They all received a Star of the Week certificate this week for their efforts.

Have a lovely weekend
The Year 2 Team