Blitzen Boogie

Here is a glimpse of our show.  Happy Holidays!!

Science with Mrs. Hill's 6th Grade Class

This week has been filled with amazing events!  One of them was just the best.  We were invited to be part of Mrs. Hill's science class. Mrs. Hill did some magic by changing the colors of different liquids, WOW!  Then the 6th graders started teaching us how to make different things, such as mixing different powders to make a hot and cold yellow mixture.  Then we mixed other substances to make snow and they got to take it home.  Snow in Singapore, great isn't it?? The kids were thrilled about that.  Thank you, Mrs. Hill and your students.  We had tons of fun.

Click here for pictures!

Happy Hanukkah!

Today is the first day of Hanukkah.  Yesterday, Mr. and Mrs. Mashaal taught us many things about the Hanukkah Celebration.  Mrs. Tan joined our class in the grouproom and we listened to a story about how Families celebrate this special holiday and how they light a candle for each of the eight days of Hanukkah on the Menorah.  We then played with dreidels, made beautiful dreidel stain glass (paper) for our windows, colored Hanukkah pictures and ate delicious "sufganiyot" (jelly-filled doughnuts) and "latkes" (potato pancakes). 

We want to give the Mashaal Family a big thanks!!!  We love Celebrations!  One of the things we talked about in class is how all celebrations from different countries and cultures have two main things in common; families gather and eat amazing food.

Happy Hanukkah!

Click here for more pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a great day we've had!  We read about Thanksgiving and thought about all the things we are very thankful for.  Wow!  We are pretty fortunate to have such amazing families, being in great health, having a great school, having food and water and much more.

At the end of the day, we had pumpkin pie!  Yum!!!

Ms. Nora and I hope you have a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving Holiday with your family and friends.

Click here for pictures.

Writing Celebration - Writing for Readers

Hurray for the Amazing Authors!  During this unit, we talked about what makes our writing easy to read or hard to read.  We then looked at our stories in our folders and divided them into two piles- hard to read and easy to read.  Together we came up with a big chart of the different reasons those stories were hard to read:

This story was hard to read because:

• the words were smashed together - no finger spaces
• we erased the work too much and it looked messy
• no periods and capitals
• we did not stretch the words and added vowels
• the letters were all capitals
• messy handwriting

They then chose an easy to read story to revise.  They first revised it by themselves, then had their writing partners revise it with them. 

Today during our Writing Celebration, we invited our reading buddies from fourth grade to read our stories.  They loved it!!  They were also very impressed with our Authors' work.  HIP HIP HURRAY!!

Check out the pictures of our Writing Celebration.

Readers Use Strategies to Read Celebration

This week, our super Readers had their Reading Celebration by presenting different Reader's Theaters.


During this unit of study, Readers Use Print Strategies,  our kids learned to get their minds ready to read by using strategies to figure out words by reading with fluency.  Our students began to use strategies they learned when reading unfamiliar words and began to read with more fluency by using meaning, punctuation and clues in text.


Check out the Reader's Theater Presentations below.

Finding Lady Liberty by Aiden, Sophia, Mickey and Nila

Into the Maze by Catherine, John, Simran and Sueah

A Noise in the Night by Ave, Aki, Lillian and Shea

Finding Gold by Ella, Kai, Yan and Graham

The Fun House by Madeline, Sebastian, Mira and Kurtis

Little India Field Trip

Deepavali, the Festival of Lights!  We went on a field trip to Little India to see the preparations for Deepavali.  We walked around Campbell Lane and shopped for oil candles, peacock feathers and Deepavali cards.  We then ate dahl at the Kamala Restaurant.  It was delicious!  After that, we went to the wet market.  We got to touch different fish, even a shark.  Poor shark!!  The last place we visited in Little India was the temple.  What a beautiful place. 

We then met everyone back on our bus and went to Fort Canning for our picnic lunch. After lunch, the kids got to run up and down the hill.  What fun we had!!

Click here to see more pictures!

Halloween by Kurtis

I love Halloween and the party at school was great!  I was so scary and my friends had great costumes as well.  We went on a parade then we played games in the class. 

Check out the pictures!

Pumpkin Patch by Jessica

Wow, what fun we had at the pumpkin patch.  Dr. Mutsch read us a great story.  Then we got to choose a little pumpkin to take home.  It was great!

Click here to see pictures of the pumpkin patch.

Investigating Balance in Science

During this unit, the students have started to discover different ways to balance tagboard shapes. They are exploring the concepts of balance, counterbalance, counterweight, and stability by balancing tagboard shapes, making mobiles, and engaging in other balancing projects.

They have also had the opportunity to communicate observations by writing and drawing what they have experienced and their findings.

Stay tuned and you will learn much more about Balance.

Click here to see pictures of the scientists balancing the tricky crayfish.

Click here to see the different ways they can balance an arch and a triangle.

Celebrating Writing Small Moments

Last Friday, we had another Writing Celebration.  This time, we celebrated writing Small Moments.  Do you know what small moments are?  Well, I'll let some students tell you.

Small Moments are things that happened to you. By Sueah

Small Moments are when you zoom into one moment; of one of the things you did.  By Mickey

Small Moment is a moment that happened in your life and you stretch that moment with lots of details.  By Simran

Small Moment is when you zoom into one thing and you write details about that one thing.  By Aki

Small Moment is something that happened to you in your life, but you zoom into it and add more details, like who you went with, what you did, and how you felt about it.  By Sophia

Small Moment is when you write a book with a few pages and you add details and color to drawings and to words.  It's something that really happened and it sometimes has a happy ending.  By Jessica

Small Moment is when you zoom into something that happened to you and you put it in a book.  Then you read it, you check to see if it's right and then you share it with others.  By Madeline

During this Writing Unit, our authors learned how to plan a story by planning the stories through pages or using their fingers.  They planned their stories by themselves and with a partner.

Next, they wrote their small moments including the events (outside) and feelings (inside).  They then reread their stories to themselves one more time.

After our Small Moments were written, we sat with a partner and revised our stories for more details and to see if we needed to make any corrections with spelling or adding words.

Finally, we fancied it up and shared our stories at the Writing Celebration!  Hooray!!

Mr. Schunk was thrilled to see how our Authors have improved their writing.  Great job, Super Authors!!

Click here to see some more pictures of our Writing Celebration.

Yan from Indonesia

Our Amazing UN Day

Wow!  What a great day we had celebrating differences and similarities between the students in our class and school.  Our kids looked so beautiful dressed in their traditional clothes or in clothes that represented their home countries, or countries they have visited and loved.  Our Primary Assembly was incredible showing the message of peace and respect for all races and cultures.  We sang songs and I had teary eyes the entire time.  We then came back to our classroom and watched a couple of movies about two of our neighboring countries and then...  we traveled around the world.  Holding tight to our passports, we visited several countries and ate some of the most amazing food.  Our Moms stamped our passports and we tried different flavors.  It was incredible to see how our kids enjoyed trying new things.  They ate so much!!  It was wonderful!

We would like to thank all the parents that sent in the delicious food and a very big THANKS to the Moms that helped us throughout our International Lunch.  Thank you!!

Click here to see more pictures of our great UN Day!

Catherine from Korea

Graham from the United States

Sebastian from the Untied States and Spain

Simran from India

Sueah from Korea

Nila from India

Kurtis from America

John from Korea

Ave from Samoa

Mira from Malaysia

Woodlands Neighborhood Walk

As part of our study of communities, our class went for a walk around the shopping center/hawker stalls here in Woodlands.  Prior to our little outing, we spent some time talking about the different people that work in our neighborhood.  Kids mentioned that we needed doctors, food, flowers to decorate our homes, clothes, pets and lots of other "things".  During our walk, we saw food stalls, banks, fish markets, nurseries, clinics, dentists, barber shops, and more.  Besides shopkeepers, our students saw taxi drivers, seamstresses, and construction workers fixing a new sidewalk.  It was hot, but we got to see so much!  It was a great field trip. 

We would like to thank Mrs. Carrillo, Mrs. Park, Mrs. Kim, Mrs. Doffing, Mrs. Fredrick and Mrs. Van Beek for joining in the fun and making sure we were safe while crossing the streets and walking around the neighborhood.  Thanks!!!

Click here to see pictures of our Woodlands Walk.

Readers Build Good Habits Celebration

Hooray for the Super Readers!!  Today we celebrated the end of our unit on Readers Build Good Habits. On the first day of school, we could read to self for only about 3 minutes.  Now, after working on building our reading stamina, we are able to read quietly for 20 minutes.  It's amazing!!!  Here are some of the things we learned:

3 Ways to Read

• Read the pictures
• Read the words
• Retell the story

When we READ to SELF we:

• Sit at one spot
• Read the whole time - QUIETLY
• Build our stamina

When we READ to SOMEONE we:

• Sit EEKK
• Use soft voices
• Read the whole time

When we LISTEN to READING we:

• Listen quietly
• Follow along with pictures and words
• Take care of the materials

Click here to see more pictures of our Reading Celebration!

Big Cheers for the Super Authors

Today was our first Writing Celebration.  Our wonderful authors wrote a few pieces of writing.  As authors do, they added more to the pictures, they added more to the words and they stretched their stories into a few pages.  We spent some time talking about ideas and how we get them.  Most of our stories are personal narratives, something that happened to them.  Others shared about things they like and their pets.  Then we chose one piece to "fancy it up".  We went back and added more details to the pictures and words and added a cover with title and author.  Now it was time to SHARE our wonderful stories.  We invited Mr. Schunk and Ms. Jo to be our guests of honor and they were sooo impressed!  Wow, the stories were great.  We listened to each other carefully and made some nice compliments.  Then at the end, we toasted to our success and for being amazing authors.  We had hot chocolate and cookies!  Yum!!  What a great way to celebrate our writing!  Way to go, Authors!!

Check out more pictures of our celebration!

Wild Things Number Stories

Before our students are asked to practice number facts, we find it important that they experience addition and subtraction as real world operations that can be represented with words or number models. “Wild Things” is designed to help the kids develop these connections. As the students role-play, tell, write, share and solve number stories, they begin to learn the addition and subtraction language and symbols. The most important part is that they have tons of fun in the process. Hooray for the Wild Things!


Click here to see more pictures of our Wild Things!

Acting out Wild Things Number Stories by Jessica, Mira, Graham, Ave and Aki

Acting out Wild Things Number Stories by Simran, John, Sebastian, Madeline and Shea

Acting out Wild Things Number Stories by Ella, Kurtis, Catherine and Mickey

Acting out Wild Things Number Stories by Sueah, Yan, Kai, Lillian and Sophia

Principal Read Aloud and Reading Buddies

On Friday, we had our first Principal Read Aloud.  Mr. Hoss read some great books to our class and we got to chat and ask questions.  We will have Principal Read Alouds once a month.  During this time, Mr. Hoss and Mr. Schunk get to spend some time with our kids and get to know them even better.  They are super storytellers and we can't wait for the next one.

Click here to see a few more pictures.

We also met Mr. Petersen's 4th Grade Students.  They will be our reading buddies this year.  We paired up and completed a Venn diagram to get to know each other.  Soon we will share our diagrams with everyone.  We will meet and read with our 4th grade buddies every Friday.  It will be tons of fun!!

Click here to see pictures of us working together.

Thank you for a great Back to School Night

Thank you!!  We had an almost full house.  It was really good to have a chance to go over our curriculum
and share with you our daily routines.  Please refer to the link below if you need more information about Grade 1.

http://www.sas.edu.sg/ps/abt_back2school9.html

Back to School Night!

I'm looking forward to seeing you all here tomorrow night, Thursday, September 2 at 7:45pm.  We will meet in our room, P212. 

I will have an opportunity to share our grade 1 routines, curriculum and all the other great things about grade 1.  It will also give you a chance to look around our classroom and ask questions.

I hope to see you all there!

Cheers,

Ms. Analu

Strong Readers and Strong Writers in Grade 1

Wow!!  Our grade 1 students have dived right into reading and writing and they are doing an amazing job.  During the past two weeks, we have started to establish our reading and writing workshops.  They already know we always start with a mini lesson and then some independent activities.  We are building our reading stamina, and they reached 20 min of uninterrupted quiet reading yesterday.  Way to go, First Graders!! 

Check out some of of the pictures!

In writing, we have learned how to add more to the pictures and more to the words.  They are writing away!  They are authors on the making! 

We learned some new math games to reinforce math skills and continued to learn things about ourselves.  We shared me bags and favorite books.  We also shared amazing reading memories.   Our class just rocks!!

Welcome to grade one!!!

Ms. Analu and Ms. Nora would like to welcome you to our grade 1 class! An amazing year full of new discoveries, challenges, friendships, explorations and lots and lots of fun has just begun.

Our blog is going to be a valuable way to share our learning and memorable moments from school and home. We will share pictures, videos, stories, poems and much more.

Our first two days of school were just amazing! Our kids are learning the new routines very quickly and have enjoyed getting to know each other. We have started to build a fantastic community, our school community. So stay tuned!!

Check out the pictures from our first day of school!

Aman's first piano concert in Singapore

Here goes....that's me playing a piece called Intermezzo. I also played a duet piece with my brother. I was excited!

Love,

Aman

It's a Celebration!

Wow! What an amazing day. Our super independent first graders lead the conferences and showed their parents how much they have learned this year. And yes, they have learned a lot. It was fantastic to see the families reading books together, playing math games, investigating science, 'fancying up" letters and playing the Singapore Monopoly Game to learn more about the Singapore sights the students researched. Now this last one was the big hit of the day.

Thank you parents for taking the time to celebrate your children's success and growth. Ms. Nora and I are very proud of every single one of them.

Way to go!

Click here to see more pictures.

Stellauna, The Play

Yesterday, our amazing Grade 1 Students performed beautifully the play Stellaluna by Janell Cannon. They worked really hard, memorizing their lines and adding actions and expression to their performance. The result was a TOP PERFORMANCE! Ms. Nora and I are very proud of each and everyone of them. Way to go! Now you get to enjoy the show as many times as you wish.

Nine Students By Suhani

This day there were nine students in my class.There were four boys and five girls.Counting the teachers there are four boys and seven girls.Everybody who was not there were all sick.But eleven peopole were sick in my whole class.It was a boring day.

Suhani

Starlight Ball

On Friday, I went to the Starlight ball and I did lots of dancing. My favorite part was when we did YMCA. My second favorite was the Tango. When we went to the Starlight Ball it was hard to get on my dress clothes because it had a lot of stuff on it. I think Jada was beautiful and she did very good at dancing.

Poem's by Raine

Roxy

Roxy is a baby that is very very kind.

She's filled with joy and laughter.

Roxy 's cuter than a puppy.

She's the cutest baby ever.

I love her so much!

Poem by Rita

Cool Magic

Magic is cool,

and so exciting.

It's a cheating trick

and it's so

AMAZING!

Poem by Sereena

Fantastic Plant

My very tall plant

will never fall.

It has never fallen

in two years.

Oops!

It

fell!

Poems by Eva

My Loving Daddy

He can be mean sometimes.

He is very very tall.

He is the most amazing person I've ever met.

He can be boring sometimes.

He is the most wonderful person.

Every day he is out of the box.

He is kind

every day.

He is very clever.

I love my loving daddy

I do! I do! I do!

Amazing Mommy

My mom loves me.

See is happy every day.

She can get mad,

sometimes.

She is out of the box a lot.

She is so amazing.

She is very very smart.

My mom can be wonderful.

and cool.

She is a nice

clever

person.

I love my mommy.

Poem by Edward

I'm Flying

I'm flying!

I'm flying!

I'm in the air.

It's fun!

but how,

do I

get

DOWN?

Poems by Jada

The Snowflake

It's snowing! It's snowing
Look at those falling little gems.

They glide and spin

Through the air

They dazzle and gleam

Oh! What a sight.

Each treasure is unique.

They are not at all gigantic

But they're soft and tender

And they slide through the sky.

BFFs

A long time ago

I held my friends tight,

I would not let those friendly pals have other friends.

As the days went ticking by,

My funny friends got sick.

They were tired and sick,

They needed new pals.

I still held them tightly

they argued with me.

Now may heart turns away.

I am so sad.

My fun friends now seem like shivering coal.

They twirl the other way and walk far far away.

I still remember my friends

They used to be funny and playful,

Sporty and graceful

I held too tight

and they leaked away.

My Gift

What should I give?

A stunning jewel or a small tiny hug.

WHAT SHOULD I GIVE!?

WHAT SHOULD I GIVE!!!???

This or that,

That or this.

What shape???

What colour?????

WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!!!!!???????

Oh, yeah

It's only supposed to be a card!

Poems by Oscar

Japan

Japan I love,

Japan is fantastic,

and it's big

and busy.

My Lovable Daddy

I love my Daddy!

He is a great cook.

He is very smart,

My dad is super

and very old.

Poems by Jonathan

Cool Dad

Very brave smart and old,

That's my dad!

I challenge him every day.

He loves me a lot.

Fantastic amazing Dad.

Pretty Mom

Smart and pretty mom,

But sometimes she's mean.

She loves me a lot,

The fabulous Mother

Is my Mom!

Basketball Shoot

I dribble the ball

Then I jump.

Shoot!

I got a basket!

Poems by Matthew N.

Cool Me

I am silly.

Very crazy.

Also wonderful.

Very very funny.

My Sneaky Cheetah

He is mean and scary.

He wares a spotted cote.

Yellow and black help him blend in.

My Crazy Brother

My brother is funny.

He is very very slow.

Quite annoying

Sometimes huggable.

Poems by Suhani

Guess What?

I am very colorful.

I'm also designed.

I have so many patterns.

I have two wings.

My body is thin.

What am I?

BFFs

My BFFs are nice

and they are beautiful.

I like them so much.

Every time I give them something,

they say thank you!

Lovable Daddy

My dad is so silly.

He makes me so happy.

But sometimes he is mean.

He is also skinny.

But some days he's annoying.

But he still loves me.

Nicholas' Adventure in China

For Spring Break I went to China. I had bacon almost every breakfast. I went to the Great Wall. I rode the ski lift up to the Great Wall and took the luge back down. I got a dragon for a souvenier and I rode the Bullet Train. The bullet train hit a speed of 349 km/hr. I also rode in a sidecar. On my first stop I went to a temple. On the second stop I took a picture somewhere. It was really cold riding in the sidecar. When we finished the sidecar we had KFC for lunch. Then I went to the zoo to see the panda bears and every night in China I went to Starbucks to have hot chocolate. I had a very good time. I wish I could come back! Love Nicholas

Check out our Animal Research Presentations!

After learning about several nonfiction features, our amazing first graders went out to learn more about their favorite animals. They asked questions and found answers using books, magazines and the Internet. Our kids went to the library for their research and used their little computers. It was wonderful to see them independently reading to learn.

And they learned a lot!! Check out the videos below to learn some new facts as well.

Giant Squid by Sereena

Hammerhead Sharks by Matthew T.

Butterflies by Raine

Anacondas by Aman

Eels by Nick

Whale Sharks by Eva

Golden Lion Tamarins by Tess

Horses by Jada

Killer Whales by Sam

Bengal Tigers by Carmen

Blue Whales by Jonathan

Painted Dogs by Maddi

Pumas by Matthew N.

Jack Jumper Ants by Declan

Bull Sharks by Oscar

Tasmanian Devils by Jung

Sea Horses by Levi

Dolphins by Suhani

Strengths and Goals Conferences

Hello Parents and Kids,

Thank you for attending the conferences and taking the time to share your strengths and goals with me. It was great to be able to celebrate with you how much you have improved and grown academically, socially and emotionally this year.

I was impressed with the stars and wishes you wrote for yourselves. Some of them were exactly the same as the ones I wrote for you! Way to go!!

We still have a couple more months of lots of learning and fun in grade one! You are almost ready for grade two, but I don't want to let you go just yet.

Congratulations and keep up with the great work!

Cheers,
Ms. Analu

Oscar's second gymnastic competition

Last Saturday, my brother Noah and I participated in "Prime Invitational gymnastic competition". It started 7 am, so we had to be there by 6:45am to start stretching. I am used to getting up at 6am. So, I was up early and ready to go. There were more than 400 participants who came from all over Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Australia. Of course I was nervous. In our Philippines competition, we performed each routine 2 times. This time we were allowed to perform only one time. So I knew I could not make any mistakes. There were 6 routines (Rings, Parallel bars, Floor, Vault, Pommel Hose, High bars). I did my best and I earned 6th place on Vault, 5th on High bar and 3rd on Pommel Horse. Our SACAC boys team won 2nd place as a team. I would like to practice more to get more medals for the next competition.

Declan in Bangkok

Last week I went to Bangkok, Thailand. First we went to a snake farm, where they make antivenin to cure snake bites. I liked when a spitting cobra reared up in front of me!

Next we went to Dreamworld, which is a very fun amusement park. My brothers and I played SO MUCH! We went on many rides, such as the Cable Cars, the Big Splash, the Crazy Schoolbus, and Space Mountain. My favorite thing was popping the balloons with the darts - I won a little stuffed animal for popping 5 out of 7 balloons!


The next day we went to the Temple of the Dawn, called Wat Arun in Thai. Me and Daddy went all the way to the top of the high tower. I took many pictures of the temple, and later also of the beautiful Reclining Buddha. We had lots of fun putting the coins in the wishing bolws!
Finally we went to the Grand Palace, which was very big. I took a picture of the military guys who guard the palace.

I also liked all the beautiful pictures around the temples. After that we went to the Thai weapons museum.
I had lots and lots of fun in Bangkok - Sawadee Kap!
Declan

Our Scientists Are Now Exploring Air

Our Scientists are back at work! We are now investigation air. Here are some facts we have learned about AIR so far:

Air can move light things around. By Maddi

Air is invisible. By Yoony

Air takes up space. By Tess

When using two syringes and you push both plungers at the same time, the air is pushed in and we say that air is compressed. By Suhani

Air can push stuff up and down. By Serena

You can trap air and air is lighter than water. By Raine

Air can push up so the parachute falls down slower. By Matthew N.

Air can slow down light thin objects from falling, like a parachute. That's called air resistance. By Jada

Check out some more pictures of our AIR explorations!

Play soccer with Flat Stanley

Today, I brought Flat Stanley home.Flat Stanley wanted to do exercise. Then I played soccer with him.It was fun.I won Stanley 9 to 1!!It was a good game, both of us had fun.

Jonathan

Blast off into the Non-Fiction World!

How do you know a book is a non-fiction book?

Flat Stanley goes to pipa class By Rita

I took Flat Stanley to my pipa class. He tried to play my pipa, but he couldn't. He was a little bit shy when he met my pipa teacher. But when he went to the middle of our class, he wasn't very shy. I asked him if he liked it there. He said, "Yes, yes, and I would love to go again!" If you really like to go again and you like to learn it, I can teach you when I practice. " So I told him how I learned pipa and I started teaching him. I told him that pipa was very hard. And that he had to work hard to get it done. But he said that it was very easy. I told him that it was easy because I was teaching him easy once. I said to him that pipa was a Chinese instrument. He said he loved to learn pipa and he wants to learn more. We had been very good friends during the weekend!

Flat Stanley's Visit from Kuala Lumpur

Mrs. Wright's first grade students from the International School in Kuala Lumpur (ISKL) have become our pen pals! They wrote us amazing letters and they also sent us Flat Stanley. First we wrote letters back to them introducing ourselves and answering all their questions. We also asked them some really good questions. Then we took Flat Stanley to different parts of our school. We wanted Flat Stanley to get to know our school so he could go back and tell Mrs. Wright's students all about it. Last Friday, Flat Stanley went home with us and you can check out the posts later on today of some of Flat Stanley's great weekend adventures. We have now mailed the letters and we can't wait to hear from Mrs. Wright's students again!

Look at all the places that Flat Stanley visited!

Me And Flat Stanly

This Saturday I went to Tess's birthday party. When I

came in Tess didn't recognize me. The food was really good. Then my mom took a picture of me and Tess with flat stanly. I had a great time.

Suhani!

Science Madness!

On Wednesday, Jan. 27, we went to Mr. Ruhter's middle school science lab. Mr. Ruhter is a true Mad Scientist! First we were greeted by his mama gerbil and her 3 babies. They were so cute. Then he brought out the lovebird. Did you know that lovebirds have one partner for life? Now when we entered the science lab, the real fun began. Every time Mr. Ruhter said, "Hey!" Everyone screamed, "SCIENCE IS FUN!" and he said HEY a lot!!! Then our 6th grade partners showed us some really cool experiments. First we made a red liquid turn yellow and then cold to hot just by adding baking soda and salt. Next, Mr. Ruhter mixed dry ice with colored liquid and they all changed colors and exploded. In one of them, Mr. Ruhter covered the top with a lab glove and it started to grow. Then he bit one finger off and it started "bleeding" bubbles. It was awesome! We also had a tea party. But we couldn't drink the tea of course. Mr. Ruhter said that in the lab we can't drink anything. It was soooo much fun! Thank you, Mr. Ruhter for inviting up to your lab. We loved it!!

Check out some more pictures!

Tess in Australia

Hi everyone, I was in Australia for Christmas and New Year.

For the first time we had sunshine and sand when Santa came instead of snow and snowmen!

I was able to see kangaroos and koalas and the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

We visited the Sydney Fish Market and had fresh mussels every day.

My favourite desert was Swirlie Ice Yoghurts with raspberry sauce and strawberries.

Delicious but you have to be very careful eating it because if you eat to quickly you can get a 'Brain freeze'!

Tess

Festival of Stories

Reading Makes Me Feel Good!

The Festival of Stories had its first great week. All the first grade classes are focusing on different authors. We have been reading books by Tomie dePaola. Some of his characters are Strega Nona, The Barkers and Tomie himself when he was a little boy. The books are wonderful and soon we will choose our favorite one. Next Tuesday, we are going to go to three other classes and learn a bit about other authors. When the other students come to our class, Ms. Analu will read the book we choose as our favorite. We think they will love it too.

Also this week, we shared our favorite books and talked about our favorite characters. We had poetry breaks and we also started reading the books running for the Big Splash Award.

Today was the best day of all! It was our Pajama Day! We all wore our pajamas to school. Some of us also brought our blankies, flashlights and stuffed animals. In the morning, we made tents and turned all the lights off. We gathered in small groups under our tents and read books together with our flashlights. It was so much fun!

Then we went to the Elementary Theater to watch four performances by the Middle School Students from the Theater Club. They were amazing!! The skits were super fun and they even interacted with us. We did not want it to end.

At the end of the day, our reading buddies came to our class and we read more books by Tomie dePaola with them. It was fun!!

I bet next week will be just as fun!!

Meet Maddi!

I can't believe it has been two weeks since we've been back from the holidays. We have been so busy sharing our holiday adventures, getting back into our routines, and much more. We will let you know about it all in the next few posts, but first we want to start by introducing you to our new student.

Meet Maddi!

Maddi's full name is Madison Olschner. Maddi just moved to Singapore from North Carolina in the USA. Maddi has the most amazing smile and great sense of humor. She quickly learned our class routines and is a joy to have around. Maddi loves to share things with others and she has shown us some super tricks! Maddi's parents are Kerry and Deric Olschner and she has a 3 year old sister named Lauren. Welcome to our class, Maddi!!

Aman's 7th birthday

I celebrated my 7th birthday with all my friends. We had an amazing race, between the blue and red teams, and we had to do many things, like solve puzzles, fish for clues, pass the hoop, and finally, a tug of war. My blue team won. I also got birthday bumps for the first time in my life. Thank you to all my friends for making it so wonderful. Aman

Oscar's trip to New Zealand

Dear class,

My family and I went to NZ this winter break. I heard it is summer time in NZ now, but I felt chilly. NZ is beautiful, the sky is blue, the mountain top is white with snow, and a water is crystal clear. I saw many many sheep and cows along the way.

The highlights of this trip are our overnight boat ride in Doubtful Sound, hikes to the glaciers and gold panning at Shanty town.

During the Doubtful sounds cruise, I saw many beautiful water falls, dolphins and seals. At night, my brother and I shared our own bed room, it was cool. I ate everything at the meals.

I hiked to see Fox Glaciers and Franz Josef Glaciers. It was amazing to see the glaciers and I was fascinated by the rocks that glaciers carried over. The rocks are beautiful, and contained many beautiful colors. I heard that the glaciers shrink one meter per day.

We went to Shantytown on the west coast, where I got on board on steam train and saw a town from the

19th century. I went inside an old jail and an old toilet. It is funny to see how old people lived in old days. I tried panning for gold. I would say it is difficult to get a gold out of the pan, but I did

salvage the gold. I will bring it to the next show and tell.

Sincerely,

Oscar