Midterms Already!

Dear Parents and Students,

We are over the halfway mark and racing toward the end of this school year. This week sees us taking a look at immigration and moving to different countries. We will also focus on tenement buildings and the famous New York tenement museum in particular. The children have learned a lot from our visits to the San Domingo Fort in Danshui and the archaeological museum. They have learned that we leave footprints wherever we go and sometimes those footprints are difficult to erase.

We will be reviewing as soon as we complete our lessons this week.

I am pleasantly surprised at the progress made by some of our students in terms of motivation and comprehension.

School Fair on Saturday

Please remember to support our class on Saturday at the School Fair.

Exams

Our 2^nd Monthly Exams take place from May 1^st –May 14^th.

Dates until further notice:

Wednesday, May 4th = Vocabulary Review Exam

Friday, May 6^th= Listening and Reading Exam

Tuesday, May 10^th= Written Exam

Scope for the exams include:

Vocabulary: Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11

Worksheets: Week 7-11 including Grammar sections.

My Sidewalks on Reading Street Level C-5

P8-69

***Please note that I will review in the class but expect students to review at home as well. (The Glogs are still live and can be used as a way to review at home.)

***Homework for this week is minimal and includes completing incomplete class assignments.

Homework:

Monday:

1. Read p60-69

2. Recite conversations

3. Corrections

Tuesday

1. Read p60-69

2. Recite weekly sentences

3. Corrections

Wednesday

1. Read p60-69

2. Recite conversations

3. Corrections

Thursday

1. Read p60-69

2. Memorize spelling words

3. Corrections

Friday

1. Review Grammar in worksheet 11

2. Recite conversations

3. Review Weeks 7-8 Vocabulary, Sentences, Grammar

Monday

1. Review Week 7-11 worksheets and Vocabulary

2. Corrections

Have a fantastic week!

Carmen

It's getting hot!

April 13^th, 2016

Dear Parents and Students,

I trust that everyone has accessed their Learnboost accounts in order to check on their child’s performance. Please note that the scores reflect the student’s attitude and classroom performance not only the test scores.

Should you have any problems accessing the account, please let me know.

We went to the Shung Ye Museum last week and had a great time. The guide spoke English and we were surprised, to say the least. We learnt a lot about Taiwanese aboriginals. We could not take pictures inside the museum as some of the pieces are priceless and flashes would damage them. We have pictures of the craft making process and have posted them on Facebook.

Next week, we have another outing later this month on April 20^th, to be precise. We’ll be visiting Fort San Domingo in Danshuei as well as the Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology. We are looking forward to that.

This coming Friday, the students are supposed to put on a fashion show of their own choice. I am interested to see how that goes as I’ve given them ideas and concepts to work with but the process and implementation of said process has been left up to them.

Glog for weeks 7-8

Glog for weeks 9-10.

Homework for this week:

Monday

1. Read p 34-43

2. Worksheet page 2

Tuesday

1. Read p 34-43

2. Worksheet p 4

Wednesday

1. Read p 34-43

2. Corrections in Worksheet and Writing book.

Thursday

1. Read p34-43

2. Worksheet Review P3

3. Corrections

Friday

1. Review Grammar

2. Recite the Conversation

3. Read the weekly sentences

4. Write corrections

5. Preview page 44-55

Have a great week,

Carmen

Monkey Business

March 29^th

Dear Parents and Students,

It seems as if the year has just begun but we are racing toward the end! We are  writing our first monthly exams and the students are as prepared as they’re going to be. We have reviewed and reviewed and reviewed!

New Lesson

Due to the short week because of the exams, we won’t have as much time to cover all our tasks in one week. We start a new theme covering cultural topics and look at Dressing up and Our World in particular. Ask them about the book below.

Project on Fashion

The students have been asked to put on a fashion show.

  We have some interesting themes; Spring, Fall, Summer, Robots and Minecraft. They have to design at least 3 outfits and put them together on our makeshift runway. 

So… they’ll be raiding your closets. Please make it easier to find stuff by putting out clothes that you don’t need.

While we are working on this project, I will give them 15 minutes each day to discuss things with their teams.

Making New Friends

Last week we had a great time chatting to and making new friends from Hong Kong. I hope you checked out the pictures on Facebook.

This week we are also finalizing our letters to our new friends in California, at Tassajara Elementary School.

  I have scanned the letters and given each child a copy of their own letter as well as their pen pals letter to put in the yellow folder.

Please note that this letter has not been corrected. This was done so as not to discourage those who are excited about writing for the first time!

Glog and Learnboost.com

The glog for this lesson will be live on Friday.

Please note that you can access our child’s scores via Learnboost.com using the same access code, sent to you last semester. 
Helper: 

Homework

On Monday and Tuesday, the students have time to review.

Wednesday

1. Read pages 8-19

2. Read and memorize the conversations.

6. Complete the 20 sentences in the writing book.

Thursday

1. Read pages 8-19

3. Complete #G in Workbook.

Friday

2. Memorize conversations

3. Read weekly sentences

4. Corrections in writing book

5. Preview pages 20-29

Have a great week,

Carmen

Famous Firsts and World Records!

Dear Parents and Students,

You should have received the letter below to sign. If you haven't seen it, ask your child to take it out so that you can read and sign it.                                                                                                                           

                                                 February 22^nd , 2016

Dear Parents,

The Chinese New year vacation was a great time to recharge and get ready for the final leg of the Grade 5 journey.

I would like to welcome you back to class. We have started formal classes and the students are well on their way.

As the students already know what is expected within the classroom setting, we should be able to make more progress.

We still have a formal policy in place for homework and course assignments and the students have been informed of what is expected of them.

Teacher Sharon and I have been co-teaching and the class has not been separated. This seems to be working well as she is getting to know all the students not just the few that she taught previously. The students have all improved as well.

Some things remain the same. Below are the same terms and conditions for the Grade 5 class.

*Due to the fact that worksheets went missing and the policy is to complete the whole worksheet should they lose it, they will get a workbook every week.

Communication books and homework

Students have access to the homework via communication books as well as the class blog. They will also get all their homework assignments at the beginning of each week. Please note that some in-class assignments will turn into homework if not completed in class. Everyday homework will include previewing the reading text.

The purpose of these books is to ensure that students are documenting what they need to complete each day. This includes homework as well as in-class assignments. When they have completed a task, they can check it off their list as complete.

These books also contain the schedule and vocabulary, for the following week, so that students can preview the work they are going to do.

Communication books are to be signed by the parents each day. 

Any questions you have may also be addressed in the communication 

book.

**Steps to follow when writing down assignments and homework.

1. The student writes the assignment when given by the teacher.

2. If the assignment is completed in class, the student checks it off the list.

3. If it is not completed, it becomes homework.

4. The student checks and make sure that the have what they need in order to complete the homework before leaving school.

5. Parents review homework then signs the communication book. Encourage your child to complete the homework in a timely manner as the assignments or homework shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to do. Feel free to write a note in the communication book, preferably on the same day.

*Please do not contact the principal with regards to your child’s homework as she is a very busy lady.

Worksheets

Worksheets will be handed out every week. Each student will get a copy and will put it in a folder. Should they lose, misplace or deface the worksheets, they will need to complete all the work in the worksheet up to that point, in order to get credit for it.

The purpose of these worksheets is to ensure that the students understand what is being taught in the class. The work is based on the skills they need in order to understand the text or story.

Another reason for these worksheets is for the teacher and parent to see at a glance what the student can or cannot do as we will have a clearer understanding of the needs of the student.

The worksheets will also be used as a review tool for tests and exams.

*Please note that should the student not be able to do the assigned work within the allotted time frame, remedial help will be requested.

Tests and Exams

We will have a weekly spelling test, using the vocabulary in the communication book, 20 words in total, therefore, 20 points.  Every two weeks on Friday, we’ll have a unit test. The unit test is based on the worksheets and holds credit of 40 points.

Should Friday be a holiday, we’ll do a make-up test on the following Monday. If a student is absent for the test, the test should be taken within two days of the student being absent. The student will get no credit for a test not taken.

Exam schedules are in the communication books and are clear in relation to what will be tested each time. There is really no excuse for anyone who is willing to try, to do badly. Should a student score lower than 70% on a test, we’ll look into remedial help for that student. This could be peer-based or teacher-based.

Discipline and Code of conduct

As open-minded as we are, we all need to learn that there are consequences to every action. Students who do not follow the basic codes of conduct will invariably display inappropriate behaviour when people of authority are around (or not around). In our class we will have a basic code of conduct in order to help students become aware of the fact that there are consequences to our behaviour.

Every student should have the opportunity to reach his or her potential and in order to do so, we need to ensure that we have a safe and stable learning environment.

Students will be disciplined for the following reasons (but not limited to):

1. Tardiness (being late for class without a good reason)

2. Vandalism (breaking, defacing school or others property)

3. Disrespect (towards each other as well as the teachers)

4. Inappropriate language (using bad language in Chinese or English)

5. Inappropriate conduct (tantrums, pouting, fighting, bullying, lying, stealing, cheating, etc.)

Consequences:

1. Verbal warning

2. Moving to the back of the classroom

3. Email or call parent

4. Sent to Dean’s Office

5. Principal Meeting

6. Meeting with Parent

7. Further disciplinary action

Your support, as we embark on this journey of learning is imperative to its success. We believe that through accountability, responsibility and discipline, your child’s learning experience can be enriched. We are looking forward to a great start to this semester and an even better finish.

The link to the glog is live and can be accessed if you click on Famous Firsts and World Records

Homework for week 2

Monday:

1. Review p96-107

2. Recite conversations

4. Workbook p2 corrections

Tuesday:

1. Review p96-107

3. Read weekly sentences

4. Worksheet p4

5. Corrections

Wednesday:

1. Review p96-107

3. Read weekly sentences

4. Worksheet p9 Complete

Thursday:

1. Review p96-107

2. Review vocabulary

3. Worksheets corrections

Friday:

1. Review p96-107

2. Recite conversations

3. Rad weekly sentences

4. Corrections in writing book

5. Preview p112-123

Fantastic G5

Dear Parents and Students,

I greet you from the other side of the world! Although we had some ups and downs this semester, we’ve all survived and are hopefully stronger for it. The exams are long forgotten and the long-awaited vacation is finally here.

Time has flown by so fast and we are half-way through the school year already! ALL our students have made tremendous progress even those who tried not to J. Attitudes toward assignments and basic class behavior have both improved. They are interested in learning and this change is reflected in the overall class performance as well as individual achievements.

At the beginning of last semester, the main focus was to do the best that they could do. While we constantly compare ourselves to others, it is unrealistic to expect each person to be the same as the next.

In our lessons in the past semester we learned that as individuals, we each have our own unique talents that express who we are. Each child needs to set his or her own goals and expectations and strive towards them. If we base our expectations on someone else’s ideas, we will always fall short. I therefore ask that you help your child set goals for the new semester, guide them, but don’t set goals for them. Allow them to take responsibility for their own learning.

While I will continue to challenge them and make the challenges more difficult as they master the old ones, the tasks and assignments will not be beyond their capabilities. The only requirement is that they TRY.

Winter Break Homework

I am a big fan of none to minimal homework during the holidays (10-15 min of reading a day). This gives parents a chance to reconnect with their kids. At this age, they change so quickly and before you know it, they’ll be off to uni!

Many of our students will be travelling over the winter break. Please be prepared to share your adventures with the rest of the class in the first week on Wednesday during experience class, something like ‘Show and Tell’.

Everyone has a new writing book and the first item of note is the movie review of ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’. Please note that this is the movie version, based on the book ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ by Roald Dahl, and some parts of the story will be different. 
Should they wish to read the book, it is available at Caves bookstores countrywide  @280nt

 Click on the link. Caves Bookstore 

If you don’t want to buy the book, this is the audio version of the book on Youtube, so you can listen to it being read. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paXASC3aGkk

Semester Grades

The grades for the semester have been posted and you should have access to them. I noticed that some accounts have not been activated yet so… I have resent emails to those accounts. Please activate your account in order to avoid any confusion. The semester grades include class behavior, homework assignments as well as individual tests and exams for the entire semester.

 Click on the word Learnboost and activate your account before the end of the month as we will start posting the new grades starting the week of February 15.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a fantastic vacation and a spectacular Chinese New Year!

Shine on!

Carmen

Land Ahoy!

Dear Students and Parents,

This has been a long semester and an extremely short week, and we’ve struggled to get everyone ready for the Final Semester Exam.  Everyone is lethargic, as it is after all, time for hibernating in the animal kingdom. Our kids are tired and so are we. The New Year break is coming at the right time!

However, we still have one more hurdle to cross before we can get to a safe port…

… The Dreaded Exams, Da-da-da!

The Dreaded Exams takes place next week as previously posted and there have been no changes to the schedule or scope.

Please encourage your kids to review for the exams as a few of our students seem to be experiencing a kind of slump in terms of completing their work. It could be that hormones are playing havoc with their systems, so keep your eyes peeled. J

***Below are the dates and scope of the 3^rd Monthly Exams:

Scope of Exams:

**My Sidewalks on Reading Street Level C3 (p124-133)

**My Sidewalks on Reading Street Level C4 (p7-55)

**Communication book vocabulary: Weeks 14-18

**Worksheets: Weeks 14-18

Dates of Exams:

1: Tuesday, January 5^th, 2016- Vocabulary Review.

2: Friday, January 8^th, 2016- Listening Test.

3: Tuesday, January 12^th, 2016 - Written Test

I will post the pictures of our trip to The Grand Hotel over the weekend as the files are extremely large.(Files uploaded already!! Click on the name of the hotel) The students behaved as best they could and we didn’t have any food fights!

They had a lot of fun and had a lot to talk about. 

 I was angry with them for a short period of time after we came back and we had a little fight of our own. I won’t elaborate but you can ask them all about it. J

Learnboost.com

I have sent everyone an email that gives you access to your child’s scores. This is an easy method to keep up with what we are doing or not doing in the classroom.

Sign-up is very easy. Here is the link to sign up for a FREE account.

 1. https://www.learnboost.com/ 

2. Join Now

3. Follow the steps. Enter Name, Surname, Email, Password( you want to use)

4. Click Parent 

5. After you sign in, use the CODE I sent in the email to access your child's scores.

If you have not received an email, please let me know on Monday morning.

May you and your loved ones have a Fantastic New Year!

Carmen  

Leeward or windward!

Dear Parents and Students,

This has been a great week so far and I hope it gets better. Our students did very well in the assembly this morning telling everyone about endangered animals and I am very proud of them. Those students who did not get a turn to do a presentation today will get a chance next time.

Our 2^nd Monthly exams start tomorrow with the Vocabulary test. The students all know what is expected of them. We’ll have our Listening and Reading test on Friday morning.

Tomorrow we also have a dance teacher coming in to show us some dance moves for our Christmas show. Yes, it is that time again.

This week and next we’ll be concentrating our efforts on the exams. Homework will be minimal and will consist of corrections and reading review. The students can also use the My Sidewalks glogs to prepare for the exams.

Today they got a writing assignment: If they did not complete the work in class, they need to complete it at home. This assignment was the most challenging to date and required them to compare and contrast wetlands and rainforests. (Please note that the information for this assignment can be found in their MSW book.)

For those who need more structure, this is the homework and exam layout

Exam Scope

1. My Sidewalks on Reading Street Level C: pages 60-123

2. Worksheets: Weeks 7-11

3. Vocabulary: Weeks 7-11 in Communication books

*** As previously advised, send your kids to bed early.

Homework for Week 12

Monday:

1. Review My Sidewalks p60-123

4. Review Worksheets Wks 7-11

6. Vocabulary and meanings Wks 7-11

Tuesday:

1. Review My Sidewalks p60-123

4. Review Worksheets Wks 7-11

5. Vocabulary and meanings Wks 7-11

Wednesday:

1. Review My Sidewalks p60-123

4. Review Worksheets Wks 7-11

5. Vocabulary and meanings Wks 7-11

Thursday:

1. Review My Sidewalks p60-123

4. Review Worksheets Wks 7-11

5. Vocabulary and meanings Wks 7-11

Friday:

1. Review My Sidewalks Worksheets Wk7-11

5. Corrections in writing book

6. Review Vocabulary and meanings Wks 7-11/

My Sidewalks p 60-123 for exams

Have a blessed week,

Ms. Pedro

A Safe Harbour

Dear Parents and Students,

I hope that everyone is well-rested after the long weekend and ready for the week ahead.

While it’s been an amazingly busy start to the semester, I’m glad to say that I can finally see the rainbow.

This week has started fairly well. We have a few disruptive boys, but hopefully they will settle down soon.

We are using our senses and taking ‘A closer look’ at nature. J

The homework for this week:

Monday:

1. Read page 60-63

4. Worksheet p2 # B1-8

Tuesday:

1. Read p 64-71

4. Corrections

Wednesday:

1. Read p 64-71

4. Complete D4

6. Corrections

Thursday:

1. Read p60-71

2. Recite Conversations

5. Corrections

Friday:

1. Worksheet W7 Review

2. Recite Conversation

3. Read and write weekly sentences in Worksheet

4. Corrections

5. Preview MWRS level C p72-82

Have a great week,

Carmen

Sailing off into the weekend :)

Dear Parents and Students,

What a hectic few weeks it’s been! Between , teaching Grade 1, Grade 3, Grade 5 and supervising the teachers, the only job I feel I've neglected is supervising the teachers. The teachers are adults though and they know exactly what to do, so I don't need to watch their every move. 

 The exams are almost over and I can truly say that the children have made a tremendous effort in trying to doing their best.

I’m glad that the worksheets have proved a useful and convenient study tool as some of our students went on holiday and still managed to do well in the exams because they took their worksheets with them!

Grade 5 and Grade 3 students should have gotten their Vocabulary Exam papers as well as the Listening Exam papers yesterday. Please make sure that you ask them for it, so that you can sign and return them. The papers will go into a portfolio of all the work they’ve done, this semester.

They wrote the Written Exams today and I’m halfway through the marking. They should all be getting their results tomorrow morning.

Grade 3 Parents

I would like to clarify something that has recently come to my attention. When I started substituting, teacher Andrew’s Grade 3 class in Week 3, I started with ‘Exploring Space with an Astronaut’ and was unaware that he did not complete the worksheets from the previous story, ‘The Twin Club’.  When I became aware of the problem, we were reviewing for the exams. I believe that despite the fact that some of the exercises in the worksheet are not checked, we’ve managed to do a good job in reviewing the story.

Please stop panicking about the worksheets as I will get to them in due time.

Grade 5 parents

Our grade 5 students have done extremely well and I am really proud of them. There are however a few boys who need extra help. They have not made an effort at all and are trying to disrupt the progress we have made in the class thus far. Should the problem persist, I will be asking the parents of those students to come to school, individually, to discuss the way forward. We cannot afford to waste any more time with students who will not help themselves. When we all work together and support each other, the load gets lighter.

On a lighter note, the students all have an evening off studying English today. JJJ

This week is a review week, as well as a chance to catch up and complete, incomplete assignments. The students know that I will be grading them on their homework as well as their assignments, amongst other things, such as classroom participation and behaviour.

With the exams nearly over, we are looking forward to having a well-deserved rest over the long weekend.

I will give the students some light reading over the weekend, nothing that they can’t handle.

Have a great week and weekend,

Carmen 

Red in the morning, sailors warning! Red at night, sailors delight!

Dear Parents and Students,

  Our students did very well in Friday’s test and it means that they are either improving OR the test was too easy J

Please remember to sign the test as well as the communication book. 

  The students have a bit of homework to do this week and it consists mainly of reading and writing corrections. Hopefully they will get to the stage where they become more careful when writing and make fewer mistakes.

  

  This week we take a look at scientists and their jobs. We’ll look at botanists, entomologists, veterinarians, paleontologists and meteorologists! All these scientists do very important jobs that save many lives each year.

  

  We’ll also look at a fable about why owl hunts at night.

Any suggestions regarding visiting a botanical garden to coincide with our lessons are most welcome.

  I will post the actual homework for this coming week on Monday afternoon.

Check the link on the right side of the page to access our lessons. Please note that this takes time.

Have a fantastic weekend,

Carmen Pedro

Homework September 21-25

Monday
1. Review MSRS level C:p46-55
2. Recite conversations
5. ** They left their books at school today :)
6. Corrections in Worksheets

Tuesday
1. Review MSRS level C: p46-55 
3. Read Weekly sentences
5. Corrections x1

Wednesday
1. Review MSRS level C:p46-55
2. Recite conversations
5. Read and write #11-20 x3
6. Corrections x1

Thursday
1. Review MSRS level C
2. Review vocabulary for test on Friday
4. Prepare Oral presentation on one job that you find interesting.
5. Corrections x1

Friday
1. Review Grammar
2. Recite conversation
3. Read and write weekly sentences-(Corrections)
4. Corrections in writing book.
5. Review all worksheets and vocabulary for Exams next week.